The White Main Spring (german: Weißmainquelle) is the source of the

White Main The White Main (german: Weißer Main or ''Weißmain'', not to be confused with the Weismain), is the larger and shorter of the two headstreams of the river Main. It rises in the Fichtelgebirge and merges near Steinenhausen, southwest of Kulmbach, ...

river, the right-hand and northern headstream of the

River Main The Main () is the longest tributary of the Rhine. It rises as the White Main in the Fichtel Mountains of northeastern Bavaria and flows west through central Germany for to meet the Rhine below Rüsselsheim, Hesse. The cities of Mainz and Wiesb ...

, a major tributary of the

Rhine The Rhine ; french: Rhin ; nl, Rijn ; wa, Rén ; li, Rien; rm, label=Sursilvan, Rein, rm, label=Sutsilvan and Surmiran, Ragn, rm, label=Rumantsch Grischun, Vallader and Puter, Rain; it, Reno ; gsw, Rhi(n), including in Alsatian dialect, Al ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. It is located at a height of 887 metres above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

on the eastern slopes of the Ochsenkopf mountain and is viewed as the source of the Main, even though the

Red Main The Red Main (german: Roter Main or ''Rotmain'') is a river in southern Germany. It is the southern, left headstream of the river Main. It rises in the hills of Franconian Switzerland, near Haag and flows generally northwest through the towns ...

is several kilometres longer. Usually the White Main Spring is stronger (i.e. has a higher volumetric flow) than the

Red Main Spring The Red Main Spring (german: Rotmainquelle) is the source of the Red Main river, the left-hand and southern headstream of the River Main in Germany. It is located in the Lindenhardt Forest, ten kilometres south of Bayreuth near Hörlasreuth at ...

. Margrave Frederick of Brandenburg had it traced in 1717 and impounded in granite blocks bearing the

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...

coat of arms. The spring bears the name ''Fürstenbrunnen'' ("Prince's Well"), but is not to be confused with the Upper and Lower Fürstenbrunnen on the Ochsenkopf. By contrast, in 1785

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as t ...

considered the ''Seehausbrunnen'' () southeast of the Schneeberg as the source of the Main and wrote: ''"the source of the Main, which rises right by the house here and makes the brook look like a tin wash"''. The White Main Spring gets its name from the light-coloured,

granitic A granitoid is a generic term for a diverse category of coarse-grained igneous rocks that consist predominantly of quartz, plagioclase, and alkali feldspar. Granitoids range from plagioclase-rich tonalites to alkali-rich syenites and from quart ...

subsoil which gives the river its white appearance. Over the Ochsenkopf runs the European Watershed between the source of the Main, whose waters reach the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

via the

, and the nearby Fichtelnaab Spring, which drains via the

Fichtelnaab The Fichtelnaab is a river in Upper Franconia and the Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, Germany. It rises in the Fichtelgebirge and flows into the Waldnaab near Windischeschenbach. Course The source of the ''Fichtelnaab'' is located on the southeast ...

and

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , ...

into the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, ...

. The White Main Spring is a station on the Spring Way maintained by the Fichtelgebirge Club.

Geotope

The spring is designated by the Bavarian Department of the Environment as Geotope 472Q003. Geotop: Weissmainquelle
(retrieved 26 August 2013; pdf; 192 kB)

Literature

* Dietmar Herrmann: ''Der Ochsenkopf im Fichtelgebirge''; Band 17/2009 der Schriftenreihe des Fichtelgebirgsvereins ''Das Fichtelgebirge'' (comprehensive description of the spring)

References

{{Coord, 50.029792, N, 11.82395, E, type:waterbody_region:DE-BY, display=header, format=dms Springs of Germany SWhite Main Spring