The Charlottenburg Connecting Canal (CVK) is a federal waterway[1] of waterway class IV in Berlin. The canal forms the border between the districts of Moabit (Neues Ufer) and Charlottenburg (Goslarer Ufer). The Spree-Havel Waterways and Shipping Office is responsible for its administration.
The Charlottenburg Connecting Canal is 1.6 kilometers long.[2] It begins exactly opposite the western confluence of the Landwehr Canal with the Spree and runs north to the confluence with the Westhafen Canal. The place where the Charlottenburg Connecting Canal meets the Spree and the Landwehr Canal is called the "Spreekreuz".
When the Spandau Shipping Canal was built between 1848 and 1859, it was overlooked that a considerable part of the shipping traffic, especially the transport of bricks from the upper Havel, was headed for the Landwehr Canal and the southern parts of the city that were to be built on. These ships now had to take either the old route via Spandau through the still unregulated lower Spree or the route from Humboldthafen five kilometers downstream to the Landwehrkanal. Thus, the 3.2-kilometer-long Charlottenburg connecting canal was created between 1872 and 1875 as a direct connection between the Spree section of the Spandau shipping canal (from 1914: Berlin-Spandau shipping canal) near the Plötzensee lock and the Landwehrkanal.[3]
After the completion of the Westhafenkanal, which ran further north, in 1956, the parts of the northeastern section north of the Ringbahn that were not needed for the Westhafenkanal were filled in and the Beusselstraße wholesale market was built over it. The Charlottenburg connecting canal, now shortened by half, has since flowed directly into the Westhafenkanal at right angles.