HADAG sea tourism and ferry service

HADAG Seetouristik und Fährdienst Aktiengesellschaft
legal form	Corporation
founding	August 8, 1888
Seat	Hamburg , Federal Republic of Germany
management	Tobias Haack, CEO
Number of employees	about 95
Branch	Ferry service
Website	www.hadag.de

The HADAG AG , shortly HADAG , is a transport company and operator of the ferry in the port of Hamburg . It is a subsidiary of Hamburger Hochbahn AG .

history

HADAG type ship "Volksdorf" at the St. Pauli Landungsbrücken in 1973

Landungsbrücken 1977, HADAG type ships, in the foreground ship of the Finkenwerder line

The company was founded on August 8, 1888 under the name Hafendampfschiffahrts-Actien-Gesellschaft as a shipping company by FW Burchard, FG Kroos, E. Hadenfeld, RR Canel, E. Reye, GC Hempell, Max du Roi Droege, J. Semler and MH Röver founded. The engineer Ernst Hadenfeldt had already applied to the city of Hamburg for the concession for the harbor ferries, which had previously been operated by five ferry leaseholders, on February 14, 1888 . The concession was granted for 20 years and initially operated with the previous ships. At the end of 1890, HADAG owned 47 ships. Limiting the fare to five pfennigs per person and trip made the company's economic situation problematic. The concession provided for the ships to be equipped with steam fire engines in order to be able to carry out fire fighting services in the port; this obligation to be permanently ready to extinguish was later compensated by the city with 60,000 marks per year as a fee, as the economically necessary increase in fares was paid by the Senate was rejected for social reasons and a subsidy was refused by the citizens .

By 1899, twelve larger ships with a registered number of up to 300 passengers had been purchased, thereby improving the economic situation. In May 1900, HADAG took over the line to Finkenwerder and operated it with the paddle steamers Union and Harmonie . Now, in addition to the pure port ferry service, the connection of city districts was also one of the tasks of HADAG. In addition to Finkenwerder, Altenwerder and Moorburg were also included (both parts of the city were formerly residential areas and are now port expansion areas), which were served by a “privileged steam ferry” as early as 1818 and, from 1881, by a paddle steamer line from Hamburg to Harburg . The Harburg line existed until the 1970s: St. Pauli Landungsbrücken - Altona - Waltershof - Neuhof ( Köhlbrand ) - Altenwerder - Kattwiek - Moorburg - Harburg (on the steamboat route near the former Unterelbe station). The Neuhof – Harburg section was withdrawn or discontinued in three steps from 1970: operations between Kattwyk and Harburg were discontinued in 1970, and the section between Kattwyk and Altenwerder in 1983. Today this line is only operated as a harbor ferry to Neuhof (north of the Köhlbrand Bridge ).

The opening of the (old) Elbe Tunnel in 1911 led to a decrease in the number of passengers on the line to Steinwerder from 260,000 to 38,000. The unsatisfactory return on investment and the Senate's refusal to increase tariffs ultimately led to the city taking over the shipping company in 1918.

In 1928, following the conclusion of the “Prussian-Hamburg Harbor and Lower Elbe Treaty”, traffic on the Lower Elbe across the Hamburg city area was expanded. This year and 1929, for the first time since 1912, a total of four new ferries were put into service. The Free State of Prussia participated in capital increases in the company in the following years.

In 1952, the seaside resort service to Heligoland was started together with HAPAG . This service, limited to the summer season, included a line from Hörnum (Sylt) to Helgoland in addition to the line from the Landungsbrücken via Cuxhaven to Helgoland. It was used there for. B. from 1960 the Hein Godenwind .

From 1940 to 1974 MS Franz Schubert was in service between Blankenese and Cranz

The Hamburg-Blankenese-Este-Linie was sold by Heinrich Sietas to HADAG on March 1, 1963 , after having headed HBEL for 48 years. The ice winter of 1962/1963 had prevented the ships from traveling for months and thus forced the previously healthy company to take this step.

