Austrian merchant navy

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National and sea flag of Austria
Flag of Austria.svg
Vexillological symbol : Civic flag and commercial flagNormal or de jure version of a flag?
Aspect ratio: 2: 3
Officially accepted: May 1, 1945
Ship on the Danube in Vienna

The Austrian or Austro-Hungarian merchant navy developed by the outbreak of the First World War into the tenth largest merchant navy in Europe with around 2000 steamships - 200 of them in international ocean shipping - with a total tonnage of around 740,000 GRT . As a landlocked country , Austria still has shipping companies for river and ocean-going shipping, but since 2012 no commercial ocean-going ships have been sailing under the Austrian flag.

history

In addition to the boats and ships used for fishing, coastal shipping developed in the Austrian coastal region at the time of the Habsburgs, due to a lack of efficient roads and railway lines, which transported a wide variety of goods and food between the port cities.

Manufacturers based in Austria were looking for sales markets for their products, and trading companies were set up that opened up these markets and in return imported goods and raw materials required domestically.

The shipping companies that were created ran liner services or free shipping with passengers or freight.

Before the outbreak of World War I, the Austro-Hungarian merchant navy had around 2,000 steamships - including around 200 ocean-going steamers - with almost 740,000 GRT, making it the tenth largest merchant marine in Europe. These included 228 steamers with 138,692 gross tons and a crew of 2,267 from the Hungarian merchant navy, which was mainly established in Fiume (Rijeka).

Inland navigation was also part of the merchant navy, with the Danube Steamship Company as the most prominent representative. The DDSG was so dominant on the Danube that its story also told the story of Danube shipping for a long time. It is unclear whether shipping on Austria's numerous lakes also counts as merchant shipping. But it shouldn't be forgotten here.

Under Habsburg rule

The black and yellow trade flag was officially prescribed for Austrian ships in 1749. In 1786 it was replaced by the red-white-red flag.

Originally dominated Republic of Venice the sea trade in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean . Despite this fact, there were shipping companies in the Austrian port city of Trieste in the middle of the 15th century . At that time, besides the trade in goods (mainly wine and grain ), the passenger business with pilgrims to Rome was a profitable business.

A patent from Emperor Charles VI. of June 2, 1717 threatened that he would punish any nuisance inflicted on the ships of his subjects as if it had happened to one of his provinces. Venice understood, and this brought free traffic for Adriatic shipping. However, they were powerless against the North African pirates , mostly operating from Morocco , and so only the trade in the Adriatic and with the Levant in the eastern Mediterranean, where one could sail in ships from Venice, the city republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and the Kingdom of Naples had tough competition. In another patent dated March 18, 1719, Charles VI. the ports of Trieste and Fiume (Croatian Rijeka ) to free ports.

In 1749 the obligation to carry boarding papers was introduced. Every Austrian (Erbländische) ship had to carry a flag patent and passport as the basis for the right to use the flag and the shipping operations in general. In order to obtain such a patent, a formal oath had to be taken to comply with special regulations and to protect the flag's reputation. A fee was payable for this act, from which only very small and fishing vessels were excluded. 1754 and 1755 had Maria Theresia strong financial afford to avoid the downfall of Trieste as a trade and shipping center.

An important introduction was the "Navigation Edict" from 1774. It contained a precise list of the rights and duties of port masters, skippers and ship crews. A ship's clerk was prescribed for ships for further voyages, and the wage regulations and on-board discipline were regulated. In order to make the profession of seaman more attractive, those who devoted themselves to seafaring, shipbuilding or fishing and had them entered in the nautical registers were exempted from military service. Destitute widows of seafarers who perished while serving at sea received a pension.

The ship's officers caused problems. There were too few of them, so somehow you had to help yourself. Although it was actually forbidden, foreigners were allowed as captains . It often happened that an Austrian was formally the ship's captain and a foreign captain was in command. For these reasons, a school for mathematics and nautical science was founded in Trieste to train naval officers of Austrian nationality. The students received scholarships . Fiume also became the seat of the Hungarian Nautical Academy (training naval officers for the Hungarian merchant navy) and the Imperial and Royal Naval Academy (training naval officers for the joint navy ).

In 1832, the Austrian Lloyd was founded in Trieste as an information center for shipping, and in 1836 the steamship section was brought into being. Emperor Ferdinand I and Empress Maria Anna visited Trieste in 1844 and on the occasion also took a trip on the latest Lloyd steamer "Imperator". On September 18 of the same year the emperor sent the governor of the coastal country a letter in which he instructed him "... to give the management of this institute to recognize my complete satisfaction and to assure the same of my excellent protection ...".

