Ferry-friendly
The ferry fair is the right granted since the Middle Ages to levy fees for the transfer of people, goods or vehicles by ferry across a river. This right was usually also associated with territorial protection . This extended to the next free ferry point on both sides of the river.
Originally , the right to ferry does not seem to have been related to the water shelf , i.e. the royal right to regulate river navigation. Rather, this right was associated with the possession of suitable land on the shore. The ferry fair was sold or acquired together with the property. Duties were often collected as tithes .
Emperor Otto I, however, equipped the bishops appointed by him with a series of regalia , and he granted his brother Bruno , the Archbishop of Cologne , the right to ferry across the Rhine . The previously independent ferrymen thereby became archbishop vassals . The archbishop granted them the right to ferry. This commercial right to operate the ferry was inherited within the families.
Today in Germany the state water laws regulate the ferry rights, however often granted ferry rights are still recognized.
literature
- J. Sandkaulen: Ferry-friendly with special consideration of the Lower Rhine conditions. Dissertation at the Faculty of Law in Cologne, 1925