NORD OSTSEE KANAL (KIEL CANAL)

[aukepalmhof]

The stamp was issued by Germany in 1995 for the 100th Anniversary of the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal (Kiel Canal), which is a very imported canal for the shipping between the North Sea and the Baltic.

The stamp shows us not any watercraft but the shipping routes before and after 1895.
The canal passed through Schleswig-Holstein in north Germany connecting the North Sea with the Baltic and has a length of 61 miles. It has locks on both ends at Brunsbuttel and Kiel.
It saves the shipping about 250 miles, instead of going around the Jutland Peninsula
It was built between 1887-1895 and its enlargement was completed just before the First World War, after which it was in effect made an international waterway.
In 1936 Hitler repudiated the conditions imposed, but after the Second World War, it again became open to ships of all nations. Many merchant ships favor this short, easy, and cheap passage to and from the Elbe River to the Baltic.

More info is given on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiel_Canal

West Germany 1995 80p sg 2637, scott?