Talsperre Amselbach, reservoir

The Talsperre Amselbach is a small dam on a stream near Wildenfels and Langenweißbach, built between 1938 and 1942. The concrete and stone wall is about 75 meters long and about 7.7 meters high, holding approximately 43,000 cubic meters of water.

Construction began in 1938 and finished in 1942 to supply water for steam locomotives of the German railway. After the water plant Wiesenburg closed around 2005, it no longer serves drinking water but is maintained as a protected monument.

The reservoir's name comes from the Amselbach, a tributary of the Zwickauer Mulde that it impounds. Its purpose changed with the times: built for Reichsbahn steam locomotives, it later fed the drinking water supply until the Wiesenburg waterworks closed around 2005. The dam wall is a concrete gravity structure faced with rubble stone, and its crest can be walked, though there is no bridge over the spillway.

The dam wall is fenced off, but the grassed crest is a public footpath; note there is no bridge over the spillway, so crossing means turning back. The structure lies near Weißbach bei Zwickau, between Wildenfels and Langenweißbach. Approach on foot from the surrounding paths.

The dam wall is a concrete gravity dam faced with rubble stone, and its crest can be walked on, but there is no bridge over the spillway, so crossing the water is not possible. The reservoir is among the smallest dams in Saxony.