Rhine ferry Bad Godesberg – Niederdollendorf

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Ferry ship Christophorus
Konrad Adenauer ferry

The Rhine ferry Bad Godesberg – Niederdollendorf is a Rhine ferry at river kilometer 647 between Plittersdorf , a district of the Bonn district of Bad Godesberg , and Niederdollendorf , a district of the city of Königswinter . The ferry terminal on the left bank of the Rhine is at the end of Bad Godesberger Rheinallee (Von-Sandt-Ufer), the one on the right bank of the Rhine at the end of Niederdollendorfer Fährstraße. It operated until 2014 as the Bad Godesberg – Niederdollendorf express car ferry .

history

There was a permanent ferry connection between Godesberg and Niederdollendorf at the beginning of the 18th century. The ferry company that still exists today - at that time under the name Elektro Fähre Godesberg – Niederdollendorf GmbH - was founded on March 21, 1908, and on July 8, 1908 the ferry's maiden voyage took place . It was the first electrically operated ferry across the Rhine and was built by the Berninghaus shipyard in Duisburg . In addition to the city of Bad Godesberg and the municipalities of Niederdollendorf and Oberdollendorf , 50 private individuals were initially shareholders . The initially profitable company drove high losses in the 1920s due to the general economic conditions and the emergence of competitors (including motorboat cooperatives ).

In September 1938, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stayed overnight on the Petersberg and took the ferry to Godesberg for a week, where he met Adolf Hitler in the Rheinhotel Dreesen to negotiate the Sudeten crisis . Towards the end of the Second World War , the ferry was sunk by German troops in early March 1945 before the area was taken by the Allies. To cross the Rhine, the US armed forces instead built the Hodges Bridge , a pontoon bridge that was demolished at the end of 1945. The resumption of ferry operations between Bad Godesberg and Niederdollendorf took place in March 1946. Until the (re) opening of the Rhine bridge in Bonn on November 12, 1949, this was of great transport importance. In 1954, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, as the owner of the state ferry shelves, and the ASF concluded a ferry lease agreement in which the state allowed the ASF to operate a ferry from Bad Godesberg to Niederdollendorf.

Chancellor Konrad Adenauer often used the ferry, which was then reserved for him alone, during his tenure (1949–1963) to get from his place of residence on the right bank of the Rhine in Rhöndorf to his place of employment on the left bank of Bonn . In honor of Adenauer, whose coffin on April 22, 1967, using half-mast was transferred geflaggten ferry to Bonn, christened it the posed in the same year in service ship in the name of Konrad Adenauer . In the course of the opening of the Bonn Südbrücke, four kilometers down the Rhine, in 1972, the ferry suffered losses, again temporarily in the context of the relocation of the seat of government to Berlin in 1999. In 2006 a fraud scandal came to light: Ferry employees had an estimated income for two decades Embezzled amount of 1.5 million euros .

Until March 2015, the ferry service comprised two ships ( Konrad Adenauer and St. Christophorus II ) from 1966 and 1967 with a total capacity of 500 people, built in the Clausen shipyard in Oberwinter . The number of people carried is given for 2011 as 606,000, the number of cars transported with 184,000 and the number of crossings with 65,000. The ferry company ASF Auto-Schnellfähre Bad Godesberg – Niederdollendorf GmbH was jointly supported by the cities of Bonn (74.81%) and Königswinter (25.19%) until 2014 and is based in Bad Godesberger Rheinallee. The plan that had come up in the meantime to buy a new ferry and sell the ferry company was discarded in 2012. Instead, a comprehensive renovation and modernization of the Konrad Adenauer ferry, which was mainly used at the time, was planned for 2013 . Since the shareholders were not prepared to pay the costs incurred, the ferries were sold to the Lux shipyard in Mondorf in July 2014 by resolution of the city councils of Bonn and Königswinter , and the company and its eleven employees were leased to them. The lease has a term of 20 years with an extension option. In March 2015, the St. Christophorus II was replaced by a ferry that had previously been called Bingerbrück as a work ship in the service of the Waterways and Shipping Office on the Middle Rhine. It now bears the name Christophorus and operates as the main ship of the Rhine ferry Bad Godesberg-Niederdollendorf.

literature

  • Gustav Hofmann; Association for Home Care and Home History Bad Godesberg eV (Ed.): About the ferries in the Bonn and Bad Godesberg area, 2nd part. In: Godesberger Heimatblätter. Issue 44. Bad Godesberg 2006, ISSN  0436-1024 , pp. 17-39. [not yet evaluated for this article]
  • Gustav Hofmann; Association for Home Care and Home History Bad Godesberg eV (Ed.): About the ferries in the Bonn and Bad Godesberg area, 1st part. In: Godesberger Heimatblätter. Issue 43. Bad Godesberg 2005, ISSN  0436-1024 , pp. 21-26. [not yet evaluated for this article]
  • Karl Josef Klöhs: Imperial weather on the Siebengebirge . Edition Loge 7, Königswinter 2003, ISBN 3-00-012113-7 , p. 34 .
  • Peter Bläser: A reflection on the history of the ferry system between Bad Godesberg and Niederdollendorf . Bad Godesberg 1992. ( online PDF ; 252 kB)

Web links

Commons : Rhine ferry Bad Godesberg – Niederdollendorf  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Coalition examines the sale of the ferry , General-Anzeiger, December 11, 2010
  2. ^ Participation report 2004 ( Memento of March 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 207 kB), City of Bonn
  3. ^ Opening trip in 1908 , Virtual Bridge Courtyard Museum
  4. ↑ Peter Bläser: A reflection on the history of the ferry system between Bad Godesberg and Niederdollendorf
  5. ^ Ferrymen deny the fraud allegations , General-Anzeiger, June 10, 2006
  6. ↑ Employee of the fast car ferry denies fraud allegations , General-Anzeiger, February 2, 2007
  7. ^ Defeat for Stadtwerke Bonn in the process of ferry , General-Anzeiger, March 23, 2007
  8. ^ The Dollendorfer car ferries are too old , General-Anzeiger, June 25, 2010
  9. ↑ Königswinter Council to approve the purchase of a new ferry , General-Anzeiger, June 26, 2010
  10. ↑ Königswinter examines the sale of the ferry , General-Anzeiger, January 15, 2011
  11. ↑ Takeover plans by municipal utilities apparently off the table , General-Anzeiger , September 5, 2012
  12. ↑ The "Konrad Adenauer" is being renovated in 2013 , General-Anzeiger, October 8, 2012
  13. ↑ Ferry sailing into calmer waters , General-Anzeiger, June 9, 2009
  14. ^ Ferry trip into the unknown , General-Anzeiger, June 12, 2012
  15. ↑ Discussion about the future of the business is stalling , General-Anzeiger, June 30, 2012
  16. ^ Mondorfer Lux-Werft as the new operator , General-Anzeiger , July 3, 2014
  17. ↑ Ferry operation in private hands , General-Anzeiger , July 9, 2014
  18. ↑ New and larger ship sails across the Rhine , General-Anzeiger , April 2, 2015

Coordinates: 50 ° 41 ′ 35.5 ″  N , 7 ° 10 ′ 22.6 ″  E