Bridge over the Mittelland Canal

At 325.7 km, the Mittelland Canal is the longest artificial watercourse in Germany.

The canal starts as a branch of the Dortmund-Ems Canal near Hörstel and then leads past Bramsche, Osnabrück, Minden, Hanover, Braunschweig, Wolfsburg and Magdeburg to the Elbe. Several of these larger cities are connected to the canal proper by tributaries that end in a harbour basin.

At Minden, the canal crosses the Weser with the Minden canal bridge, to which it is connected to the left and right of the canal by locks, so that there is a connection to Bremen over the river, which is navigable for larger ships from there. At Wolfsburg, the Elbe Seiten Canal joins, which allows the connection to Hamburg without having to pass via the Elbe, characterized by its irregular water levels.

Although the construction of an aqueduct was planned from the planning and construction in the 1930s to bridge the Elbe, it would take until after the reunification of Germany before this was actually achieved. Construction was started at the time, but due to the outbreak of the Second World War and the changed political situation afterwards, it was never finished. Until the end of the 1990s, the ruins of the unfinished canal bridge remained in the middle of the meadow near the banks of the river.

Before the Magdeburg canal bridge was put into operation, the ships to Berlin had to sail up the Elbe via the Rothensee boat lift and a canal arm near Magdeburg, leaving it about fifteen kilometers downstream and reaching the upper Elbe-Havel Canal via a lock. In 2001 the adjacent lock Rothensee was opened; the opening also allowed larger ships to sail to Berlin. The usable length in the boat lift was only 85m and the lock has a usable length of 190m. Detours were especially problematic in the summer months when shipping was greatly hampered by low water levels, so that it was often possible to sail with a draught of less than 1.5m. By opening the canal bridge, a draught of 2.5m is guaranteed all year round.

In 1965 a start was made on widening and deepening the then West German section west of the Elbe-Seiten Canal, which was completed in 2000. Within the framework of the "Verkehrsprojekt Deutsche Einheit Nr.17" (Verkehrsprojekt Deutsche Einheit Nr.17) a start has also been made on widening and deepening the last section, which should be completed in 2007.

The canal officially ends at the Hohenwarte lock, because the water there is given a different name; the canal continues as the Elbe-Havel Canal, providing a continuous water connection between the Ruhr area and Berlin.

The Mittelland Canal is also known as the Weser-Ems Canal or the Weser-Elbe Canal.

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