Lehnitzschleuse, Navigation lock in Oranienburg, Germany

Lehnitzschleuse is a lock on the Havel-Oder waterway near Oranienburg, north of Berlin. It has two chambers that lift or lower vessels between different water levels on this busy inland shipping route.

The first lock was built in 1910 to handle growing boat traffic on the canal. A second, larger chamber was added in 1940 to increase the capacity of the route.

The lock's name comes from the nearby Lehnitzsee lake, which the Havel did not originally flow through. During construction of Lehnitz II, prisoners from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp were used as forced labourers, as at the nearby Klinkerwerk brickworks. The old chamber, Lehnitz I, was taken out of service in 1989 and its upper gate sealed with earth.

The usable chamber of the newer lock is 125 metres long and 11.92 metres wide; a single locking takes about 15 minutes, while two-way locking takes 40 to 45 minutes. The old chamber, Lehnitz I, was closed in 1989 and its upper gate sealed with earth.

The lock bridges a height difference of 5.65 meters, placing it on the inland route that links Berlin directly to Szczecin by water. Few visitors realize they are standing on one of the longest continuous inland shipping routes in northern Germany.