The Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, is officially opened.

The Kiel Canal is a 98-kilometer-long (61 mi) fresh water canal that links the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. It runs through the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, from Brunsbüttel to the Holtenau district of Kiel. It was constructed from 1887 to 1895 and widened from 1907 to 1914. In addition to the two sea entrances, at Oldenbüttel the Kiel Canal is linked to the navigable River Eider by the short Gieselau Canal.

Jutland is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It stretches from the Grenen spit in the north to the confluence of the Elbe and the Sude in the southeast. The historic southern border river of Jutland as a cultural-geographical region, which historically also included Southern Schleswig, is the Eider. The peninsula, on the other hand, also comprises areas south of the Eider: Holstein, the former duchy of Lauenburg, and most of Hamburg and Lübeck.