RIVERS HAVEL AND SPREE

The Havel and the Spree are two tributaries of the River Elbe . Both the Havel and Spree lie in an area of broad east - west trending ridges that run across the North German Plain. These ridges are old glacial moraines deposited as the ice sheets retreated at the end of the Ice Age. The ridges control the flow of the rivers which, for the most part flow between the ridges, but occasionally cut across them. The areas between ridges are clayey and can be marshy,

Havel

Length: 340 kilometres (210 miles). Drainage basin 24,000 square kilometres (9000 square miles).

The Havel begins on the Mecklenburg Plateau. It provides the waters of the Mecklenburg lakes and then flows south to join with the Spree in Berlin (Spandau).

The combined river flows on south as the Havel to Potsdam and Brandenburg. It then feeds a series of small lakes before flowing north west to meet the Elbe near Havelberg. The river is navigable below the Mecklenburg Lakes and it has been extensively canalised to link the rivers Oder and Elbe.

Cities on the Havel

Brandenburg (Brandenburg an der Havel)

This industrial city lies on the banks of the Havel to the west of Berlin. It was an important crossing point of the Havel and was captured and recaptured many times. Because of the troubled history of the city the cathedral was built on an island in the river.

Brandenburg is a river port at the eastern end of the Elbe-Havel Canal

The 80 kilometres (50 miles) Oder-Havel (Hohenzollern) canal links the Havel and Oder rivers to the northeast of Berlin. Its purpose was to connect Berlin to the sea at Stettin (now Szczecin) in Poland at the mouth of the Oder.

Spree

Length: 400 kilometres (250 miles); drainage basin: 10,000 square kilometres (4000 square miles)

The Spree is a tributary of the Havel. Its source is in the Lusatian mountains. It flows to Cottbus, and then divides, flowing in a number of channels across marshy land called the Spree Forest. Below Lubben it returns to a single meandering channel but reaches the Havel in Spandau, Berlin again as several divided channels.

The Spree Forest is an important recreation area for Berlin.

The Spree is joined to the Oder by the Oder-Spree Canal

Places on the Spree

Berlin

Berlin lies in the wide valley of the Spree. The several channels of the Spree run right through the city. The western edge of Berlin also contains part of the Havel lakes.

Berlin is not as ancient as many cities, becoming the capital of the Count of Brandenburg at the end of the 15th century. But its good communications position at the heart of the North German Plain ensured that it grew with the industrial prosperity of the kingdom of Prussia. When the king of Prussia became the German Kaiser in 1871, Berlin become the capital of the united Germany.

During the partition of Berlin into East and West Sectors, the River Spree was chosen in part as a boundary and barbed wire fences ran through it.

Berlin has been made the hub of many canals.