Sorpe
Encyclopedia
The Sorpe Dam is a dam
near the small town of Sundern
in the German
district of Hochsauerland
in North Rhine-Westphalia
.
Like the Biggesee
, the Möhne Reservoir
and the Verse reservoir, the Sorpe's reservoir is one of the major artificial lakes of the Sauerland
's Ruhrverband reservoir association. Besides serving as a water supply
, it is utilized for electricity generation
and as a leisure and recreation area.
The Sorpe Dam is situated to the north of the Homert natural park, south-west of the city of Arnsberg
in an area belonging to the borough of Sundern (Sauerland)
between the villages of Langscheid
(at the dam) and Amecke. It is supplied by the Sorpe (Röhr) stream.
About once a year in spring, the reservoir runs over into the spillway
, generating massive whitewater down the cascades to the stilling basin that draws crowds of spectators for a few days.
Kleinbahn
connecting Sundern to the Obere Ruhrtalbahn at Neheim-Hüsten
. During construction, its steam locomotive
s pulled heavy construction trains over a specially laid construction spur and the newly erected railway viaduct
at Stemel to what became Europe's largest construction site between 1926 and 1935. In total, the steam trains carried more than 300,000 metric tonnes of construction material to the Sorpe dam, where smaller light railway
s took over.
In World War II
, the Sorpe Dam was among the targets of the British airstrike
s of Operation Chastise
in the night from the 16th to the 17th of May, 1943, as were the dams on the Eder
and Möhne
. In these attacks, the Royal Air Force
attempted to destroy the dams using bouncing bomb
s, achieving at least one direct hit on the Sorpe Dam. However, while the older arch-gravity dam
s of Eder and Möhne were successfully breached, causing a catastrophic flooding of the Ruhr valley, the Sorpe's embankment dam
with its concrete
core covered in soil withstood the attacks with only minor damage. The planners of the Operation had estimated that it would take 5 of the bouncing bombs placed correctly to weaken the dam sufficiently for water pressure to complete the break. The attacks also had to be made parallel to the line of the dam rather than perpendicular. A second British airstrike on October 15th, 1944 with five-ton Tallboy bomb
s also failed, leaving behind only several huge craters and causing minor spillage.
After the war, in late 1958 the reservoir was drained for bomb damage repairs, in the course of which, shortly before Christmas, workers discovered an unexploded Tallboy bomb. On January 6th, 1959, the whole village of Langscheid was evacuated while Northrhine-Westphalia's chief bomb disposal officer, Walter Mietzke, and British Lieutenant, James M. Waters, jointly defused the 3.6m long bomb that still contained 2.5 metric tonnes of high explosive and a highly unstable acid fuse.
, rowing
, yachting
, windsurfing
, beach volleyball
, and recreational fishing
, while the surrounding area offers a golf
course, hiking trails
, rock climbing
, four lakeshore campsite
s on the west bank, and more. It has therefore become a favourite local recreation area for residents of the nearby Ruhr Area
and is also popular with Dutch
tourists. The passenger motor ship
MS Sorpesee is available for outings during the summer season. Four DLRG
lifeguard bases as well as a Red Cross base on campsite 3 provide safety.
The campsites are numbered 2 through 5 from North to South; the youth hostel was built at the location of former campsite 1.
A new bicycle and pedestrian lane was constructed on the west bank parallel to the quayside road in 2006, connecting the hamlets of Sundern-Amecke and Sundern-Langscheid. Motor access to the east bank road is limited to service vehicles. Private motor boats are prohibited on the reservoir to prevent oil spills and maintain a high drinking water quality.
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
near the small town of Sundern
Sundern
Sundern is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name Sundern is common in Westphalia, as it means "ground given away for private usage" in the Westphalian dialect.-Geography:...
in the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
district of Hochsauerland
Hochsauerland
Hochsauerlandkreis is a Kreis in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Soest, Paderborn, Höxter, Waldeck-Frankenberg, Siegen-Wittgenstein, Olpe, Märkischer Kreis.- History :...
in North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
.
Like the Biggesee
Biggesee
The Biggesee or Bigge Reservoir is a reservoir in Germany. It lies in the southern part of the Sauerland between Olpe and Attendorn.- Purpose :The lake serves to regulate the Ruhr and Lenne as well as providing water for the Ruhrgebiet...
, the Möhne Reservoir
Möhne Reservoir
The Möhne Reservoir is an artificial lake in North Rhine-Westphalia, some 45 km east of Dortmund. The dam was built between 1908 and 1913 to help control floods, regulate water levels on the Ruhr river downstream, and generate hydropower. Today, the lake is also a tourist attraction...
and the Verse reservoir, the Sorpe's reservoir is one of the major artificial lakes of the Sauerland
Sauerland
The Sauerland is a rural, hilly area spreading across most of the south-eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, in parts heavily forested and, apart from the major valleys, sparsely inhabited...
