Finow Canal

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Finow Canal
Finow Canal in Niederfinow

Finow Canal in Niederfinow

Data
location Brandenburg , Germany
River system Or
Drain over Old Oder  → Hohensaaten-Friedrichsthaler Wasserstraße  → Oder  → Stettiner Haff
Beginning as a branch of the Oder-Havel Canal at Zerpenschleuse
52 ° 50 ′ 46 ″  N , 13 ° 32 ′ 30 ″  E
Source height 40  m
muzzle at Liepe in the Alte Oder coordinates: 52 ° 51 ′ 5 ″  N , 13 ° 57 ′ 30 ″  E 52 ° 51 ′ 5 ″  N , 13 ° 57 ′ 30 ″  E
Mouth height 1  m
Height difference 39 m
Bottom slope about 1.2 ‰
length about 32 km
Catchment area 742 km²
Discharge
A Eo : 742 km²
Location: 300 m above the mouth 		MQ
Mq
 		3.45 m³ / s
4.6 l / (s km²)
Left tributaries Besterfließ, Mäckerseekanal, Ragöse
Right tributaries Pregnitzfließ, Finow , blackness
Medium-sized cities Eberswalde
Communities Schorfheide , Finow Canal in Niederfinow

The Finow Canal ( FiK ) is a 32 km long so-called "other inland waterway" of the federal government in the state of Brandenburg . It branches off in the west at Zerpenschleuse from the Oder-Havel Canal , a section of the federal waterway Havel-Oder-Wasserstraße (HOW), and flows into the Oderberg waters of the HOW in the east below the Niederfinow ship lift near Liepe . The Eberswalde Waterways and Shipping Office is responsible for the administration .

Since 2016, the 10 km long section " Langer Trödel " between Liebenwalde and Zerpenschleuse has been reopened to boat traffic, so that the Finow Canal can now be used again in its entire original length of approx. 43 km. The "Lange Trödel" is a state waterway in the state of Brandenburg.

The Finow Canal is the oldest artificial waterway in Germany that is still in operation. The canal is a listed building.

First Finow Canal

The first Finow Canal was built between 1605 and 1620 and was the first artificial connection between the two German river basins, the Havel and the Oder . In 1603, Elector Joachim Friedrich gave the order to connect the Havel near Liebenwalde to the Oder via the Finow river . The connection from Liebenwalde to Finow including the construction of five locks to Finowfurt was completed as early as 1609. Due to an acute lack of money, the expansion of the canal, now in the route of the Finow, progressed slowly under the Electors Johann Sigismund (1608–1619) and Georg Wilhelm (1619–1640). In 1620 a barge was able to use the Finow Canal between the Havel and Oder for the first time.

As a result of the Thirty Years' War , the canal was almost completely neglected and the individual canal sections fell into disrepair. The Finow Canal was forgotten.

Second Finow Canal

Rolling mill Neustadt-Eberswalde , view from the branch canal, the later sinter outlets, onto the old works , Carl Blechen , around 1830
Towing with draft animals on the Finow Canal around 1885

From 1743 the canal was restored by decree of Frederick II . It brought an economic upswing to the region and made it possible for the metalworking industry to settle in the 18th century. The canal determined the development of the Finow valley, which is also called the “ Märkische Wuppertal ”.

The total length of the canal was approx. 43 kilometers when it was built, and a height difference of 38 meters had to be overcome. The locations of the ten locks were based on the locations of the first Finow Canal. They were built as boiler locks and adapted to the dimensions of the ships (26.67 m long, 3.11 m wide). On June 16, 1746, the second Finow Canal was opened to traffic.

From 1747 to 1753 the canal was widened in an easterly direction and another seven canal steps were built. In the 19th century it became necessary to build larger locks because the volume of traffic had increased significantly. In the years 1841 to 1850, an average of 14,000 barges and around 53,000 raft timbers were sluiced in; from 1845 night sluices also took place. From 1874 the construction of a second parallel lock per canal step began.

