Apart from its historical and political significance however, the so-called Wasserstrassenkreuz isalso described as an engineering masterpiece. It took six years for Ferrostaal/DSD Stahlbau to build it and cost ? 500m.

Its hub is a steel and concrete canal bridge, which is 918m long and weighs 24,000 tons.

It carries inland ships east-west above and across the River Elbe but the complex also involves a number of locks to link the Port of Magdeburg.

Local waterways official Achim Pohlmann said the junction would significantly improve inland shipping in Europe. It links the Mittelland Canal in the west with the Elbe-Havel Canal in the east and eliminates locks as well as the 12km diversion which freight convoys used to have to make to sail from east to west.

Another prominent German inland waterway official, Dieter Rehmann, said however that was not the biggest advantage of the new junction.

'Much more significant is that east-west inland shipping will no longer be dependant on water levels on the River Elbe', he said. Fully-laden modern push convoys of up to 185m can now use the junction the whole year round.

Achim Pohlmann said about four million tons of freight moved on the east-west route last year. That is tipped to rise to about 7 million tons by 2015, by which time the expansion of linked waterways and inland ports on the route between Hanover and Berlin is also expected to be completed.