April 15, 2026, 8:26 am | Read time: 5 minutes
The city center of Freiburg is crisscrossed by numerous narrow, water-filled channels. Commonly known as Bächle, these channels, which are now a tourist attraction in the city of Breisgau, have existed for several hundred years. However, visitors should be very careful where they step when visiting Freiburg. A romantic superstition surrounds these rivulets.
I still remember many details of my first and only visit to Freiburg in 2005. I was visiting a friend from Berlin who had moved here for a very short stint to study. It was November and quite cold. Nevertheless, we set out from the suburb of Kirchzarten two evenings in a row by regional train to go partying in downtown Freiburg. During our extensive, beer-fueled wanderings, I repeatedly noticed small, water-filled rivulets winding through the alleys of the old town. “Those are the Bächle,” my friend told me, proud of his newfound local knowledge. “But be careful not to step into them. Otherwise, you’ll marry a woman from Freiburg.”
At first, I thought his warning was about the cold, wet feet I would inevitably get if I misstepped into a Bächle. But then came history lesson, part two. In fact, there is a sweet and romantic superstition in Freiburg that has likely existed for ages. According to it, anyone who stumbles into such a Bächle will inevitably marry a local. However, for this fate to be fulfilled, it must be an unintentional footbath. Anyone who deliberately steps into one of the narrow channels will remain unmarried. And that’s in general. I also remember that during those two nights, I made several female acquaintances. But I consciously avoided the Bächle after this fairy tale lesson, being just 22 years old at the time.
ADAC Wanted to Abolish the Bächle
According to “Schwarzwald aktuell,” the history of the Bächle in Freiburg dates back to the 13th century. At that time, the small channels, fed by the water of the Dreisam River, were first constructed. They served for utility water supply, firefighting, and as drinking troughs for Freiburg’s livestock. Today, they flow through the city over a distance of about nine kilometers. Their total length is as much as about 15 kilometers, as some Bächle also run underground. Today, the open water channels have mainly become a tourist attraction, but locals also like to cool their feet in them during a short break in the summer. It’s hard to believe, then, that there have been several attempts to curb or even abolish the Bächle.
Accordingly, they were considered outdated in the 19th century, already more than five hundred years old at the time, and were to disappear under a grating. In the 1950s, the automobile club ADAC even called them a traffic obstacle and wanted to dismantle them for this reason. After fierce protests from the locals, this idea was abandoned. Although it may not have been so far-fetched, as it seems at first glance. In 2011, the wife of the late former Chancellor Helmut Kohl actually got her Mercedes stuck in one of the Bächle. The car had to be recovered with a crane.
The “Bächle Cleaners” Work Six Days a Week
And in general, the relationship between the Bächle and politicians seems to be, well, a bit delicate. Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder accidentally stepped into one of the rivulets during a visit to Freiburg in 2001 while he was with his then-counterpart, Jacques Chirac. Due to the love legend surrounding the Bächle, the mishap attracted some media attention and humorous comments at the time. Otherwise, children, in particular, love the water channels, and a local store has come up with a pretty clever business idea. At Kaiser-Joseph-Straße 179, Bächle boats are sold in multiple versions, allowing the little ones to set sail on the rivulets. Once a year, there is also a big race for the young captains.
The Bächle are so important to the people of Freiburg that the city even employs two “Bächle cleaners.” According to the official city drainage website, they clean the channels six days a week and take care of water regulation. While in the Middle Ages, the Bächle were located in the middle of the streets, they were gradually moved to the edges during a restructuring period from 1840–58. When Freiburg’s city center was declared a pedestrian zone in 1969, the Bächle were rediscovered as decorative elements and modernized. Today, they are a popular landmark of the city. Incidentally, I stayed dry during my visit, and after many twists and turns in love, I have been happily committed for more than 14 years. My girlfriend won my heart back then with a kind of trick. She stood in front of my window one day with homemade muffins. Love goes through the stomach, or at least in Freiburg, it stumbles into a Bächle.