In 1963 a collective bargaining agreement was introduced with the HHA , and since the HVV came into effect in 1967, port ferries and regular services have been integrated into it. A collective bargaining agreement with the HHA already existed from 1928. In connection with the change of the line names in the HVV network (two-digit bus lines became three-digit), the HADAG lines were given additional line numbers at the end of July 1968. The shipping lines to Moorburg / Harburg and Finkenwerder initially got 800 numbers, later the names 61 and 62, pure port ferries got 70 numbers.

In 1968 the ferry service to Harwich ( Great Britain ) began.

The former HADAG Seebäderschiffe Helgoland and Wappen von Hamburg (here after the change of ownership to FRS)

The current name HADAG Seetouristik und Fährdienst AG took place in 1969 together with the management of the England ferries from Hamburg (and in 1970 also Bremerhaven ) to Harwich (until 1981). At the same time as moving into the new administration building at Johannisbollwerk in 1970, the current green-white-red shipping company flag replaced the old green-white-black. From 1971 the seaside resort ships were initially used successfully on the Baltic Sea as " butter ships ". From 1972 to 1981 trips to the Danish towns of Ærøskøbing and Sønderborg and from Travemünde to Fehmarnsund were offered from Eckernförde . From 1974 the company opened a flight service to Helgoland and Sylt with "HADAG air" . HADAG gradually withdrew from the shipping connection from Sylt to Helgoland in the second half of the 1970s. This line was continued for several decades to a reduced extent by the WDR .

From 1976 to 1981, day trips to the GDR to Rostock-Warnemünde were offered on individual days with the seaside resort ships Alte Liebe or Helgoland (from Travemünde) or Stadt Kiel II (from Kiel ) . The required day visas were issued on the ship, from Warnemünde there was a bus transfer with a guide to the Rostock city center, followed by a two-hour visit.

Due to increasingly difficult business (even in the traditional Heligoland service) the cruise ship Astor was supposed to "turn the tide" in 1981, but this venture also only brought new losses. In 1983 the downsizing finally came, Astor and HADAG Air Seebäderflug GmbH & Co. were sold. Shipping traffic from Hamburg via Cuxhaven to Helgoland was first reduced to the Cuxhaven – Helgoland section and then taken over by FRS . Since then, HADAG has only operated the Port of Hamburg and the Lower Elbe .

Today's offer

Logo of the HVV ferry lines		Symbol of the Hamburg-Blankenese-Este-Linie

Today, as a subsidiary of HHA, HADAG operates six ferry lines with 26 ships that serve a total of 20 berths. The main landing stages are the St. Pauli Landungsbrücken , from which the HADAG harbor tours also depart.

HADAG employs an average of 85 people and carried around 5.6 million passengers in 2005; in 2011 the number of passengers had risen to 7.65 million, in 2014 it was 8.8 million passengers - for comparison: the annual high performance in ferry traffic was achieved in 1958 and amounted to 21.3 million passengers. In 1997 the HADAG harbor ferries only had a good 2.2 million passengers.

With the exception of the "Elb-Hüpfers", which will be offered from 2014 and discontinued in 2019, which runs from the beginning of April to the beginning of October on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays with two trips each from the St. Pauli Landungsbrücken via Neumühlen ( Oevelgönne Museum Harbor ), Teufelsbrück and Blankenese to Wedel - Schulau ( Willkomm-Höft ) and back, with "sightseeing" trips to two port basins, to HafenCity ( Elbphilharmonie ) and St. Pauli Landungsbrücken, the HADAG line connections under the name of port ferries are included in the tariff of the Hamburger Verkehrsverbundes (HVV) integrated, whereby the connection from Blankenese to Cranz has a special position. In addition, in competition with various other operators, HADAG offers the “Great Harbor Tour” from the St. Pauli Landungsbrücken. In addition, ships can also be chartered for events. An example of charter traffic is the shuttle service to the musical “ The Lion King ”.

In the past, HADAG also carried out the so-called “Niederel service”, which led from the St. Pauli Landungsbrücken down the Elbe via Blankenese to the Alten Land to Lühe and Stadersand and (in contrast to previous decades) only on weekends and last until 2013 was only performed once a day. This will no longer be offered from 2014, the "Elb-Hüpfer" serves as a replacement, whose trips only lead to Wedel-Schulau. From there, the existing Lühe-Schulau ferry (LSF) must be used to get to the Altes Land .