For merchant shipping in general and for the city of Trieste in particular, the laying of the foundation stone on March 13, 1850 by Emperor Franz Joseph I for the southern station of the railway line Vienna - Trieste, which was continuously passable from 1857, was important. The Austrian railway administration later even offered its own “Adria tariff” for freight traffic. In November 1868, after the settlement between Austria and Hungary , Fiume was assigned to the Hungarian half of the empire as a direct imperial area. The Hungarian government then invested heavily in the expansion of the port and made it a competitor to Trieste.

Since the previous port facilities were no longer able to cope with the increased requirements, the expansion of the port facilities began in 1867 and was completed in 1887. Many ships for the merchant navy and navy (for example SMS Szent István ) were built in the Fiume shipyards . Deadly products from Fiume were the torpedoes from the Whitehead shipyard . In 1914 Fiume had three important ports: the petroleum harbor (porte petrolio) in the immediate vicinity of the petroleum refinery, the "Great Harbor" and the wooden harbor. There was also the port of the Naval Academy and the old wine port, which only presented itself as a boat harbor.

With the outbreak of war, many changed officers of the merchant navy uniform and appeared as reserve officers in service in the Navy at. The ships were used for the transport of material and troops, but this time without the helpful beacons and lighthouses , their freedom of movement restricted by minefields . About eight ships made up the medical fleet , passenger ships converted into hospital ships. During the four-year war, according to the meticulous bureaucracy even during the war, 148,797 sick and wounded were transported by October 20, 1918.

Organizations, institutions and shipyards

The Fiume Nautical Academy

The highest authority responsible for the merchant marine was the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Commerce .

The maritime authority founded in Trieste on May 1, 1850, with its offices, the port and medical facilities, was subordinate to him. These were further subdivided into port captains, port deputations, port agents, port expositions and sea hospitals.

The equalization between Austria and Hungary in 1867/1868 also divided the coastal area and with it the responsible administration. In 1870 the central maritime authority in Trieste was replaced by the maritime authority in Trieste, responsible for the Austrian - Illyrian - Dalmatian coastal area, and the maritime authority in Fiume (Rijeka), responsible for the Hungarian - Croatian littoral .

The Austrian kk maritime authority was responsible for the port and captaincy districts of Trieste, Rovigno ( Rovinj ), Pola ( Pula ), Lussino ( Lošinj ), Zara ( Zadar ), Spalato ( Split ), Ragusa ( Dubrovnik ) and Meljine . This area of ​​activity, which ran from the Italian to the Montenegrin state border, was interrupted by that of the Royal Hungarian Maritime Authority in Fiume with the port captains Fiume, Buccari ( Bakar ), Porto Ré ( Kraljevica ), Selce , Zengg ( Senj ) and Carlobago ( Karlobag ).

The tasks of the maritime authorities were, among other things, the regulation and supervision of maritime shipping and the creation of the necessary rules and regulations. Further duties were the maintenance of ports, lighthouses and lighthouses, but also the supply and support of seafarers in need and their families as well as the establishment of training institutions for sea service. There were four of these:

  • Nautical section of the Imperial and Royal Trade and Nautical Academy in Trieste
  • Lussinpiccolo Nautical School ( Mali Lošinj )
  • Nautical School Ragusa ( Dubrovnik )
  • Cattaro Nautical School ( Kotor )

In order to be able to carry out all these varied tasks, the maritime authorities had numerous ships designed for the various tasks. There was even a rock drill ship.

The most important port and shipyard cities in Austria-Hungary were Trieste for the Austrian half and Fiume for the Hungarian half . There, and in neighboring communities, there were not only the largest shipyards, the Stabilimento Tecnico Fiumano (later Whitehead shipyard ) and the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino , but also numerous other small and larger shipyards. The Korneuburg shipyard was of great importance for river navigation, as was the ÖSWAG shipyard in Linz.

Trading companies and shipping companies in the ocean shipping sector

The shipping companies mentioned are the largest and best known of their time in Austria or Austria-Hungary. But there were also numerous family businesses with just one ship.

