The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis near Schwenningen in the Schwenninger Moos conservation area, at a height of above sea level, it passes through Rottweil, Rottenburg am Neckar, Kilchberg, Tübingen, Wernau, Nürtingen, Plochingen, Esslingen, Stuttgart, Ludwigsburg, Marbach, Heilbronn and Heidelberg, before discharging on average of water into the Rhine at Mannheim, at above sea level, making the Neckar its 4th largest tributary, and the 10th largest river in Germany. Since 1968, the Neckar has been navigable for cargo ships via 27 locks for about upstream from Mannheim to the river port of Plochingen, at the confluence with the Fils.
From Plochingen to Stuttgart, the Neckar valley is densely populated and heavily industrialised, with several well-known companies. Between Stuttgart and Lauffen, the Neckar cuts a scenic, meandering, and in many places steep-sided, valley into fossiliferous Triassic limestones and Pleistocene travertine. Along the Neckar's valley in the Odenwald hills many castles can be found, including Hornberg Castle and in Haßmersheim; the decommissioned Obrigheim Nuclear Power Plant and Neckarwestheim Nuclear Power Plant are also located there.
Traditionally the fertile plains have been intensively used for agriculture and its steep valley sides as vineyards.
Etymology The Neckar was known to the Romans as Nicarus, Nicer or Nicerus, ultimately from the proto-indo-european *nei̯k meaning 'to rise'. The grammatical gender of the name in German is masculine (der Neckar).
Geography
River course Sources The headwater region of the Neckar lies in the Schwenninger Moos between Schwenningen and Bad Dürrheim. The traditionally marked spring of the river lies in the city park Möglingshöhe in Schwenningen.
Prior to the Landesgartenschau Villingen-Schwenningen 2010, the Neckar flowed mostly underground in the city center of Schwenningen. In order to protect the city from the more frequent flooding through overflow of the duct, the river received more space through a new, mostly open riverbed. This riverbed runs largely on the newly constructed horticultural show ground, which was used as the occasion for the remodeling.
Headwaters Up to shortly before Rottweil the Neckar is only a small rivulet on the Baar plateau. In Deißlingen-Lauffen it has its only, high, waterfall which is drained today. Afterward, the Neckar joins with the Eschach coming from the eastern slopes of the Black Forest which is much more water bearing. Its main tributary Glasbach, which originates at the Brogen, is hydrographically seen as the main river of the Neckar river system.
With this junction above Rottweil the Neckar enters a narrow, wooded valley and for the next 80 km it bores its way towards north between the ranges of the Black Forest and the Swabian Jura. It has created two cut-off meander spurs at the Neckarburg which is spanned by the Neckarburgbrücke. Further down the river lies high above the river the old town of Oberndorf on a Calcareous sinter terrace, which fills one of the bowl-like side valleys. At Horb it turns from the Gäu Plateau towards north east and then follows the western side of the Swabian Jura (Albtrauf). Near Weitingen the valley is traversed by the 127 m high Neckar Viaduct of the A 81. At Rottenburg it enters the wider valley of Tübingen. After Tübingen the valley narrows again. From here onwards, the surrounding elevated grounds are considerably more densely populated.
Middle reaches At Plochingen the Neckar turns sharply north west at the "Neckarknie" (knee of the Neckar), the mouth of the Fils coming down from the east, from the Swabian Jura. Beginning from here the river has been expanded into a canalised waterway. It lies up to Stuttgart in a wide, urbanized meadow, which has been built over with industry and is cut through by transportation structures. Only around the Cannstatter valley bend for a short distance it is interspersed by large park areas. Here again the valley sides show limestone-sinter. Between Stuttgart and Lauffen the Neckar cuts a scenic, meandering, and in many places steep-sided, valley into fossiliferous Triassic limestones and Pleistocene travertine. After Stuttgart it turns again towards the general northern direction. In a winding and narrow valley section through the Ludwigsburg (district) the Rems enters from the right at Remseck and then again from the right north of Marbach the Murr. After passing the Hessigheimer Felsengärten the water-rich Enz enters from the left at Besigheim. The former rapid at the Lauffener avulsion of the meander is today under water due to the canalization. In the Lowlands around Heilbronn the Neckar runs again through a wide meadow. At Bad Friedrichshall it takes up within only two kilometers the other two of its large tributaries: First its water-richest tributary, the Kocher and then the officially longest, the Jagst, in total roughly doubling its discharge.
