Opening honours

During the chancellorship of Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU), construction of the new Elbe tunnel begins in 1968. Its six motorway lanes are funded from the federal budget at a cost of 380 million Deutschmarks. After the tunnel is completed, around 600,000 people take the rare opportunity to walk between Övelgönne and the harbour area in the period between Christmas and New Year in 1974. On 10 January 1975, Schmidt, the second chancellor to follow Kiesinger, cannot pass up the opportunity to personally open the three-kilometre-long piece of architectural engineering to traffic. Local touches to the festivities include a ceremonial sip from an oversized beer glass and the recounting of an »Elbe tunnel joke« that is partly in Low German.