  • First oriental trading company
The First Oriental Trading Company was founded in 1667 and traded in cloth and iron goods, even reaching Persia . The Turkish War of 1683 brought its end. It is unclear, however, whether it maintained its trade relations by land or by sea.
  • Second oriental trading company
After the Peace of Passarowitz with Turkey , which brought the Austrian merchants freedom of trade and navigation as well as the exemption from taxes in the Ottoman Empire, the Second Oriental Trading Company was founded in Vienna in 1719. This resumed the Danube trade, which had collapsed due to the Turkish wars, and wanted to rely on the free ports of Trieste and Fiume for the planned trade relations with Spain , Portugal and North Africa. The development of the Second Oriental Trading Company was hampered by competition from Venice and poor land routes. The ultimate end was the bankruptcy of a lottery company. The arsenal of the "Oriental Compagnie" in Trieste was demolished in 1740.
  • East Indian trading company
The East Indian trading company, founded in Ostend in 1719 , docked at the mouth of the Ganges in Banki Basar (1722) as well as on the east coast of Western Asia, on the Coromandel coast south of Madras ( Sadatpatnam , 1719) and in canton trading branches . Since England saw this trading company as a competitor, they had to emperor Charles VI. dissolve as the price for consenting to the Pragmatic Sanction in 1731. The operation was stopped in 1727.
  • East Indian trade company in Trieste
Captain Wilhelm Bolts, who worked for the British trading company in India for ten years and is based in Trieste, presented Maria Theresia with a memorandum in 1775 in which he drew attention to the establishment of an Austrian trading company for the East Indian region. Maria Theresa allowed the establishment of a trading company which was endowed with imperial privileges and whose ships were given the right to fly the imperial flag with the double-headed eagle. In 1776 the ships "Joseph" and "Theresia" left Trieste. In March 1777, the Delagoa Bay on the south-east coast of Africa was reached, where Captain Bolts acquired the port from a chief and declared it an Austrian colony. A small fortification was built and equipped with nine cannons.
The pleasure steamer Thalia of Österreichischer Lloyd showed "travel enthusiasts" the "most beautiful and most interesting points of the Mediterranean".
Presumably around the turn of the year 1777/1778 the voyage was continued in the direction of the Indian Ocean leaving a crew of ten men behind . The return to Trieste took place after an absence of four years. On board the ships was mainly saltpeter , which was urgently needed for gunpowder production, but spices were also brought along. The fleet was then expanded, and the workforce in the small colonies was increased to around 1,000 men. Business stalled around 1783. The competition from the other naval powers was too strong, and there was probably a lack of local crews and officers for the ships. Emperor Joseph II declared the colonial business to be “very confused”, trading operations were discontinued and the trading company dissolved.
  • DDSG
The Erste Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft was initially active on the Danube after it was founded in 1829, but had its first sea steamer Maria Dorotea built in Trieste as early as 1834 . This made this ship the first steam-powered seagoing ship in Austria. In the following years the DDSG was mainly active in the Black Sea , but also in the Aegean Sea and the Levant as far as Alexandria . The fleet quickly grew to 6 seagoing vessels, but was sold to Österreichischer Lloyd in 1845 .
  • Austrian Lloyd
The Austrian Lloyd was founded in Trieste in 1833 based on the model of Lloyd's in London . In 1836 a shipping line was founded, the original main line of which was the Levant, where it also carried the post ("Levantepost") and, after the opening of the Suez Canal, only operated to Bombay and later to Japan . Lloyd quickly advanced to become the largest shipping company in Austria-Hungary and operated 65 medium and large steamships with tonnages of up to 9,000 GRT until the outbreak of the First World War .
The Emperor Franz Joseph I of the Austro-Americana was the largest Austrian merchant ship ever completed
  • Austro-Americana
The aim of Austro-Americana , founded in 1895 by entrepreneurs and freight forwarders, was to set up a freight line to North America and the Gulf of Mexico with its home port of Trieste. It started with four ships bought second-hand in England, to which more were added later. After the fleet was expanded by 14 steamers, passenger shipping and an emigration service were added from 1904 . In 1906 the right was added to accept Italian emigrants in Palermo and Naples and bring them to the USA . In order to avoid unnecessary competition, the areas of influence were contractually divided with Österreichischer Lloyd . In addition to free shipping, Austro-Americana operated lines to New York , Philadelphia , New Orleans , Antilles, Buenos Aires and Montevideo, among others .
SS "Árpád" (subject: A. Kircher ), Hungarian Shipping Company "Adria"
  • Hungarian shipping company "Adria"
In 1882 the Hungarian shipping company "Adria" was founded with its original seat in Budapest . The first ship left on January 15, 1882. Three years later, the liner service extended to Malta , Tunis and Algiers . In 1891 Hungary left Lloyd, which had been jointly managed since 1870, and concentrated on the "Adriatic". The liner service of the later "Royal Hungarian Shipping Company Adria" ran from Fiume to Liverpool and Glasgow , to Spanish, Portuguese and French ports, to Hamburg and Brazil . The line to Brazil took over from 1907 the Austro-Americana.
  • Ungaro croata
The merger of two small steamship companies on the Hungarian coast came about under the influence of the Hungarian government and resulted in the "Ungaro-Croata". Until 1914 this shipping company had 49 ships and sailed from Fiume to Albania and operated the small coastal shipping in Dalmatia.

