image author: Josef Spang

The crane built in 1797 was then one of the most productive in the whole of North Germany. He still characterises the picture of the water quarter directly at the Stintmarkt and the town's landmark.
The Old Crane a the Ilmenau was first recorded in 1346. Apart from lifting goods it was used mostly for the company of the Lüneburger Saline, at the one side for shipping of the there produced salt and to bring firewood ashore, which was needed for the brew-houses.
One of the last loads that were lifted with the crane's help was a locomotive for the Brunswick-Vienenburg railway in the 19th-century. It came by water from England to Lüneburg.
Over the centuries the original crane was again and again rebuilt and restored. The crane in its present form has been nearly unchanged after it was badly damaged same as many buildings in the harbour and the neighbouring bridge by floods with ice-drift in the winter of 1795.
With the building of the railway line Hamburg-Hanover, which reached die 1847 Lüneburg in 1847, the inland water way shifted to the rail in a very short time. The harbour and so also the old crane lost its importance rapidly. In the year 1860 the crane stopped working due to economic reasons (even though it was technical still in working order).

Today, the Old Crane can be seen in the course of a guided town tour.