Ritterhude nach Vegesack

A maritime cycle route between Ritterhude and Vegesack along the four rivers Hamme, Wümme, Lesum and Weser. Start: Ritterhuder Schleuse. The tour is not signposted. Public transport connection: Ritterhude train station. You will travel through a cultural landscape where people have lived by the water for hundreds of years. For the people on the river, the water meant blessing and distress at the same time. Blessings, as the river formed the basis of life, work and traffic. Hardship, as devastating floods cost human lives and threatened harvest and livestock damage. Along the four rivers Hamme, Wümme, Lesum and Weser you will see how man used the water, protected himself from floods with hydraulic structures and cultivated wetlands. Our tour begins in Ritterhude, whose medieval origin is due to a boat landing on the Hamme. The Dutch, who already had more experience in the fight against the flood, helped with dikes, ditches and Sielbau. Courtyards were built on Wurten. In 1874/75 the Ritterhuder lock, the so-called "gate to the Teufelsmoor" was built, in order to protect the approximately 60,000 hectare Hempel lowland from the devastating summer floods, which threatened the country from the North Sea over the Weser and Lesum for centuries. The Ritterhuder lock is a symbol of the ongoing fight of the people against the floods. It is still in operation today, especially in the summer. At the time of the lock construction there were about 1,500 peat barges in the bog area, so that the lock was designed so that in busy operation 16-18 peat ships could be carried through within 6 ½ minutes or up to 500 vehicles a day. Today, on replicas of the barges, group cruises through the beautiful river landscapes are offered. The tour continues along the listed Hindenburg dike, which was probably created around 1300. If you take a look over the dike, you will be rewarded with a beautiful view of the Hamme and Ritterhude. We arrive at Ritterhuder Schlossbrücke. The castle bridge, the dam bridge at the Ritterhuder lock as well as other historical crossings over the Hamme played an important role with the emergence Ritterhudes, because over it the traffic between Geestkante and low place took place. However, since the construction and the maintenance costs were considerable, "Klappengeld" was demanded in the 18th century by all non-Bremen bargemen as well as bridge fees from foreign wagons. In 1926, the wooden lock bridge was replaced by a modern steel structure. At low tide you can see at the reeds how high the water rises at high tide. Did you know that the tidal range (tidal difference) is greater here than on the coast? One reason for this are the Weser corrections, in which the riverbed of the Weser was deepened so that even ships with a 10-meter draft can reach the port in Bremen. As a result, the tidal range increased from 43 cm to 90 cm (1895) and by further expansion to even 4 meters. As a result, the current increased, the flood threatened the lowlands by high tide and at low tide, the water level dropped so far that ships sat on the dry land. Along the dikes, you will discover numerous meadows that lead the water from the fields into the rivers. The slates work automatically: at low tide, the water flows from the canals into the Lesum, on flood, however, the flaps close.