Free shipping, tramp shipping

While Österreichischer Lloyd and Austro-Americana mainly operated passenger and cargo shipping in regular service, the shipping companies mentioned here were so-called trampers .

  • Allgemeine Österreichische Schiffahrtsgesellschaft Gerolimich und Co, Trieste
  • Steam shipping corporation GL Premuda, Trieste
  • Steamship company Eredi Matteo Premuda and Co. Lussinpiccolo
  • Lussino Steamship Company, Lussinpiccolo
  • Navigazione Libera Triestina - AG (NLT), Trieste
  • Shipping company Carlo Martinolich and Figlio, Trieste
  • Shipping company Diadato Tripcovich and consorts, Trieste
  • Shipping company Giovanni Racich and consorts, Ragusa
  • Shipping company Marco and Martinolich and consorts, Lussinpiccolo
  • Napried shipping company, Ragusa
  • Shipping company Tommaso Cossovich and consorts, Trieste
  • Unione shipping company, Ragusa

Together, the shipping companies mentioned here owned over 100 steamers with over 317,396 GRT

Short trip, coastal shipping

The line network of the Dalmatia around 1900

The entrepreneurs of the small coastal shipping mostly took care of the transport on the Dalmatian and Istrian coast.

  • Austrian Steamship Company "Dalmatia"
Founded in 1908 with the participation of Österreichischer Lloyd from four small shipping companies, it developed into the most important company in this category and operated around 30 shipping lines in the Istria-Dalmatia area. In 1914 this shipping company had 33 steamers (a total of 8,836 GRT).
  • Steamship corporation "Ragusea"
The service between Trieste and Cattaro and a line to Bari were provided with five steamers (together 3,046 GRT).
  • Steamship corporation "Istria-Trieste"
Eleven ships with a total of 2,190 GRT performed the daily postal service between Trieste and the naval port in Pula, and various lines were also served.
  • Steamship company “Jadran” Ltd., Spalato
Two steamers operated weekly between Trieste and Metcovich
  • Steamship joint-stock company "Austro-Croata", Veglia island
Four steamers in liner service between Ponte-Fiume (daily), Fiume-Lovrana (4 times a week) and to the Quarnerian Islands.

Danube shipping

Also part of the Austrian (Austro-Hungarian) merchant shipping was inland shipping with the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft on the Danube, which was overshadowed by the "salt water fleet" due to the lack of exotic destinations and less impressive ships.

The history of inland navigation begins with rafts and rowing boats, dugout canoes. One of the most important transported goods about 200 years ago was table salt from the kk Saline Ebensee . This was transported down the Traun to the Danube , where it was reloaded on rafts, the officially regulated size of which was not allowed to exceed 60 meters in length and 15 meters in width.

Between 1813 and 1817 attempts were repeatedly made to sail the Danube with steamboats, because if successful, an imperial and royal privilege beckoned. But no one had lasting success.

It was not until 1829 that one of the two Englishmen John Andrews and Joseph Prichard had success with a company they had founded and was granted a privilege to sail the Danube, initially limited to fifteen years. With the constituent general assembly on March 13, 1829, the foundation of the stock corporation was completed, the " First Danube Steamship Company " DDSG was born.

On July 26th, 1830 the first ship ("Franz I.") of the DDSG was launched in Floridsdorf . Due to the success, two more steamships were ordered in 1832, which were (probably) also built in the shipyard in Floridsdorf.

In 1834, according to plans by Count Stefan Széchenyi, work began on making the section of the Danube between Drenkova and Juc navigable. In the same year, a sea steamer was launched at the Panfilli shipyard in Trieste to connect the mouth of the Danube with Constantinople.

In 1845, however, the DDSG shipping company, which had meanwhile consisted of six ships, was sold to Österreichischer Lloyd. However, this undertook to maintain regular traffic to Constantinople.

