The Geiseltalsee

The history of a fairly new diving lake

Just a few kilometres from the Frankleben exit of the A38 motorway, in southern Saxony-Anhalt, is Germany's largest man-made body of water - the Geiseltalsee.

Lignite was once mined on a large scale in this region. Initially, around the turn of the century in 1900, it was used to supply neighbouring sugar factories, but later also as a source of raw materials for the emerging chemical industry. The Buna works in Schkopau and the Lützkendorf mineral oil works are just two examples. Many people had to leave their villages and the course of the Geisel, a small river adjacent to the Saale, as well as the railway tracks had to be changed several times.

Open-cast mining ceased in mid-1993. The extraction of the lignite created an 80-metre-deep hole with an area of around 2600 hectares (26km²). Flooding began in 2003 and was completed in 2011.

However, the recultivation measures and thus the touristic utilisation of the lake were delayed until 2012, primarily on the southern shore.

                                                     Originalvideo unter youtube.com/watch?v=dBWAJxbHOzU

The diving infrastructure

Today, there are two diving centres on the lake: the Geiseltalsee diving centre in Frankleben in the eastern part of the lake and the Geiseltal diving centre on the peninsula near Mücheln in the western part. Both diving centres offer dives on the local shore as well as boat trips to more distant dive sites such as the famous Geiseltalsee underwater forest.

In the winter months, however, the service is only available to a limited extent due to lower demand, and so my choice when visiting the lake fell on the Geiseltal diving centre. This was founded by Heiko and Anja Günzel in 2014. Since then, the operators have been very committed to obtaining extensions for diving licences in cooperation with the local authorities. This is because diving in waters that are under mining law supervision is subject to certain conditions and these must be strictly adhered to. For example, diving in the Geiseltalsee is only permitted after registering with one of the two diving centres and only in the officially approved areas.

The diving centre

The Geiseltal Diving Centre is located right next to the Geiseltal Campsite. Sufficient car parking spaces are available. Sanitary facilities can be used with key issue via the base on the campsite. As the official local access point at the campsite is some distance away (approx. 250 metres), the base has set up a shuttle service.

The main part of the peninsula further to the east is a nature reserve and may not be accessed by car. The diving centre has obtained a special permit for this and can offer a shuttle service for divers and drive to exposed entry points on the southern shore of the peninsula.

The dive site

The underwater forest extends over a length of more than one kilometre in a water depth of between 18 and approx. 37 metres. I would estimate the width of the forest strip to be between 100 and 200 metres. To get to the eastern tip and starting point of our planned dive, you take the diver shuttle a good 2.5 kilometres across the peninsula (forest entrance). There are benches at this entrance/exit and at several other shore points in the direction of the base where you can put your equipment down. However, as the peninsula is also open to walkers and cyclists, the benches can sometimes be taken for their normal use.

The other end of the forest is marked by the ‘Wetterschutzhütte’ entrance/exit. There is also a landing stage there. The operator of the diving centre, Heiko Günzel, offers us permission to use our scooters for our plans to shoot our first video about this forest and to get to know the underwater topology. In principle, scooter dives in the underwater forest are not recommended, as breaking branches and twigs off the trees can cause irreparable damage. And as the forest is very dense, the danger is more than great.

The dive

The dive site sketch (not to scale) gives us a good orientation. After reaching the forest at around 15 to 18 metres, we turn left to the east to find the elevation with the individual trees. We can take our first shots there.

We then followed a depth line marked by old yellow measuring sticks stuck vertically in the bottom. At a depth of around 36 metres, we reach the deepest point of the forest and turn right. From a depth of 30 metres, the fine sediment in the water makes it very dark, as can be seen in the video by the clear cone of light from the lamps.

In the deeper area, the forest is very dense and you can only dive in the outer area or well above the treetops. We are able to take more pictures in some of the lighter areas. After about 30 minutes of bottom time at a maximum depth of 38 metres, we dive into the shallower part of the forest: this is much lighter and it becomes much brighter again. At a depth of between 15 and 20 metres, we follow the forest for another 40 minutes. In places, the forest stops almost completely until more trees appear 20 to 30 metres away. Here we switch to our deco gas.

After a further 10 minutes, we start the ascent so as not to unnecessarily prolong the deco time at a water temperature of 6 to 7 degrees. As I still don't know how far I have to go to get out, I keep an eye out on the surface of the water once the deco is finished. After another 12 minutes in the sun-drenched shallow water, we reach the exit point, where our shuttle bus is already waiting for us.

The conclusion

The Geiseltalsee is still a young diving water with considerable potential. In addition to the fauna, which includes many well-known fish species such as carp, pike, rudd, tench and zander, sunken boats or mining relics as well as the remaining flora from the open-cast mining hole offer varied dives. The highlight for me with only one dive there so far is of course the underwater forest, which I would like to explore in more detail with further dives in 2025.

The Geiseltal diving centre offers the necessary service for all recreational divers, such as tank filling up to 300 bar, a limited but well-selected range of diving equipment and spare parts as well as rental equipment.

We found the crew to be very hospitable and helpful and can recommend the centre to others. Perhaps the operators could renew one or two of the diving tables and consider the possibility of a Nitrox filling system, which would make diving to 30 metres a little more relaxed and safer.

Contact base:
Diving Centre Geiseltal - Heiko Günzel
Strandallee 1
06249 Mücheln OT Stöbnitz, Germany
Phone: (+49) (0)152 34013945
Mail: info@tauchzentrum-geiseltal.de
Web: https://www.adventure-dive-light.com/

Text and photos:
Jens-Uwe Lamm - underwaterFilm
Web: https://www.uw-film.de/
Mail: office@uw-film.de

Link to the YouTube video: youtube.com/watch?v=dBWAJxbHOzU