The town of Weißensee did not have its own water supply until 1385. It was certainly thanks to the Landgrave’s initiative that a branch was built from the Helbe near Greußen to Weißensee from 1378. It is an engineering masterpiece of the late Middle Ages, as a difference in altitude of only 15.5 meters could be used as a natural gradient over a length of 19 kilometers – the water thus had a drop of less than 1 mm per meter. The open moat also had numerous terrain obstacles that had to be overcome by the master builders of the time.