Stecknitz
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Delvenau
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Other associated sites include the Palm
Schleuse in Lauenburg, a circular
chamber lock capable of accepting several
of the small Stecknitz canal barges
at one time. This lock was built in 1724
on the site of an earlier single- gate lock.
It is named after Herr Palm, who was the
local miller (the mill is next to the lock)
and lock-keeper.
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Lübeck Live hl-live
photo:
Hans-Jürgen Koch
With financial help of the DORFSCHAFT KRUMMESSE e.V.
three colored, large, information boards
were installed on Whitsun Saturday at the new shelter
for hikers at the Krummesser Schleuse, (Long distance Cycleway, "Alte Salzstraße.")
They inform about the history of the journey on the
Stecknitz canal and the Elbe - Lübeck canal,
through Krummesse. The club member
Michael Packheiser has written short informative
texts to it and has found matching illustrations.
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Witzeeze.
The Dückerschleuse, Eight kilometres north of
Lauenburg, a town with a long tradition of inland water
transport, the lock is close to the village of Witeeze.
Alongside the lock is the lock-keeper's house.
As boats only used the lock infrequently,
the lock-keeper was also a farmer.
The house is now used as a cafe and guest- house.
The lock is currently under restoration.
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Stecknitz & Delvenau
Probably the river Stecknitz was already canalized between Mölln and Lübeck in Slavic times, to make it possible to transport salt from the saltern Lüneburg by water on part of the route, whence the salt was exported to Russia and Scandinavia, mainly for salting herring.
Built especially for the transport of salt from Lüneburg to Lübeck.
Lübeck became the biggest trading center for salt in the Baltic. Salt was really important then, used for the preservation of meat and fish. Between 1500 and 1550 alone, Luebeck transported around 12400 tons of salt every year through this canal.
This canal connected the tiny rivers Stecknitz (tributary of the Trave) and Delvenau (tributary of the Elbe).
Possibly the first canal in Europe which had to cross a watershed.
Lübeck, having tried since 1350 , to do a deal for the permission with its neighbour to manage a waterway for the Salt. In June 1390, it succeeded, with Duke Erich the Younger of Sachsen-Lauenburg-Ratzeburg, to close the contract.
One year later, the construction of the waterway began. A difficult venture! The 20 meters high Möllner hill was on the watershed. A portion of the river Stecknitz flowing into the river Trave was used as a shippingroute before the enlarged Delvenau was completed.
A large part of the project had the construction of the eleven kilometers long cut of the Delvenau (a tributary of the Elbe) to the Möllner See.
During seven years construction the river Delvenau was dredged out between Mölln and the Elbe and a canal was dug at the river`s upper course to cross a watershed of eleven kilometres.
The Stecknitz Canal was 85 cm in depth, 7,50 m in width and 11,5 km in length. The canal included 17 wooden sluices.
Fifteen staunches were constructed, and a 13km summit level.
Lenght 58 miles with 15 locks. Only parts of it were a real canal (7.2 miles from the Moellner lake to the river Delvenau).
The summit level had little water and millers only opened the flash locks on alternate days. The journey of 100km could take several weeks.
The new-developed chamber-lock made it possible to overcome a four-metres height of fall between the "new cut" and the Möllner See on a distance of 700 metres!
The first two pound locks were built on the canal in 1480 and the system was improved and carried on in use until replaced by the Elbe-Lübeck Canal in 1900
13 sluices were to be built in order to overcome the height-differences. Up to the end of the 17. Century, four further came to the whole waterway. The waterway traffic consisted of a boats that were 12 meters long, 2,50 meters wide and could transport 7,5 tons of salt with only 30 to 40 centimeters of depth. The trip Lauenburg to Lübeck lasted two to three weeks. With 55 kilometers as the crow flies, the winding of the rivers extended the route, that towed or had to be sailed, to 97 kilometers. At the start of the 16 Century, the waterway grossed per year between 800 and 1.500 boats!
These works were executed in the period from 1391 to 1398, the first boat traversed the system in July 1398. To overcome the summit, 3 sluices were neccessary besides the mentioned 3 sluices in the Stecknitz and 5 in the Delvenau, Thirteen sluices had to be passed on this route. To the opening of the 8 km long summit level, 3 sluices had to be added, so that 17 sluices overall existed in the 94 km long waterway. The water level of the summit level lay approximately 17 m over the Trave and approximately 12 m over the water of Lauenburg at the Elbe.
Lübeck could use this canal free of tolls to Lauenburg. All freight destined for transport on the river Elbe had to be transhipped to ships from Lauenburg!
(That treaty started in 1417, it ended in 1844. All shipping personal had to be a member of the Brotherhood of the "Stecknitzfahrer". Their privileges ended only in 1848.)
With a length of 97 kilometres the so-called “Stecknitzfahrt“ was Europe`s longest watershed-canal in those times. According to water level and the time of arrival at the locks a passage took two to five weeks.
The “Stecknitzfahrt“ was plied by the “Stecknitzfahrern“ on barges - "Stecknitzkähne" - which were either driven by current or towed upstream by the “Linentrekkern“.
A boat about the end of the 14 century was from twelve metres and a load capacity of 7.5 tons, were now built 19 meters long, were three meters wide and now carried up to 12,5 tons. The boats developed gradually by repairs and improvements of the shipping route into the so-called “Stecknitzkahn“ (length 23m, load capacity 35-37 t), which ran on the Elbe-Lübeck-Kanal until the 1920s.
In 1810, at the time of the French occupation of Lübeck, the Stecknitz should have become part of the "Canal de la Seine à la Baltique." But that never happened. In reality, the occupation troops marching off left behind a sight of devastation - after several sluices had been destroyed - so that these became useless for years!
The old Stecknitz & Delvenau rivers are still recognizable in parts, along the course of the Elbe-Lübeck-Kanal.
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