The Eberswalde lock, built in 1831
The mouth of the Finow Canal into the Oder-Havel Canal near the Niederfinow boat lift

Over a length of 29.7 kilometers, a difference in altitude of 36 meters is compensated for by twelve locks: Ruhlsdorf lock (at km 59.2), Leesenbrück (km 61.1), Grafenbrück (km 63.3), Schöpfurth (km 67, 5), Heegermühle (km 71.0), Wolfswinkel (km 72.9), Drahthammer (km 73.9), Kupferhammer (km 75.9), Eberswalde (km 77.9), Ragöse (km 81.0) , Stecher (km 84.4), Liepe (km 88.9). The Eberswalde lock is the oldest still operational lock in the area of ​​the Brandenburg waterways, it was completed in 1831 and renewed in 2001.

Until the expansion of the waterway in 1874, there was still the Steinfurt lock between the Schöpfurt and Heegermühle locks and the Niederfinsche lock between the Stecher and Liepe locks. They were built as wooden boiler locks.

In 1898 and 1899, the then Siemens & Halske company made experiments with electric ship trains on the Finow Canal between the town lock and the Ragöser lock . Two systems were tested: the Köttgen system and the Lamb system. Köttgen proposed running an electric motor on a rail, while Lamb proposed a motor running on a fixed wire rope. The experience gained from these tests later flowed into the construction of the towing railway on the Teltow Canal and also the Niederfinow lock staircase .

  • Hanging towing machine from the Lamb system on the Finow Canal, 1895

  • Electric towing locomotive developed by Carl Köttgen with only one rail on the Finow Canal, 1989

Finow measure

The Finowmaß was m with a length of 40.2, a width of 4.60 m and a depth of 1.40 m to a standard in shipbuilding. It was the first German inland waterway vessel. The locks of the canal were designed so that exactly two ships of this size fit into the locks. The staggered lock gates are clearly visible.

20th century and present

Decrease in importance

At the beginning of the 20th century, it was still common for goods to be transported within cities on the canal. So spun yarn at the bulwark in Eberswalde was carried by barge to the Finow paper mill. But there was also long-distance traffic on the Finow Canal. The iron foundry Budde & Goehde procured iron ore and coke from England and Luxembourg as well as molding sand from Saxony via the canal.

With the Oder-Havel Canal , which went into operation in 1914 , the Finow Canal became increasingly less important and commercial shipping on the Finow Canal came to a complete standstill in 1972. The more modern Oder-Havel Canal offers space for larger ships, has significantly fewer locks and is therefore more economical. Only a few businesses that were located directly on the Finow Canal were still controlled. The Lange Trödel to the west was separated as early as 1925. The second locks, which were built only 40 years earlier, were either filled in from 1914 or converted into weirs. The Lange Trödel was reopened in 2016 and the northwestern connection to the Voss Canal was reopened.

pollution

Chemical waste discharged directly into the sewer: 1981
The former Finowtal chemical factory and Wolfswinkel paper factory in 2017

In the 20th century the canal began to be increasingly polluted, in particular by the Finowtal chemical factory and the paper mill. Untreated sewage was let directly into the canal, which led to it foaming and stinking up to its mouth near Oderberg . To this day, the canal is considered heavily polluted. More than 100 years ago it was a matter of course that wastewater from industrial companies was discharged directly.

“The poisonous gases produced during combustion, the ash particles thrown up by the strong drafts of air and igniting sparks are caught by the spark chambers and rendered harmless. A deterioration in the air in the area, the nuisance of the residents and any risk of fire is completely excluded. "

- Aurich: Industry on the Finow Canal , Eberswalde 1906

These spark chambers were common in all metal works. They are underground collecting tanks that are filled with groundwater or river water and in which the solid components slowly settle. These were dug out or excavated at regular intervals. In the old rolling mill, today the Eberswalde family garden , part of these underground facilities can be viewed today.

In the Finowtal chemical factory, camphor was produced for export and wallpaper paste for the entire GDR. The camphor or waste water containing camphor required as a plasticizer was discharged uncleaned into the nearby Finow Canal, which led to the smell of camphor for kilometers through the entire city of Eberswalde.

