The Greater Köpenick Round Trip

Gosener Canal

The Gosener Canal is an artificial waterway in Berlin. It connects Dämeritzsee with Seddinsee. The canal thus provides a link between the Rüdersdorf water bodies and the Spree–Oder waterway (see Wikipedia, map of Berlin waterways).
Already in 1872 there was a plan for a new water connection between the two lakes. The route of the canal was to follow the existing Gosener Graben, which was only navigable for very small craft. An expansion of the waterway together with the Oder–Spree Canal, which was built between 1876 and 1880, could not be realised. To avoid costly land compensation, the subsequent plans placed the canal route west of the Gosener Graben in the Berlin city forest.

“In 1922/23 the canal route had almost been cleared, but in 1924 the project was halted due to inflation. The first sod was then turned for construction on 15 August 1933.”

Hans-Joachim Uhlemann: Berlin und die märkischen Wasserstraßen, transpress VEB Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin, 1987

The Reich Labour Service was commissioned with the work. For this purpose a barrack settlement for 200 men was built on the west bank of the future canal near the present Fahlenberg Bridge.

The excavation was carried out solely by manual labour with spade, shovel and mattock. The standard was one cubic metre per man per day. For the removal of a total of 360.000 cubic metres of overburden a field railway was used, which transported the soil for embankment north of the Spree to the Rahnsdorfer meadows.»

Source: Harald Kampffmeyer: Zur Geschichte des Gosener Grabens

The excavation from the Gosener Canal was also used, by the way, to raise the paths in Neu Venedig by about one metre. The most important and construction‑decisive reason was the bypass of the regatta course in Berlin‑Grünau for the duration of the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin. It is possible that there would have been claims for compensation from inland skippers if the waterway had been closed during the Olympic period. Further reasons for the canal construction were

• Shortening the distance between the industrial area on the Rüdersdorf waterways and the industry around Niederlehme and Königs Wusterhausen by 18 km (freight vessels from Rüdersdorf, for example, previously had to sail via the Müggelsee and Langer See/Dahme!)
• Increase in traffic safety on the surrounding waterways
• Cultivation and drainage measures

Source: Hans-Joachim Uhlemann: Berlin und die märkischen Wasserstraßen, transpress VEB Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin, 1987

The aim for navigation was that the so‑called Plauer measure barges (length 65 m, beam 8 m, draught 2 m and carrying capacity 650 t) could pass the canal.
The total length of the Gosener Canal is 4 kilometres. It is 2,25 m deep, has a bed width of 16 m and a water surface width of 30 m. A lock was not necessary because the water level difference between Dämeritzsee and Seddinsee was at most 55 cm. Nevertheless, the canal caused a significantly higher outflow from Dämeritzsee into Seddinsee and thus a reduction of the inflow to Müggelsee. In the 1980s the canal was further developed and received sheet piling for bank protection.

After the Gosener Canal was put into operation, the old waterway between Dämeritzsee and Seddinsee – the Gosener Graben – lost its importance. Today it is a popular refuge for paddlers and rowers, as it lies entirely within the nature reserve “Gosener Wiesen” and is closed to motor-driven watercraft.

(see also: Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection, Berlin, 2017: Müggelspreeniederung Köpenick, subarea Gosener Wiesen and Seddinsee)

After passing through the Gosener Canal you enter the Seddinsee. The Gosener Graben also flows into the Seddinsee.