Lower reaches Between Bad Wimpfen with its Stauferpfalz and Mosbach, the Neckar enters the Odenwald, where, again in a gorge-like valley, high, elevated, forested slopes line its riverside and especially on the right side, deeply cut valleys enter. At the last of his distinctive knees at Eberbach it turns west, enters at Hirschhorn for a short distance Hessian territory and is then up to Neckarsteinach on long parts the border between Baden-Württemberg and Hessen. At Neckargemünd the Elsenz enters from the left, its lower reaches using a part of the Neckar's former Maurer river loop which extended far south. At the city of Heidelberg, which borders in the north the Odenwald and at the south the Königstuhl (Odenwald), the Neckar travels through a 400m deep valley between mountains. After passing the Heidelberger historic city, the river enters the wide Upper Rhine Plain and after about 25 kilometers, it enters the city of Mannheim roughly at its middle, where it enters the Rhine from the right.
Tributaries The largest tributaries of the Neckar are the Enz with the largest drainage area, the Kocher with the highest average water drainage and the longest one, the Jagst. The Kocher tributary Lein is at its end not only longer than the Kocher, but also more water-abundant. Therefore, according to hydrographic convention, the Lein would have to be regarded as the main river of the Kocher water system, making it with then 201 kilometers the longest tributary of the Neckar.
Diagram of the tributaries with 50 plus km length
Tributaries with 20 km length and more
Named from source to mouth. According to LUBW-BRSWEB, LUBW-FG10, LUBW-GEZG and TK25. Drainage area mostly according to LUBW-GEZG, else measured on the background map. Distances preferably according to the data sets of the LUBW-FG10, rarely measured on the background map. Named preferably according to TK25.
Eschach (left tributary at Rottweil-Bühlingen, 38.1 km) Prim (right tributary at Rottweil, 21.1 km) Schlichem (right tributary at Epfendorf, 34.4 km) Glatt (left tributary at Horb-Neckarhausen, 34.2 km) Eyach (right tributary at Bf. Eyach, community Eutingen im Gäu, 50.4 km) Starzel (right tributary at Rottenburg-Bieringen, 42.8 km) Steinlach (right tributary at Tübingen, 25.1 km) Ammer (left tributary at Tübingen-Lustnau, 22.5 km) Echaz (right tributary at Kirchentellinsfurt, 22.8 km) Erms (right tributary at Neckartenzlingen, 32.7 km) Aich (left tributary at Nürtingen-Oberensingen, 30.4 km) Lauter (right tributary at Wendlingen, 25.7 km) Fils (right tributary at Plochingen, 62.8 km) Körsch (left tributary west of Deizisau, 26.3 km) Rems (right tributary at Remseck, 78.4 km) Murr (right tributary at Marbach, 51.5 km) Enz (left tributary at Besigheim, 105.5 km) Zaber (left tributary at Lauffen, 22.4 km) Schozach (right tributary at Heilbronn-Sontheim, 25.6 km) Lein (left tributary at Heilbronn-Neckargartach, 27.3 km) Sulm (right tributary at Neckarsulm, 26.2 km) Kocher (right tributary at Bad Friedrichshall-Kochendorf, 168.7 km) Jagst (right tributary at Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld, 190.2 km) Elz (right tributary at Mosbach-Neckarelz, 39.8 km) Itter (right tributary at Eberbach, 28.0 km) Laxbach (right tributary at Hirschhorn, 30.0 km with the longest headwaters) Steinach (right tributary at Neckarsteinach, 21.9 km) Elsenz (left tributary at Neckargemünd, 53.4 km)
