Elsflether herring fishery
The Elsflether herring fishery was a logger fishery . It was founded on October 12th, 1896 in order to open up new branches of business after the sharp decline in the shipyard and shipping business in Elsfleth .
Founded in 1896
In 1875 Elsfleth had 14 shipping companies with a total of 107 sailing ships and at that time was Germany's third largest shipping company location after Hamburg and Bremen . The transition from wooden to iron shipbuilding and from sailing to steam propulsion led many small shipyards and shipping companies to give up for financial reasons. Therefore, because of the location, new branches of business in the maritime sector were sought.
In 1872, the first German herring fishery, whose loggers were equipped with drift nets , was founded in Emden . Others were created in Glückstadt in 1893 and in Bremen in 1895. Therefore, the “Committee for the founding of the deep-sea herings fishery in Elsfleth” created and distributed an advertising brochure to raise the share capital. A start was made with 400,000 marks in capital from around 200 draftsmen, business people, ship owners and farmers from the area. The company premises were washed up on the northern edge of Elsfleth on the banks of the Weser , here the company buildings were built, in which the herring, slaughtered and salted at sea, was further processed ready for sale. The facilities for drying the nets were also installed on the site. The quay, on which the loggers were supplied and equipped, was built by the Oldenburg state government, so that the first loggers could be deployed in May 1897. In 1906 the Elsflether herring fishery was awarded the title “Purveyor to the Court of His Royal Highness the Grand Duke”. The share capital was gradually increased to 1.1 million marks by 1910 in order to finance the growing fleet.
Construction of the logger (from 1897)
The first four loggers were ordered from Bremer Vulkan , they largely corresponded to the loggers of the Bremen-Vegesack fishing company . The next three new logger buildings, such as B. the Burhave , built at the Glückstadt shipyard by JH Gehlsen, there were still wooden herring loggers. The two sailing loggers Adler and Bussard were delivered from the Delphin shipyard in Bremerhaven-Lehe , and the first iron logger then came from the Wewelsflether shipyard. This was followed by conversions that arose from English smacks . The fleet grew rapidly and in 1903 already consisted of 13 ships and increased to 25 ships by 1912. The first motor logger was taken over by the Elsflether herring fishery in 1910.
Sold to the Vegesack fishing company (1931)
For various reasons the company ran into financial difficulties in 1912 and almost all loggers were lost during the First World War. Therefore, the herring fishing operation could be resumed in 1919 with only three loggers. The fleet was enlarged again to 19 loggers by 1921. During this time over 350 people were employed in the Elsflether herring fishery, 300 at sea and 60 to 70 workers on land. Because of the growing competition from trawlers , who were able to fish herring at night thanks to the introduction of the high shear board, the logger fisheries, including the Elsfleth herring fishery, got into serious economic difficulties. Therefore, state support for driftnet fishing was reintroduced, the import duty for foreign herring was resumed and old Reich loans were deferred. Nevertheless, the Elsflether herring fishery had to give up. The company went bankrupt in 1930 and was taken over by the Bremen-Vegesacker Fischerei-Gesellschaft and continued as the Elsfleth plant until 1961. In 1969 the Bremen herring fishing company, at times the largest herring fishing company in Europe, had to close.
literature
- Eilerich Bloem: Hey, hiev up! For herring catch in the North Sea. Schuster, Leer 1998, ISBN 3-7963-0336-6 .
- Dieter Finnern: Knowledge store, fishing expertise . 2nd, revised and supplemented edition. Transpress, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-344-00359-3 .
- Gerhard Köhn: Sea thrown & sea salted. Logger fishing off the German North Sea coast. As a reminder. to the Glückstadt herring fishery founded 100 years ago. Mocker & Jahn, Soest 1994, ISBN 3-87902-800-1 .
- Jens Rösemann: Kok-in-Ruum on the herring logger. A youth at sea or the pursuit of perfection. Johann Heinrich Döll, Bremen 1996, ISBN 3-88808-227-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Bednarz: Herring fishermen have a hard time from the start , Nordwest-Zeitung , August 25, 2007.