This work was awarded the Mannheim Promoter Prize for Inland Navigation Law in 2007. The connection concept links the federal government's sovereign administrative competence regarding waterways with ownership of federal waterways as established by the Basic Law. How does it affect this competence that the federal legislative authority over waterways currently only covers 92% of federal waterways? This question is addressed in the work, which documents the constitutional tradition of waterway administration, examines the scope of federal competence under Article 89, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law in detail, and explores the relationship between federal and state authorities in this area, while also suggesting ways to overcome the incongruence of federal legislative and administrative competences.