Germany: Kiel Canal

This year the Kiel Canal turns 125 years old and some philatelic celebrations took place. In total four special postmarks from cities along the canal were available, which I all got for my collection. One card and two covers with the first two postmarks arrived last Thursday, two covers with the other two covers arrived on Tuesday.

Luckily I was able to get a single postcard showing cruise ships in the canal. The Kiel Canal, or Nord-Ostsee-Kanal in German, is a 98km-long canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It was finished in 1895 and links the North Sea at Brunsbüttel to the Baltic Sea at Kiel-Holtenau. An average of 460km 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 Sound or Belts. The canal took over 9000 workers eight years to build and on 20 June 1895 the canal was officially opened by Kaiser Wilhelm II as Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal, named after his grandfather Kaiser Wilhelm I. After World War I the Treaty of Versailles required the canal to be open to vessels of commerce and of war of any nation at peace with Germany, while leaving it under German administration. The Nazis later repudiated its international status in 1936, but after World War II the canal was reopened to all traffic and in 1948 its current name was adopted. Today it is one of the busiest artificial waterways in the World. 

On this card I used the special postmark from Rendsburg.

As I only had one card, I also got all four postmarks on normal covers. There are three postmarks about the actual anniversary from Rendsburg, Brunsbüttel and Kiel and a fourth postmark about the 125th anniversary of the Lighthouse Kiel-Holtenau located at the canal. Just like on the card I also used definitives on the covers.

The German Post also celebrated with a special prepaid postcard (issued 04-06-2020). I bought that one cancelled on the first day at my local post office.