The paper deals with the issue of documenting hydrological drought with the help of drought marks preserved on dozens of hunger stones in the river channel of the Elbe. These low water levels can be considered mostly as a reliable indication of annual water level minima. The overall slight downward trend of these minima since the end of the 18th century is noticeable. The minima obtained from the 16th and 17th centuries are comparable to or lower than the minima from 1842, 1868 and 1874.