Kiel Canal

Waterway connecting the Baltic with the North Sea; 96 km/60 mi long. It provides passage for ocean-going vessels. Built by Germany in the years before World War I, the canal allowed the German navy to move from its Baltic bases to the open sea without travelling through international waters. It was declared an international waterway by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

The canal links the Baltic Sea at Kiel Harbour with the North Sea at the estuary of the Elbe. An early canal, constructed from Kiel to the River Eiderin in 1784, proved inadequate, and the cutting of the present canal was begun in 1887. It follows the course of the earlier canal as far as Rendsburg, and then turns southwest. The canal was opened by Wilhelm II in 1895 and has since been widened to 45 m/148 ft and deepened to 14 m/46 ft.