The narrow Gera
Farewell in Venice
Elaborate construction saves the Schmale Gera
the Gera has many names in Erfurt . Almost all of the tributaries and canals come together again at the end and leave the city as Gera. Only one doesn't participate. The Schmale Gera says goodbye to the main stream in Erfurt's Vendig and then flows through the city on its own path. Even on her journey through the Sömmerda district, she spurns a meeting with the “Hauptgera” and gets lost in the Gramme near Wernigshausen.
At Venice, the water for the Schmale Gera is diverted from the main stream. This is where its own life begins, which is only preserved through an elaborate structure. After just a few hundred meters, the Schmale Gera would flow into the flood ditch. Since the construction of this flood canal in the 19th century did not affect the Schmalem Gera's right to exist, it was simply relocated under the flood ditch. It disappears into a culvert on the Boyneburgufer and reappears on the other side of Schlüterstrasse.
Mills are disappearing from the Mühlenviertel
Then we go through the Mühlenviertel. The names of the streets reveal the importance that the Schmale Gera has had here over the centuries: Waidmühlenweg, Schobersmühlenweg, Storchmühlenweg, Wermutmühlenweg and Papiermühlenweg all point to the existence of mills - powered by the water of the Schmale Gera.
With the Industrial Revolution, the mills gradually disappeared from the Mühlenviertel. One of the last is in Iversgehofen: The Holy Mill is still recognizable as a mill.
Past the Rieth district, things become less romantic. The Schmale Gera passes through an industrial area here. At the level of the Red Mountain there is more space again and the river begins to meander through the landscape almost like it would in the wild.
Things get tight again in Mittelhausen. You walk past houses and along small streets through this district of Erfurt.
The Schmale Gera then reaches an open field. After saying goodbye to the Gera in Venice, she finally leaves the city of Erfurt .
