Kreidesee Hemmoor · Germany · Artificial reef · Freshwater
Der Rüttler
The ruined vibrating-screen plant of the old chalk works, at 20-35 m
Area photo: User:Raboe001 · CC BY-SA 2.5
The Rüttler is what remains of the quarry's vibrating screen plant, the structure that separated flint from chalk before it reached the cement works. Reached from Einstieg 2 or 3, it includes a stretch of the old paved haul road, an underground corridor once used as a workshop and rest room for the machine's operator, and a bridge built over the plant's conveyor belt, spread across roughly 20 to 35 metres.
Also known as The Vibrating Screen.
Where it is and how deep
53.6982° N, 9.1331° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The plant separated flint nodules from the chalk before it went for cement, and its ruins are the most substantial industrial remains left in the lake. Two roughly parallel underground corridors, each about three by two metres and 23 metres long, run in front of the structure; one carried a conveyor belt so quarry trucks could drive straight over it, and the other served as a workshop and rest room for the machine's operator, with a plank shelter, bunk and stove still recognisable, though grilles now keep divers from entering after repeated accidents.
A low road bridge crosses the same conveyor trench nearby; its timber deck floated away long ago, leaving only the concrete abutments, and it once let quarry trucks reach the plant without crossing the belt itself. A truck sunk deliberately as a diver attraction sits close by, and a waterproof postbox is fixed to the structure at around 20 metres: divers can drop in a sealed, waterproof postcard, and the dive base empties it weekly and posts the contents on.
Beyond the Rüttler the lake gets serious about depth: a wreck the dive base calls the Mahusan lies nearby at around 49 metres, occasionally relocated deeper, and is treated as a technical dive rather than a recreational one. Sport diving in the lake is capped at 45 metres; anything past that is trimix territory, which is part of why Einstieg 3 stays restricted to experienced divers and closed to training.
Background
A Rüttler is a vibrating screen, used here to sieve flint nodules out of the crushed chalk before it reached the kilns, since flint damaged the cement ovens. The structure and the workshop corridor that served it survive largely as they were left when mining stopped in 1976: the demolition crews who flattened the cement works above ground in 1985 backfilled only the stretch of the pit needed to stabilise the adjacent federal road, leaving this section of the old works underwater and mostly intact.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Kreidesee Hemmoor: Diveable year-round in a drysuit; semidry season runs April to November. Deep water stays near 5°C year-round; clarity depends more on weather and diver traffic than on the calendar.
Know before you go
- A second first-stage regulator is compulsory across the whole lake, including this site.
- The underground corridors in front of the plant are sealed behind grilles after repeated diving accidents.
- Einstieg 3 is closed to training dives and restricted to divers with at least 40 logged dives including five in cold water.
Sources
- Tauchplätze – Kreidesee Hemmoor — Tauchbasis Kreidesee
- Kreidesee Hemmoor — Wikipedia (German)
- Hemmoor — Taucher.Net
- OpenStreetMap node: Rüttler und Briefkasten — OpenStreetMap contributors
- OpenStreetMap node: Meisterbude und Gänge — OpenStreetMap contributors
In The Logbook
- Freshwater diving: lakes, springs and quarriesFreshwater · 15 min read
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