Möhne Reservoir

Geschichte

The Möhne Reservoir, or Moehne Reservoir, is an artificial lake in North Rhine-Westphalia, some 45 km east of Dortmund, Germany. The lake is formed by the damming of two rivers, Möhne and Heve, and with its four basins stores as much as 135 million cubic metres of water.HistoryConstruction and inaugurationCalculations of the future demand for water for the people and industry in the growing Ruhr-area in 1904 had revealed that the existing dams in the river system of the Ruhr with a storage volume of 32.4 million m³ would require the triple amount. Thus was generated by the general assembly of the Ruhrtalsperreverein on November 28, 1904 an amendment to the construction of their own dams. The Möhnetalsperre was then in 1908 to 1913 built at a cost of 23.5 million marks. In the opening the dam was the largest dam in Europe. 140 homesteads with 700 people had to move. It was built to help control floods, regulate water levels on the Ruhr river downstream, and generate hydropower. Today, the lake is also a tourist attraction.Second World WarThe dam was breached by RAF Lancaster Bombers (“The Dambusters”) during Operation Chastise on the night of 16–17 May 1943, together with the Edersee dam in northern Hesse. Bouncing bombs had been constructed which were able to skip over the protective nets that hung in the water. A huge hole of 77 m by 22 m was blown into the dam. The resulting huge floodwave killed at least 1,579 people, 1,026 of them foreign forced labourers held in camps downriver. The small city of Neheim-Hüsten was particularly hard-hit with over 800 victims, among them at least 526 victims in a camp for Russian women held for forced labour.