Editing Neckar (section)

== River history ==
{{unreferenced section|date=December 2019}}
The primal Neckar started off as an [[Cuesta|escarpment]] riverlet due to the slow rise of the [[Black Forest]] and the connected slow erosive retraction of the [[South German Scarplands]].[[File:Rhein an der Neckarmuendung.png|thumb|Historic routes of the Neckar at the mouth]]
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 ''[[Swabia]]n [[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 gap]]s in the area of the morphologically hard chalks and sandstones. 
[[File:Neckarmündung (001).JPG|thumb|Neckar mouth today]]
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{{clarify|date=May 2020}} Neckar system at Plochingen (hence the ''Neckarknie''), which flowed through the primal [[Lone (river)|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.{{clarify|date=May 2020}}

Today's lower reaches used to be those of the primal [[Enz]]. Until, through the erosive retraction of a tributary of the primal Enz near Besigheim, the Neckar river network was tapped.{{clarify|date=May 2020}} That is how the Enz became a tributary of the Neckar.<ref>{{cite web|title=Abteilung 2: Geologie und Bodenkunde|publisher=Landesamt für Geologie, Rohstoffe und Bergbau|url=http://www.lgrb.uni-freiburg.de/lgrb/Produkte/schriften/online-publikationen/informationen_13/pdf_pool/info13_23_48-bildschirm.pdf|access-date=2017-03-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040730135146/http://www.lgrb.uni-freiburg.de/lgrb/Produkte/schriften/online-publikationen/informationen_13/pdf_pool/info13_23_48-bildschirm.pdf|archive-date=2004-07-30}} Abbildung 22</ref> Another trace of the former north western extent of the Danube river network is the Eschach running from north west to south east, hence towards the primal{{clarify|date=May 2020}} Danube. With the retraction of the escarpment, it was tapped by a Neckar tributary and redirected by about 90° to the east. Considering river history,{{clarify|date=May 2020}} it was never a headstream of the Neckar.

Until 2000 years ago the Neckar flowed through a pastureland in the [[Oberrheinische Tiefebene]] in a tangle of meanders, slings,{{clarify|date=May 2020}} old waters{{clarify|date=May 2020}} and cut of arms between the Rhine in the west and the foot of the Odenwald in the east until it finally entered the Rhine only north of [[Darmstadt]] at [[Trebur]]; roughly 50&nbsp;km north of today's confluence in Mannheim. On large stretches you can still see it{{clarify|date=May 2020}} on aerial photos.

In the 13th century, the confluence was south of Mannheim. A great flood changed the course of the Neckar in around 1275. Since then it has entered the Rhine north of the city. The last change here took place in connection with the [[straightening of the Rhine]] by the [[Friesenheimer breakthrough]] west of today's Friesenheimer Island. Previously the Neckar entered the Rhine in the area of today's [[Mannheim Harbour|industrial port of Mannheim]]. Its new riverbed was also the reason for the relocation of the Neckar.{{clarify|date=May 2020}} After the old Neckar was cut off in early 1869, it followed the path of the new Neckar breakthrough, which was finished{{clarify|date=May 2020}} by 1880.<ref>{{cite web|title=Die Flußkorrektion bei Mannheim und deren Einwirkung auf die Entwicklung der Stadt|url=http://digbib.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/volltexte/digital/2/932.pdf|format=PDF 15 MB|access-date=2015-05-04|last=M. Eisenlohr|pages=15 und Tafel 7}}</ref>