Line network

The following lines operate at the HVV network tariff:

line	course
61	St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken (bridge 2) - Altona ( fish market ) - Dockland - Waltershof - Neuhof (only Mondays to Fridays)
62	St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken (bridge 3) - Altona (fish market) - Dockland - Neumühlen / Övelgönne - Bubendey-Ufer - Finkenwerder
64	Finkenwerder - Rüschpark - Teufelsbrück
68	Teufelsbrück - Airbus (only company traffic Monday to Friday, partly also from St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken)
72	St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken (Bridge 1) - (Arningstraße) - Elbphilharmonie
73	St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken (Bridge 1) - Theater im Hafen - Norderelbstraße - Argentina Bridge - Ernst-August-Schleuse (only Mondays to Fridays)
75	St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken (bridge 1) - Steinwerder (only Monday to Friday mornings and afternoons) closed until further notice *
	St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken (Bridge 1) - Theater im Hafen (only for theater performances, not in the HVV) closed until further notice *
HBL	Blankenese - Neuenfelde, Este - Barrage - Cranz Depending on the tide (at low tide) the ferry runs differently without stopping from Blankenese to Finkenwerder (on weekends no HVV single and day tickets are valid; from October to March with a limited timetable) suspended until further notice *

• because of the spread of the corona virus

In addition, from the beginning of April until the first weekend in October (only Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays) the Elb-Hüpfer was offered (with its own tariff). The line was discontinued in 2019 for economic reasons.

line	then course
	St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken (bridge 2) - Neumühlen / Övelgönne - Teufelsbrück - Blankenese - Wedel - Schulau ( Willkomm-Höft ) (back with an additional stop in HafenCity (Elbphilharmonie)

Ships

Current fleet

HADAG operates a fleet of 26 passenger ships. 13 of these are of the type 2000 , which was introduced in 1997 and is operated by only one person (including berthing). The ships of this type, also known as “iron” because of their appearance, are mainly used on HVV line 62 St. Pauli Landungsbrücken - Finkenwerder .
The last ship of this type, the Hamburgensie , which went into service in 2013 , offers more seats on the upper deck and more space below, e.g. B. for bicycles than its predecessor.

At the end of April 2017, the first ship of the further developed Type 2020 with a ship width increased by half a meter and a diesel-electric drive, which was built at the Pella Sietas shipyard in Hamburg-Neuenfelde for around 3.3 million euros. This new ferry with a different layout without tables for up to 400 passengers, including 154 seats inside and 88 on the upper deck, bears the name Elbphilharmonie . In 2018, another Type 2020 ship was built at the Pella Sietas shipyard, which was christened Kehrwieder on November 9, 2018 .

Two particularly flat ferries were put into service in 2002 for the bridge-accessible journey on line 73 Landungsbrücken – Argentinabrücke, which at that time also served the Oderhöft, and to the Speicherstadt . In 2013, work began at the SSB Spezialschiffbau Oortkaten GmbH shipyard on the construction of another such ship with a superstructure height of only around 3 meters above the waterline. The slightly longer and wider ship, which can accommodate 180 passengers (including 76 seats) and has space for bicycles, was put into operation in July 2014 under the name Reiherstieg . It received a Volvo Penta diesel engine to drive the fixed propeller and also a Schottel pump jet for maneuvering and berthing.

The old so-called type ships (mainly with diesel-electric propulsion), built in large numbers in the 1950s and 1960s, were increasingly decommissioned and sold from the late 1970s. The remaining ships have been replaced by newbuildings since 1989. Of the former 40 type ships that shaped the picture in the Port of Hamburg until the 1990s, only Kirchdorf is still owned by HADAG. She is still operated as a traditional ship and primarily used for harbor tours.

In 1989, the Finkenwerder, the first of four new one-man ships, went into service. At the end of the 1980s, the management of HADAG assumed that it would be able to handle all port traffic in the future with four ships, each designed for 150 passengers. In 1992 and 1993, two more improved one-man ships followed. The new ferries are smaller and can only be operated by one person, the skipper; they are therefore more economical to use than the old type ships, which required a crew of at least two men. In the past, most of the six ships were modernized and converted to meet the new standards of the Ferry Type 2000.

