IF SOMEONE asked you to name the main channels in the world, what do you think? You would probably name the Panama Canal and yes the Suez as well. However, if you lived in Northern Europe, your answer would include the "Kiel Canal", also known as the Kiel Canal.
Have you heard of this waterway? Their importance is fantastic. The northern Baltic Sea channel crosses the Cimbrian Peninsula, a 450 km long strip of land. This pedestrian bridge leads north from the seaside town of Hamburg to Cape Skagen in the far north of Denmark. It separates the North Sea from the Baltic Sea.
The northern Baltic Sea Channel crosses this land mass from Brunsbüttel on the Elbe in the northeast to Kiel-Holtenau on the shores of the Kiel Fjord, which leads to the Baltic Sea. If this channel were not there, ships would have to make a long detour around Cape Skagen to switch from sea to sea, a distance of about 460 kilometers.
We can call this artificial watercourse in Europe the "Panama Canal". But it is still more used than the most popular channel. Up to 85,000 ships use the North Baltic Canal each year. Almost four times as many people cross the Suez Canal and five times as many people use the Panama Canal each year. A Kiel Canal official estimated that if the annual total of vessels using it were placed from start to finish with the required spacing between them, the result would be 44,000 kilometers of pull, just over a turn. . . around the earth at the equator. And this number does not include pleasure craft using this waterway.
Need the canal
The Kiel Canal can now boast eighty years of activity. Thanks to the influence of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the canal project began. Bismarck saw it as a means of diplomacy. Bismarck realized that the German fleet needed an efficient waterway to move the fleet between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, and Kaiser Guilherme II received help with the construction of the canal.
The project looked like a military operation. Sometimes up to 8,900 people worked there. The construction of the canal, with its locks, bridges, and port facilities, forced workers to move around 107 million cubic meters (82 million cubic meters) of land. Workers worked there from 1888 to 1895. The “Kaiser Wilhelm Canal” cost 156 million marks at the time. The official inauguration took place on June 21, 1895 as part of detailed celebrations.
The canal then had to be enlarged and modernized. Today, it is 98 km long and 11 m deep. It is 162 meters wide at water level and falls 90 meters lower.
In order to compensate for the different water levels in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the North Sea Canal has double locks at both ends. Boats up to 310 meters in length can be accommodated. Two control centers operate signal lamps and send out radio links to ensure safe and rapid passage.
Panoramic street view
The journey from one end of the canal to the other takes seven to nine hours, depending on the type of ship. The journey makes it possible for the observer to glimpse the picturesque landscape of Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany. I recently took this trip with a freighter. Let me describe some of the things that were seen on the trip.
During the first short stage of our journey, a specially trained pilot guides the ship through mines that have been in the North Sea since World War II. Similar mines are located at the other end of the Baltic Sea Canal. Ships cannot use a route of their choice in these areas, but must follow certain routes.
We leave the North Sea and travel a short distance along the Elbe to the port of Brunsbüttel. A green light says we can enter the castle. The powerful hands of the waiting stevedores grab heavy ropes and hold the ship in the blocking posts.
Now there is a short wait while the captain takes care of the paperwork and the ship brings water and supplies. Sailors who have been at sea for a long time take the opportunity to call home or write to their loved ones. European sailors meet their wives and children there and take them for a walk along the canal.
It's finally time to move on. Under the guidance of a pilot, our boat crosses the canal. A flat, green swamp of farmland extends in front of us. During the first twelve kilometers (20 kilometers), the Kiel Canal passes through deposits rejected by the sea. In some places the ground is three meters below the water level of the canal. Therefore, anyone who walks or drives through the landscape sees the strange illusion of a boat gliding across meadows and fields.
Towards the middle of the canal we can see that its beaches rise and are covered with bushes and trees. Hedges planted on small mounds of earth surround fields and meadows and serve as protection against the ubiquitous winds. The oxygen under some of these hedges gives beauty and a sweet scent to the environment. The eastern part, however, consists of clay soil, which makes it fertile for cultivation. Overall, the Kiel Canal stretches across an agricultural belt that surpasses all other federal states in its overall economic significance.
The last kilometers of our canal trip are truly scenic. Just before we reach the locks we see large properties with villas in a park. Remember a bygone era, when the knights and nobles owned this region. Rocks, silos, cranes, oil tanks and bridges will soon show us that we have reached Kiel-Holtenau, the end of our canal journey.
Hundreds of sailboats greet our eyes, because Kiel is known as a Mecca for sailing enthusiasts. Seeing white sails with colored sails, the so-called spinnakers, is a nice end to our journey through the famous "Panama Canal" in Europe.
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