When Captain Helmut Steiner stepped onto the deck of his tugboat, he felt for the first time in thirty years that this might be his last voyage on the Rhine. The date was July 8, 2025, and the thermometer already read 38 degrees in the shade. The water shimmered beneath the ship, but it no longer surged with its usual power. The river had shrunk, revealing sandbanks and turning the route into a maze. His cargo — containers of spare parts for a car factory in Mannheim — only half-filled the hold. Full speed was out of the question: the latest reports showed that the water level near Koblenz had dropped to just 70 cm. The captain had to steer between the sandy shoals, checking the map almost hourly, as the current and heat rapidly changed the channel. On the riverbank, he saw signs of recent campfires — farmers fleeing wildfires waited out the disaster by the water. He saw charred trees and heard the desperate cries of gulls searching for fish that had retreated to the cooler depths. By evening, he moored in Worms. Nearby, a Czech tanker drifted as its radio operators discussed the news: the Danube had reached a historic low, and several power plants in Hungary had shut down. All of Europe seemed exhausted and scorched — by heat, by fires, by an unrelenting climate that was no longer an ally. The next morning, Helmut made a decision. He sent a message to his dispatcher: “I’m done. It’s too dangerous to sail like this.” His fingers trembled as he pressed send. And while the engine still hummed, he knew: today, the river had won. And maybe not for the last time.