With Jan Molsen , HADAG operates a ship that was originally purchased for charter operations and trips on the Middle Elbe, its tributaries and the Lower Elbe to Cuxhaven.

As part of the mobility offensive of the Hamburg Senate, four more ferries are to be procured to strengthen the lines in the HVV. These ships, known as Type 2030 , are to have a more environmentally friendly propulsion concept. They should be equipped with electric motors and batteries. Since the capacity will not be sufficient for the entire day, range extenders are required. Initially, a diesel engine and generator are planned, which will later be replaced by fuel cells powered by hydrogen. The construction of three ferries is to be put out to tender.

Current HADAG fleet
(as of May 2017)

Ship name	Construction year	people	Main area of ​​application	image
Church Village	1962	300	Harbor tours and charter trips
Jan Molsen	1968	300	Factory traffic Line 68 Airbus - Teufelsbrück Line 75 St. Pauli Landungsbrücken - Steinwerder Niederelbe trips
Finkenwerder	1989	165	HVV line 64 Finkenwerder - Teufelsbrück
Altona	1989	185	Elbe ferry Cranz - Blankenese
Blankenese	1990	210
Neuenfelde	1991	210
Falkenstein	1992	210
Wolfgang Borchert	1993 / enlarged 2007	210 / from 2007: 250
St. Pauli	1997	250
Altenwerder	1997	250
HafenCity	1998	250
Reeperbahn	2000	250	HVV line 62 St. Pauli Landungsbrücken - Finkenwerder
harmony	2001	250
Waltershof	2004	250
Elbe Mile	2005	250	HVV line 62 St. Pauli Landungsbrücken - Finkenwerder
Övelgönne	2006	250	HVV line 72 St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken - Elbphilharmonie
Nice place	2006	250
Wilhelmsburg	2008	250	HVV line 62 St. Pauli Landungsbrücken - Finkenwerder King of the Lion Shuttle
Oortkaten	2009	250	HVV line 62 St. Pauli Landungsbrücken - Finkenwerder
Harburg	2009	250	HVV line 62 St. Pauli Landungsbrücken - Finkenwerder
Hamburgensie	2013	250	HVV line 62 St. Pauli Landungsbrücken - Finkenwerder
Heron climb	2014	180	HVV line 73 St. Pauli Landungsbrücken - Argentina Bridge (- Ernst-August-Schleuse)
Nala	2002	114	HVV line 73 St. Pauli Landungsbrücken - Argentina Bridge (- Ernst-August-Schleuse / Oderhöft)
Rafiki	2002	114	HVV line 73 St. Pauli Landungsbrücken - Argentina Bridge (- Ernst-August-Schleuse / Oderhöft)
Elbphilharmonie	2017	400	HVV line 72 St. Pauli Landungsbrücken - Elbphilharmonie
Return	2018	400

Type ships

→ Main article : Type ships of HADAG Seetouristik und Fährdienst AG

At the end of the 1940s, HADAG operated a fleet of 51 different types of ships. The average age of the ships was 30 years. This fleet could not be operated economically and was replaced by standardized ship types, the so-called type ships. In the 1950s, five types of ships were built, of which a total of 40 ships were built. The Ferry Type II and Ferry Type III with a total of 28 ships and their uniform appearance shaped the image of the port and the typical Hamburg port ferry for decades up to the 1990s.

literature

• HADAG press office (publisher): HADAG has been bringing commuters safely across the Elbe for 115 years . Press release, Hamburg April 10, 2002 ( PDF ( Memento from February 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ); 86 kB)
• HADAG Seetouristik und Fährdienst (Ed.): Schiffspark 2007 . Hamburg June 27, 2007 ( PDF ; 6 kB)
• HADAG Seetouristik und Fährdienst (Ed.): Our fleet. ( Memento of August 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved January 1, 2009
• Arnold Kludas : One Hundred Years of HADAG Ships, 1888–1988 . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1988, ISBN 3-7822-0446-8
• Fritz J. Kröger: 125 years of HADAG The city of Hamburg as an entrepreneur , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-7822-1073-7
• Olaf Marcinkowski: Today's HADAG ships . In: Hamburger Nahverkehrs-Nachrichten, 52nd volume, No. 1/2005, pp. 10–13 , Association of Traffic Amateurs and Museum Railways eV , Hamburg 2005, ISSN  0179-3721
• Jan Mordhorst (Red.): The green fleet. The history of a means of transport . In: Remarkable things from the Hanseatic city. Hamburger Klönschnack . No. 1. Klaus-Schümann-Verlag, Hamburg September 2002
• Christian Müller: The Green and White Hamburgensie - 120 years of HADAG , published by HADAG Seetouristik und Fährdienst AG
• Thomas Wägener: HADAG celebrates 125 years of existence . In: Hansa , issue 9/2013, pp. 88-90, ISSN  0017-7504

