Teltower Kreisschiffahrt

The Teltower Kreisschiffahrt was a passenger shipping company whose office was in what was then Neubabelsberg . The company developed into the second largest shipping company on the Brandenburg waterways before the First World War and had a decisive influence on the development of passenger shipping in the Potsdam area.

Chimney brand of the shipping company

prehistory

The origin of this shipping company goes back to the 1870s. With the establishment of the villa colony Neubabelsberg in 1871 at the Griebnitzsee , the need for passenger transport on the lake between the new station of the Wannseebahn and Neubabelsberg arose . The architects Ende and Böckmann expressed the wish for a scheduled connection on the water by a small steamer. The processing of the permit application was delayed and it was not until 1874 that Kaiser Wilhelm I consented . Two years later, the steamship Babelsberg , built by the Dresden machine factory , began its regular service. The newly founded Neu-Babelsberger Terraingesellschaft set up another line on the Havel from Klein-Glienicke towards Moorlake and Nedlitz .

Development with the opening of the Teltow Canal

With the construction of the Teltow Canal from 1900 to 1906 and the resulting new travel options and routes, the new company, the Teltower Kreisschiffahrt, established itself . According to a resolution of the Teltower district assembly on March 30, 1903, it acquired the four ships of the Neu-Babelsberger Terraingesellschaft, which operated on the Griebnitzsee and the Havel, as basic equipment and start-up capital. With the inauguration of the Teltow Canal on June 2, 1906 by Kaiser Wilhelm II and the creation of a canal connection between the Griebnitzsee and the Wannsee through the Prince Friedrich Leopold Canal , the line from the Großer Wannsee via Neubabelsberg could be followed as a new route Potsdam to be opened to the investors at the Long Bridge . With the passing of the Kleiner Wannsee, the Pohlesee and the Stölpchensee it led through a charming landscape and enabled a round trip through the Glienicke Bridge over the Jungfernsee past the Pfaueninsel back to Wannsee. The new shipping company was very popular. In 1906 over 300,000 passengers traveled with the Teltower Kreisschiffahrt , which meant that the existing capacities were no longer sufficient and the existing fleet had to be expanded. Several motor boats were purchased and four twin screw steamers were commissioned. The Teltower Kreisschiffahrt had to ride in their activity for the time being of the Havel and the western sections of the Teltow Canal limit. The ships had to meet special requirements for the project to expand the shipping area further east on the artificial waterway in the direction of the Spree to Müggelsee and Dahme to Grünau and Schmöckwitz. As a result of the higher speed of passenger steamers, the negative effects on the bank reinforcement and the canal bottom had to be kept as low as possible. A smoke nuisance to the residents of the Teltow Canal should be excluded. The ships were only allowed to be operated with so-called smokeless firing . With the involvement of a research institute for hydraulic engineering and shipbuilding and intensive studies, a completely new type of ship was developed with the renowned shipyard of the Sachsenberg brothers in Roßlau on the Elbe , which became known as the Teltower Igel . These new ships had no typical for steamships straight Steven , but utilized the spoon bow . They were driven by two petroleum motors each with a total of 100 hp. Until the outbreak of the First World War, four ships, the Teltow , the Tempelhof , the Neukölln and the Wilmersdorf were ordered. Each of the ships had a maximum passenger capacity of 550 people. In 1914 the shipping company had nine steamships and thirteen motorized watercraft. Together they had a capacity of over 4500 people. In the main area of operation, the western Teltow Canal and the Havel between Wannsee and Potsdam, six lines were served on schedule. In addition, inexpensive special trips to the east were offered to Müggelsee and to Rauchfangswerder to Zeuthener See .

After the First World War

The First World War brought considerable losses for the Brandenburg passenger shipping. The hoped-for post-war upswing failed to materialize. There was inflation and there was no money for pleasure trips on the Havel and Spree. Survival was particularly difficult for the large companies. In order to drive reasonably profitably on the attractive routes on the Havel, the two large shipping companies, the Stern-Gesellschaft and the Teltower Kreisschiffahrt, set up a joint service in 1922. In the Potsdam area the company operated for the first time under the name Stern und Kreisschiffahrt. The economic success was limited and so from April 1, 1928 the joint service was extended to all lines in Berlin and the surrounding area. The global economic crisis that hit Germany at the end of 1929 brought further losses . In November 1932, the Stern Society also fell into the wake of economic decline. She had to file for bankruptcy. In the summer of 1934, Teltow-Kanal AG acquired all the ships and from now on the company operated under the name Stern and Kreisschiffahrt . The new company owned 26 steamers, 10 motorboats and 12 motorboats. The shipping company's offices were located in Potsdam on the Lange Brücke and in Neubabelsberg on the Parkbrücke zu Kleinglienicke .

After 1945

With the currency reform in 1948 and the establishment of the two German states in 1949, Stern und Kreisschiffahrt was expropriated, like other companies in the former Soviet occupation zone. The company withdrew to what was then Berlin's western sector, where it developed into a large passenger shipping company.

Trivia

The Berliners also called the shipping company sign of the Teltower Kreisschiffahrt "tea with some rum", because the chimney brand consisted of the large Latin letter T in a circle " around it ".

literature

100 years of the Teltow Canal 1906–2006 - commemorative publication of the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration. Wasser- und Schifffahrtsdirektion Ost (Ed.), Magdeburg 2006.

The construction of the Teltow Canal , section: The building yard . In: Zeitschrift für Bauwesen , 56th year, 1906, Sp. 663/664.

Jan Feustel , Horst Köhler: Lifeline through swamp and sand , 100 years of the Teltow Canal . 1st edition. Hendrik Bäßler Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-930388-36-7 .

Kurt Groggert: Passenger shipping on the Havel and Spree . Berlin contributions to the history of technology and industrial culture, volume 10. Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-7759-0153-1 .

Horst Köhler: The Teltow Canal. A lifeline in the south of Berlin . Stapp Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-87776-036-8 .

Karola Paepke, H.-J. Rook (ed.): Sailors and steamers on the Havel and Spree . 1st edition. Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, 1993, ISBN 3-89488-032-5 .

Dieter and Helga Schubert: Passenger shipping in Berlin . Series: Pictures of Shipping . Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-120-2 .

Individual evidence

↑ Kurt Groggert: Personenschiffahrt on the Spree and Havel . In: Berlin contributions to the history of technology and industrial culture, series of publications by the Museum for Transport and Technology, Vol. 10, p. 191. Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung Beuermann GmbH, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-87584-253-7 .

[1] Kurt Groggert: Personenschiffahrt on the Spree and Havel . In: Berlin contributions to the history of technology and industrial culture, series of publications by the Museum for Transport and Technology, Vol. 10, p. 191. Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung Beuermann GmbH, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-87584-253-7 .