ABSTRACT
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is located in the NorthEastern part of Germany, close to the Baltic sea, in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Lübeck was founded in 1134 and much of its architecture is still intact in the historic part of town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since Lübeck played a major role in the Hanseatic union, trading, agriculture and industry became popular during the centuries. For safety reasons as well as for industrial usage, the surrounding water has had much impact on Lübeck’s development. The river Trave with its total length of 113 km passes the cities of Bad Segeberg, Bad Oldesloe, Reinfeld and Lübeck on its way to the river mouth in Travemünde where it flows into the Baltic Sea. Another river, the Wakenitz, is a regular side river of the Trave and the connection was adapted several times during the past 800 years (see Fig. 1) as it also had to run profitable mills. As a result of this adaption, nowadays the Trave encloses Lübeck at all sides. West: the Upper and Lower Trave as well as the moat. East: the Trave channel.
