Rheinhausen ferry

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The Neptune, today's Rheinhausen ferry
Hikers and cyclists, the modern customers of the old connection between Rheinhausen and Speyer, landing stage in Rheinhausen

The Rheinhausen ferry (formerly Husener Fahr ) connects Rheinhausen on the right bank of the Rhine in the Karlsruhe district and Speyer on the left bank of the Rhine at river kilometer 394 . It is one of the oldest river ferry connections on the Rhine and in Germany at all. It was part of the first regular postal course in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation from Innsbruck to Brussels .

Today, after the construction of the two Rhine bridges along the B 39 and A 61 , it is only a summer ferry for people and bicycles operated by the municipality of Rheinhausen and the municipal utilities of the city of Speyer with the help of the Hessenauer shipping company. The captain of the Rhine ferry Neptun is (2009) Ernst Hessenauer.

In the Rhein-Neckar transport association , the connection has line number 9905. In 2007, 26,000 passengers were carried.

It is part of the so-called Schönborn Route , a cycle path from Bruchsal to Speyer. From Speyer, long-distance cycle paths lead further west to Neustadt an der Weinstrasse , and there is also the option of driving south and north along the Rhine, with a summer ferry to the north on the Koller Island and another ferry in the Altrip to Mannheim , a good 20 km away . Speyer is also one of the historical starting points for the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela on the Way of St. James .

Directions

In Speyer, it can be reached via Industriestrasse in a southerly direction along the Rhine dam. There, following the sign for the Rheinhausen ferry, turn right over the Rheinhauptdamm straight on to the Rhine. Coming from Altlußheim in Rheinhausen through Poststrasse to the intersection with Hauptstrasse and there turn right over Rheindamm. Coming from Oberhausen on the main street in a northerly direction straight ahead.

The Speyer pier of the ferry is in the end of the Berghäuser Altrhein. The area between the main Rhine dam and the Rhine, the Speyer alluvial forest , is extremely species-rich and one of the most valuable alluvial forest remains on the Rhine. It is protected by both the European Birds Directive and the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive.

History and surroundings

Since there were no or only a few bridges over the Rhine for centuries, travelers and traders had to use fords or ferries . There were five ferries in the vicinity of Speyer, all of which presumably existed long before they were first mentioned.

These were the ferry near Rheinsheim mentioned for the first time in 1191 , the first mentioned ferry Udenheim (today Philippsburg ) in 1297 , the Lußheimer Fahr to Altlußheim first mentioned at the end of the 13th century , the episcopal ferry Ketscher Fahr near Ketsch mentioned for the first time in 1228 and finally the first mentioned in 1296 " Husener Fahr "so the Rheinhausen ferry. A comparable ferry is mentioned in Bonn as early as 934.

The Speyer bishops, who no longer resided in Speyer since 1371, but in the Bruchsal Palace in Philippsburg until the move in 1781 , used the Rheinhausen ferry as did the princes and clergymen who came from the right bank of the Rhine and who attended the numerous court and imperial diets in Speyer .

In 1490, the German King Maximilian I set up the first regularly operated postal route in Europe between Innsbruck and Brussels, which crossed the Rhine by means of the Rheinhausen ferry. He hired the Italian courier family Taxis to carry out this postal service . Verifiably, there was a post office in Rheinhausen since 1495 , which until 1499 was under the authority of the ferryman and postman Bentz Glesser. The Rheinhausen post office survived until it was closed under Napoleon in 1803.

In 1782 the Speyer cathedral chapter planned to set up a "flying bridge" instead of the Rheinhausen ferry (then called the Rheinhauser Fahr), but abandoned the plan because of the high costs.

The ferry service ceased in 1966 and resumed in 1995 on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the ferry. The municipality of Rheinhausen and the city of Speyer share the costs (through their transport companies).

legend

In 1842, the poet Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter published the ballad Nocturnal Apparition in Speyer , in which a ferryman is awakened at night and who then brings the armed spirits of the emperors buried in the cathedral across the Rhine, who take part in the Battle of Leipzig , four nights later to return again.

This legend was graphically represented by Hanns Fay (1888–1957) on emergency banknotes from September 1, 1923 over 50 million marks.

In 1987 Günther Zeuner designed a two-part large-scale sculpture entitled " The Ferryman's Dream " in the cathedral garden of Speyer Cathedral for this legend .

See also

Neighbor ferries:

swell

  1. ↑ mp: Rhine ferry "Neptun" overtakes again . in Speyerer Morgenpost from March 15, 2008, page 1
  2. ^ Günter Stein: City on the river, Speyer and the Rhine , Zechner, 1989, p. 60–68 chapter "Ferry and bridges", ISBN 3-87928-892-5
  3. ^ Fritz Ohmann, The Beginnings of the Post Office and the Taxis , Leipzig 1909, pages 318 and 324.
  4. ↑ Text of the ballad: Nocturnal apparition at Speier
  5. ↑ Parergon: Speyr sagas
  • Stephan Alfter: A contribution to the "international understanding" , Speyerer Morgenpost from March 31, 2007, p. 3

Web links

Coordinates: 49 ° 17 ′ 5.5 ″  N , 8 ° 28 ′ 22.8 ″  E