Coastal Canal (Rostock)
The coastal canal or Recknitz-Trebel-Peene canal was the name given to an artificial waterway that was never completed and was intended to connect the Rostock overseas port , which opened in 1960, to inland shipping in what was then the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The first plans for such a connection were made in 1957 together with the plans for the new construction of the Überseehafen.
The planned waterway was to combine several smaller rivers through canals to form a continuous connection between Rostock and the Stettiner Haff , from which a connection to inland shipping would have been possible via the Oder , and even to Prague via the Elbe . Despite abandoning part of the planned course in favor of an alternative variant, the project was discontinued in 1962 for cost reasons. A 15-kilometer-long section of an unfinished connecting canal known as the Trebel Canal is the largest part that still exists today.
Planned course
The planned waterway should begin at Breitling , a bodden-like extension of the Warnow just before its mouth on the Baltic Sea , on the south bank of which is the overseas port. A canal to the Saaler Bodden was to be built from the Breitling through the Rostock Heath . From here, the planned course of the Recknitz followed , which was then to be connected to the Trebel by a second canal to be built . Via the Peene , into which the Trebel flows at Demmin , the connection to the Oder was planned via its mouth into the Stettiner Haff . The first plans for a navigable connection from the Darß-Zingster Boddenkette via the Recknitz and Trebel to the Peene already existed in the 1930s.
realization
The construction of the waterway was intended as a central youth object in the GDR , an ideologically motivated form of voluntary construction and development work by young people, through which several large-scale construction projects were implemented in the GDR. By implementing it as a youth property, the construction costs should be kept correspondingly low. However, the construction did not come into the corresponding state planning. At the beginning of 1958, young people, mainly from the Stralsund region , started building the first kilometers of the canal along the Trebel on their own initiative and with the simplest means. In the summer, the number of young people involved rose to several hundred, some of them from abroad, who, in addition to participating in the project, also took advantage of the opportunity to take part in holiday activities in the scenic surroundings.
As far as Bassendorf , about 15.5 kilometers of a three meter deep canal were finally completed, with a width of about 35 meters at the water level and twelve meters at the bottom . However, based on new cost estimates, the project stalled in 1960. In particular, the expenses for building new bridges and locks had previously been underestimated due to the euphoria emanating from the project. Also the need to regulate the Recknitz, whose direction of flow is opposite to that of Trebel and Peene, and the resulting costs were hardly taken into account at the beginning of the project.
The connection of the Recknitz with Trebel and Peene and with it the original plans for an inland waterway from Breitling via Saaler Bodden and Recknitz, Trebel and Peene into the Stettiner Haff were abandoned. As an alternative solution to the original plans, the Stralsund industrial project office proposed in 1961 the sole realization of the connection between Breitling and Saaler Bodden through a 37-meter-wide and approximately 20-kilometer-long canal. The further shipping traffic to the Szczecin Lagoon was to take place, instead of the initially planned inland route, now via the Darß-Zingster Bodden chain, the Strelasund , the Greifswalder Bodden and the Peene River, mostly over the peripheral lagoon areas of the Baltic Sea .
Based on these plans, work began in 1961. The Rostocker Seebaggerei deepened the Breitling between the turning plate and the Schnatermann to 4.50 meters. The first excavation work was carried out at the bottom end of the planned canal. However, shortly after the construction work began, it became clear again that the cost estimates were too low. In particular, the necessary expenses for bank reinforcements, the deepening of the Bodden waters and necessary modifications to some bridges turned out to be significantly higher than expected. The coastal canal project was thus finally discontinued in 1962. The rail connections to Anklam and Berlin have now been used as an alternative for freight transport and expanded accordingly.
Current condition
The excavation sites at Torfbrücke in the Rostocker Heide and Hof Körkwitz near Ribnitz can still be found today. They have been left to their own devices and have thus become part of the respective natural environment. The 15.5 kilometers of the unfinished canal along the Trebel are mainly used for tourism today by holidaymakers and anglers.
literature
- Martin Eckoldt, Hans-Georg Braun: Rivers and canals: The history of the German waterways. DSV-Verlag, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-88-412243-6 , p. 260
Coordinates: 54 ° 3 ′ 7 ″ N , 12 ° 44 ′ 53 ″ E