page_title: Wiese (river)
section_title: Wiese correction
hierarchical_section_title: Wiese (river) / Wiese correction
caption_attribution_description: Die Wiese oberhalb der Weiler Brücke
context_page_description: The Wiese is a river, 57.8 kilometres long, and a right-hand tributary of the Rhine in southwest Germany and northwest Switzerland.
  From its source in Baden-Württemberg in the Southern Black Forest on the mountain of the Feldberg, it flows for a short distance though the county of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald and then mainly across Lörrach and through numerous settlements including the county town of Lörrach. After crossing the international border, the lower reaches of the river pass through the canton of Basel-Stadt, mainly through the city of Basle and through its district of Kleinbasel before emptying into the Upper Rhine.
  The valley of the Wiese, which drains a catchment of 455 square kilometres, is called the Wiesental or Wiese Valley; it is oriented roughly towards the south-west. Its largest tributary is the Little Wiese which approaches from the north. The right-hand Rhine tributary of the Wiese and the left-hand Rhine tributaries of the Birsig, which discharges into the Rhine at the Basle port of Schifflände, and the Mühlebach, which flows under the Dreirosen Bridge, are the three biggest Upper Rhine tributaries on Swiss soil.
context_section_description: When the Alemanni began to populate the Wiesental in the fifth and sixth centuries, they chose their settlement places carefully. On the lower terraces of the last ice age, where they settled, the medieval villages were largely spared from floods caused by the Wiese which, at that time could still spread unimpeded across its river meadows. However, with increasing cultivation of the fertile floodplains, the need grew for farmers and landowners to protect valuable land from flooding by the Wiese and to strengthen its banks.
  The first indications of flood defence measures being considered can be found in an agreement between the Landvogt of Rötteln and Basle city council on 18 December 1562 about river defences on the Wiese. It concerned a section of the Wiese above the Kleinbasel Teichwuhr. The earliest graphical records of river defences date back to 1750. They show the structural measures taken for the restoration of a section of the Wiese between Weil and Kleinhingen, where the banks had burst.
  In Baden, the Wiese was divided into numerous branches and transported much debris with it. This led to repeated flooding of the river meadows. The first large-scale corrections were carried out between Hausen and Stetten between 1806 and 1823, because agriculture, traders and the newly established industrial enterprises in the Baden part of the Lower Wiesental suffered the consequences of the floods far more than the Swiss riverside landowners in Riehen and Basel. The canalisation of the river between Lörrach and Hausen was designed and carried out by Baden water engineer, Johann Gottfried Tulla.
  The present course of the Wiese on Swiss territory was already planned in the early 19th century by construction inspector Baader. Interesting is its absolutely straight course between the bridge over the Wiese at Weil and the Iron Bridge. It is parallel to the visual axis of Stetten Church and Basel Minster. The original embankment was a platform system (Bühnensystem), but in the 1850s it was replaced by a threshold system (Schwellungssystem) after the serious flood of 1852. For the river bed, a double trapezoid profile was envisaged, with a summer bed and the flood water embankments. The banks were still largely reinforced with fascines, wattle and grass. Between 1847 and 1878 there were 13 severe floods, all of which led to damage and destruction of the riverbank defences. Only after the great Christmas flood of 1882 was a uniform defensive system built on the Swiss Wiese.
  One special feature is the correction carried out in 1898 using the Schindler system between the state border and the Weilstrassen bridge. In this system, the river profile follows a continuous, uninterrupted ground line, which neither receives a separate riverbed nor a separate bank formation. The advantages of this system are intended to be that flood defences would be less damaged during floods and the riverbed could absorb a larger water volume. The Schindler system proved unsatisfactory in the early years so that, between 1905 and 1910, the original wooden defences had to be replaced by stone blockwork. However, thanks to the Schindler's profile, a remarkable river meadow was formed between the state border and the Riehen swimming pool developed over the course of time on the right bank of the Wiese. It was only recently that this conservation-worthy meadow was severely damaged by the building work for the Zollfreienstrasse road.
  Corrective measures on the Wiese were hampered in past centuries by various natural circumstances and by human and/or administrative shortcomings. The seasonal floods that occurred and the large amount of debris were always detrimental to the riverbank defences and height of the riverbed and thus on the capacity of the river bed. The corrective measures carried out in the Baden part of the Wiese resulted in an increased discharge of the floodwater into the Swiss area and thus imposed a greater load on the local flood defences. The lack of willingness on the part of individual river owners to cover the costs of necessary maintenance w
caption: Correction at the Schlipf above the bridge over the Wiese at Weil (1898)
exif: {}