Kiel Canal

The Kiel Canal (German: Nord-Ostsee-Kanal, formerly Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal) is a 98-kilometer-long (61 mi) freshwater canal that links the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. It runs through the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, from Brunsbüttel, at the mouth of the Elbe, to Holtenau, on the Kiel Fjord. It was constructed between 1887 and 1895 and widened between 1907 and 1914. In addition to the two sea entrances, the canal is linked at Oldenbüttel to the navigable River Eider by the short Gieselau Canal.

The canal reduces the journey between the North and Baltic Seas by 460 km (290 mi) by allowing ships to bypass the Jutland peninsula and the Danish straits. It is one of the world's most frequented artificial waterways, with an annual average of 32,000 ships (90 daily), transporting approximately 100 million tonnes of goods.

The first connection between the North and Baltic Seas was constructed while the area was ruled by Denmark–Norway. It was called the Eider Canal and used stretches of the Eider River for the link between the two seas. Completed during the reign of Christian VII of Denmark in 1784, the Eiderkanal was a 43 km (27 mi) part of a 175 km (109 mi) waterway from Kiel to the Eider River's mouth at Tönning on the west coast. It was only 29 m (95 ft) wide with a depth of 3 m (9.8 ft), which limited the vessels that could use the canal to 300 tonnes.

After 1864, the Second Schleswig War put Schleswig-Holstein under the government of Prussia (from 1871 the German Empire). A new canal was sought by merchants and by the German navy, which wanted to link its bases in the Baltic and the North Sea without the need to sail around Denmark.

In June 1887, construction started at Holtenau, near Kiel. The canal took over 9,000 workers eight years to build. On 20 June 1895, Kaiser Wilhelm II officially opened the canal for transiting from Brunsbüttel to Holtenau. The next day a ceremony took place in Holtenau, where Wilhelm II named the waterway the Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal (after his grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm I), and laid the final stone. British director Birt Acres filmed the opening of the canal; the Science Museum in London preserves surviving footage of this early film. The first vessel to pass through the canal was the aviso SMS Jagd, sent through in late April (before the canal officially opened) to determine if it was ready for use. In May, the tender Otter also passed through the canal.

To cope with the increasing traffic and the demands of the Imperial German Navy, between 1907 and 1914 the canal was widened by Germany to allow dreadnought battleships to pass through, allowing them to travel between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea without having to go around Denmark. Two larger canal locks in Brunsbüttel and Holtenau were installed to complete the enlargement.

After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles required the canal to be open to vessels of commerce and of war of any nation at peace with Germany, while leaving it under German administration. (The United States opposed this proposal to avoid setting a precedent for similar concessions on the Panama Canal.) The government under Adolf Hitler repudiated its international status in 1936, but the canal was reopened to all traffic after World War II. In 1948, the current name was adopted.

The canal was partially closed for a period in March 2013 after two lock gates failed at the western end near Brunsbüttel. Ships larger than 125 m (410 ft) were forced to navigate via Skagerrak, a 450 km (280 mi) detour. The failure was blamed on neglect and a lack of funding by the German Federal Government, which had been in financial dispute with the state of Schleswig-Holstein regarding the canal. Germany's Federal Transport Ministry promised rapid repairs.