Figure 1.--Kiel is perhaps best known for the Kiel Canal and is the eastern terminus. The Kiel Canal provided easier access to the Atantic for Baltic shipping. Here is a view of a German Navy corvette in the the Canal. The caption read, "Ein Linienschiff auf dem Kaiser Wilhelmskanal". That meant "A ship of the line (naval vessel) in the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal".

Denmark controlled access to the Atantic ocean for the countries of te Baltic. The first connection through Grmany was the Eider Canal (1784). This proved inadequate in the 19th century as the size of both naval and merchant vesses grew. The Germans built the Kiel Canal for both strategic and commercial purposes. The German Navy wanted to link its bases in the Baltic and the North Sea without sailing around Denmark which was an unfriendly nation after Prussia seized Schleswig-Holstein. Today the canal is mostly important for commercial reasons, providing a direct sea outlet to Baltic sea countries. Construction was a major enginnering project. It took 8 years to build the Canal (1887-95). The Kiel Canal provided easier access to the Atantic for Baltic shipping. It was apparently in the 1930s called the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal (Kaiser Wilhelmskanal). It is now known as the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal. The canal is the world`s busiest artificial waterway. It runs for about 100 km through Schleswig-Holstein from Brunsbüttel in the west to Kiel-Holtenau in the east. It thus links the North Sea with the Baltic. This saves around a 250 nautical mile trip around the Jutland Peninsula (Skaw).