Source of the Danube

There was an active rivalry between the municipalities of Furtwangen and Donaueschingen for the claim of being home to the "official" source of the Danube since the 1950s, sometimes with the involvement of the government of the state of Baden-Württemberg.

Thus, in 1981 the state government granted Donaueschingen the request that the source in Furtwangen should no longer be labelled Donauquelle in official maps.

The main point or backbone of a river is sometimes defined by further features such as length, drainage area or steady flow direction.

For a long time, unique springs which differed in size or the starting point of a certain headwater were also of mythical significance.

The Donaubach spring was considered the source of the Danube since the 15th century at least (Hartmann Schedel in his Weltchronik from 1493), but several hints suggest that this might have been true even in Roman times (Pliny the Elder in Naturalis Historia), in which the river was located in the fringes of the populated areas.

In 1895 the artist Adolf Heer created a group of statues above the pool, depicting "the mother Baar" showing her "daughter", the young Danube, the way.

The Breg is for geographical and hydrological reasons longer and has a bigger water flow than the Brigach which is why its spring is the main origin of the upper Danube.

The dominance of the Breg is established by the following data: As early as 1847 the following definition can already be found in the Universallexikon des Großherzogtums Baden (Universal Lexicon of the Grand Duchy of Baden): "Danube, the biggest river of Germany, rises at the Martinskapelle in a wild and lonely area of the Black Forest, is called Brege at its origin and forms the river Danube in Donaueschingen where it is unified with the Brigach."

The river Danube properly begins with the confluence of the two headwater streams Brigach and Breg in the region of Donaueschingen.