The secret of Lake Hemmelsdorfer: Germany's deepest point in the north!

The secret of Lake Hemmelsdorfer: Germany's deepest point in the north!

Hemmelsdorfer See, Timmendorfer Strand, Deutschland - Geological sensation The mysterious deep in the Hemmelsdorfer See!

Did you know that Germany not only has the Zugspitze, but also the deepest point of the mainland? In the picturesque Schleswig-Holstein, more precisely in the Hemmelsdorfer See, this mysterious point is around 40 meters below the sea level! A team of students and a professor of the Hamburg Hafencity University marked the exact location in 2007 with a buoy and thus brought the geological peculiarities of the lake to light.

The creation of the Hemmelsdorfer See

But how did this fascinating natural phenomenon come about? The Hemmelsdorfer See was created about 10,000 years ago during the last phase of the Vistula ice cream. Martin Schmidt from the State Office for the Environment explains that it is a glacier tongue pool that was once connected to the Baltic Sea. With an area of around 4.6 square kilometers, the lake belongs to the municipality of Timmendorfer Strand in the district of Ostholstein.

Although the Hemmelsdorfer See is the deepest natural point in Germany, there are deeper areas in the country, such as the former coal mining plants in the Ruhr area, which extend up to over 300 meters below the sea level. It is also interesting that there are numerous legends around the Hemmelsdorfer See. One says that an old Viking settlement called Reric is said to have existed in the upper part of the lake, even if there is no evidence of this. However, the plans of Emperor Napoleon I from 1810, which provided the lake as potential war ports, are historically proven - these documents are still kept in the archive of the district of Ostholstein!