Niederfinow boat lift

Where Brandenburg's sandy soil slopes down from the dense forests of the Schorfheide to the damp Oderbruch, a true colossus of technology rises above the landscape: the Niederfinow boat lift. The grey construction of girders and struts rises up some 60 metres, 14,000 tonnes of steel held together by millions of rivets. Its pillars reach 20 metres into the soft ground. A truly iron structure.

When the hoist went into operation in 1934, it was celebrated as a sensation: A lift that could carry (or lower) barges vertically 36 metres upwards in a trough full of water was unparalleled in the world at the time. Until then, such great differences in height had generally been overcome with lock stairs. In Niederfinow, for example, there were four steps, each with chambers that were nine metres high - and the passage through them was correspondingly time-consuming.

But time was of the essence if traffic on the Hohenzollern Canal was not to become congested. Named after the Prussian ruling dynasty, this major shipping route had connected the Havel and Oder rivers since 1914 in order to better supply the city of Berlin. However, just as its predecessor, the still existing Finow Canal, had reached the limits of its capacity and made the construction of the Hohenzollern Canal necessary, the bottleneck of the modern connection soon became apparent - the lock stairs at Niederfinow.

The first plans for a more efficient hoist were therefore made while the Kaiser was still in power. Completion was planned for 1918, but the First World War initially prevented its realisation. At the beginning of the 1920s, however, the engineers returned to the drawing boards to revise the designs. The first preparatory work and excavation of the building pit began as early as 1926, with the actual start of construction taking place in the summer of 1928 when the foundations were laid. In the following years, the trough chamber was built first, before the steel frames of the three lift towers slowly rose into the air. A specially constructed 60 metre high crane was used to lift the individual components of the steel puzzle into place and connect them to the riveting hammer.

At the same time, the 85 metre long trough for the ships, weighing almost 4300 tonnes when full, was assembled inside and suspended from 256 steel cables with correspondingly powerful counterweights. Drive rods, shafts and threads interlocked, electric motors set the mechanics in motion. In the meantime, a trough bridge led from the top of the free-standing hoist to the western section of the canal, and the test operation ran smoothly. The technical masterpiece was finally officially opened on 21 March 1934.

Ships up to 84 metres in length could now overcome the 36 metre difference in height in a single step, and the journey between the upper and lower waters took just five minutes. Locomotives also helped with the safe manoeuvring of unpowered barges. By contrast, negotiating the lock stairs with their chambers only 67 metres long had taken hours.

Miraculously, the hoist survived the heavy fighting in the final months of the Second World War largely unscathed; in the autumn of 1945, operations could be resumed - initially with restrictions - after sunken ships and destroyed bridges had been salvaged from the canal. Incidentally, the canal now lost its monarchical name and was given the name it still bears today: Havel-Oder Waterway.

The technology continued to fulfil its service faithfully. You can count on two hands the number of days on which the ship's hoist had to be closed during the GDR era because mechanical components were worn out and had to be replaced. However, the development of transport continued and after reunification
reunification, it was soon realised that the boat lift was no longer able to cope with modern cargo ships. Its trough was and still is too short and too shallow.

Anyone visiting the Niederfinow boat lift today can therefore see into the near future from the upper gallery if they look northwards: Its successor is growing upwards in the immediate neighbourhood. The new building, which is expected to cost almost 300 million euros, will provide space for large motor ships of class V with a length of 110 metres, and its replacement is planned for 2014.

As a historical landmark and protected industrial monument, however, the steel veteran in the Mark Brandenburg sand will be preserved - ready for operation, of course.