NO BOATS IN LUISENSTADT: BERLIN'S VANISHED CANAL

Today Berlin has seven canals used as official waterways. One of them, Neuköllner Schifffahrtskanal, is the property of Berlin (as in the Federal State of Berlin, Berlin being both a city and a Bundesland), while the remaining six belong to the Federation, or the German State. The six are official federal waterways, which means that using (or abusing) them is regulated on the federal level.

But Berlin used to have one more waterwaywhich vanished in the 1920s. The Luisenstädtische Kanal opened on this very day, on May 15, 1852 in the historic district of Luisenstadt, now part of Berlin-Kreuzberg and Berlin-Mitte.