Floßhafen (Heilbronn)

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The Heilbronn ports (excluding the salt port) in 1903

The Floßhafen was a port on the Neckar in Heilbronn . It was created in the 1860s for timber handling and the settlement of shipyards and was 440 meters long and 70 meters wide. The port was filled in in the course of the Neckar canalization in the 1930s. In its place is now the area for the Federal Horticultural Show 2019 and the Neckarbogen residential area that is being created at the same time . In the course of the redesign, two lakes were created on the site, which were named "Karlssee" and "Floßhafen" and are intended to remind of the original use.

history

Plan of the entrance to the raft harbor and the shipyard (1875)
Port facilities with sidings (1895)

After a result of the 1333 Neckar privilege of the main branch of the Neckar river was diverted along the ramparts of Heilbronn and provided with weirs and mills, shipping on the Neckar was upstream from the Rhine ago only to Heilbronn possible where all goods are transferred had and the city by its staple right earned on the turnover of goods. Only raftsmen could still pass Heilbronn unhindered on the waterway via a raft lane through the weirs. The upper Neckar between Heilbronn and Stuttgart was made navigable in the 18th century, but there was still no passage for ships near Heilbronn. Such was only created in 1821 with the Wilhelm Canal, which was also used as a port . In 1848 Heilbronn's first train station was also built nearby. In the course of industrialization, another port was built with the winter port in 1858. This was soon no longer sufficient. In 1875 the raft port was excavated and fortified, in 1885/1886 the salt port at Heilbronn's salt mine, and in 1888 the Carlshafen. In 1897 the winter harbor was expanded. The Osthafen followed in 1922/1923.

Until 1870 the city of Heilbronn had the right to collect taxes and duties for the passage of the Neckar rafts. The 285 meter long and 7.5 meter wide rafts drove on their way to Mannheim , where they were tied together to form the large Rhine rafts, through the Mühlkanal and Floßgasse. But after more and more wood was transported by rail from the Black Forest to Heilbronn, in order to be integrated into rafts there, suitable systems had to be created where the logs could be stored and the rafts assembled. This was initially done in the winter harbor, which could only be an emergency solution. As early as 1857, Dutch timber merchants approached the city with a request to build a new canal to tie in raft wood. This was initially rejected by the Württemberg government because they feared collisions with the planning of the railway line to Schwäbisch Hall . This railway line went into operation in 1862; seven years later the new raft harbor was also laid out. It had siding, offered plenty of space to store the tree trunks and a sufficiently large area of ​​water to assemble the rafts. The city of Heilbronn provided most of the required building site free of charge. The builder and owner of the facility was the Württemberg State Railways.

The relocation of the Bauhardtschen shipyard from the winter port to the entrance of the raft port was also associated with the construction of the raft port. The former shipyard at the Winterhafen was used as a grain store from this time on; For this purpose, the old platform hall of the first Heilbronn train station from 1848 was set up there, which was no longer needed in its original location after the construction of the new station. Bauhardt, who had already set up another shipyard in Neckarsulm , now shifted the focus of his shipbuilding activities there even more clearly. He died in 1878; his heirs could not continue the shipyard in Heilbronn for long. In 1884 the shipbuilder Gottfried Seibert from Eberbach took over the business. After he died without male offspring, his relative Albert Seibert moved to Heilbronn with his sons Otto and Robert. From 1899 onwards, these brothers manufactured iron ships in Heilbronn instead of the wooden ones that had previously been used. Just as quickly as their business began to flourish, it went bankrupt. From 1902 Robert Seibert continued to run the shipyard alone and with a significantly reduced layout. From 1930 to 1937 Robert Seibert's son Max ran the business, then his brother, who was called Robert.

After the canalization of the Neckar from Mannheim to Heilbronn in the 20th century, some of the old port facilities had become superfluous at the beginning of the 1930s and were replaced by the canal port completed in 1935. Both the raft and the Carlshafen were therefore filled in, as was the westernmost arm of the Neckar at that time, and built over with commercial and industrial facilities. However, part of the access to the raft harbor was excluded from this measure because the Seibert shipyard, the only shipyard in Heilbronn, was located there. This part of the raft harbor was still usable until 1944. During the Second World War , the area was hit by numerous bombs. The shipyard at the Floßhafen was so badly damaged in May 1945 that Franz Ganninger junior, who wanted to take it over after the suicide of the previous owner Robert Seibert, applied to be allowed to move it to a storage area of ​​the Waterways and Roads Office, which involved shipbuilding at Heilbronner Floßhafen was finally a thing of the past.

