Fehnkanal Drawbridge

storyToday's Elisabethfehn Canal was built from 1855 to 1893 and leads from the coastal canal near Kampe via Kamperfehn, Reekenfeld, Elisabethfehn to the Sagter Ems near the Roggenberg farmers. The eastern part of the Hunte-Ems Canal has been part of the coastal canal since 1935, which at Dörpen is connected to the Ems, which has been expanded into the Dortmund-Ems Canal. Today the Waterways and Shipping Office Ems-Nordsee, which belongs to the General Directorate for Waterways and Shipping, is responsible.
When it was built, today's Elisabethfehn Canal also served as a fen canal to develop the previously deserted moorland. The first colonies of Moslesfehn (1871) and Elisabethfehn (1880) emerged during construction. The Cloppenburg – Ocholt railway line crosses the Elisabethfehn Canal in Elisabethfehn.

From the opening to the end of the First World War, the sometimes brisk shipping traffic served the peat industry. After the Second World War, commercial shipping came to an almost complete standstill. Since the late 1960s, the canal has been used almost exclusively for recreational shipping. In the past few years the tourist use has decreased and there were only around 1000 people smuggled each year.
In 2012, the operation of the Elisabethfehn Canal was in danger because the Osterhausen lock had become dilapidated and the federal government had cut funds for renovation or new construction. The Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development announced that the canal near Barßel should be closed and no longer maintained as a federal waterway. The citizens' initiative Rettet den Elisabethfehnkanal e. V. has been campaigning for the preservation of the canal since then. The Osterhausen lock became the property of the Cloppenburg district in November 2015,

also the operation of the other locks and bridges of the canal. The Osterhausen lock structure, newly built in 2019/2020, went into operation in the 2nd quarter of 2020