Taubergießen is a

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

wetland on the southern

Upper Rhine Upper Rhine ( ; ; kilometres 167 to 529 of the Rhine) is the section of the Rhine between the Middle Bridge, Basel, Middle Bridge in Basel, Switzerland, and the Rhine knee in Bingen am Rhein, Bingen, Germany. It is surrounded by the Upper Rhine P ...

in the natural area Offenburg Rhine plain. Taubergießen was declared

Naturschutzgebiet A ''Naturschutzgebiet'' (abbreviated NSG) is a category of protected area (nature reserve) within Germany's Federal Nature Conservation Act (the ''Bundesnaturschutzgesetz'' or ''BNatSchG''). Although often translated as 'Nature Reserve' in Engli ...

(Nature Reserve) in 1979 and, with 1,697 hectares, is one of the largest protected areas in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. It has a north–south extension of more than 12 km. The largest width is about 2.5 km.

Name

The name ''"Taubergießen"'' derives from ''Taubergießen'', one of the numerous watercourses and branches of the nature reserve, which runs in the north of the area and drains from the right into the lower course of the Elz river, which is closer to the Rhine. Under "pouring" is understood underground, i.e. in direct connection with the groundwater flowing parts of the stream, which come from a sufficient depression of the bottom again to the surface. These are particularly common in this area, the middle area of the southern Upper Rhine. The word "deaf" describes nutrient-poor waters with low fish population.

Geography

Taubergießen is located in the southern Upper Rhine plain between

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

and

Offenburg Offenburg (; "open borough" - coat of arms showing open gates; Low Alemmanic: ''Offäburg'') is a city in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in south-western Germany. With nearly 60,000 inhabitants (2019), it is the largest city and the administrat ...

in the districts

Emmendingen Emmendingen (; ) is a town in Baden-Württemberg, capital of the Emmendingen (district), district Emmendingen of Germany. It is located at the Elz (Rhine), Elz River, north of Freiburg im Breisgau. The town contains more than 26,000 residents, ...

and

Ortenau The Ortenau (), originally called Mortenau, is a historic region in the present-day German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the right bank of the river Rhine, stretching from the Upper Rhine Plain to the foothill zone of the Black F ...

, near the northeastern town of

Lahr Lahr (officially Lahr/Schwarzwald since 30 September 1978) (); ) is a city in western Baden-Württemberg, Germany, approximately 50 km north of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, 40 km southeast of Strasbourg, and 95 km southwest of Ka ...

and immediately west of the communities Kappel-Grafenhausen,

Rust Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH) ...

and

Rheinhausen Rheinhausen () is a district of the city of Duisburg in Germany, with a population of 78,203 (December 31, 2020) and an area of 38.68 km². It lies on the left bank of the river Rhine. Rheinhausen consists of the neighbourhoods: Rumeln-Kald ...

. Taubergießen belongs predominantly to the district of the communities Kappel-Grafenhausen, Rust and Rheinhausen. 9.98 km ² property of the French community

Rhinau Rhinau (; ) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department of Grand Est in north-eastern France. Until 1398, the village was located on the bank of the Rhine. The present village dates from the sixteenth century. At periods of low water in the Rhine ...

are historically conditioned. On the German territory, Rheinau, this "piece of

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

in Germany", is classified as unincorporated community. Due to the straightening of the Rhine in the first half of the 19th century and the first localization of a river main bed in the area, a change in the border between Germany and France was partially made. However, the changes in the course of the river bed (respectively beds - its arms) did not change ownership.

Protected area

Specifications The area was declared a nature reserve (NSG No. 3.108) on September 27, 1979, and was incorporated by legal ordinance from April 8, 1997, into the protected area number 3.233 by the regional council Freiburg. The nature reserve with an area of 1,697 hectares is classified in the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

(IUCN) category IV. The CDDA code of the

World Database on Protected Areas The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is the largest assembly of data on the world's terrestrial and marine protected areas, containing more than 260,000 protected areas as of August 2020, with records covering 245 countries and territori ...

(WDPA) is 165837.

History

The

Upper Rhine Plain The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben ( German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the ...

is originated about 35 million years ago as a result of a

rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-graben ...

. Between Basel and Frankfurt, the surface of the earth sank and the today surrounding

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; ; Franconian and ) is a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single geomorphological unit and ...

and the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

emerged. The Rhine found its way from the Alps to the North Sea. Later,

floodplains A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudie, ...

developed here. As part of the ''Revitalization of Taubergießen'' project from 2006 and the start of building activity in 2007, water channels were dug, passages built, bridges erected and older buildings redesigned. These measures prevent further siltation of the areas, in particular at low water, increasing the stream velocity and ensuring more frequent flow. In 2008, Taubergießen was included in the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on We ...

Flora and fauna

Flora About 60% of the area is forested, the rest is used as grassland for agriculture. The extensive landscape is crossed by numerous watercourses. Rare orchids blossom here. Fauna The nature reserve, with its forests, meadows, purple moor grass meadows, dry calcareous grassland and flood dams, is a habitat for many endangered species.Dietmar Keil: ''Erlebte Wildnis Taubergiessen''. 1. Auflage. Schillinger, Freiburg im Breisgau 1977, , S. 129ff.

References

Literature

* Dietmar Keil: ''Erlebte Wildnis Taubergiessen.'' 1. Auflage. Schillinger, Freiburg im Breisgau 1992, . * Werner A. Gallusser (Hrsg.): ''Die Auen am Oberrhein/Les Zones Alluviales du Rhin Supérieur - Ausmass und Perspektiven des Landschaftswandels am südlichen und mittleren Oberrhein seit 1800...'' Birkhäuser, Basel 1992, . * H.-J. Truöl, E. Spiegelhalter: ''Altrhein: verlorenes Paradies.'' 1. Auflage. Schillinger, Freiburg im Breisgau 1984, . * E. Seeger (Hrsg.): ''Erlebnisregion Rheinauen - Grand Ried Radwanderkarte 1:60.000.'' 1. Auflage. E. Seeger Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 2011. * Landesamt für Geoinformation und Landentwicklung Baden-Württemberg (Hrsg.): ''Offenburg Ortenau Kinzigtal Freizeitkarte 1:50.000''. 2. Auflage. 2009, . * Thomas Kaiser: ''Naturerlebnis-Rheinauen. Von Basel zum Taubergiessen bis Straßburg.'' Schillinger, Freiburg im Breisgau 2008, . * Egon Kästel: ''Die Rheinauen-ein Naturparadies. Bilder einer artenreichen und schützenswerten Landschaft.'' Verlag für Regionalkultur, 2009, .

External links

*
Daniela Toischer: ''Der Taubergießen''
– Zulassungsarbeit erstes Staatsexamen (Grund- und Hauptschule)