Purpose
The Rothensee boat lift was originally envisaged as part of a larger project. The lift is at the Eastern end of the Mittellandkanal, it was intended that this canal would cross the Elbe on an aqueduct and then be connected to the Elbe-Havel Canal by a double boat lift at Hohenwarthe. The Rothensee lift is about 500m from the junction of the Elbeabstiegcanal and the MittellandKanal lowering boats to the level of the Elbe. The Rothensee lift was completed in 1938 but as a result of the Second World War the aqueduct and Hohenwarthe lift were not constructed. As part of a German re-unification transport project the Elbe aqueduct was completed after a 60 year delay, however two shaft locks were built instead of the proposed Hohenwarthe lift. For 60 years, therefore, the Rothensee lift, which was originally intended to allow passage just from the Mittellandkanal to the Elbe carried all the navigation traffic from the West German industrial centres to West Berlin.
In 2001 the parallel Rothensee ship lock which allows the passage of bigger ships was completed making the lift redundant.
Read more about this topic: Rothensee Boat Lift
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