page_title: Neckar
section_title: Continuous navigability with the Wilhelmskanal in 1821
hierarchical_section_title: Neckar / Navigation / Historical Development / Continuous navigability with the Wilhelmskanal in 1821
caption_attribution_description: Mündung des im 19. Jhd. erbauten Wilhelmskanals (rechts) in den Alt-Neckar (links) in Heilbronn. Mit dem Wilhelmskanal wurde der zuvor bei Heilbronn für die Schiffahrt unterbrochene Neckar durchgängig schiffbar. Die Schleusenbrücke ist noch weitgehend original.
context_page_description: The Neckar is a 362-kilometre-long river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis near Schwenningen in the Schwenninger Moos conservation area at a height of 706 m above sea level, it passes through Rottweil, Rottenburg am Neckar, Kilchberg, Tübingen, Wernau, Nürtingen, Plochingen, Esslingen, Stuttgart, Ludwigsburg, Marbach, Heilbronn and Heidelberg, before discharging on average 145 m³/s of water into the Rhine at Mannheim, at 95 m above sea level, making the Neckar its 4th largest tributary, and the 10th largest river in Germany. Since 1968, the Neckar has been navigable for cargo ships via 27 locks for about 200 kilometres upstream from Mannheim to the river port of Plochingen, at the confluence with the Fils.
  From Plochingen to Stuttgart, the Neckar valley is densely populated and heavily industrialised, with several well-known companies. Between Stuttgart and Lauffen, the Neckar cuts a scenic, meandering, and in many places steep-sided, valley into fossiliferous Triassic limestones and Pleistocene travertine.
context_section_description: The 550 meter long Wilhelmskanal („Wilhelms canal“) was constructed in Heilbronn from 1819–1821. Reason was the bypassing of the entire weir area and many mills. After further river construction measures the Neckar became navigable all the way between the Rhine and Cannstatt. A lock gate at the upper end of the canal could turn it during floods into a port of refuge which was, already in 1829, expanded into a port of transshipment. In 1827 the Mannheimer Stapel was lifted through which the Neckar navigators gained back free access to the Rhine river. The Rheinschiffahrtsakte („Mannheim Act“)  from 1831 and in consequence of it the Neckarschiffahrtsordnung (“Neckar navigation regulations”) from 1832 brought, through simplified regulations and tariffs a significant rise for the navigation. But because of its shallows and rapids the river was considered one oft he most dangerous in Germany. In 1836 the Neckarschiffergilde („Neckar shipping guild“) was dissolved, which had since 1810 tried to gain a monopoly on the Neckar trade. With the ratification of the Neckarschiffahrtsordnung in 1842 all Guilds were dissolved and thereby economic freedom created.
  From 1841/42 onwards the Heilbronn-based Neckar-Dampfschifffahrt introduced a regular passenger and general cargo transport from Heilbronn to Mannheim. Despite the usage of modern steam ships, horses still pulled the heavy barges on the towpath upriver. The reason was that the steam ships were not yet strong enough herefore.
  The competition of rail transport made steam ships as well as towing barges gradually uneconomic in the second half of the 19th century. Rafting on the other hand kept its importance, but adapted to the age of the railroad. Because trunks from the Black forest did more and more go by train to Heilbronn and only from there continued their trip on the water, a new rafting harbour was constructed in Heilbronn in 1875. Above Esslingen the rafting was only of little importance. The last raft passed the city on 28. Oktober 1899.
  A new recovery for the Neckar navigation came with the chain boat navigation begun in 1878. Despite the construction of a railroad line along the Neckar. Between Mannheim and Heilbronn steam towboats with attached barges were now able to pull themselves upriver on a 115 km long chain which had been put into the river. Through that the trip between Mannheim and Heilbronn was shortened to two to three days. On the horse drawn ships it had previously taken five to eight days. But often the water depth was not deep enough. The vernacular name for the chain boats was Neckaresel („Neckar donkey”). The last chain boat navigation was still done 1933 – 1935 between Neckargerach and the barrage Kochendorf.
  The world's first motorboat made during the summer of 1886 by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach was named "Neckar" when their Standuhr (grandfather clock) petrol engine was tested on the river near Bad Cannstatt.
  The motorized cargo navigation began on the Neckar in 1925. The first motor cargo ship on the river was ordered by the brothers Ludwig (1887–1955) and Jakob Götz (1890–1977) already in 1924 at the Anderssen Werft (“Anderssen shipyard”). It was put into service in 1925 and christened "Gebrüder Götz". The motor cargo ship was operated by the shipping company drove for the shipping company Ludwig und Jakob Götz, founded in 1920. One of the best known         shipping companies on the Neckar, which was also involved in the upgrading of the river to a heavy shipping waterway.
  In 1946 the first transportation order for coal after the second world war on the Neckar was awarded and shipped by Johann Friedrich Boßler with his motor cargo ship Elisabeth.
caption: Mouth of the Heilbronner Wilhelmskanal (right) into the side arm Heilbronn (old neckar) (left). The canal made the Neckar continuously navigable in 1821. The lock with the bridge is from 1884.
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