European Coasts of Bohemia. Negotiating the Danube-Oder-Elbe Canal in a Troubled Twentieth Century

摘要

Jiri Janac's book on the history of a major waterway project in Central Europe is a rare achievement. Efficiently combining history of technology with political history, the author succeeds in making remarkable contributions to both fields. Projects and associations striving for the integration of transport networks, including waterways, appeared in Central Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. The first plan to build a canal connecting the rivers Danube, Oder and Elbe (DOE) - and thus overcome the European watershed and link three seas - was officially formulated in the 1901 Austrian Imperial Waterway Act. The canal has not yet been built, and its construction does not seem likely in the foreseeable future, but the longevity of the project is striking. The original proposals were appropriated and reshaped by different regimes, such as the inter-war liberal-democratic Republic of Czechoslovakia, the Nazi authorities, the communist Czechoslovakia and the post-communist Czech Republic integrating to the European Union.