After the war, the waterway was expanded to Stuttgart . The salt port, the east port and the canal port remained from the pre-war port facilities. The port of Heilbronn is (as of 2010) the seventh largest inland port in Germany.

remains

Part of the ship's bow at the 2019 Federal Horticultural Show

During the earthworks in the course of redesigning the site for the 2019 Federal Horticultural Show , not only the masonry of the harbor wall was excavated in the area of ​​the raft harbor, but also the wreckage of a ship about 35 meters long and 6 meters wide. These dimensions correspond to the iron ships that the Seibert brothers built at the Floßhafen around the turn of the century: "With the introduction of chain shipping, " writes Willi Zimmermann, "[...] the ship park has been redesigned since 1880. The horse power of the steam chain tugs, in connection with the steadily improving river conditions, allowed the construction of even larger ships with up to 175 tons. This type of ship made of wood and iron […], with a length of 35–45 meters, a width of 4.5–6.0 meters and a draft of 1.20 meters, remained the first 1250 until the summer of 1935, after the Neckar Canal was completed to Heilbronn -Ton ships entered the port of Heilbronn. "

Such a find was not expected there; instead, based on statements by contemporary witnesses, it was suspected that a sunk ship was lying in the former winter harbor. However, this should not be checked, because the suspected explosive remains in the underground meant that no digging was carried out in this area.

The shipwreck found in the area of ​​the former raft port at a depth of four meters could not initially be classified. To make matters worse, the wreck was lifted a day after it was discovered, disintegrated and most of it was disposed of. Apparently it had not even been established beforehand whether the vehicle had an engine or was intended to be towed. At first it was announced that the steel-built but heavily rusted wreck would be salvaged "in the coming weeks".

Two parts of the bug were handed over to the Heilbronn city archive. The stone setting of the quay wall of the old raft port was at least documented.

The SWR reported in November 2014 that apart from the remains of a cannon in the immediate vicinity of the wreck, the ship's anchor and anchor chain had also been found and that the vehicle was a barge. According to SWR, the stern of the ship, which according to other reports should have already been disposed of, has not yet been found. An aerial photo of the port facilities presented by SWR shows a ship at the site where the wreck was found in the raft harbor. The remains of the ship and its 30-meter-long anchor chain will be exhibited at the 2019 Federal Horticultural Show.

Web links

Commons : Floßhafen (Heilbronn)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Schöck: The cityscape of Heilbronn. A settlement geographic study, J. Fink 1927, p. 64.
  2. ↑ BUGA lakes are being filled - sustainability in the center , press release from May 4, 2017 on www.buga2019.de
  3. ^ Willi Zimmermann: Heilbronn. The Neckar: A city's fateful river, Heilbronner Voice printing and publishing house GmbH 1985, ISBN 3-921923-02-6 , p. 163 f.
  4. ^ Willi Zimmermann: Heilbronn. The Neckar: A city's fateful river, Heilbronner Voice printing and publishing company GmbH 1985, ISBN 3-921923-02-6 , p. 159 f.
  5. ↑ This may have been different in earlier times; In any case, in the description of the Heilbronn Oberamt from 1901, p. 11, it can be read that there were several shipyards at the raft harbor. The shipyard of the brothers Otto and Robert Seibert is specially mentioned as a manufacturer of large iron boats.
  6. ↑ a b Ship and ammunition found on the BUGA site , at www.buga2019.de. ( Memento from January 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ Franz Ganninger's application to take over the Rob shipyard. Seibert
  8. ^ Urban planning framework plan 'Neckarbogen'. Appendix 1: Examinations at www.heilbronn.de. ( Memento from December 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ^ Willi Zimmermann: Heilbronn. The Neckar: A city's fateful river, Heilbronner Voice Printing and Publishing Company GmbH 1985, ISBN 3-921923-02-6 , p. 160.
  10. ↑ jof, Buga terrain: ship found in: Heilbronner Stimme, October 10, 2014.
  11. ↑ a b Brigitte Fritz-Kador, Heilbronn residents find a ship in the Buga area, in: Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung , October 13, 2014.
  12. ^ Ship discovered on Buga site, in: Heilbronner Voice, October 9, 2014.
  13. ↑ Bomb found on Heilbronn Buga site. Anti-tank mine blown up in a controlled manner on www.swr.de.

Coordinates: 49 ° 9 ′ 50 ″  N , 9 ° 12 ′ 25 ″  E