It runs from the Mittelland Canal near Gifhorn to the Elbe in Artlenburg.

It forms an important transport connection between southern and northern Germany, and it provides a bypass of a section of the Elbe with limited navigability.

At the construction start it was also thought as a bypass outside the GDR, considered politically unreliable.

Due to a dam rupture, it was closed from July 1976 until June 1977.

There are small ports along the canal in Lüneburg, Uelzen and Wittingen, and a landing stage at Wulfstorf (near Bienenbüttel).