Stiller Bach

Stiller Bach is a small artificial river in southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It flows into the Scherzach in Weingarten.

The water network of the Stiller Bach near Weingarten in the Ravensburg district of Baden-Württemberg is one of the oldest canal systems in Germany. It was expertly constructed by Benedictine monks in the Middle Ages to supply water to the Weingarten monastery and has remained virtually unchanged to this day. The area of the water network is around 25 km² ^and includes ten canals and around 20 ponds . The main construction period of the Stiller Bach and its constituent waterways stretches over a period of more than half a millennium (11th to 17th centuries).  Today, the Stiller Bach is a tourist destination, where a walk takes you deep into the cultural history of the region.

In the Middle Ages, the settlement of Weingarten Monastery depended on a functioning water supply. Without the water supply, the operation of the monastery would hardly be conceivable.  Many areas of life in Weingarten benefited from the extremely diverse use of the Stillen Bach. It supplied the monks with water and protected the monastery and the otherwise waterless upper town of Weingarten from devastating fires. Its water was used to bleach cloth , served to operate a washhouse and at the same time carried the wastewater in meadow irrigation channels, the so-called Rongsen , for fertilizing the irrigated meadows in the Schussen Basin . The Benedictines also knew how to use its watercourses for energy production : Until the dissolution of the monastery in 1803, at least

• eight grinding mills with 17 water wheels
• five sawmills with seven waterwheels
• three oil mills with two water wheels
• a hammer forge with two water wheels
• a bone and plaster stamp with a water wheel
• a tannery with a water wheel
• a hemp grater with a water wheel

As a result of advancing industrialization, the mills were gradually replaced and the waterways used to generate electricity. Up to twelve turbines were powered by the hydropower of the Stiller Bach, generating a total output of 1800 kW . Today, the Stiller Bach is a local recreation area, and since 1985 has been the center of a hiking trail dedicated to the history of hydraulic engineering.  Brown trout are the fish that live there. The Protestant parish of Weingarten offers a baptism festival at the Stiller Bach on certain days in the summer.

The components of the irrigation system are mostly completely new creations in the gravel area above the Schussen basin and its side valleys, which was originally poor in streams. The most important springs in the system include the original spring east of the Lochmoos and the four Kocherlöcher springs near Unterankenreute , which are designated as natural monuments due to their geohydrological peculiarities . In order to tap into several productive source areas, the canals often cross regional watersheds . To avoid maintenance-intensive canal bridges ( aqueducts ), the upper reaches of the Stille Bach had to be constructed with a minimal gradient, meaning it had to flow around hills or depressions. Due to this objective and the sometimes very slight gradient of the terrain, determining an optimal flow path was extremely complex and, given the tools available in the Middle Ages, is to be regarded as a masterpiece of engineering.

The network has consisted of ten interconnected canals since the Renaissance period and had been expanded to a length of 11.5 km by 1605. Of the formerly up to 30 reservoirs of the Stiller Bach, only nine are now artificial lakes. Important for ensuring year-round water flow are the Lochmoos moorland water reservoir in the upper reaches , the over 800 year old Rößlerweiher as the central switching point of the system and the Mahlweiher in Nessenreben in the lower reaches . Nessenreben refers to a medieval clearing island above Weingarten, which was initially managed by the monastery and then, after secularization , as state domain . The Nessenreben Mahlweiher stores the water of the Stiller Bach before it rushes down the lower reaches to Weingarten with a steep gradient. The Stiller Bach then flows into the Scherzach in the Weingarten district . The fragility of the facility is demonstrated by repeated damage caused by landslides, most recently in February 2022.

See also : List of natural monuments in Schlier (municipality)

The Rößlerweiher, also known as Rößler Weiher or Rösslerweiher , was formed as a natural lake approximately 10,000 years ago when the ice-age Rhine glacier retreated, leaving behind dams of scree ( moraines ) and depressions whose gravel bed had been sealed impermeably with fine clay. During a devastating natural disaster, the moraine dam collapsed. The floodwaters plunged into the Scherzach valley and carved the Hochtobel ravine into the terrain. It wasn't until much later that people built a replacement dam on this site. In 1155, the new reservoir was mentioned in a Hohenstaufen document as Lacus Grindel (=dam lake) .

This makes the 20- hectare pond one of the oldest reservoirs in Central Europe. It has been used for energy and fishing for over 800 years and fulfills an important function in Weingarten's flood protection system . The Stille Bach stream plays a central role in all of this.

The Rößlerweiher pond, located near Unterankenreute in the municipality of Schlier , has traditionally been a popular local recreation area for swimmers, ice skaters, and hikers. Since 1989, a 5.5 km long, signposted hiking trail has been established around the Rößlerweiher. Today, it is used as a state-owned fishing lake by the Ravensburg District Forestry Office . Every year, on the second Wednesday in October, the autumn carp harvest takes place here, producing approximately four tons of fish.

Together with four other canals, the Altweiher Canal forms the upper reaches of the Stiller Bach. It has been carrying water from the Wolfegger Ach catchment area to the Rößlerweiher pond since the 16th century . The Altweiher Canal, coming from the north, and the Kehrenberger Mühlkanal, which runs along the eastern shore of the Rößlerweiher pond , meet at a canal junction immediately before flowing into the Rößlerweiher pond. From there, the water flows both into the Rößlerweiher pond and into a deeply cut interim canal , which is separated from the Rößlerweiher pond by a 300-meter-long dam. At the junction is the trap stock , a device that can be pulled out and closed so that the interim canal absorbs all of the upper water. This happens in the event of a flood or when the Rößlerweiher pond is being fished out .

