The Elbe-Lübeck Canal connects the Elbe with the Trave. The predecessor of today's canal was the Stecknitz cruise. The white gold of the Middle Ages from Lüneburg was once brought to Lübeck for the preservation of herring from the Baltic Sea for salted herring via this traffic route. The Stecknitzfahrt cultural monument support group was founded in Ratzeburg, with the aim of making a wider public aware of the forgotten “wet salt road”. The annual open monument day in September attracts more and more interested visitors to the Palm, Dücker or Hahnenburger Schleuse.
In the cemetery of Nusse (Klingenberg) and the Lübeck Burgtorfriedhof there are special grave fields marked by stones for the Stecknitz drivers. In the St. Nicolai Church in Mölln, too, some of the stalls are marked with signs of the Stecknitz drivers (two crossed sticks).
In 2009, a replica of a historic salt cream was built in Berkenthin and launched into the water. Since then, guests on the "Maria Magdalena" have been able to acquire a "Treidelpatent".
Four information boards provide insights into the construction of the canal and the journey on the Stecknitz trip. The guests learn, among other things, that the hydraulic engineers of the time used a hoe and shovel to build a trench 11 kilometers long, 3 meters deep and 6 meters wide. After seven years of construction, on July 22, 1398, more than 30 ships loaded with salt and lime from Lüneburg reached the Hanseatic city for the first time. Lübeck. However, it is also described on the information boards that the journey on the 97-kilometer Stecknitz trip took about 3 weeks.
Source: Förderkreis Kulturdenkmal Stecknitzfahrt e.V., Wikipedia