The Rhine - just the facts

The Rhine - just the facts

The Rhine (Dutch: Rijn; French: Rhin; German: Rhein; Italian: Reno; Romansh: Rein) is one of the longest & most important rivers in Europe at 1,320 kilometres (820 miles), with an average discharge of more than 2,000 cubic meters per second. The name of the Rhine comes from the from the archaic German Rhine, which in turn comes from Middle High German: Rin, ultimately from the Greek Rhein, literally "that which flows" (compare to Late Latin rhoe:"flow", rhoos: "a stream, a flowing"), from the Proto-Indo-European root *reie- ("to flow, run").

The Rhine & the Danube River or River Danube as it is usually known, formed most of the northern frontier of the Roman Empire, & since those days the Rhine has been a vital navigable waterway, carrying trade & goods deep inland. It has also served as a defensive feature, & been the basis for regional & international borders. The many castles & prehistoric fortifications along the Rhine testify to its importance as a waterway. River traffic could be stopped at these locations, usually for the purpose of collecting tolls, by the state controlling that portion of the river.

The Rhine's origins are in the Swiss Alps in the canton of Graubünden, where its two main initial tributaries are called Vorderrhein & Hinterrhein. The Vorderrhein (anterior Rhine) springs from Lake Tuma near the Oberalp Pass & passes the impressive Ruinaulta (the Swiss Grand Canyon). The Hinterrhein (posterior Rhine) starts from the Paradies glacier near the Rheinquellhorn at the southern border of Switzerland. One of the latter tributaries originates in Val di Lei in Italy. Both tributaries meet near Reichenau, still in Graubünden. From Reichenau, the Rhine flows north as the Alpenrhein passing Chur & forming the frontier with Liechtenstein & then Austria, & then emptying into Lake Constance. Emerging from Lake Constance, flowing west as the Hochrhein it passes the Rhine Falls & is joined by the Aare river which more than doubles its water discharge to an average of nearly 1,000 cubic meters per second. It forms the boundary with Germany until it turns north at the so-called Rhine knee at Basel.

Germany & France
Past Basel, as the Upper Rhine, it forms the southern part of the border between Germany & France in a wide valley, before entering Germany exclusively at Rheinstetten, near Karlsruhe.

At over 1000 kilometres in length, the Rhine is the longest river primarily within Germany. It is here that the Rhine encounters some of its main tributaries, such as the Neckar, the Main & later the Moselle, which contributes an average discharge of over 300 cubic meters per second.

Between Bingen & Bonn, the Middle Rhine flows through the Rhine Gorge, a formation created by erosion, which happened at about the same rate as an uplift in the region, leaving the river at about its original level, & the surrounding lands raised. This gorge is quite deep, & is the stretch of the river known for its many castles & vineyards. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (2002) & known as "the romantic Rhine" with more than 40 castles & fortresses from the Middle Ages (see links) & many lovely wine villages.

Though many industries can be found along the Rhine up into Switzerland, it is along the Lower Rhine in the Ruhr area that the bulk of them are concentrated, as the river passes the major cities of Cologne, Düsseldorf, & Duisburg. The Ruhr, which joins the Rhine at Duisburg, is surprisingly clean, given the amount of industry on its banks, & is used for drinking water. It adds another 70 cubic meters per second to the Rhine. However, other rivers from the Ruhr area, above all the Emscher, still bring a considerable degree of pollution. Approaching the Dutch border, the Rhine now has an average discharge of 2,290 cubic metres per second & an average width of more than 300 metres.

Netherlands
The Rhine then turns west & enters the Netherlands, where together with the rivers Meuse & Scheldt it forms an extensive delta. Crossing the border into the Netherlands at Spijk, close to Nijmegen & Arnhem the Rhine is at its widest, but the river then splits into three main distributaries: the Waal, Nederrijn ("Lower Rhine") & IJssel branches.

From here the situation becomes more complicated, as the Dutch name "Rijn" no longer coincides with the main flow of water. Most of the Rhine water (two thirds) flows farther west through the Waal & then via the Merwede & Nieuwe Merwede & , merging with the Meuse, through the Hollands Diep & Haringvliet estuaries into the North Sea. The Beneden Merwede branches off near Hardinxveld-Giessendam & continues as the Noord, to join the Lek near the village of Kinderdijk to form the Nieuwe Maas, then flows past Rotterdam & continues via Het Scheur & the Nieuwe Waterweg to the North Sea. The Oude Maas branches off near Dordrecht, farther down rejoining the Nieuwe Maas to form Het Scheur.

