Freiburg Bächle

Another reference to the Bächle can be found in a document from the year 1238, according to which the Dominicans built a monastery adjoining the city wall inter duas ripas (Lat: between two (river)banks).

Several archaeologists deduce from the outcome of excavations that the Bächle had already been in existence in 1120 when Freiburg was founded, some one hundred years earlier than documented.

It is now believed that the entire system of Bächle was instead elevated in order to supply newer parts of the city with water.

People directed mountain water from the bottom of the Bromberg in the east of Wiehre across Deicheln towards Freiburg and thus injected the urban running fountains.

Since for a long time the term "Runze" was used for both the Bächle and for canals, it is not possible to properly distinguish the two facilities in historical sources.

The residents of this road are losing a beneficial amenity, which is so pleasing to the eye for visitors to Freiburg compared with other cities.

In any case there must have been very weighty authoritative reasons, which justify such a change, without listening to the primary wishes of the residents of the street, regarding the Bächle.

For this task, according to the fire safety regulations of 1692, the townsfolk of Oberlinden had to appoint people of their group every year on 1 May who were supplied with studs by the city.

However, in the following century they helped to extinguish fires during the British raid on 27 November (Operation Tigerfish), in which parts of the town centre were totally destroyed.

Witnesses reported that after the raid, the Bächle came in handy, because the industrial streams were buried and the water pipes destroyed, therefore deeming the hydrants useless.

[21] Without the water from the Bächle, the area of Oberlinden, the historic department store, the Wentzinger house and other buildings wouldn't have been able to be saved.

By November 1945, mayor Wolfgang Hoffmann had already called for the courses of the stream to be cleaned in order to start using the Bächle again.

At roughly the same time a merchant filed a suit against the town of Freiburg after having driven into a Bächle in Salzstraße and consequently hitting the wall of a house.

A similar thing happened 1964 to a tourist who sued the city after breaking a leg when he tumbled into the Bächle at Adelhauser Street.

At least, in consequence of the accidents at the end of the 1960s, the city instituted that the bottom plates of the Bächle, among others the ones in the Salz- and Bertholdstreet, were put higher.

Since that time the Bächle didn't pose a significant traffic inconvenience anymore even though some of them actually run parallel to the tram tracks.

Thanks to the difference in altitude between east and west of Freiburg's old town, the Bächle flow downwards in a north-west direction with a natural base slope of 1° to 2°.

The responsibility of keeping the streams clean rests on two full-time “Bächleputzer” (previously: “Bachräumer”) (bächle cleaners / Bach clearers) since at least 1789, who are employed by the city administration of Freiburg.

Furthermore, the so-called “Bachabschlag” takes place annually in autumn and during a weekend in spring, when the water from all of the canals and Bächle is drained.

Further reasons for stopping the Bächle are for example: road works, the Freiburg wine festival and the Carnival/Fasching parade in which Hästräger, (those wearing a Carnival costume) from the “Bächleputzer” jester's guild (established in 1935) can be marveled at.

The presence of microorganisms such as the larvae of some kinds of Mayflies, Caddisflies and Black Flies indicate the high water quality throughout the Bächle.

"Venice for your feet""On the longs walks through the traffic-free city center one crosses a channel carelessly - and suddenly a little boat made out of paper is floating by.

However, this has not come true yet for former chancellor Gerhard Schröder who stepped into the Bächle on his way to the town hall to the German-French summit in June 2001.

At the beginning of the 16th century, Antonio de Beatis wrote about Innsbruck that the streets were "broad and had a lot of water channels and fountains".

A stream comparable to the Bächle in Freiburg is to be found in the centre of the wine-growing municipality Gumpoldskirchen in Lower Austria.