Bodies of water in Leipzig

Many of these watercourses have been diverted, canalised or drained for economic use, to defend the city and to protect against flooding, and new ditches and canals have also been built.

A large number of ponds and lakes have also been created for fish farming, for urban planning reasons[1] or as a result of open cast mining.

[2] The rivers Pleiße, Parthe and White Elster, which have a confluence in the Leipzig area, shaped the development of the city from early on.

The most important canal for Leipzig was the Elsterflossgraben (Elster timber rafting ditch), through which most of the firewood required in the city was transported to a place named Flossplatz.

[13][14] According to a project by the Leipzig hydraulic engineers Kohl and Georgi from the years 1852 to 1854, the flooding of the Elster and the Pleiße was subsequently changed.

[15] From about 1915, the Pleiße was heavily polluted by the introduction of untreated industrial waste water, so that between 1951 and 1956[16] the Pleißemühlgraben in the inner city area was arched up to the Goerdelerring and from there to the confluence of the Parthe in the Leipzig Zoo was filled in.

Since then, the water from the Pleißemühlgraben has flowed via a short transverse channel at the former location of the Angermühle into the Elstermühlgraben in the neighbourhood of the Waldstraßenviertel, which from there is the former natural stream bed of the Parthe.