The Spiegelbach is a river in the southern Palatinate. It arises as a diversion of the

Queich The Queich is a tributary of the Rhine, which rises in the southern part of the Palatinate Forest, and flows through the Upper Rhine valley to its confluence with the Rhine in Germersheim. It is long and is one of the four major drainage system ...

, which rises in the

Palatinate forest The Palatinate Forest (; ), sometimes also called the Palatine Forest, is a List of landscapes in Rhineland-Palatinate, low-mountain region in southwestern Germany, located in the Palatinate (region), Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatina ...

, and thus has no separate source. It flows into the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

Sondernheim Germersheim () is a town in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, of around 20,000 inhabitants. It is also the seat of the Germersheim district. The neighboring towns and cities are Speyer, Landau, Philippsburg, Karlsruhe and Wörth. Coat o ...

. After a devastating flood in 1745, in which the

mills Mills is the plural form of mill, but may also refer to: As a name * Mills (surname), a common family name of English or Gaelic origin * Mills (given name) *Mills, a fictional British secret agent in a trilogy by writer Manning O'Brine Places U ...

on the Altbach and Brühlgraben were flooded, it was decided to create a diversion from the Queich towards

Bellheim Bellheim is a municipality in the district of Germersheim in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is situated west of the Rhine, approximately east of Landau and northwest of the city of Karlsruhe. It is home to the Bellheimer Brauerei ...

, in order to provide the newly built mills with a steady supply of water. From the

weir A weir or low-head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the water level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

on the boundary of the districts

Ottersheim Ottersheim is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography The village is situated in the North Palatinate, northern part of the Palatinate (region), Palatinate about 20 km (13 mi) west of Worms, G ...

and

Knittelsheim Knittelsheim is a municipality in the district of Germersheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the no ...

, the Spiegelbach flows before reaching the Old Rhine at Sondernheim.

See also