High Rhine rafting
The Hochrheinflößerei was the raft operation from below the Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen to Basel on the Rhine and the tributary of the southern Black Forest streams and mainly the Aare from the 15th to the second half of the 19th century.
Early history
Rafting on the Upper Rhine did not begin until the 15th century. At that time, shipping on the Upper Rhine had been important for a long time. The raftsmen worked on behalf of foreign timber merchants. The rafting was free on large stretches of the route with the exception of overcoming the Laufen , a considerable rapids in Laufenburg on both sides . The Wutach was cleared early 16th century for rafts of timber, Rebstecken and wood shingle in parts. An attempt Wutach for Barks to use -Flößerei, failed and was finally abandoned. 1838 As early as 1380, Schaffhausen and Grafenhausen obtained floorboards from the forests of Bonndorf . From the Hotzenwald streams Steina , Schlücht . Mettma , Schwarza , Alb , Murg and Wehra could not be transported because of the rocky soles. The log drift played a role here.
Overcoming running in Laufenburg
In Laufenburg the waterway for the rafts was interrupted. Therefore, the Rhine right stood the Laufenburger for guiding rafts of Laufenburg to Säckingen running servants and Säckingen to Basel the Rhine comrades to. The rafts were disbanded in front of Laufenburg and the trunks let through the river one by one. River ships were unloaded and roped through the dangerous rock face, ship goods were transported over the Laufenburg mountain by land. Below the obstacle, the wood was fished up again with the help of boats in order to tie new rafts together on the river bank, after which the journey could continue. The individual tribes of different traders were marked with symbols. Two larger new rafts were tied together from three incoming rafts, sorted according to owner identification. The sweeping regulations ensured that the Säckingen Rheingen comrades who were taking over had an equal share in the raft work.
Timber trade as an important local source of income
Firewood was mainly sold to the city of Basel, long wood was transported to Holland for ship and house construction . Only when Holland rose to sea power at the beginning of the 18th century did the long timber requirements of the Dutch shipyards there have to be met from the southern Black Forest in addition to the northern Black Forest.
The Upper Rhine was an Austrian inland river until 1801, so that Austria at the time of Napoleon was interested in not letting rafted wood fall into the hands of the French. At the beginning of the 19th century, entrepreneurs in Baden, Switzerland and France set up capitalist timber trading companies that sold the timber on a large scale to Holland and France. The associated river operation brought the Laufenknechten and Rhine comrades a significant source of income.
The height and decline of the Upper Rhine rafting industry in the 19th century
When the Rhine-Rhone Canal went into operation in 1834, wood from Basel was also sold to southern France, which significantly increased the transport of wood on the Aare and Rhine. While the proportion of wood from the Black Forest and Switzerland was around 50% each until 1850, the amount of wood rafted over the Aare and Reuss predominated from the middle of the 19th century. The peak of annual rafts from the mouth of the Aare was between 1852 and 1859 with a total of 20,618 rafts, an annual average of 2,577 rafts that passed the Laufen. The raft trip was approved together with the shipping in 1879 through Baden and Switzerland between Neuhausen am Rheinfall and Basel. With this the rafting legal powers were canceled. The privileges of the Laufenknechte and Rhine comrades expired. With the construction of the railway, timber transport increasingly shifted from water to rails. When the Laufenburg power station was built (1908–1912), raft operations had already become insignificant. A passage for the rafts therefore no longer existed there. The last raft arrived in Basel in 1927.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rudolf Metz. Geological studies of the Hotzenwald. Moritz Schauenburg Publishing House. Lahr / Schwarzwald 1980. p. 597
- ↑ Rudolf Metz. Geological studies of the Hotzenwald. Moritz Schauenburg Publishing House. Lahr / Schwarzwald 1980. p. 601
- ↑ Rudolf Metz. Geological studies of the Hotzenwald. Moritz Schauenburg Publishing House. Lahr / Schwarzwald 1980. p. 595
- ↑ Rudolf Metz. Geological studies of the Hotzenwald. Moritz Schauenburg Publishing House. Lahr / Schwarzwald 1980. p. 597
- ↑ Rudolf Metz. Geological studies of the Hotzenwald. Moritz Schauenburg Publishing House. Lahr / Schwarzwald 1980. p. 598
- ↑ Rudolf Metz. Geological studies of the Hotzenwald. Moritz Schauenburg Publishing House. Lahr / Schwarzwald 1980. p. 598
- ↑ Rudolf Metz. Geological studies of the Hotzenwald. Moritz Schauenburg Publishing House. Lahr / Schwarzwald 1980. S. 600f