The Wasgau (, ) is a Franco-German hill range in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the French departments of Bas-Rhin and Moselle. It is formed from the southern part of the Palatine Forest and the northern part of the Vosges mountains, and extends from the River Queich in the north over the French border to the Col de Saverne in the south.
The highest hill in the entire Wasgau is the Grand Wintersberg (581 m above NHN) near Niederbronn-les-Bains in northern Alsace. Next, at 577 m is the only slightly lower Rehberg near Annweiler in the South Palatinate, which is the highest summit on German soil in the Wasgau.
The Wasgau forms the southern part of the Palatine Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve.
Geography
Location The Wasgau runs from a line between Pirmasens and Landau in the north that, from Wilgartswiesen coincides with the course of the River Queich, to the Col de Saverne and a line between Phalsbourg to Saverne in the south.Emil Knöringer: Der Wasgau mit seinen Felsen und Felsenburgen, p. 14. Pfalz mit Weinstraße, pp. 197–199. Its eastern boundary, running from Albersweiler in the Queich valley via Bad Bergzabern, Wissembourg in Alsace and Niederbronn-les-Bains to Saverne is the edge of the Rhine Graben. In the west the hills transition smoothly into the landscape region of the Westrich Plateau; from there the younger rock strata of the muschelkalk cover the bunter sandstone that dominates the Wasgau. This natural boundary runs roughly from Pirmasens via Eppenbrunn, Bitche and Lemberg in Lorraine towards the south and, near Phalsbourg, finally reaches the fault zone of the narrow Col de Saverne; this separates the Wasgau from the "real" (North) Vosges immediately to the south, although this transition is rather gradual and the dividing line not particularly clear.Landesamt für Vermessung und Geobasisinformation Rheinland-Pfalz (pub.): Topografische Karten 1:25.000 und 1:50.000 ; retrieved, 13 February 2012.Institut Géographique National (ed.): Cartes Topographiques 1:25.000 und 1:50.000. Paris, verschiedene Jahrgänge.Landesamt für Geologie und Bergbau Rheinland-Pfalz: Geologische Übersichtskarte Rheinland-Pfalz, retrieved 13 February 2012.Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde: Geographische Landesaufnahme. Die naturräumlichen Einheiten in Einzelblättern 1:200.000. Bad Godesberg 1952–1994. → Online-Karten *Blatt 160: Landau/Pfalz (Adalbert Pemöller 1969; 47 pp.).
A central sub-region of the Wasgau is the Dahn-Annweilerer-Wasgauer Felsenland, which extends from the Queich valley near Annweiler in the northeast to the area of the Falkensteinerbach stream and Zinsel du Nord near Baerenthal and Philippsbourg in the southwest.
Structure
The uplands of the Wasgau differ from those of the central Palatine Forest that border it to the north. The landscape of the Wasgau has a characteristically variable nature, with numerous conical hills (Kegelberge) as well as clearly rounded domes (Kuppen). Between the hills are conspicuously level plains, some of them extensive. "Der Pfälzerwald im geographischen Überblick", pp. 40–41.
The Wasgau is drained mostly towards the east by left-hand tributaries of the River Rhine, namely the Queich, the Lauter (called the Wieslauter in its upper reaches) and the Saarbach, which continues as the Sauer in North Alsace. setzt. There it is followed by the Moder, whose catchment area extends southwards via its right-hand tributary, the Zorn, beyond the Col de Saverne.
There are no natural lakes in the Wasgau, but especially in the area of the Saarbach stream, historic ponds or woogs have survived from the Middle Ages. These are small lakes that were artificially created to breed fish or to utilize their water in the operation of watermills or iron hammer mills. The water of the Zinsel du Nord near Baerenthal in the Pays de Bitche was used during the 18th and 19th centuries for processing iron in the ironworks and blast furnaces. To that end, several larger and smaller ponds were laid out between Mouterhouse and Baerenthal, which have been mainly used for tourism since the closure of the last ironworks in 1923.Heinz Wittner et al.: Vogesen – Nord. Deutscher Wanderverlag Dr. Mair & Schnabel & Co., Stuttgart 1983, p. 81. Even the Étang de Hanau, a pond a few miles east of Bitche in Éguelshardt has become a major tourist centre with swimming facilities, boat rentals and camping.
Splash dams (ecluses) were constructed, for example on the Wieslauter stream, as part of the timber rafting industry, that was practised until the end of the 19th century. These dams were able to trap logs after temporary flooding which, after the opening of a weir could be transported downstream on the water.
