Alster-Beste-Canal

The Alster-Beste Canal was a navigable connection between Hamburg and Lübeck in the 16th century. It is also incorrectly referred to as the Alster-Trave Canal: The rivers Beste and Trave were navigable.
Since 1448, there had been attempts to create a navigable connection between Hamburg and Lübeck based on the model of the Stecknitz Canal. A canal was intended to connect the rivers Alster and Beste. Following a contract between Hamburg and Count Adolf VIII of Holstein, construction began in the same year. However, after the Upper Alster was canalized, the operators ran out of money, leading to construction being halted in 1452. After Hamburg, Lübeck, and King Frederick I of Denmark agreed to jointly finance the construction, work resumed in 1526. By 1529, the eight-kilometer-long “new ditch” was built, which utilized the Old Alster, flowing into the Alster from the estate of Stegen, up to the western entrance of Nienwohld, from where the actual canal leads over the Nienwohlder Moor to Sülfeld, where the Norderbeste is reached. The route between Hamburg and Lübeck was 91 kilometers long and had 23 locks. However, as the tributaries were insufficient to maintain a stable water depth, operations were restricted in 1549 and completely ceased in 1550. In that year, the lock in Neritz, which was in need of repairs, was not restored. Detlev von Buchwaldt, lord of the estates Herrenhaus Borstel and Jersbek, then had parts of the canal filled in. The canal now ends in western Sülfeld and has no connection to the Norderbeste anymore.

Wikipedia