"Three tons of gold are not enough!"
The Wallensteingraben - Wallenstein Cut .
1531 to 1547 - completion of cut Wismar to Schwerin lake.
10 June 1577 -construction works began,
1594 - a barge should have used the canal with Lüneburger salt
1628 - it was no longer usable
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A small river splashes in the northwest of Mecklenburg through the landscape that connects the Schweriner lake with the Baltic sea.
It is 21 kilometers in length, and 37,8m gained height . In our map, it 's marked as Wallensteingraben. But why?
Feldherr Ernst Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Waldstein who supplied the name, Wallensteingraben.
Has it originated when his horses have watered there? Has he bathed in the brook or even used it with boats?
In no way!
To the history. The landscape was shaped by the last ice age. Ice age terraces alternate with flat Sands.
A deep depression turned into the Schweriner lake, originally without a natural drain!
Approximately 9.000 years ago, stone age-people settled at the northern shore.
In the 14. Century there arose the city Wismar, trading with the "white gold of the Middle age" - Salt - trading with Lüneburg.
Lübeck had a canal-project over the Schaalsee, and there was a land route to the sea only to Wismar.
This consisted of the installation of a waterway of Dömitz, at the Elbe, from the mill "Findenwirunshier", over Elde and through the Schweriner lake until under High Viecheln, at the north end of the lake.
Wismarer merchants looked for a way out with support of the Mecklenburger dukes.
1531 to 1547, they broke through the downs at the Schweriner lake at High Viecheln and canalised up to the Lostener lake.
From here, there was a natural river between Wismar towards Stevina (Steffine.)
This "Viechelsche trip" was ready.
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1552, the Westphalian Tilemann Stella urged Johann Albrecht into the service of the duke.
It was this mathematician, geographer and astronomer, who in 1565, realised to one "real" canal between the Schweriner lake and Wismar.
In his plan, he planned on 12 sluices to overcome the height .
On the 10 June 1577, the construction works began,
1594, a barge should have used the canal with Lüneburger salt.
However like so often in the history, the project failed because of the money.
Until then, the canal-construction already have cost 3 tons of gold! This "ship-ditch", which they named the canal, declined visibly. in 1628, it was no longer usable!
(Its original course corresponded to the present-day track of the railway line from Bad Kleien to Wismar.)
Albrecht Wallenstein had now to decide! He probably recognized the strategic meaning of the canal-section, and he thought about reconstruction. However he only thought about it, the money was missing!
In the chronicle, the name gives only Wallensteingraben, for it is today partly artificial creek. Actual name would be "Tilemann-Stella-Graben!"
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Interest flared up again and again after Wallenstein.
1892, a canal building company was interested this waterway in the city of Wismar.
Then a company gave plans to DDR-times, with an inner-harbor at Bad Kleinen, and has been in Schwerin thoughts currently...
However the water of the river was used for other reasons as well . There were 18 unused technical facilities, mills, smithies along its course etc. scarsely able to function any more today.
Nature has the Wallensteingraben in her grip again!
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