The other third portion of the water flows through the Pannerdens Kanaal & redistributes in the IJssel & Nederrijn. The IJssel branch carries one ninth of the water volume north into the IJsselmeer (a former bay), while the Nederrijn flows west parallel to the Waal & carries approximately two ninths of the flow. However, at Wijk bij Duurstede the Nederrijn changes its name & becomes the Lek. It flows farther west to rejoin the Noord into the Nieuwe Maas & to the North Sea.

The name "Rijn" from here on is used only for smaller streams farther to the north which together once formed the main river Rhine in Roman times. Though they retained the name, these streams do not carry water from the Rhine anymore, but are used for draining the surrounding land & polders. From Wijk bij Duurstede, the old north branch of the Rhine is called Kromme Rijn ("Crooked Rhine") & past Utrecht, first Leidse Rijn ("Rhine of Leiden") & then Oude Rijn ("Old Rhine"). The latter flows west into a sluice at Katwijk, where its waters can be discharged into the North Sea. This branch once formed the line along which the Upper Germanic limes were built.

Large cities
Basel, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Koblenz, Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Neuss, Krefeld, Duisburg, Arnhem (Nederrijn), Nijmegen (Waal), Utrecht (Kromme Rijn), Rotterdam (Nieuwe Maas).

Smaller cities
Konstanz, Schaffhausen, Breisach, Speyer, Worms, Bingen, Rüdesheim, Neuwied, Andernach, Bad Honnef, Königswinter, Niederkassel, Wesseling, Dormagen, Zons, Monheim, Wesel, Xanten, Emmerich, Zutphen (IJssel), Deventer (IJssel), Zwolle (IJssel), Kampen (IJssel).

Railway bridges
Railway bridges (with nearest train station on the left & right bank):

Switzerland
Tens of bridges in Graubünden, too numerous to list
Liechtenstein & Switzerland
between Schaan & Buchs SG
Austria & Switzerland
between Lustenau & St. Margerethen
Switzerland
between Feuerthalen & Neuhausen am Rheinfall
between Dachsen & Neuhausen am Rheinfall
between Eglisau & Hüntwangen-Will
Switzerland & Germany
between Koblenz & Waldshut
between Basel SBB & Basel Badischer Bahnhof
France — Germany
Strasbourg — Kehl
Roeschwoog — Rastatt-Wintersdorf (used as street bridge since 1949, line closed 1960, rails were preserved for strategic purpose until 1999)
Germany
Bridge at KarlsruheKarlsruhe-Maxau — Wörth am Rhein-Maximiliansau
Germersheim — Philippsburg
Ludwigshafen — Mannheim
Worms
Mainz
Koblenz (two bridges, either side of the town)
The Bridge at Remagen was in place until it was bombed out during World War II
2 bridges at Cologne:
The first, a freight only bridge south of the City & the six-track passenger bridge between Köln Hbf & Köln Deutz/Messe (Hohenzollernbrücke)
Düsseldorf
Duisburg
Netherlands (in the delta the river splits & its name changes often)
between Nijmegen & Elst across Waal (Rhine delta main branch)
between Zaltbommel & Geldermalsen across Waal, made famous in a poem by Martinus Nijhoff
in Rotterdam across Nieuwe Maas (joint Rhein-Meuse river mouth), former bridge 'De Hef' - now replaced by a tunnel. Farther to the south, main bridge is at Moerdijk.
between Elst & Arnhem across Nederrijn (Rhine delta second-largest branch)
between Culemborg & Houten across Lek (Rhine delta second-largest branch farther downstream)
at Zutphen across IJssel (Rhine third-largest branch)
at Deventer across IJssel
at Zwolle across IJssel
near Alblas across Noord (a branch near Rotterdam), now being replaced by a tunnel.
between Utrecht & Zeist across Kromme Rijn (near Bunnik station)
At Utrecht central station across Vaartsche Rijn (canal)
At Utrecht central station across Oude Rijn (canalised into Leidschse Rijn).
between Utrecht & Vleuten, Woerden across Amsterdam Rijn-Canal
between Utrecht & Breukelen,Amsterdam across Amsterdam Rijn-Canal

Tributaries from source to mouth:

Left
Thur
Töss
Aare (Aar)
Birs
Birsig
Ill (France)
Moder
Lauter
Nahe
Moselle (Mosel)
Nette
Ahr
Erft
Meuse (Maas) (joins part of the Rhine in the shared delta)
Right
Hinterrhein
Ill (Austria)
Schussen
Wutach
Alb
Wiese
Elz
Kinzig
Rench
Acher
Murg
Alb
Pfinz
Neckar
Main
Lahn
Wied
Sieg
Wupper
Düssel
Ruhr
Emscher
Lippe
Oude IJssel (Issel)
Berkel

Distributaries
IJssel Waal Lek

Canals include
Amsterdam-Rhine Canal Rhine-Main-Danube Canal Grand Canal of Alsace Scheldt-Rhine Canal Rhine-Herne Canal which is the connection to the Dortmund-Ems Canal & the Mittellandkanal.

