Wild River Rhine (German version)

At Bingen, the famous Mouse Tower stands on a rocky island in the middle of the river. The ruins of Ehrenfels Castle are directly opposite. Since 1988, conservationists have been trying to resettle salmon here. The Main flows into the Rhine near Wiesbaden. A little further up the Rhine is the Kühkopf-Knoblochsaue nature reserve. This largest contiguous floodplain along the Hessian Rhine bank was created 200 years ago by a regulation of the Rhine, the so-called Rhine cut-through in the years 1828/1829. On the High Rhine near Schaffhausen, the Rhine Falls offer an impressive natural spectacle. Its waters plunge 25 meters over a width of 150 meters, making it the second largest waterfall in Europe, after the Dettifoss in Iceland. The film repeatedly draws attention to the bird life along the Rhine. This is also the case upstream of the Rhine Falls, at Lake Constance. The naturally formed reservoir of the Rhine has extensive shallow water zones that provide a habitat for many different bird species. However, as in so many other places in the world, the ever more intensive land use by humans is threatening biodiversity. Above Lake Constance, the Alpine Rhine flows through Graubünden for about 100 kilometers. The Principality of Liechtenstein is the smallest of the Rhine riparian states. Here, Vaduz Castle offers a spectacular view of the valley. The Alpine ibex, the heraldic animal of the Canton of Grisons, lives in the mountains on both sides of the Alpine Rhine. The goats of this species can weigh over 100 kilograms; some animals have horns that are more than a meter long. The ibex, which had become extinct, has been reintroduced since 1906. Our journey along the Rhine ends in the St. Gotthard massif. Numerous small streams flow into the course of the Anterior Rhine from the left and right. At the Oberalp Pass, at 2,345 meters above sea level, lies the place traditionally considered to be the source of the Anterior Rhine and the Rhine as a whole: Lake Toma near Sedrun in the east of the St. Gotthard. From here, a drop of water takes about a month to reach the North Sea.