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The Kiel Canal (Nord-Ostsee-Kanal, literally "North-[to]-East [Baltic] Sea canal", formerly known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal) is a long freshwater canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The canal was finished in 1895, but later widened, and links the North Sea at Brunsbüttel to the Baltic Sea at Kiel-Holtenau. An average of is saved by using the Kiel Canal instead of going around the Jutland Peninsula. This not only saves time but also avoids storm-prone seas and having to pass through the Danish straits. The Kiel Canal is the world's most frequented artificial waterway with an annual average of 32,000 ships (90 daily), transporting approximately 100 million tonnes of goods. Besides its two sea entrances, the Kiel Canal is linked, at Oldenbüttel, to the navigable River Eider by the short Gieselau Canal. The first connection between the North and Baltic Seas was constructed while the area was ruled by Denmark–Norway. It was called the Eider Canal and used stretches of the Eider River for the link between the two seas. Completed during the reign of Christian VII of Denmark in 1784, the Eiderkanal was a part of a waterway from Kiel to the Eider River's mouth at Tönning on the west coast. It was only wide with a depth of , which limited the vessels that could use the canal to 300 tonnes. After 1864, the Second Schleswig War put Schleswig-Holstein under the government of Prussia (from 1871 the German Empire). A new canal was sought by merchants and by the German navy, which wanted to link its bases in the Baltic and the North Sea without the need to sail around Denmark. In June 1887, construction started at Holtenau, near Kiel. The canal took over 9,000 workers eight years to build. On 20 June 1895 Kaiser Wilhelm II officially opened the canal for transiting from Brunsbüttel to Holtenau. The next day a ceremony took place in Holtenau, where Wilhelm II named the waterway the Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal (after his grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm I), and laid the final stone.

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Kiel Canal

Kiel

Kiel (kiːl) is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland peninsula on the southwestern shore of the Baltic Sea, Kiel has become one of Germany's major maritime centres, known for a variety of international sailing events, including the annual Kiel Week, which is the biggest sailing event in the world.

Jutland

Jutland (Jylland ˈjyˌlænˀ; Jütland ˈjyːtlant; Ēota land ˈeːotɑˌlɑnd), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula (Cimbricus Chersonesus; den Kimbriske Halvø or den Jyske Halvø; Kimbrische Halbinsel), is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany. The names are derived from the Jutes and the Cimbri, respectively. Jutland's geography is flat, similar to the rest of Denmark, with comparatively steep hills in the east and a barely noticeable ridge running through the center.