Alpine Orogeny
Since the Rhine flows from the Alps, a precondition of its existence is the uplifting of the Alps, which began in the Alpine Orogeny. The stage was set in the Triassic Period of the Mesozoic Era, with the opening of the Tethys Sea between the Eurasian & African plates, between about 240 MBP & 220 MBP. The Mediterranean descends from this somewhat larger Tethys sea.

At about 180 MBP, in the Jurassic Period, the two plates reversed direction & began to compress the Tethys floor, causing it to be subducted under Eurasia & pushing up the edge of the latter plate in the Alpine Orogeny of the Oligocene & Miocene Periods. Several microplates were caught in the squeeze & rotated or were pushed laterally, generating the individual features of Mediterranean geography: Iberia pushed up the Pyrenees; Italy the Alps, & Anatolia, moving west, the mountains of Greece & the islands. The compression & orogeny continue today, as shown by the ongoing raising of the mountains a small amount each year & the active volcanoes.

Just to the north of the Alpine Orogeny were highlands resulting from an earlier orogeny (Variscan) along similar lines. These highlands helped to divert the Rhine to the west; however, the Rhine's course is set by the Rhine graben, a rift that opened in the Eocene & Oligocene periods between the western Alps & the central Alps, caused by their moving in slightly different directions. The rift does not seem to be active now.

Stream Capture
The watershed of the Rhine reaches into the Alps today, but it did not start out that way. In the Miocene period, the watershed of the Rhine reached south only to the Eifel & Westerwald hills, about 450 km north of the Alps. The Rhine then had the Sieg as a tributary, but not yet the Mosel. The northern Alps were drained by the Danube then.

Through stream capture, the Rhine extended its watershed southward. By the Pliocene period, the Rhine had captured streams down to the Vosges mountains, including the Mosel, the Main, & the Neckar. The northern Alps were drained by the Rhône then. By the early Pleistocene period, the Rhine had captured most of its current Alpine watershed from the Rhône, including the Aare. Since that time, the Rhine has added the watershed above Lake Constance (Vorderrhein, Hinterrhein, Alpenrhein; captured from the Rhône), the upper reaches of the Main (beyond Schweinfurt), & the Vosges mountains (captured from the Meuse) to its watershed.

Ice Age
The Pleistocene (~2.5 million years ago - 10,000 years ago) was the geological period of the Ice Ages. The River geography saw changes. Since approximately 600,000 years ago six major Ice Ages have occurred, in which sea level dropped 120 m, & much of the continental margins became exposed. In the Early Pleistocene, the Rhine followed a course to the northwest, through the present North Sea. During the so-called Elsterien glaciation (~420,000 yr BP, marine oxygen isotope stage 12) the northern part of the present North Sea was blocked by the ice, & a large lake developed that overflowed through the English Channel. This caused the Rhine's course to be diverted through the English Channel. Since then, during glacial times, the river mouth was located near Brest (France), & rivers like the Thames & the Seine became tributaries to the Rhine. During interglacials, when sea level rose to approximately the present level, the Rhine built a delta in what is now the Netherlands.

During the last Ice Age (~70,000-10,000 yr BP= Before Present), at the end of the Pleistocene, the lower Rhine flowed roughly west through the Netherlands & then to the southwest, through the English Channel, & finally to the Atlantic Ocean. The English & Irish Channels, the Baltic Sea & the North Sea were still dry land, mainly because sea level was approximately 120 m lower than today. At about 5000 BC, flooding & erosion began to open the English Channel.

Most of the Rhine's current course was not under the ice during the last Ice Age, although its source must then have been a glacier. A tundra with Ice Age flora & fauna stretched across middle Europe from Asia to the Atlantic Ocean. Such was the case during the Last Glacial Maximum, ca. 22,000-14,000 yr BP, when ice covered Scandinavia & the Baltic, Britain & the Alps, but left the space between as open tundra. The loess, or wind-blown dust over that tundra settled in & around the Rhine Valley, contributing to its current agricultural usefulness.