Cities and municipalities The Neckar touches, from the source to the mouth, the following districts, cities and municipalities:
Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis: Villingen-Schwenningen, Dauchingen Landkreis Rottweil: Deißlingen, Villingendorf, Rottweil, Epfendorf, Oberndorf am Neckar, Sulz am Neckar Landkreis Freudenstadt: Horb am Neckar, Eutingen im Gäu (Weitinger Mühle) Landkreis Tübingen: Starzach (municipality districts Börstingen and Sulzau), Rottenburg am Neckar, Tübingen, Kirchentellinsfurt Landkreis Reutlingen: Reutlingen (municipality districts Altenburg, Oferdingen and Mittelstadt), Pliezhausen Landkreis Esslingen: Neckartenzlingen, Neckartailfingen, Nürtingen, Oberboihingen, Unterensingen, Wendlingen am Neckar, Köngen, Wernau (Neckar), Plochingen, Deizisau, Altbach, Esslingen am Neckar Stuttgart (urban district), city districts Obertürkheim, Hedelfingen, Wangen, Untertürkheim, Stuttgart-Ost, Bad Cannstatt, Münster, Hofen, Mühlhausen) Rems-Murr-Kreis: Fellbach (municipality district Oeffingen; only right shore) Landkreis Ludwigsburg: Remseck am Neckar, Ludwigsburg (municipality districts Poppenweiler, Hoheneck and Neckarweihingen), Marbach am Neckar, Benningen am Neckar, Freiberg am Neckar, Pleidelsheim, Ingersheim, Mundelsheim, Hessigheim, Besigheim, Walheim, Gemmrigheim, Kirchheim am Neckar Landkreis Heilbronn: Neckarwestheim, Lauffen am Neckar, Talheim, Nordheim Heilbronn (urban district) Landkreis Heilbronn: Neckarsulm, Untereisesheim, Bad Friedrichshall, Bad Wimpfen, Offenau, Bad Rappenau (municipality district Heinsheim), Gundelsheim Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis: Haßmersheim, Neckarzimmern, Mosbach (municipality districts Neckarelz and Diedesheim), Obrigheim, Binau, Neckargerach, Zwingenberg Rhein-Neckar-Kreis: Eberbach, Schönbrunn (Baden) Kreis Bergstraße (Hessen): Hirschhorn (Neckar), Neckarsteinach Rhein-Neckar-Kreis: Neckargemünd Heidelberg (urban district), city districts Schlierbach, Ziegelhausen, Neuenheim, Altstadt, Bergheim, Wieblingen Rhein-Neckar-Kreis: Dossenheim (municipality districts Schwabenheim), Edingen-Neckarhausen, Ladenburg, Ilvesheim Mannheim (urban district), city districts Seckenheim, Feudenheim, Neuostheim, Oststadt, Neckarstadt-Ost, Innenstadt/Jungbusch, Neckarstadt-West
River history
The primal Neckar started off as an escarpment riverlet due to the slow rise of the Black Forest and the connected slow erosive retraction of the South German Scarplands. For a long time it flowed on the high plains of the different Gäu Plateaus created through the hard chalks of the Muschelkalk. At Horb the river was redirected to the northeast due to the rift structure of the so-called Swabian Lineament, which lies roughly parallel to the escarpment of the Swabian Jura. Following that the Neckar cut into the Muschelkalk plateau between Rottweil and Rottenburg as well as the younger Keuper and Jura layers in the northeast, and created narrow water gaps in the area of the morphologically hard chalks and sandstones.
The river deepening was also caused by the further rise of the Black Forest as well as the retracting erosion of the attacking younger Neckar route. This younger Neckar route tapped the primal Neckar system at Plochingen (hence the Neckarknie), which flowed through the primal lone to the primal Danube. Another influence on this river area was the Schurwald, a dissected cuesta of the filder rift, working as a river guideline.