Stephan Brabec was born in Vienna in 1981. He studied water management and environmental engineering at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna and history at the University of Vienna. Currently he is working at the Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, projects aimed at improving ship-based commerce by connecting various rivers boomed. One such project was the establishment of an Elbe-Vltava-Danube canal, which, however, was never completed.