With the help of a weir , a barrier structure at the outlet of the Rößlerweiher, the water level in the Stiller Bach, or rather, the pond, can be further regulated. In addition, there are two additional weirs in the Altdorf Forest to keep floodwater away from the Stiller Bach.

After leaving the Rößlerweiher pond, the Stille Bach stream flows in an exposed path along the mountainside of the Hochtobel gorge. Its route is reminiscent of irrigation canals of similar characteristics in South Tyrol (see "Waale ") and the Swiss canton of Valais (see " Suonen /Bisses").

Until the 1980s, the Hochtobel ravine repeatedly experienced violent eruptions after the waters of the Stiller Bach had been dammed by wind damage. These former mudslides leading to the Schwarzbächle stream, which flows 50 meters below , are still visible as deep gullies in the steep slope. Landslides have also occurred in this area recently.

Since the monks couldn't bypass the Hochtobel ravine because they needed the water in Nessenreben for their dairy , meadows, and mills, they nurtured the natural vegetation, whose roots protected the edges from erosion. Later, the most dangerous section of the medieval route was replaced by a shorter connection. For the approximately 100-meter-long and 10-meter-deep cut through the Lindenberg , nearly 10,000 m³ of soil had to ^be excavated using simple means.

In addition to the Stillen Bach, there are two other canal systems in Upper Swabian Benedictine monasteries:

• Krummbach in Ochsenhausen
• Motzenbach in Ottobeuren

Since 2005, all three systems have been part of the approximately 100 stations on the Mühlenstraße Oberschwaben .

The Stille Bach is the subject of a regional crime novel by Regina Riest from 2018.

He was portrayed in a Südwestrundfunk broadcast on 13 September 2021 with Michael Maurer.

• Topographic map of the Stillen Bach

• The Stille Bach and its waters. City of Weingarten, 2005.
• Elmar Bereuter: Upper Swabia – Swabian Children's Trails , Bregenz, Friedrichshafen, Ravensburg, Wolfegg. Rother Hiking Guide, Bergverlag Rother, Munich 2010, pp. 182ff.
• Michael Grimm: An Attempt at a History of the Former Imperial Town and the Still-Famous Pilgrimage Site of Altdorf, Called Weingarten, and Its Surroundings. Self-published by the Author/Dorn'sche Buchhandlung, Ravensburg 1864, pp. 248f.
• Lutz Dietrich Herbst: The Silent Stream – Benedictine Water Management between Schlier and Weingarten. In: Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg, No. 3/2018, pp. 200–205.
• Lutz Dietrich Herbst: The Silent Stream – A Unique Evidence of Medieval Hydraulic Engineering in Upper Swabia ( Weingarten University Publications, No. 1). Weingarten University of Education, 1982.
• Lutz Dietrich Herbst: The Silent Stream – Hydraulic Engineering History Trail. Brochure. Ravensburg District Office, 1985.
• Lutz Dietrich Herbst: Developed Rivers of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period in Upper Swabia as Study Areas for Historical Geography ( Weingarten University Publications, No. 17). Dissertation, Weingarten University of Education, 1992.

1. Legendary Place by Michael Maurer: "Stiller Bach" near Weingarten. An ingenious canal system supplied the monastery with water. In: swr.de. September 13, 2021, accessed June 21, 2021 .
2. Lutz Dietrich Herbst: The Silent Stream – Benedictine Water Management between Schlier and Weingarten. In: Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg, No. 3/2018, p. 203.
3. Lutz Dietrich Herbst: The Silent Stream - Benedictine Water Management between Schlier and Weingarten. In: Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg, No. 3/2018, p. 204.
4. Stefanie Nosswitz, Jan Manuel Hess: SÜDKURIER hike - "Stiller Bach" near Weingarten delights hikers. In: Südkurier , Markdorf regional edition, August 22, 2018.
5. Markus Reppner: Damage to the Stillen Bach again , Schwäbische Zeitung, regional edition Ravensburg, 16 February 2022, www.schwaebische.de/landkreis/landkreis-ravensburg/weingarten_artikel,-wieder-schaeden-am-stillen-bach-in-weingarten-_arid,11472964.html
6. Markus Reppner: Damage to the Stillen Bach again. In: Schwäbische Zeitung, Ravensburg regional edition. February 16, 2022, accessed June 21, 2021 .
7. Regina Riest: Silent Stream. Emons-Verlag, Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3-7408-0469-5 .
8. Südwestrundfunk, Friedrichshafen Regional Studio: Legendary Place by Michael Maurer - "Stiller Bach" near Weingarten. Report from September 13, 2021, [www.swr.de/swraktuell/baden-wuerttemberg/friedrichshafen/sagenhafter-ort-von-michael-maurer-stiller-bach-weingarten-100.html online]

Commons : Stiller Bach  – Collection of images, videos and audio files Commons : Rößlerweiher  – Collection of images, videos and audio files

• on the website of the city of Weingarten with a link to the brochure
• The Stille Bach and its ponds: An important cultural monument of historical water management on GeschichtsPfadSchlier.de
• Video clips with views of the Stillen Bach (in 18 parts) on YouTube

Categories :

• River in Europe
• River in Baden-Württemberg
• Hydraulic structure in Baden-Württemberg
• Geography (Weingarten, Württemberg)
• Upper Swabia
• Schussen river system
• Flowing waters in the Ravensburg district
• Building in Weingarten (Württemberg)

• This page was last edited on 17 March 2025, at 08:41.

• List of rivers of Baden-Württemberg