Web links

Commons : HADAG Seetouristik und Fährdienst AG  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Internet offer HADAG Seetouristik und Fährdienst AG, Hamburg
• Documentation of the old HADAG harbor ferries, the so-called type ships
• Former port ferry Großer Michel
• Early documents and newspaper articles on HADAG sea tourism and ferry services in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Timetable for local transport in Hamburg. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; Retrieved September 13, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ City map of the port area 1938 and HHA line network 1958. Retrieved on September 13, 2012 . 
3. ^ Arnold Kludas: Hundred Years of HADAG Ships , page 147
4. ^ Arnold Kludas : Hundred years of HADAG ships . P. 32 ff.
5. ↑ History of HADAG through the ages. Archived from the original on September 24, 2010 ; Retrieved September 13, 2012 . 
6. ^ Arnold Kludas: The ferry lines and routes of the HADAG . In: One Hundred Years of HADAG Ships 1888–1988 . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1988, ISBN 3-7822-0446-8 , p. 146/147
7. ↑ leaflet HADAG: Day trips by boat to Warnemünde / Rostock without any particular formalities with 5 hours stay in the GDR
8. ↑ HADAG is banking on further growth . In: Daily port report of March 31, 2015, p. 16
9. ↑ Elb-Hüpfer , accessed on April 20, 2015
10. ↑ Timo Jann: Harbor ferries change timetables . In: Daily port report of March 17, 2020, p. 14
11. ↑ Through the harbor at ten knots . In: Daily port report from May 23, 2013, p. 2
12. ↑ The new HADAG ferry will be called Hamburgensie. NDR , March 25, 2013, archived from the original on March 8, 2013 ; accessed on January 4, 2018 . 
13. ^ Hans-Jürgen Reuss: New harbor ferry in the Hadag fleet . In: Hansa , issue 7/2013, pp. 26/27
14. ↑ The "Elbphilharmonie" is now floating in Hamburg . ndr.de, April 25, 2017, accessed April 26, 2017
15. ↑ Eckhard-Herbert Arndt: Pella Sietas builds another HADAG ferry . In: Daily port report from February 1, 2017, p. 3
16. ↑ Eckhard-Herbert Arndt: Another “Elphi” for the Port of Hamburg · A suitable name for the Hadag's new ferry ship found · “Type 2020” offers space for up to 400 passengers . In: Daily port report of February 7, 2017, p. 3
17. ↑ This is where the new HADAG ferry makes its first test drive on the Elbe . In: nahverkehrhamburg.de from April 10, 2017, accessed on April 10, 2017
18. ↑ Start of series production for new port ferries . In: Schiff & Hafen , issue 7/2017, p. 24
19. ↑ HADAG ferry christened Reiherstieg. Retrieved May 10, 2020 .  elbdampfer-hamburg.de, notification from July 18, 2014
20. ↑ Third flat ship for Hamburg . In: Hansa , Heft 4/2013, S. 5, Schiffahrts-Verlag Hansa, Hamburg 2013, ISSN  0017-7504
21. ↑ One hundred years of HADAG ships 1888–1988 , p. 58
22. ↑ Eckhard-Herbert Arndt: Hadag now steers course “2030” · Friday shipping company presents new, environmentally friendly type ship for port ferry traffic . In: Daily port report of December 18, 2019, p. 4
23. ↑ HADAG relies on hydrogen propulsion. In: Schiff & Hafen , issue 04/2020, p. 9
24. ^ Curriculum vitae of the HADAG ferry Wolfgang Borchert elbdampfer-hamburg.de, August 26, 2017, accessed May 27, 2020.