Why flooding in Germany is getting worse

German rivers large and small have burst their banks in recent years, causing billions of euros in damage. What is behind the seeming uptick in such disasters?

Photo by Robert Katzki on Unsplash

Dear Reader,

Germany’s mighty rivers, the Rhine in the west, the Danube in the south and the Elbe in the north, brought prosperity to local merchants in the middle ages.

But they were also a threat to the wealthy trading towns that were built on their banks.

One of the most vivid reminders of the destruction these forces of nature can wreak is a series of markings at the entrance to Schloss Pillnitz in Dresden. These record high water marks on the River Elbe all the way back into the 18th century.

The highest markings, from 2002 and 1845, almost reach the top of the sandstone gate. (Eerily, the Elbe also has records of low water marks, so-called ‘hunger stones’ that record years of drought.)

On the Elbe - which flows from the Riesengebirge in the Czech Republic, through the Saxonian states, Hamburg and into the North Sea - people have been building dykes to hold back floods for at least 800 years.

In the southwest, chronic flooding in the upper regions of…