In 1888 the Hungarian Minister of Commerce ordered the establishment of its own shipping company, which was to be owned by the Hungarian State Railways Magyar Allamvasutak (MÁV), thereby establishing the royal Hungarian Danube steamship. With the takeover of the rail network of the Staats-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (St.EG), St.EG-Schifffahrt also came into Hungarian ownership. In 1895, due to political disputes in Hungary, MÁV's Danube shipping was stopped. Királyi Magyar Folyam-és Tengerhajózási RT (MFTR) - the “Royal Hungarian River and Sea Shipping Company” - was founded as a state shipping line on January 24, 1895. The stock of MÁV, Raaber (Györ) Dampfschiffahrts AG and some small shipping companies were taken over for ship operation.

The work, the Iron Gates to make passable, were completed in 1896 and in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I. celebrated.

The end of the First World War brought both the DDSG and the Royal Hungarian River and Sea Shipping Company the loss of ships and shipyards to successor states, but of course also changed traffic and economic conditions.

Inland sea shipping

The oldest known boat guild in Austria is that of Gmunden am Traunsee . Mainly the salt from the Ebensee saltworks was transported here, later also lime for the Ebenseer ammonia and soda factory . The Traunsee was also the first lake ever to be visited by an Austrian steamboat. The test run of the steamer "Sophie" took place on April 22nd, 1839; the commissioning took place on May 15th, 1839.

In 1853 steam shipping began on the Wörthersee in Carinthia . On October 9th, the paddle steamer “Maria Wörth”, which sailed the Wörthersee and the Lend Canal, was put into service. In 1913 the “Wörther-See-Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft der Stadtgemeinde Klagenfurt GmbH” was founded under the mayor of Klagenfurt , Ritter von Metnitz. Despite several name changes over the course of its history, this shipping line still exists today.

From the end of the Thirty Years War , Lake Constance developed into the busiest inland lake in Europe. Steam shipping began in 1824. It was not until September 15, 1884 that the first two Austrian steamships (“Austria” and “Habsburg”) of the kk Bodensee-Dampfschiffahrtsinspektion Bregenz of the kk state railways started service.

Shipping companies also followed on the other larger alpine lakes, mainly dedicated to passenger shipping because of the beginning tourism.

Known for the operetta "The White Horse", both the Wolfgangsee shipping with steamers (since 1873 the paddle steamer "Kaiser Franz Joseph I") and the Schafbergbahn (construction work began in 1892).

During the First World War, many of the shipping lines on Austria's inland lakes had to cease operations because there was a lack of coal to operate the steam engines.

Division of the merchant fleets - The First Republic

With the end of the First World War and the associated loss of its own ports, the 1st Republic lost the international ocean shipping industry that had been renowned up until then. The ships of the former Austro-Hungarian merchant marine who had survived the First World War had, according to the Paris suburb of contracts to drive up to clarify the new ownership among blue-white-blue of Inter flag. When this was clarified, the shipping companies met different fates:

  • Ocean shipping companies:
    • The Austrian Lloyd was put under Italian administration and 1921 for Lloyd Triestino , the continued operation scheduled service to the new millennium, but gave up the passenger traffic in the 1970s.
    • The Austro-Americana was taken over by the Cosulich family and became the Unione di Navigazione SA , and from 1919 to the Cosulich Società Triestina di Navigazione - in short: Cosulich line . In 1937, after a change of ownership, the company became Italia - Società anonima di Navigazione .
    • The Hungarian Adria was also taken over by the Cosulichs and continued as Società anonima di Navigazione Marittima Adria until the bankruptcy in 1936 .
  • Coastal shipping companies:

Danube shipping

After the First World War, provisions were anchored in the peace treaties with Germany, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria , which allowed navigation on the Danube for every state and every flag. Two commissions had to ensure that unhindered navigation was actually possible. The European Danube Commission controls the section from the mouth to Braila, and the International Danube Commission watches over the entire stretch of the river.

In 1924 the DDSG and the MFTR from Hungary moved closer together and acquired the shares in the southern German Danube Steamship Company. In 1927 Bayerischer Lloyd joined this operating group. In 1934 agreements followed with the Czechoslovak, Yugoslav and Romanian Danube shipping, which remained in force until the end of the Second World War .

In 1935 the DDSG was rehabilitated with state aid and capital from Italy.

Inland sea shipping

With the end of the First World War and the improvement of the economic situation, the various shipping lines went back into service. In some cases, the ownership structure had changed. So the ownership of the Traunseeschifffahrt changed from the son of the English founder Joseph John Ruston, interned as a foreigner , to Rudolf Ippisch on January 1st, 1918.

