Elster-Saale Canal

Start of the Elster-Saale Canal at Lindenau Harbour

The Elster-Saale Canal (German: Elster-Saale-Kanal), renamed in 1999 by the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration as the Saale-Leipzig Canal (Saale-Leipzig-Kanal) or SLK^[1] and on the Halle side also called the Saale-Elster Canal, was a canal project, started in 1933 and aborted in 1943, that was intended to link the White Elster river with the Saale near Leuna and thus enable the city of Leipzig to be joined to Germany's inland waterway network. The 11 kilometre long water-filled channel is one of the so-called special federal waterways.^[1]

This link would have given Leipzig access to the Elbe via the Saale and thus to Hamburg and the North Sea. The canal was planned for ships up to 1,000 tonnes in weight (roughly Class IV).

Plans to complete the canal have been revived and an Elster-Saale Canal Society has been formed.

Gallery

• 
  Start of the canal in Leipzig
• 
  Railway bridge near Rückmarsdorf
• 
  B 181 bridge near Rückmarsdorf
• 
  Even in GDR times the canal was used for rowing
• 
  Safety gate East near Burghausen
• 
  Underpass for the Zschampert below the Elster-Saale Canal
• 
  Relief work for water level regulation
• 
  The canal near Dölzig
• 
  Bridge near Günthersdorf. Background: the A 9 motorway bridge
• 
  End of the canal near Günthersdorf

See also

• List of waterbodies in Saxony-Anhalt

Literature

• Wolfram Sturm, Leipzig und seine Schiffskanäle. Leipzig, 1998.
• Dirk Becker (2009) (in German), Der Südflügel des Mittellandkanals: Per Schiff von Magdeburg über Merseburg nach Leipzig (1. ed.), Halle: Projekte-Verlag, ISBN 3866346093 
• Denis Achtner (2008), "Der Elster-Saale-Kanal" (in German), Böhlitzer Hefte (Leipzig: Creativ Werbeagentur Kolb) Band 2, http://www.boehlitzehrenberg.de/downloads/e-s-k.pdf 

References

1. Verzeichnis F der Chronik, Wasser- und Schifffahrtsverwaltung des Bundes

External links

• Photos and information on the Elster-Saale Canal and Karl-Heine Canal at www.ostwall.com
• Photos and information on the Elster-Saale Canal and Karl-Heine Canal at www.verkehrsrelikte.de
• Saale-Leipzig Canal in the electronic waterway information system (ELWIS)
• Photos of its construction
• Official homepage of the Saale-Elster Canal Society (English version)
• The Touristic Water Network Leipziger Neuseenland

Coordinates: 51°21′21″N 12°13′55″E / 51.35583°N 12.23194°E