Constance (ship, 1928)
 The consistency in the first year of operation
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The motor ferry Konstanz (from 1930 Meersburg , from 1963 Lukas , since 2011 Konstanz again ) is a double-ended ferry on Lake Constance . The ship, which was put into service in 1928, is Europe's first inland sea car ferry. In connection with the landing bridge specially developed for them, it has been used as a model and model for all subsequent European automobile ferries as a technical cultural monument since 2003. Until 1963 she operated the route from Konstanz to Meersburg , her berth is in Konstanz-Staad .
history
Establishment of the ferry connection
With the closure of the border with Switzerland at the beginning of the First World War , the city of Konstanz lost its natural hinterland and so the city tried to open up markets across Lake Constance. From 1924, a ferry connection for the meanwhile growing motor vehicle traffic between Constance and the northern shore of Lake Constance, the Linzgau , was examined. In 1927 the ferry line between Konstanz-Staad and Meersburg was established and a corresponding ship was commissioned by the city of Konstanz from the Bodan shipyard in Kressbronn . This, although there was considerable resistance to the commitment of the city, be it from doubters who questioned the economic viability, from the other cities on Lake Constance, who feared being left behind, or from the Reichsbahn, which the project as a competitor saw their shipping traffic on the lake.
This was preceded by various connections across the lake with railway ferries from around 1870 , some of which continued to operate after the completion of the Stahringen – Friedrichshafen and Friedrichshafen – Lindau lines , primarily for freight traffic.
Operation as Konstanz / Meersburg
The launch of the 32 meters instead of the originally planned 26 meters long Constance took place on February 7, 1928 and the commissioning of the 140,000 RM ferry on September 30, 1928. Contrary to all fears, the ferry connection was carried out with 437 cars and 3,099 passengers alone an economic success in the first week of operation. The maximum transport capacity of this ferry was 15 cars and 200 people per trip. As early as May 1929, the decision to build another ferry was made, and some findings from the operation of the first ferry were implemented. All the following ferries have a larger lounge above the loading deck (portal design). The second ferry was named Konstanz on April 25, 1930 and the first ferry was renamed Meersburg . Other ferries followed, see the list of ferries on the Konstanz – Meersburg car ferry .
The Meersburg remained in the war years and thereafter the only ferry on the Konstanz – Meersburg line, the other ferries Konstanz and Bodan were used by the navy and then by the occupation troops.
Because of the rapidly growing car traffic in the years after the Second World War, more, larger ferries were built. The Meersburg was ultimately only used for special trips, as the newer ships were far superior in terms of capacity and maneuverability. When the seventh ferry under the name Fritz Arnold was put into service in 1963 , the Meersburg was sold.
Operation as a work ship Lukas
After 35 years of service, the Meersburg was sold on October 21, 1963 to the Überlingen entrepreneur Alfons Heidegger, who opened a pile-driving and excavation company on the lake. It was given the name Lukas , the superstructures on one side were removed to give more space to the equipment (dredges and rams) working on the ship. Many of the piles and dolphins around the lake were driven into the lake bed with the help of Lukas. The Lukas was also used for the rescue of the BAH I underwater station in Überlinger See in front of Süßenmühle from a depth of 35 meters in July 1969, but when the rescue ropes and individual welds on the Lukas tore, the Hegau ferry was used instead. In 1970, Heidegger also acquired the second ferry of the line, built in 1930, and so the unused ship Lukas was moored in the Überlinger Seglerhafen for many years .
Restoration to the monument ship
In 1996 the ferry from the association “Save Meersburg ex Konstanz! Association for the maintenance and recommissioning of the first Bodensee automobile ferry built in 1928 eV ”and subjected to a hull test at the Bodan shipyard. Several expert opinions confirmed the historical value of the ship and recommended restoration. Finally, the ferry in Constance was restored at a makeshift shipyard under the northern bridgehead of the Schänzle Bridge for around two million euros. A third of the outer surface was replaced, new drives were installed and the old technology could be retained.
After 16 years of restoration by the association, it was ready to drive again in the summer of 2010 and could be relocated to its dock in Konstanz-Staad, which has now also been restored.
On July 16, 2011, the second maiden voyage of the ferry took place with great participation by the population. Since that day it bears its old name again, Konstanz . In August 2011, the Konstanz ferry was Monument of the Month by the Baden-Württemberg Monument Foundation . The association received several awards for its commitment to the preservation of the ship.
Operation as the historic Konstanz ferry
The ferry is owned by the association Rettet die Meersburg ex Konstanz eV ; he leased it to the original owner, Stadtwerke Konstanz . The ship can be chartered by them for special occasions for up to 200 people . The association also organizes a number of tours each year, which are announced on its website. In the summer months, the ship is not moored at its pier in Konstanz-Staad, but in the port of Constance directly under the statue of Imperia , where guests are entertained when the weather is nice.
technology
Originally there were three bulkheads below deck, now five - additional collision bulkheads were installed at the ends. The largest room is in the middle, it is the old engine room. There are the two old drive machines - diesel engines from MWM , each weighing around 4 t and producing 90 hp. The specialty here is that the motors have an output on both sides, where a shaft and thus a propeller are driven via a coupling . The ferry was able to change its direction of travel by disengaging and engaging the propellers. The ship's engines were set up to change their direction of rotation, which, however, is believed to be the case today, was never used.
A small single-cylinder auxiliary diesel, also from the MWM, which is set up across a bulkhead, drives a generator (5 kW, 110 V direct current ) and a compressor . The compressed air was needed to start the engines and for the horn.
