Family garden

The next station of our hike is the family garden (4) on former metalwork’s ground. It was built for the Brandenburg garden festival 2002. The visitors can rent pedal boats and travel underneath the old industrial facilities. All the factories to the left and the right are the cradle of the Brandenburg-Prussian industry. This canal has an immense importance for the industrial development. Metal processing could be done on a larger scale thanks to the water-powered mills (Iron hammer, Copper hammer, Wire hammer). Besides, there were corn mills and cutting mills for the lumber industry. The big incline of the canal guaranteed a powerful movement of the mill-wheels. The water-powered movement was dissipated into mechanic work. The mills on the Finow had a great significance until 1928 (i. e. Wehrmühle).

From 1888 to 1890 12.950 loaded ships were travelling the Finow Canal upwards as well as 4.270 rafts. In this time 2.9 million tons of goods were transported. Two thirds of the goods were headed for Berlin, mostly stones, bricks, clay, sand, gravel, wood from Russia, agricultural goods, and coal.