The ships of the Lake Constance fleet changed their names if they were reminiscent of the dual monarchy - an act that was probably carried out on all ships flying the Austrian flag. The Austrian ships on Lake Constance became the property of the Austrian Federal Railways .

On Lake Constance and also on the other lakes, the switch from steamers to motor ships began.

The sensation of the Wörthersee was not a “miracle ship”, but the seaplane “Nelly” stationed in Pörtschach am Wörthersee . Sightseeing flights were organized with this veteran of the Austro-Hungarian naval aviation . However, the plan of a line connection to Lake Millstatt and Lake Ossiach was never implemented. After the connection of Austria to the Third Reich "Nelly" was still the swastika painted, then she disappeared from the scene.

Ocean shipping

The declaration recognizing the right of flag States without marine coast of Barcelona from 1921 secured States without seaboard right to engage in maritime flying their flag. In Austria this was used by the Vega shipping company based in Vienna , which was founded by the former submarine commander Georg Ludwig von Trapp together with like-minded people. The shipping company had a branch in Hamburg and was mainly active in the North and Baltic Seas .

During the National Socialism

The annexation of Austria to the Third Reich made the red-white-red flag disappear from the waters by 1945.

Inland sea shipping

The fuel rationing during the Second World War brought the decommissioning of modern motor ships this time. Only emergency operation with the outdated steamers was still possible.

While the front was approaching Lake Constance towards the end of the war, the district leadership of the Lindau NSDAP decided to sink the ships of the Lake Constance fleet so as not to turn them into French war booty.

The Deutsche Reichsbahn implemented a confidential agreement with the Swiss Maritime Inspectorate and brought the ships to safety in Switzerland . In June 1945 the ships returned to their home ports under French supervision.

From 1942, the ships on the Wörthersee also took over the transport of mail, but the timetables were cut and only small motor ships were used.

In the Second Republic

After the Second World War, the Austrian shipyards were nationalized. In 1974 the Korneuburg shipyard and the Linz shipyard became the Österreichische Schiffswerften AG Linz Korneuburg (ÖSWAG). In the heyday that followed, ÖSWAG also manufactured ocean-going ships for countries in the Middle East. The main customer country was the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991. Since the privatization and the closure of the Korneuburg shipyard shortly afterwards, ÖSWAG in Linz, also privatized since 1992, has been the largest and at the same time the only shipyard in Austria that produces passenger and cargo ships for river and inland sea shipping in Europe.

Danube shipping

The Second World War not only brought heavy losses of floating material to the DDSG . As a result, this very Austrian company was suddenly declared "German property" by the Soviets . Ships and facilities in the Soviet occupation zone, such as the Korneuburg shipyard , were confiscated and continued as a USIA operation.

In order to protect the ships and facilities lying on the Upper Austrian southern bank of the Danube from further confiscation, they were confiscated by the Austrian government, which resulted in de facto two DDSG. In 1952, an agreement was concluded between Austria and the Soviet Union that enabled the DDSG ships previously in Linz to resume operations. The first voyage of a DDSG ship over the demarcation line from Linz to Vienna took place in 1954.

From October 1, 1991, DDSG was restructured with a division into the two newly founded subsidiaries “ DDSG-Donaureisen ” and “ DDSG-Cargo ”. DDSG-Cargo GmbH was sold to the Stinnes Group in 1993. In 1995, the decision was made to liquidate "DDSG-Donaureisen GmbH" by selling the passenger ships and individual properties.

The Twin City Liner in Vienna's Danube Canal

In place of the disbanded DDSG, the buyers of the passenger ships came as successors, but also ship trips from Western European shipping companies who, thanks to the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal , were able to include trips on the Danube in their program.

On June 1, 2006, the newly built ship “ Twin City Liner ” started the regular service between Vienna and Bratislava . Since the Schwedenplatz departure point in Vienna avoids the tedious driving through the lock system of the Freudenau power plant , the journey from the city center of Bratislava to the city center of Vienna takes around 75 minutes.

Inland sea shipping

Thanks to a special French permit, regular services between Bregenz and Constance could be resumed in October 1945 with the steamer "Stadt Bregenz" . The race took place under the French and Austrian flags.

In 1964, the Bodenseeschifffahrt operated by the Austrian Federal Railways hit the headlines when the newly built ship was to be baptized with the name “Karl Renner”. A demonstration of over 20,000 people finally put the name “Vorarlberg” through (see Fußach affair ).

