Stecknitz Canal, Canal in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

The Stecknitz Canal is a historic waterway built between 1391 and 1398 that connects the Stecknitz and Delvenau rivers. The passage crosses northern Germany linking the North Sea with the Baltic Sea through a series of locks and canal sections.

The waterway was constructed in the late 1300s to support salt trade from Lüneburg, with the first cargo arriving in 1398. This project was a major engineering achievement for its time, enabling the transport of heavy goods across long distances.

Lübeck's salt merchants, the Salzherren, financed the barges, while the Stecknitz bargees, recruited mostly in Lauenburg, were allowed to own only one barge each, keeping them dependent on the merchants. In 1819 a numbered rotation, the Reihefahrt, was introduced among the 90 barges, but it failed and was abolished in 1840.

The canal ran 97 km from Lauenburg to Lübeck, though the two cities are only 55 km apart in a straight line. The Palmschleuse in Lauenburg and the Dückerschleuse near Witzeeze, dating from 1798, survive as original structures. The artificial Delvenaugraben section was 11.5 km long, 7.5 m wide and 0.85 m deep before its enlargement between 1821 and 1823.

The Palmschleuse in Lauenburg is a chamber lock, built because a watermill stood beside the canal and a flash lock would have stopped the mill working. Most other locks were one-gate flash locks in weirs, converted to chamber locks only gradually up to the 17th century. The Dückerschleuse near Witzeeze, dated 1798, also survives.