Warnemünde is a former fishing village on the Baltic coast, now part of the city of Rostock. A new flood protection wall is due to be built along a river in an architecturally sensitive inner-city area. Transparent or movable solutions are necessary, while the barrier must withstand water, flotsam, ice and the impact of boats of up to two tons weight. Here the optimum solution is a 4-layer laminated glass wall. The article describes the research required to establish realistic impact loads (via transient-dynamic finite element analysis), the safety concept and the applied design criteria for glass sections.