History of Basin II of the Fishery port
After the inauguration of Basin I in Geestemünde in 1896, other major fishery ports on the North Sea also tried to improve their position. In the same year, when Basin I went into service, the Dutch port of Ijmuiden also opened a large fishery facility. Cuxhaven followed in 1908, that project supported by the State of Hamburg.
This led the State of Prussia to plan a major extension of the Geestemünde facilities even before World War I, as Basin I at Geestemünde was proving to be more and more inadequate. Being dependent on tidal currents, too much mud was transported into the basin. Protection against inundations was also more or less questionable.
First projects were started as early as 1909 to 1910 and the necessary land was purchased. After the war, the Prussian parliament in Berlin approved the financial resources on April 23rd 1920. Comprehensive construction works followed: the Fishery port double lock (1921 to 1925), the fortification of the Geeste mouth (1921 to 1925) and the lock entrance (1922 to 1925). But the most important part of the project was no doubt Basin II, which was constructed from 1926 to 1926, together with its giant auction and packing shed no. X (1928 to 1929). A canal (1930) linked the former Geestemünde merchant port (built 1857 to 1862 and now derelict) with the other ports. Moreover, the whole area was surrounded by dykes. The new dyke protecting the seaboard stretched to the mouth of the River Geese.
This was all a very significant hydraulics project, which could be compared with the construction of the Columbus pier (inauguration 1928), and it was all conducted under very difficult general economic conditions.
Four further packing sheds (nos. XI-XIV) followed from 1935 to 1938. Between 1921 and 1938/39, the whole extension of the fishery port area cost an estimated 70 million Deutschmarks. After the Second World War, the bomb damage was repaired, and then, between 1949/50 and 1993 nine new packing and auction sheds (nos. XV to XXIII) and some refrigeration stores were erected.