Editing Neckar (section)

==== Navigation from the 16th century onward ====
The Neckar gained importance as a waterway in the middle of the 16th century due to the beginning upper German trade. Despite many interventions in the river course in order to improve navigation, the river which had a [[towpath]], was because of dangerous rapids and shallows only navigable for smaller [[barges]] and this mostly only up to Heilbronn.

Making the upper Neckar navigable was then pushed ahead by [[Christoph, Duke of Württemberg]] who got the necessary permission from Emperor Karl V.  in 1553. The city of Heilbronn still insisted on its rights so that the river was blocked at Heilbronn which meant that the upper Neckar and therefore Württemberg remained cut off from the navigation coming from the Rhine. All shipped goods were subject to Heilbronner [[staple right]].  In the late 16th century, Duke of Württemberg, [[Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg|Frederick I]] had plans for the navigation passage but discarded those in 1598 and instead planned to construct a württembergian trade port in [[Bad Friedrichshall#Kochendorf|Kochendorf]]. – which was as unsuccessful as his successors plans to build one in [[Untereisesheim]]. During the times of need in the 17th century, the navigation was insignificant.

[[File:Ernst Fries 001.jpg|thumb|''Stift Neuburg und das Neckartal'', Ernst Fries, around 1830]]

Immediately above Mannheim interventions were necessary due to regular floods. After 1622, smaller corrections were made at the back then-existing Neckar loops between [[Mannheim]]s Feudenheim and today's Friedrich-Ebert-Bridge. Floods still occurred and threatened the city, lastly in 1784 and 1789. The situation was alleviated through the straightening of the river bed by means of for breakthroughs in combination with the lowering of the river bed as well as fortifications and dams.<ref>{{cite web|title=Die Flußkorrektion bei Mannheim und deren Einwirkung auf die Entwicklung der Stadt|url=http://digbib.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/volltexte/digital/2/932.pdf|format=PDF 15 MB|access-date=2015-08-22|last=M. Eisenlohr|pages=8–10}}</ref>

After consolidation of the situation in the 18th century, electoral palatinate market ships regularly travelled on the lower Neckar river. On the upper Neckar boats regularly travelled between Heilbronn and Cannstatt for several years around 1720; the expansion of the navigation to the Württembergian Plochingen further up the river failed due to the free imperial city of [[Esslingen am Neckar|Esslingen]]. While the electoral palatinate shipping on the lower Neckar was quite successful, the shipping on the upper Neckar was soon stopped again as the river was not suitably enough expanded for a navigation and moreover no funding was available for the further upgrading. Württemberg and the Electoral Palatinate signed a trade agreement in order to start up the Neckar navigation between Mannheim and Cannstatt during a time of economical rise in the late 18th century. In 1782 the previous two and the free imperial city of Heilbronn agreed upon facilitations in the Neckar trade but which were only of administrative nature. The Neckar still remained blocked at the weir in Heilbronn.

The [[Napoleon]]ic times around 1800 brought a downfall to the Neckar navigation. On the one hand – because most parts of the lower Neckar area had fallen to [[Grand Duchy of Baden|Baden]] and the free imperial cities of Heilbronn and Esslingen to [[Kingdom of Württemberg|Württemberg]] – the many disputes and obstructions of the former small states did not hamper the trade anymore. But during the [[Continental System]] the navigation was restricted and ships and material were confiscated. The introduction of the Mannheimer Stapels ("Mannheim stable") in 1808 meant that the merchants of Mannheim gained control over almost all Neckar trade. During the [[German Campaign]] of 1813 only small ships travelled on the Neckar, mainly military transports. The [[Congress of Vienna]] demanded the freedom of traffic on the Neckar and Rhine rivers in 1814/1815.