The machines were controlled via a machine telegraph , which meant that a machinist had to be constantly present in the machine room during operation.
The ferry has a rudder on each side, which is operated by chains and rods from the wheelhouse opposite. The rudder in the direction of travel was fixed by a mechanical device so that it does not overturn while driving.
All of the original technology (except for the machine telegraph) has been preserved and will be further restored so that it would at least be operational for demonstration drives.
During the restoration of the ship, an important aspect was that the ferry should be used again. Since this is hardly possible with the old technology nowadays, it was decided to install a modern drive in addition to the old one, which should not appear and function completely independently of the old technology. This could be achieved by installing two " Schottel Pump-Jets ", which are installed in the spaces in front of the collision bulkheads and are driven by modern diesel engines. These drives are completely built into the hull and can be rotated 360 degrees, which today helps the ship to achieve optimal maneuverability.
Landungsbrücken
To set up this first car ferry, jetties were also necessary, which had to be constructed in such a way that vehicles could still access the ferry, even though the level of Lake Constance fluctuated by around three meters over the course of a year. The construction of these landing stages - the search for models was unsuccessful - was carried out by the Constance Civil Engineering Office under the direction of Theodor Lutz in cooperation with the Freiburg metal construction company A. Beyerle. The construction consists of a one-sided height-adjustable truss bridge of 22 m length with a roadway width of 2.50 m. It was calculated with 5 t axle pressure and two vehicles holding on the bridge, each weighing 15 t. On the land side, this bridge rests on roller bearings, on the seaside it is held on the right and left by a lifting device with lifting spindles. A 3 m long flap serves as the transition to the ferry, which is balanced with counterweights so that it can be operated by one person using a lever. While the incline of the actual bridge only occasionally has to be adjusted to the water level of the lake, the main purpose of the flap is to balance the loaded and unloaded condition of the ferry and enables the ship to pass under the flap without hitting the bridge.
When the new ferry ports were built in the 1950s, the Konstanzer Landungsbrücke initially remained in the old ferry port and was used as a pier for maintenance work on the ferries. In 2005 the old Konstanz ferry port became a sailing port and the landing bridge had to give way. From 2009 it was restored as part of the first inland lake automobile ferry, which has meanwhile been listed as a historical monument, with a total volume of 240,000 euros. The ferry terminal was given a new location a little further north-west of the old square in Konstanz-Staad, right next to the municipal utility building . The structure has an access road suitable for cars and has had its old function since summer 2010 as a berth for the Constance - if the level of Lake Constance allows it. For nature conservation reasons, the fairway may not be excavated any deeper at this point, so that a different berth for the ship must be found, especially in the winter months. The original landing stage from the Meersburg ferry port has not been preserved.
Movies
literature
- Margret Meier, Helio Stinka, Karsten Meyer: A ferry makes stories - 55 entertaining, interesting, curious stories about Europe's first inland lake automobile ferry . MarkOrPlan, Bonn 2018, ISBN 3-933356-92-X (Hegau Library; Volume 182).
- Karsten Meyer: The historical ferry Konstanz . In: Michael Berg (ed.): The former Bodan shipyard in Kressbronn on Lake Constance 1919–2011: On the history of an important German inland shipyard . regional culture publisher, Ubstadt-Weiher 2019, ISBN 978-3-95505-135-8 , p. 223-234 .
- Waltraud Gut: On the way to the ferry . 75 years of the Constance - Meersburg ferry. UVK-Verl.-Ges., Konstanz 2003, ISBN 3-89669-733-1 (A very detailed history of this ferry connection on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name for the 75th anniversary. Paperback, 125 pages).
- Werner Trapp: The dream of the navel of the world - The “Lake Constance ferry” project in the field of tension between regional transport interests . In: District Administrator of the Bodenseekreis (Hrsg.): Leben am See. Yearbook of the Bodenseekreis . tape 8 , 1990, ISBN 978-3-89669-733-2 .
- Annina Baur: July 16, 2011. Third life of the historical ferry. In: Eva-Maria Bast; Annina Baur; Julia Rieß: Constance calendar sheets. Überlingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-946581-04-8 , pp. 102-105.
Web links
- Current website of the association: http://www.historische-faehre-konstanz.de or http://www.HFKN.de for short
- Historic ferry Konstanz at stadtwerke-konstanz.de
- The MF Konstanz on bodenseeschifffahrt.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ See also the creation of the first Lake Constance ferry at www.historische-faehre-konstanz.de
- ↑ Dieter Leder: Drama in the depths of Lake Constance. In: Südkurier of March 10, 2017. Online here .
- ↑ A detailed documentation of the restoration can be found in the chronicle on the website of the association founded for this purpose: Chronology of the restoration
- ↑ Monument Foundation Baden-Württemberg: Monument of the Month August 2011 , accessed on January 6, 2016
- ^ Stadtwerke Konstanz: Charter and Events
- ↑ http://www.historische-faehre-konstanz.de
- ↑ Stadt-Oberbaurat Theodor Lutz: The Lake Constance ferry Constance — Meersburg; In: Die Bautechnik 1930, issues 20, 22 and 24, Verlag von Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Berlin W 8 (also published as a special edition)
- ↑ NN: It turns steel blue - the old ferry pier is being restored; Südkurier, March 3, 2009, p. 17.
- ^ Regional Council Stuttgart / Freiburg, State Monument Preservation and Stadtwerke Konstanz (ed.): Fähre Meersburg ex Konstanz. Jetty. Leaflet for the Open Monument Day 2010. Culture on the move - travel, trade and traffic. Online here