's Ruhrverband reservoir association. Besides serving as a water supply
Water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...
, it is utilized for electricity generation
Electricity generation
Electricity generation is the process of generating electric energy from other forms of energy.The fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist Michael Faraday...
and as a leisure and recreation area.
Geography
Arnsberg
Arnsberg is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the location of the Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg's administration and one of the three local administration offices of the Hochsauerlandkreis.-Geography:...
in an area belonging to the borough of Sundern (Sauerland)
Sundern
Sundern is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name Sundern is common in Westphalia, as it means "ground given away for private usage" in the Westphalian dialect.-Geography:...
between the villages of Langscheid
Langscheid (Sundern)
The German hamlet of Langscheid is a part of the city of Sundern in the Sauerland in the district Hochsauerlandkreis in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia.The climatic spa is situated on the hills to the West of the Sorpe reservoir's dam...
(at the dam) and Amecke. It is supplied by the Sorpe (Röhr) stream.
About once a year in spring, the reservoir runs over into the spillway
Spillway
A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of flows from a dam or levee into a downstream area, typically being the river that was dammed. In the UK they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways release floods so that the water does not overtop and damage or even destroy...
, generating massive whitewater down the cascades to the stilling basin that draws crowds of spectators for a few days.
History
The major prerequisite for the construction of the Sorpe Dam was the completion of the Röhrtal railway on June 1st, 1900, a standard gaugeStandard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
Kleinbahn
Kleinbahn
The term Kleinbahn was a light railway concept used especially in Prussia for a railway line that "on account of its low importance for general railway transport" had less strict requirements placed on its construction and operation that main lines or secondary lines...
connecting Sundern to the Obere Ruhrtalbahn at Neheim-Hüsten
Arnsberg
Arnsberg is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the location of the Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg's administration and one of the three local administration offices of the Hochsauerlandkreis.-Geography:...
. During construction, its steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
s pulled heavy construction trains over a specially laid construction spur and the newly erected railway viaduct
Viaduct
A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
at Stemel to what became Europe's largest construction site between 1926 and 1935. In total, the steam trains carried more than 300,000 metric tonnes of construction material to the Sorpe dam, where smaller light railway
Light railway
Light railway refers to a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail". This usually means the railway uses lighter weight track, and is more steeply graded and tightly curved to avoid civil engineering costs...
s took over.
In World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Sorpe Dam was among the targets of the British airstrike
Airstrike
An air strike is an attack on a specific objective by military aircraft during an offensive mission. Air strikes are commonly delivered from aircraft such as fighters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters, and others...
s of Operation Chastise
Operation Chastise
Operation Chastise was an attack on German dams carried out on 16–17 May 1943 by Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron, subsequently known as the "Dambusters", using a specially developed "bouncing bomb" invented and developed by Barnes Wallis...
in the night from the 16th to the 17th of May, 1943, as were the dams on the Eder
Edersee
The Edersee Dam is a hydroelectric dam constructed between 1908 to 1914 across the Eder river, near the small town of Waldeck in northern Hesse, Germany, it lies at the northern edge of the Kellerwald...
and Möhne
Möhne Reservoir
The Möhne Reservoir is an artificial lake in North Rhine-Westphalia, some 45 km east of Dortmund. The dam was built between 1908 and 1913 to help control floods, regulate water levels on the Ruhr river downstream, and generate hydropower. Today, the lake is also a tourist attraction...
. In these attacks, the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
attempted to destroy the dams using bouncing bomb
Bouncing bomb
A bouncing bomb is a bomb designed specifically to bounce to a target across water in a calculated manner, in order to avoid obstacles such as torpedo nets, and to allow both the bomb's speed on arrival at the target and the timing of its detonation to be pre-determined...
s, achieving at least one direct hit on the Sorpe Dam. However, while the older arch-gravity dam
Arch-gravity dam
An arch-gravity dam, curved-gravity dam or arched dam is a dam with the characteristics of both an arch dam and a gravity dam. It is a dam that curves upstream in a narrowing curve that directs most of the water against the canyon rock walls, providing the force to compress the dam...
s of Eder and Möhne were successfully breached, causing a catastrophic flooding of the Ruhr valley, the Sorpe's embankment dam
Embankment dam
An embankment dam is a massive artificial water barrier. It is typically created by the emplacement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil, sand, clay and/or rock. It has a semi-permanent waterproof natural covering for its surface, and a dense, waterproof...
with its concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
core covered in soil withstood the attacks with only minor damage. The planners of the Operation had estimated that it would take 5 of the bouncing bombs placed correctly to weaken the dam sufficiently for water pressure to complete the break. The attacks also had to be made parallel to the line of the dam rather than perpendicular. A second British airstrike on October 15th, 1944 with five-ton Tallboy bomb
Tallboy bomb
The Tallboy or Bomb, Medium Capacity, 12,000 lb, was an earthquake bomb developed by the British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis and deployed by the RAF in 1944...
s also failed, leaving behind only several huge craters and causing minor spillage.
