Waterfalls in the gorge of the Menzenschwander AlbUpper Alb valley with the terminal moraine of Kluse (front), terrace to the Krunkelbach valley bottom (centre) and HinterdorfView from Spießhorn into the valley of the Menzenschwander Alb. Left the Hinterdorf; right: the Vorderdorf
Menzenschwand comprises three villages, Vorderdorf ("front village"), Mitteldorf ("middle village") and Hinterdorf ("rear village"), has a population of just under 550 inhabitants and belongs to the borough of St. Blasien. It lies in the valley of Menzenschwander Alb which runs south from the 1,493-metre-high Feldberg. The valley joins the westward-running valley of the Bernauer Alb above St. Blasien. In the valley to the east lies the lake of Schluchsee.
The valley landscape of Menzenschwand is shaped by the glacial streams of the Feldberg Glacier from several ice ages. The main glacier, which was up to 300 metres thick, carved out trough-shaped valley of the Krunkelbach that starts at the large cwm west of the Herzogenhorn. The Alb valley to the south joins the Krunkelbach valley at a small valley step about 20 metres high. The Alb has a gorge there with small waterfalls, one of them manmade. A little higher up, a prominent end moraine embankment crosses the valley. The narrow water gap of the stream, the Menzenschwand splash dam reservoir (Menzenschwander Kluse), was previously used to store water for log rafting. The basin-shaped mouth area is a sedimented, former lake. Numerous roches moutonnée characterise the meadows of the lower slopes.
Frank Bode: Subrezenter Vegetations- und Landschaftswandel im Südschwarzwald. Untersucht am Beispiel des Menzenschwander Tals. Dissertation, University of Freiburg, 2005, urn:nbn:de:bsz:25-opus-26477
Hubert Mayer, Michael Ehlert (2000), Chronik Menzenschwand. Geschichte eines Schwarzwalddorfes (in German), St. Blasien: Stadtverwaltung, ISBN3-00-007141-5
Armin Simon (2003), Arbeitskreis Regionalgeschichte Freiburg e.V. (ed.), "Der Streit um das Schwarzwald-Uran. Die Auseinandersetzung um den Uranbergbau in Menzenschwand im Südschwarzwald 1960–1991", Alltag & Provinz (in German), vol. 11, Bremgarten: Donzelli-Kluckert Verlag, ISBN3-933284-11-2
References
^Zahlen & Daten, Stadt St. Blasien, accessed 16 September 2021.