The Hemmelsdorfer See: Germany's deepest point and its secrets!

The Hemmelsdorfer See: Germany's deepest point and its secrets!

A fascinating natural wonder in Schleswig-Holstein: The Hemmelsdorfer See, the lowest point in Germany, is around 40 meters below sea level and is therefore the exact counterpart to the 2,962 meter high Zugspitze in Bavaria. But unlike the majestic mountain, this mysterious point is not directly visible! In 2007 he was discovered and precisely measured by students and a professor of the Hamburg Hafencity University, who marked his position with a buoy on the surface.

The Hemmelsdorfer See, a remnant from the last phase of the Vistula ice age about 10,000 years ago, extends over 4.6 square kilometers and belongs to the municipality of Timmendorfer Strand in the Ostholstein district. It is a glacier tongue pool that was once connected to the Baltic Sea. But the real low point is not only here: in the old coal mining plants of the Ruhr area it goes much deeper, while the Hambach open-cast mine in North Rhine-Westphalia even extends over 300 meters below the sea level. A lake is to be created there by 2029 when the lignite mining ends.

myths and history of the Hemmelsdorfer Lake

around the Hemmelsdorfer See there are numerous legends. It is said that the Reric Viking settlement was once in the upper part of the lake - however, the evidence is missing, as the Ostholstein district confirms. The historical plans of Emperor Napoleon I, who wanted to build a war port in the Hemmelsdorfer See in 1810, are more interesting. These plans, which are still kept in the archive of the Ostholstein district today, prove the strategic interest in this mysterious waters.