The Kaiserstuhl (German: [ˈkaɪzɐʃtuːl] , lit. "Emperor’s Chair") is a range of hills in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany with a maximum height of 556.6 metres (1,826 ft). It is of volcanic origin and located in the southwest of the state in the counties of Emmendingen and Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald. In terms of natural regions it is considered to be a part of the Upper Rhine Plain.
Name The name "Kaiserstuhl" is believed to refer to King Otto III, who held court near Sasbach on 22 December 994. From then on, the whole hill range was called the Königsstuhl – the King's Chair. In May 996, Otto III was crowned Emperor and the King's Chair eventually became the Emperor's Chair – "Kaiserstuhl". Reliable sources mention the name Kaiserstuhl only as early as 1304 and historians thus suppose that the term Kaiserstuhl was not coined until the 13th century.
Geography
Location The Kaiserstuhl is situated in South Baden, mainly in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald county or district. However, the smaller northern part belongs to Emmendingen. Within the Upper Rhine Plain it is situated about 16 km northwest of the city of Freiburg, right next to the eastern bank of the Rhine and a short distance west of the Dreisam. It reaches up to 377 metres above the level of the Rhine downstream (179.5 m a.s.l.) from the weir close to Burkheim. At its greatest extent, from the Michaelsberg near Riegel in the northeast, to the Fohrenberg, by Ihringen in the southwest, the Kaiserstuhl is about 15 km long. Its maximum width is about 12.5 km.
Hills The hills of the Kaiserstuhl include the following (sorted by height in metres above sea level):
Totenkopf (556.6 m), 1.9 km east of Bickensohl; with the Vogtsburg 1 telecommunication tower and Neunlinden observation tower Eichelspitze (521.3 m), 2.8 km northwest of Bötzingen Katharinenberg (492.4 m), 1.3 km southeast of Amoltern Bisamberg (469.0 m), 1.2 km south of Amoltern Staffelberg (446.0 m), 1.5 km northwest of Schelingen Badberg (432.7 m) (protected area), 1.5 km east of Oberbergen Holzeck (431.9 m), 1.7 km northeast of Ihringen; with tower Hochbuck (374.8 m), 900 m south of Achkarren Schlossberg (352.1 m), 500 m northwest of Achkarren; with Höhingen Castle ruins Böselsberg (340.1 m), 500 m northwest of Wasenweiler Büchsenberg (283.7 m), 1.3 km west of Achkarren
Towns and villages Towns and villages in and around the Kaiserstuhl (in alphabetical order) are:
Bahlingen Bötzingen Breisach Eichstetten Endingen with Amoltern, Kiechlinsbergen and Königschaffhausen Ihringen with Wasenweiler Riegel am Kaiserstuhl Sasbach with Jechtingen and Leiselheim Vogtsburg with Achkarren, Bickensohl, Bischoffingen, Burkheim, Oberbergen, Oberrotweil and Schelingen Wyhl
Geology The formation of the Kaiserstuhl volcano during the Tertiary was the climax and at the same time the end of volcanic activity in the Upper Rhine Valley Rift. Volcanism started as early as the Cretaceous Period. Volcanic landforms include heavily eroded volcanic vents. The Kaiserstuhl is the only larger volcano from this period in the rift valley. Geologically the Kaiserstuhl can be divided into two parts: the sedimentary and volcanic part. Due to these peculiarities the Kaiserstuhl has been labeled one of the most important national geotopes.
Sedimentary base The horizontal sedimentary layers forming the eastern third of the Kaiserstuhl date back to the Jurassic and the Tertiary long before the volcanic activity. Important stratigraphic outcrops include the Hauptrogenstein (local oolite) which is found mainly near the village of Riegel and the Pechelbronner Schichten (local Tertiary layers in the South German Scarplands) near Bötzingen. During the formation of the Upper Rhine Plain this part of the Kaiserstuhl sloped less in respect to its surrounding area – and thus appears as a so-called horst. In terms of its geological structure and the sequence of its escarpments, the Kaiserstuhl is comparable to the nearby Tuniberg, Nimberg and also to the Schönberg, which is situated south of the city of Freiburg.
Volcanic activity
Petrologically the volcanic Kaiserstuhl is an alkali-carbonate rock formation. The volcanic rocks making up a large part of the central and western Kaiserstuhl were the result of numerous volcanic eruptions during the Miocene, about 19 to 16 million years ago. They cover parts of the sedimentary base of the eastern Kaiserstuhl, which is why in some places changes in the base's mineralogical composition occurred. The driving force behind this process of contact metamorphism was an increase in temperature. Due to the alternate eruption of tephra and lava flows from several vents a complex stratovolcano came into existence. Some of the rising magma solidified as volcanic intrusions below the surface – and today forms the central part of the Kaiserstuhl. Laterally rising phonolite magma also intruded into the sedimentary base of the Eastern Kaiserstuhl. Several hundred metres of the original volcano have been eroded.
Volcanic rocks
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