In addition to the modernization of the fleets, the wave of nostalgia of the post-war period also brought the salvation to rusting steamships. At the Wörthersee, for example, a building block campaign was launched to save the small steamer “Thalia” from 1909 from being scrapped. In 1988 this ship was restored, modernized and put back into service after a fourteen-year layover.

Ocean shipping

Stefan Kreppel founded the new Österreichischer Lloyd in 1951 , which has since developed into a medium-sized European shipping company. In 2000, the company's own fleet consisted of 23 ocean-going vessels (container ships, bulk carriers, refrigerated ships, special ships). A subsidiary formerly based in Vienna (“Österreichische Lloyd Ship Management”) looked after around 50 ships technically and personally.

Other Austrian ocean shipping companies were Christian Klein GmbH, Thule Reederei GmbH and Österreichische Reederei AG.

From 1956 VÖEST also operated its own shipping company with ocean-going ships: the Ister shipping company , based in Bremen . According to the company headquarters in Bremen, the ships were registered under the German flag despite the Austrian majority owner. However, the shipping company was sold in 1987 and fully integrated into a partner shipping company.

Misfortunes

In the following, some of the largest shipping accidents involving Austrian and Austro-Hungarian ships (before 1918) are named, as well as larger shipping accidents on Austrian inland waters.

Beethoven

For the training to become a captain or helmsman, service on a sailing ship was also required. Since these had to give way more and more to steamships, in 1913 a shipping association bought the disarmed Norwegian sailing ship “Beethoven”, which was lying in the port of Genoa .

After the re-equipment, the ship ran for the first training voyage under the kk trade flag to Cádiz , to sail via Montevideo to Newcastle in Australia . On March 29, 1914, the Beethoven set off from Newcastle to Valparaíso with 3,104 tons of coal .

The Beethoven never arrived in Valparaiso with the commander, his wife, three officers, a crew of 12 and 19 cadets as officer candidates . There was never a trace of the ship or any indication of where it sank. The reasons for the decline can only be guessed at.

Baron Gautsch

On August 13, 1914, the steamship Baron Gautsch , owned by Österreichischer Lloyd and named after the Austrian Prime Minister Paul Gautsch , drove into a minefield near to on the voyage from Veli Lošinj to Trieste despite information from the Navy and warning signals from a mine- layer Pola (Croatian Pula ).

According to reports from surviving passengers, the ship's crew was primarily concerned with their own rescue.

Torpedo boats that ran out of Pola tried to rescue the passengers who had jumped into the sea. Nevertheless, 147 of the more than 300 people on board - mostly women and children - perished.

This catastrophe was kept secret for propaganda reasons , and in the turmoil of the post-war period there was never a judicial clarification or compensation for the survivors or the heirs of the victims. The recovered victims were buried in the Pola naval cemetery next to members of the Navy.

Information about the Baron Gautsch can be found almost exclusively in connection with diving trips, the wreck of which has obviously become a popular destination.

Linz

“The whole world is talking about the Titanic, we have been forgotten!” Said a survivor of the largest ship disaster in the Austrian merchant navy. On the night of March 18 to 19, 1918, the Austrian Lloyd steamer Linz , like many other civilian ships in World War I, was requisitioned by the Austro-Hungarian Navy and used as a passenger transporter for the Balkan Army, at Cape Rodon off the coast of Albania when an enemy U- Boat attack sunk by a torpedo. In just 25 minutes, the steamer sank, stern first, in the waves. Of the estimated 3,000 people on board, only 291 were rescued. Older data give 663 deaths and an unknown, small number of survivors. The victims also included over 300 Italian prisoners of war who were to be transferred from the Ostffyasszonyfa prisoner of war camp to a labor camp in Albania. The wreck of the Linz, long believed to be lost, was found by a Graz diving instructor after years of painstaking research at a depth of over 40 meters off Cape Rodon. The history of this shipwreck was documented by ORF in cooperation with the discoverer.

Further

  • In 1897 the “Habsburg” , which was leaving Lindau , collided with the “City of Lindau”, which sank and killed three passengers. The guilty Austrian ship commander was convicted, and Austria had to pay 31,000 marks in compensation to Bavaria .
  • April 10, 1917 brought the greatest shipping disaster for the DDSG. After a collision with the screw tug Viktoria, the steamer Zrínyi sank between the communities of Tétény and Tököl below Budapest, killing 163 people.
  • On Pentecost Sunday 1921 on the Achensee , the landing stage collapsed with the large number of people waiting. Eight fatalities were the result.
  • On June 5, 1933, the express steamer Franz Schubert burned down on the Praterkai, and on June 11, 1936, the steamer Vienna collided with the Reichsbrücke and sank.
  • On October 22, 1996, there was a serious ship accident at the Freudenau power plant, which was still under construction. During high tide, the Slovak pushboat “Ďumbier” did not reach the lock opening due to the strong current and was pushed through one of the weir fields. Eight sailors were killed, only one could be saved.