The water quality has improved noticeably after 1990.

tourism

The towpath is now a cycle and hiking path.

The Finow Canal is an important aspect of the region's tourism industry and a magnet for water tourists and day-trippers from Berlin. With the expansion of the towpath from Finowfurt to the Niederfinow ship lift into a cycle and hiking path, the Finow Canal has flourished again since around 2000. The canal between Liebenwalde and Liepe is navigable. Through the water tourism initiative Nordbrandenburg (WIN AG) , founded by the districts of Barnim, Oberhavel and Ostprignitz-Ruppin as well as the cities of Eberswalde, Oranienburg, Neuruppin and Templin, Lange Trödel started building a lift and a bascule bridge in Zerpenschleuse as well as the New construction of the previously filled lock at the confluence with the Oder-Havel Canal, navigable again since 2016.

literature

  • Rudolf Schmidt : The Finow Canal. On the history of its development (= messages from the Association for Local Studies in Eberswalde eV , 11th year 1938).
  • Rudolf Schmidt: History of the city of Eberswalde . Publishing company Müller, Eberswalde
    • Volume 1: Until 1740 , 1939
    • Volume 2: 1740-1940 , 1941
    • Reprint: Eberswalde 1992 (Volume 1) and 1994 (Volume 2).
  • Hartmut Ginnow-Merkert: Our Finow Canal eV introduces itself . In: Verein für Heimatkunde zu Eberswalde eV (ed.): Eberswalder Jahrbuch , ISSN  1616-1882 , year 2004/2005, pp. 167–177.
  • Ilona Rohowski: Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany - Monuments in Brandenburg - Barnim district - Eberswalde town . Werner, Worms am Rhein 1997, ISBN 3-88462-136-X .
  • Hans-Joachim Uhlemann: Berlin and the Brandenburg waterways . DSV / Busse-Seewald, Herford / Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-88412-204-5 .

Web links

Commons : Finowkanal  - collection with pictures

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c measured with Google Earth
  2. ↑ 400 years of Finow Canal  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. HJ Wodarz; 2009; On: schifferverein-beuel.de; accessed on January 25, 2013 (PDF, German; 3.1 MB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.schifferverein-beuel.de  
  3. ↑ Start of construction for the new construction of the Stecher and Liepe weirs Press release from the Eberswalde Waterways and Shipping Office; 2003; On: wsv.de; accessed on January 25, 2013 (PDF, German; 159 kB)
  4. ↑ Lengths (in km) of the main shipping lanes (main routes and certain secondary routes) of the federal inland waterways ( memento of the original from January 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wsv.de
  5. ↑ Directory F of the Chronicle ( Memento of the original from July 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wsv.de
  6. ↑ List of monuments of the state of Brandenburg: District Barnim (PDF) Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation and State Archaeological Museum
  7. ↑ Traction mécanique sur les voies navigables - annexe (2-2) (French) at papidema.fr, accessed on February 25, 2019
  8. ↑ Traction mécanique sur les voies navigables - annexe (3) (French) at papidema.fr, accessed on February 25, 2019
  9. ^ Aurich: Die Industrie am Finowkanal , Eberswalde 1906; Page 38/39
  10. ^ Aurich: Die Industrie am Finowkanal , Eberswalde 1906; Page 55
  11. ↑ Barnim Blog: European River Bathing Day 2010: The symbolic jump into the Finow Canal - A critical consideration ( memento of the original from October 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bar-blog.de
  12. ↑ Brandenburg Ministry for the Environment, Health and Consumer Protection: Description of the Finow Canal as quality class III (heavily polluted)
  13. ^ Aurich: Die Industrie am Finowkanal , Eberswalde 1906; Page 61
  14. ^ New Germany June 16, 1955: Camphor in all the world
  15. ^ IHK Ostbrandenburg: VEB Chemische Fabrik Finowtal
  16. ↑ Weekly newspaper “Märkischer Sonntag”, May 4, 2008, p. 6: Local Bernau
  17. ↑ win-brandenburg.de