Motorboat trip through Leipzig’s “Little Venice”

You can experience a very different kind of city tour on a motorboat trip through Leipzig. We enjoyed the greenery of Leipzig as we cruised along the city’s waterways.

The Leipzig city harbor is not far from Leipzig’s old town. It is currently undergoing major construction work so that a larger harbor basin with more boat moorings will soon be available. It was perhaps not the best starting point for the motorboat tour, which took us around 70 minutes along the city’s waterways. The renovations are due to be completed in 2026 and then we will be able to see the results. Luckily, we were only a few minutes away from the construction site and were able to enjoy the tranquil, beautiful river landscape.

The electric motorboats with the names Johann Sebastian Bach, Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann, which were named after famous Leipzig personalities, were moored in the city harbor. The boats, which are identical in construction and quite wide, have two long benches and a wide table in the middle. The captain, who is also the tour guide, stands at the stern of the boat and steers it on a circular course via the Elstermühlgraben, the Weiße Elster and the Karl Heine Canal back to the city harbor. Along the way, he sells drinks and tells anecdotes and stories about life along the route.

Off we go on the motorboat trip through Leipzig

Even though the sky was almost cloudless, it was quite cold at just under 8 degrees as we waited for the morning departure. Luckily there were cushions to sit on, I would have liked a blanket too, but I had to do without one.

After a few safety instructions, we set off on time and I enjoyed the peace and quiet. You can hardly hear the electric motor, just the water lapping against the hull.

The boat slowed down just before the second bridge. This bridge is so shallow that we had to put our heads on the table top so that we could pass through the fairly high water level. All the other bridges we passed during the trip were higher and we were able to stay seated without any problems.

Elstermühlgraben

The journey first takes us through the Elstermühlgraben. The ditch is an approximately 4,000-metre-long mill canal, which is now partly underground and has existed as an artificial branch of the Weiße Elster for more than 800 years.

The ditch was built in the 12th century to regulate the regular spring floods and ensure the operation of the mills. Until around 1850, the moat was still outside the Leipzig city limits. It was only with the expansion of the urban area that some of the areas on the banks were built on.

In the 20th century, due to the increasing number of industrial settlements around Leipzig’s rivers, the city began to build over them. The Elstermühlgraben was also affected by this measure. Since 2004, an approximately 1000 meter long section has been reopened. The banks have been renaturalized, creating an improvement for local residents and additional flood protection.

Today, the Elstermühlgraben is a tributary of the Elster flood bed and then merges into the Weiße Elster at the Palmengarten weir.

As we travel along the first section of our motorboat trip in Leipzig, we notice a villa on the shore. A sign on the edge of the bank tells us that this is the Villa Baedeker. Lovers of travel guides will recognize the name. It is the town villa where the Baedeker publishing family once lived. Today, the family is known worldwide for its travel guides. After the Second World War, the building also served as a temporary home for the publishing business, as the company headquarters had been destroyed. It was not until 1945 that the family relocated their business to West Germany due to increasing reprisals by the Soviet occupying power and moved out of the building shortly afterwards.

Palmenwehr

At the place where the Elstermühlgraben flows into the Weiße Elster, there is an impressive bridge construction, the so-called Palmenwehr. The Leipzig architect Wünschmann designed this structure, which is 50 meters long and 5 meters wide.

Two round arch openings allow the water to flow past the rollers. In the middle is the shooter’s house, where the drive mechanism for the rollers is located.

The motorboat passes the Palmenwehr and continues into the Weiße Elster.

Weiße Elster

The White Elster rises in the Czech Elster Mountains and has a length of 257 kilometers. It flows through Plauen, Gera and Leipzig, for example. The river flows into the Saale near Halle.

At the beginning, the riverbank is very green and we could see some river dwellers.

Later, the picture changes. The Weiße Elster runs through an area characterized by tall buildings close to the riverbank. The former factory buildings, which remind me a lot of the Speicherstadt warehouse district in Hamburg, are now mainly apartments. Sitting here on the balcony right by the water must be wonderful.

Karl-Heine-Kanal

While I’m still looking at the buildings on the banks of the river, the boat’s speed slows down. Only when our attention is drawn to it do I discover a canal that is only slightly wider than the boat at this point. Here we turn into the Karl Heine Canal and at this point I really feel like I’m in Little Venice.

The Karl Heine Canal is an artificial waterway that was built in 1856. It is around 3.3 kilometers long and connects the Lindenau harbour with the White Elster. Because the tributary to the Weiße Elster is so narrow, only small boats can navigate the canal.

One of the most interesting buildings on the canal was designed by Leipzig architect Manfred Denda and stands on an old railroad bridge. It has the shape of a ship and was used for several years by MDR as a broadcasting studio for the well-known talk show Riverboat. The building still bears the name today, even though it is no longer used as a television studio.

When we reach a former factory building, the so-called stilt house, the captain turns the motorboat around. Half the time is up and we return to Leipzig city harbor the same way.

Fancy a tour?

Various tours by motorboat through Leipzig are offered from Leipzig city harbor.

We went on the following tour:
Klein-Venedig Tour – Dauer 70 Minuten

Further tours:
Small floodplain forest tour – duration 120 minutes
Large floodplain forest tour – duration 180 minutes
Lindenau Harbor Tour – duration 150 minutes

Visitor information

Address

Stadthafen Leipzig
Schreberstraße 20
04109 Leipzig

The motorboat trip through Leipzig was part of the program of a press trip to Leipzig.