Edersee Dam

The Edersee Dam is a hydroelectric dam constructed between 1908 and 1914 across the Eder river, near the small town of Waldeck in northern Hesse, Germany. It lies at the northern edge of the Kellerwald. The dam is primarily used to generate hydroelectric power and to regulate water levels for shipping on the Weser river.

In World War II, as part of Operation Chastise, the dam was destroyed by bouncing bombs dropped by British Lancaster bombers of No. 617 Squadron RAF in the early morning of May 17, 1943, creating massive destruction and loss of life downstream. Through the breach in the dam, 70 metres (230 ft) wide and 22 metres (72 ft) deep, water emptied at the rate of 8,000 cubic metres per second (280,000 cu ft/s) into the narrow valley below, a total of about 160 hm³. A flood wave of 6–8 metres (20–26 ft) in height roared through the river valley as far as 30 kilometres (19 mi) downstream, before it diminished in the widening floodplains of the lower Eder, the Fulda and the Weser. About 70 people died. (Some non-German sources erroneously cite an early total of 749 for all foreigners killed in all POW and labour camps downriver of the Möhne dam as casualties at a supposed POW or labour camp just below the Eder Dam.)

The dam was rebuilt within months by forced labor drawn from the construction of the Atlantic Wall under the command of Organisation Todt, and the lake today is a major summertime recreational facility. Its capacity of 199,300,000 cubic metres (260,700,000 cu yd) makes it the third largest reservoir in Germany.

At low water, in late summers of dry years, the remnants of three villages (Asel, Bringhausen, and Berich), along with a bridge across the original river bed, that were submerged when the lake was filled in 1914, can be seen, and descendants of people buried in the now submerged cemeteries go to visit the graves of their ancestors.