These events were well within the residence of man. Meltwater adding to the ocean & land subsidence drowned the former coasts of Europe. The water is still rising, at the rate of about 1-3 mm per year. Further drowning is to come.

Rapid warming & change of vegetation to open forest began about 13,000 BP. By 9000 BP, Europe was fully forested. About 7000-5000 BP a general warming encouraged migration up the Danube & down the Rhine by peoples to the east, who may also have been encouraged by the sudden massive expansion of the Black Sea as the Mediterranean burst into it through the Bosphorus about 7500 BP. At least one unsuccessful search for remains of villages on the floor of the Black Sea has been conducted.

Prehistory

Palaeolithic
During the Middle Palaeolithic, ca 100,000-30,000 BP (the dates vary a great deal) western Europe, including the Rhine & Danube Valleys, was occupied by Neanderthal Man, to which belonged the Mousterian culture of stone tools. Mousterian sites are not considered intrusive. It is believed that the Neanderthals may have evolved from the preceding Homo erectus in the vicinity of the glaciers, but the question has by no means been settled definitively.

Neanderthal sites are denser to the south, where open forest prevailed & the limestone terrain offered more caves as dwelling. The Rhine ran through an open tundra, where Neanderthals hunted big game, such as the woolly rhinoceros & the mammoth. Accordingly, open air Mousterian sites have been discovered in & around the Rhine valley.

Mesolithic
Before about 5600 BC, the Rhine Valley, along with most of Europe, was occupied by Cro-magnon man in the Mesolithic stage of cultural development; that is, they hunted & gathered, but owned a larger & more specialized tool kit than the Palaeolithic people, knew more about the plants & animals, & even may have kept a few animals.

Iron Age
During the early Iron Age, both banks of the Rhine were inhabited by Celtic tribes. However, in the beginning of the Pre-Roman Iron Age, ca 600 BC, the Proto-Germanic tribes crossed the Weser River & the Aller River, & expanded the whole distance to the banks of the Rhine. This expansion is shown archaeologically in the form of the Jastorf culture. From ca 500 BC & onwards, the lower Rhine & not the Weser & the Aller would increasingly mark the border between the Celtic tribes & the Germanic tribes.

Historic & Military Relevance

The human history of the Rhine begins with the writers of the late Roman Republic & early Roman Empire. Nearly all the classical sources mention the Rhine, & the name is always the same: Rhenus in Latin, Greek Rhenos. The Romans viewed the Rhine as the outermost border of civilization & reason, beyond which were mythical creatures & the wild Germanic tribesmen, not far themselves from being beasts of the wilderness they inhabited. As it was a wilderness, the Romans were eager to explore it. This view is typified by Res Gestae Divi Augusti, a long public inscription of Augustus in which he (or his ghost writer) boasts of his exploits, including sending an expeditionary fleet north of the Rheinmouth to Old Saxony & Jutland, which no Roman had ever done (he says).

Throughout the long history of Rome, the Rhine was considered the border between Gaul or the Celts & the Germanic peoples, even though the border often was violated, as when the Germanics crossed it & joined with the Celts to form the Belgae (descending to Belgium). Typical of this point of view is a quote from Maurus Servius Honoratus, Commentary on the Aeneid of Vergil (On Book 8 Line 727):

"(Rhenus) fluvius Galliae, qui Germanos a Gallia dividit"
"(The Rhein is a) river of Gaul, which divides the Germanic people from Gaul."
The Rhine in the earlier sources was always a Gallic river.

As the conflict between Rome & the Germanics grew, the Romans found it necessary to station troops along the Rhine. They kept two army groups there (exercitus), the inferior, or "lower", & the superior, or "upper", which is the first distinction between upper Germania & lower Germania. It originally probably only meant upstream & downstream, the Niederrhein & Oberrhein regions of the map included with this article.

The Romans kept eight legions in five bases along the Rhine. The actual number of legions present at any base or in all depended on whether a state or threat of war existed. Between about 14 AD & 180 AD the assignment of legions was as follows.

For the army of Germania Inferior, two legions at Vetera (Xanten): I Germanica & XX Valeria (Pannonian troops); two legions at oppidum Ubiorum ("town of the Ubii"), which was renamed to Colonia Agrippina, descending to Cologne. The legions were V Alaudae, a Celtic legion recruited from Gallia Transalpina, & XXI, possibly a Galatian legion from the other side of the empire.

