Danube
Classified as an international waterway, it originates in the town of Donaueschingen, in the Black Forest of Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Brigach and Breg. The Danube then flows southeast for about , passing through four capital cities (Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade) before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine.
Nazi rule over the Danube River
Before World War II, international trade and commerce at the mouths of the Danube River, as well as many of the physical works needed to keep vessels from running aground, were regulated by an international agency called the European Commission of the Danube, founded in 1856. By the time the Hitlerian invasions began in 1938 the commission was composed of the riparian (river-bordering) states, plus France, Great Britain, and Italy, the chief commercial nations of Europe at that time. Above Brăila, the river was under the control of the International Danube Commission, a body composed only of the riparian states.