Rafting on the Main
The rafting on the Main was a commercial of transport on the Main . Goods of various kinds were transported , mainly wood .
History
The rafting on the Main was first mentioned in documents in 1386. The climax was reached at the beginning of the 20th century, when "from 1900 to 1915 ... around 1400 to 1800 rafts were counted annually in Wertheim". The last raft trips took place at the end of the 1930s, as "a lack of natural currents, high costs for wages and barges as well as long waiting times at the barrages ... made rafting unprofitable".
Raft master, raft man and raft servant
In addition to being in good health, the raft guide usually had to prove that he had attended school and had good repute , since as an independent timber merchant he was usually a sawmill owner. Furthermore, he had to be able to submit a separate examination according to the raft regulations. In addition to the raft masters , there was a middle class called the rafters who, together with the raftmen, were known as the so-called raft people.
From the Franconian Forest and Fichtel Mountains to the Main
From the Middle Ages until after the Second World War, woods of various types and sizes were transported from the Franconian Forest and the Fichtel Mountains, some of them to Rotterdam, for a variety of purposes . The raftsmen spent up to 9 months of a year cutting down the trees in the over 100,000 hectare area of the Franconian Forest along the many rafts that flow into the Rodach and adapting the size of the wood composite to the rivers and their locks. In the Fichtel Mountains, the White Main served as a feeder for the rafting industry there . Mainly spruce and beech trees were cleared there and transported across Germany. The naming of the design of the raft, which is based on the next larger town near the river to be passed, is characteristic of the raft, for example the "Kronacher Raft", the "Hallstadter Piece" on the Upper Main or the "Würzburger Piece" on the Middle Main.
The main rafts
Initially, so-called base domes were brought together to form floors. Only from the confluence of the Rodach into the Main or from the direction of Kulmbach from the confluence of the White and Red Main rivers could long wood be rafted. After the confluence of the Main and Regnitz near Bischberg , they were combined to form a “Main raft”, which consisted of around 400 solid meters of wood and was only permitted in this dimension on the navigable Main near Bamberg. Not only long timber was transported, also boards, sawn timber, railway sleepers and vineyard stakes were loaded and sold on the way. Mainly, however, the tree trunks sucked through by the river water served as construction timber that could no longer twist and was used in many buildings such as the Gangolf Church in Bamberg (1183/84).
The rafters moved vehicles up to 130 meters long and 9 meters wide via the Aschaffenburg raft harbor to Mainz to the Maaraue raft harbor . Some of the rafts were pulled by ships, and in some places they were towed by horses . The only place of retreat was a raft hut.
At the confluence of the Main with the Rhine , several rafts were coupled to one another and thus formed a “Rhine raft”.
See also
literature
- Birgit Jauernig-Hofmann, Hermann Heidrich: The whole Main was wooden - an ethnography of rafting . Verlag Fränkisches Freilandmuseum, Bad Windsheim 1993, ISBN 3-926834-27-7
- Otto Berninger: Main shipping and rafting at the beginning of the 19th century , (Mainschiffahrts-Nachrichten 14), Wörth am Main 1995
Web links
- Internet presence of the district of Kronach - cultural landscape rafting
- Rafting Museum Unterrodach
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schelche and other ships ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Article about shipping on the Main at wuerzburg.de, accessed on February 23, 2012.
- ↑ Birgit Jauernig: Flößerei in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, here online , accessed on February 23, 2012.