Hills
General
Due to its small-scale relief, the uplands of the Wasgau are characterized by considerable diversity of forms with rather isolated individual peaks - particularly the conical hills or Kegelberge - which reach an average height of 400–500 metres above sea level. The highest peaks are in the northern and central Wasgau (such as the Wegelnburg, 572 m, and the Mohnenberg, 547 m), especially near the edge of the Rhine trough (e.g. the Grand Winterberg, 581 m, and the Rehberg, 577 m), while the bunter sandstone block in the west and south descends from about 500 m (Wasenkoepfel, 526 m and Großer Eyberg, 513 m) to an average of about 350–400 m at the Saverne. Also typical is the number of variably shaped rock formations, mainly rocks of the Lower Triassic sandstone, the Trifels and Rehberg beds, that are found on many hills in the Wasgau (see the sections on Geology and rock formations). In his typology of mountain and rock formations of the Wasgau, Geiger distinguishes the following six forms: hill blocks with rock outcrops, table hills; rock slabs; ridges with rock faces, hill cones with rock blocks; hill cones with rock towers and domed hills. "Der Pfälzerwald im geographischen Überblick", p. 41. In addition there is a host of hilltop observation towers (e.g. on the Grand Wintersberg, Rehberg, Stäffelsberg and Wasenkoepfel) that offer visitors a 360° panorama.
Detailed overview The columns in the table are based on the Natural Region Division Concept of the Wasgau. Each column shows the important hills of each sub-region in order of height. Western Wasgau Wasgau Felsenland Eastern Wasgau Southern Wasgau Gr. Eyberg (513 m) Grand Wintersberg (581 m) Ger: Großer Wintersberg Hohe Derst (561 m) Wasenkoepfel (526 m) Gr. Mückenkopf (485 m) Rehberg (577 m) Mohnenberg (547 m) Immenkopf (494 m) Hohe List (476 m) Wegelnburg (572 m) Bobenthaler Knopf (534 m) Arnsberg (479 m) Erlenkopf (472 m) Hohenbourg (551 m) Ger: Hohenburg Brissetischer Kopf (529 m)or Brissetish Kopf Mont Saint-Michel (437 m) Ger: Michaelsberg Hoher Kopf (467 m) Schwobberg (524 m) Schletterberg (521 m) Hochkopf (429 m) Braunsberg (463 m) Maimont (515 m) Dürrenberg (521 m) Hollaenderberg (423 m) Gr. Stephansberg (456 m) Wasserstein (512 m) Krummer Ellenbogen (515 m) (Hoch) Ebersberg (423 m) Hoher Warsberg (451 m) Engenteich (496 m) Mittelkopf (515 m) Duerrberg(kopf) (421 m) Kl. Biesenberg (451 m) Jüngstberg (491 m) Treutelsberg (505 m) Hochfirst (421 m)
Geology
Formation and deposition of the rock strata
The Wasgau, as part of the Palatine Forest and the North Vosges, is characterized by rock strata of bunter sandstone and, to a lesser extent, Zechstein, which was deposited in the late Permian (256–251 million years ago) and early Triassic (251–243 million years ago), predominantly under desert-like climatic conditions. Sedimentary sequences were formed with a thickness of about 500 metres, of different strengths, thicknesses and colouring, and comprising mainly strongly hardened, silica-cemented, medium- and coarse-grained sandstones, but also some fine-grained sandstones, bonded with clay cement, and shales. These rocks are divided into various strata that, in the case of the bunter sandstone region, comprise Lower, Middle and Upper levels. "Der Pfälzerwald im geographischen Überblick", pp. 24–29.
During the formation of the Upper Rhine Graben in the Paleogene period (66–23.8 million years ago), these rock strata experienced tectonically induced displacements that have had a significance impact on the appearance of the landscape of the Wasgau today. At that time the edges of the Rhine Graben were uplifted and the layers of bunter sandstone and, in places also older rocks (Zechstein, Rotliegendes) were exposed after the overlying rock was eroded away. This resulted in tilting, bulging (thrusting and folding) and the fracturing (formation of faults) of the various rock strata.
Development of the present topography
Due to the synclinal-anticlinal structure of the hills on the left bank of the Rhine which runs from southwest to northeast, these bulges in the northern and central parts of the Wasgau, i.e. in the region of the South Palatine Saddle (Südpfälzer Sattel) are particularly prominent, with the result that their surface layers were more heavily eroded. Because the formations of the Zechstein, for example, the Annweiler and Speyerbach beds, consist more of fine-grained sandstones with clayey binding and shales and therefore have a softer consistency, this material could be more easily carried awayl leaving the older rocks of the Zechstein and Rotliegendes exposed. This resulted in erosion surfaces and broad valleys, as are particularly characteristic of the northeastern Wasgau, for example, in Gossersweiler and Völkersweiler, also in Hauenstein, Busenberg or Fischbach bei Dahn. At the same time, parts of the Lower Bunter Sandstone, the so-called Trifels and Rehberg beds remained, because they mostly consist of harder quartz sandstone and are therefore particularly resistant to weathering and erosion. The micro-relief of the Wasgau was developed during the Neogene period (23.8 to 2.8 million years ago), and especially the Quaternary period (2.8 to 0.01 million years ago), as a result of erosion, that is characterized by diversely-shaped, often conical and isolated hills with bizarre rock formations (the Wasgau Rock Country or Wasgau Felsenland). This rock country extends from Annweiler in the northeast roughly to the stream of the Falkensteiner Bach at Phillipsburg in the southwest and forms the actual core area of the Wasgau.