After the war, in late 1958 the reservoir was drained for bomb damage repairs, in the course of which, shortly before Christmas, workers discovered an unexploded Tallboy bomb. On January 6th, 1959, the whole village of Langscheid was evacuated while Northrhine-Westphalia's chief bomb disposal officer, Walter Mietzke, and British Lieutenant, James M. Waters, jointly defused the 3.6m long bomb that still contained 2.5 metric tonnes of high explosive and a highly unstable acid fuse.
Recreation
Today, the Sorpe reservoir affords opportunities to several recreational activities like scuba divingScuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
, rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
, yachting
Yachting
Yachting refers to recreational sailing or boating, the specific act of sailing or using other water vessels for sporting purposes.-Competitive sailing:...
, windsurfing
Windsurfing
Windsurfing or sailboarding is a surface water sport that combines elements of surfing and sailing. It consists of a board usually two to four metres long, powered by the orthogonal effect of the wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and comprises a...
, beach volleyball
Beach volleyball
Beach volleyball, or sand volleyball, is an Olympic team sport played by two teams of two players on a sand court divided by a net.Like volleyball, the object of the game is to send the ball over the net in order to ground it on the opponent’s court, and to prevent the same effort by the opponent....
, and recreational fishing
Recreational fishing
Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing, is fishing for pleasure or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is fishing for profit, or subsistence fishing, which is fishing for survival....
, while the surrounding area offers a golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
course, hiking trails
Trail
A trail is a path with a rough beaten or dirt/stone surface used for travel. Trails may be for use only by walkers and in some places are the main access route to remote settlements...
, rock climbing
Rock climbing
Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...
, four lakeshore campsite
Campsite
A campsite or camping pitch is a place used for overnight stay in the outdoors. In British English a campsite is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight using tents or camper vans or caravans; this British English use of the word is synonymous with the...
s on the west bank, and more. It has therefore become a favourite local recreation area for residents of the nearby Ruhr Area
Ruhr Area
The Ruhr, by German-speaking geographers and historians more accurately called Ruhr district or Ruhr region , is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With 4435 km² and a population of some 5.2 million , it is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany...
and is also popular with Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
tourists. The passenger motor ship
Motor ship
A motor ship or motor vessel is a ship propelled by an internal combustion engine, usually a diesel engine. The name of motor ships are often prefixed with MS, M/S, MV or M/V.- See also :...
MS Sorpesee is available for outings during the summer season. Four DLRG
DLRG
The Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft e.V. is a relief organization for life saving in Germany. The DLRG is a non-profit, independent organization based on volunteers.-Tasks:...
lifeguard bases as well as a Red Cross base on campsite 3 provide safety.
The campsites are numbered 2 through 5 from North to South; the youth hostel was built at the location of former campsite 1.
A new bicycle and pedestrian lane was constructed on the west bank parallel to the quayside road in 2006, connecting the hamlets of Sundern-Amecke and Sundern-Langscheid. Motor access to the east bank road is limited to service vehicles. Private motor boats are prohibited on the reservoir to prevent oil spills and maintain a high drinking water quality.
External links
- http://www.sorpesee.de
- Ruhrverband data page
- Register of reservoirs and dams in Northrhine-Westphalia
- Private collection of pictures from the early days of the dam, Sorpe valley prior and during dam construction, and Langscheid life and architecture in the first half of the 20th century
- http://www.abendblatt.de/extra/service/944949.html?url=/ha/1959/xml/19590106xml/habxml59_502.xml&prx=1Article about the defusing of the unexploded Tallboy in the Hamburger AbendblattHamburger AbendblattThe Hamburger Abendblatt is a daily newspaper in Hamburg, Germany, published by Axel Springer AG. The paper used to appear Monday through Saturday only, but since 29 October 2006 it has also published a Sunday edition to compete with the Hamburger Morgenpost's introduction of a Sunday edition...
] - Original newspaper page in pdf format with picture of the dud
- Private collection of pictures related to the airstrikes