Coins

The theme of the fifth coin in a series of six 20 euro silver coins from the Austrian Mint , which is dedicated to “Austria on the High Seas”, is the “Austrian Merchant Navy”.

On the one hand, the largest and fastest passenger ship of the Austro-Americana, the "Kaiser Franz Joseph I." The reverse shows a view of Trieste from the air as well as the city arms at the time of the Danube Monarchy.

Postage stamps

  • Danube shipping: 100th anniversary of Austrian Danube steam shipping in 1937 with three brands (tugboat, express freight boat, passenger ship)
  • Danube shipping: 150 years of existence of the "First Danube Steamship Company" 1979 with three brands (steam boat Franz I (first ship), passenger ship Theodor Körner, push ship Linz)
  • Traunsee: 150th anniversary of the Traunsee shipping in 1989
  • Shipbuilding: 150th anniversary of modern inland shipping in Austria 1990 (silhouette of a paddle steamer, in front of it a modern passenger ship)
  • Lake Constance: On May 30, 2003, a 75-cent postage stamp designed by Adolf Tuma appeared with the paddle steamer "Hohentwiel", which was built between 1911 and 1913 and restored from 1984 to 1990. The amount of the circulation depends on the needs.

Movie and TV

Wörthersee

Entertainment films and TV series shot again and again on Lake Wörthersee with the Wörthersee fleet and the buses of the Klagenfurt travel agency Springer produced a separate film category: the Wörthersee film . These include: Our great aunts , when the great aunts come , the great aunts beat , a fat dog , The Super noses , two noses refuel Super , A castle at the Wörthersee , Reverend inherit paradise , high Würdens trouble with paradise , The Super bulls , happy chaos , the blue cannon , two fathers of a daughter , all happiness on earth and cheek wins .

Danube

  • Danube Princess : The captain of the Danube ship " Donauprinzessin" and the owner of a castle hotel ( Artstetten Castle as a backdrop) were the main characters in the television series.
  • SOKO Danube : The Vienna-based “Special Commission Danube” is investigating an ORF television serieswith German (actors) help instead of the electricity police.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quotation from the Ö timetable. Lloyds, taken from: HF Mayer, Dieter Winkler: Austria was in all ports. P. 99
  2. ↑ Johannes Binder, Ernst-Ulrich Funk, Helmut Grössing, Manfred Sauer: Red-white-red on blue waves. 150 years of the DDSG. First Danube Steamship Company, Vienna 1979. p. 53.
  3. ^ History of the Vega Reederei , (website accessed on July 18, 2015)
  4. ↑ a b orf.at: Austria's Titanic - The catastrophe of the Lloyd steamer Linz ( Memento of October 4, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) , report on the ORF program Alpha Austria , broadcast on March 18, 2003, 9 p.m., ORF. (Website accessed on June 11, 2009)
  5. ^ Oskar Stark: A sunken world - the story of the Austrian Lloyd; Voyages and end of its 62 ships. Rohrer Verlag, Vienna 1959, pp. 145 ff
  6. ^ The sinking of Linz with the list of names of the Italian victims (Italian) accessed on March 19, 2018

literature

  • Wladimir Aichelburg: " kuk sailing ships in old photographs ", Orac Pietsch, ISBN 3-85368-885-3 .
  • Horst Friedrich Mayer , Dieter Winkler: " When the Alps became navigable - history of Austrian inland lake shipping ", Edition S, Verlag der Österreichische Staatsdruckerei Wien, ISBN 3-7046-0275-2 .
  • Horst Friedrich Mayer, Dieter Winkler: " On waves of the Danube through Austria-Hungary ", Edition S, Verlag der Österreichischen Staatsdruckerei Wien, ISBN 3-7046-0141-1 .
  • Horst Friedrich Mayer, Dieter Winkler: “ Austria was in all ports - The Austro-Hungarian Merchant Navy ”, Edition S, Verlag der Österreichischen Staatsdruckerei Wien, ISBN 3-7046-0079-2 .

Web links

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