This digital elevation model (DEM) describes the topography of the active floodplain of the middle reaches of River Elbe between the Czech-German border near Schmilka and the weir in Geesthacht with 1 m spatial resolution in coordinate reference system "ETRS 1989 UTM Zone 33 N" and 0.01 m resolution in the German height reference system "Deutsches Haupthöhennetz 1992 (DHHN92)". The dataset was generated through aerial laser scanning (ALS) for terrestrial parts of the floodplain between April 2003 and December 2006 and echo sounding for aquatic parts of the central water course by the local waterway and navigation authorities (WSV) throughout the year 2006. Parts not covered by any of the two data collection methods were filled through linear interpolation. A comparison between DEM and 7476 height reference points confirmed a high accuracy with a mean deviation of elevations of ± 5 cm. Depending on the data source 95% of all checked points show a vertical deviation of less than 15 cm to 50 cm.A small section of the model was updated later to incorporate the dike relocation area Lenzen which became connected to the floodplain in 2011 so that the dataset describes the state of 2011.Since the dataset has a large volume it was split into 49 tiles.