For the army of Germania superior, one legion, II Augusta, at Argentoratum (Strasbourg), & one, XIII Gemina, at Vindonissa (Windisch). Vespasian had commanded II Augusta before his promotion to imperator. In addition were a double legion, XIV & XVI, at Moguntiacum (Mainz).

The two originally military districts of Germania Inferior & Germania Superior came to influence the surrounding tribes, who later respected the distinction in their alliances & confederations. For example, the upper Germanic peoples combined into the Alemanni. For a time the Rhine ceased to be a border when a union of all the west Germanics, the Franks, crossed the river & occupied Roman-dominated Celtic Gaul as far as Paris.

Subsequently language changes began to play a major political role. West Germanic dissimilated into Low Saxon, Low Franconian languages & High German languages roughly along the old lines. Perhaps it had been doing so all along. Charlemagne united all the Franks in the Holy Roman Empire, but he did not rule over a people of uniform language. After his death the empire split more or less along language lines, with the Low Franconian being spoken in the Netherlands & the Low Saxon & High German in what became Germany. The Romanized Franks became the French. The Rhine once again became a political border.

The Rhine as border has been & is a mystical & political symbol. German authors & composers have written reams about it. During World War II, it was still considered the sacred border of Germany, & was still a defensive barrier. The Germans fought especially hard to defend it.

The Rhine is closely linked to many important historical events — particularly military ones — as well as myths. For example:

It was a historic object of frontier trouble between France & Germany. Establishing "natural borders" on the Rhine was a long term goal of French foreign policy since the Middle Ages. French leaders such as Louis XIV & Napoleon Bonaparte tried with varying degrees of success to annex lands west of the Rhine. In 1840 the Rhine crisis evolved, because the French prime minister Adolphe Thiers started to talk about the Rhine border. In response, the poem & song Die Wacht am Rhein ("The Watch on the Rhine") was composed at that time, calling for the defense of the western bank of the Rhine against France. During the Franco-Prussian War it rose to the de-facto status of a national anthem in Germany. The song remained popular in World War I & was used in the movie Casablanca
At the end of World War I the Rheinland was subject to the Treaty of Versailles. This decreed that it would be occupied by the allies until 1935, & after that it would be a demilitarised zone, with the German army forbidden to enter. The Treaty of Versailles in general, & this particular provision, caused much resentment in Germany & are often cited as helping Adolf Hitler's rise to power. The allies left the Rheinland in 1930, & the German army re-occupied it in 1936, which was enormously popular in Germany. Although the allies could probably have prevented the re-occupation, Britain & France were not inclined to do so, a feature of their policy of appeasement of Hitler.
In World War II it was recognised that the Rhine would present a formidable natural obstacle to the invasion of Germany by the western allies. The Rhine bridge at Arnhem, immortalized in the book & film A Bridge Too Far, was a central focus of the battle for Arnhem during the failed Operation Market Garden of September 1944. The bridges at Nijmegen over the Waal distributary of the Rhine were also an objective of Market Garden. In a separate operation, the Rhine bridge at Remagen became famous when U.S. forces were able to capture it intact — much to their own surprise — after the Germans failed to demolish it. This also became the subject of a film, The Bridge at Remagen.
Mainz Cathedral — this more than 1,000-year-old cathedral is seat to the Bishop of Mainz. It holds significant historic value as the seat of the once politically powerful secular prince-archbishop within the Holy Roman Empire. It houses historical funerary monuments & religious artifacts.
The Nibelungenlied, an epic poem in Middle High German, tells the saga of Siegfried/Sigurd, who killed a dragon on the Drachenfels (Siebengebirge) ("dragons rock") near Bonn at the Rhine, of the Burgundians & their court at Worms at the Rhine, & Kriemhild's golden treasure which is thrown into the Rhine by Hagen
Das Rheingold — inspired by the Nibelungenlied, the Rhine is one of the settings for the first opera of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle. The action of the epic opens & ends underneath the Rhine, where three Rheinmaidens swim & protect a hoard of gold.
The Loreley/Lorelei is a rock on the eastern bank of the Rhine that is associated with several legendary tales, poems & songs.

A SITE ON THE WORLD'S MAJOR RIVERS

Other Lonympics pages of interest

Solar System Record Breakers

The Worst regimes of the 20th Century

The Amazon from near Manaus The Nile in Uganda A Picture of a small corner of Jungle by the Amazon,

A great geography quiz, 10 questions on the multiple choice basis

A site on famous walls,

On famous gates

THE 10 LARGEST CELTIC CITIES IN THE WORLD

A site on the weather

Links

Europe