Shipping and Shipbuilding Museum Wörth am Main
The Wörth am Main Shipping and Shipbuilding Museum documents the historical development of inland shipping and shipbuilding on the Main . Numerous exhibits are closely linked to the boat town of Wörth am Main .
On three levels, models, devices, documents and pictures are used to explain the technological developments, starting with wooden shipbuilding and the first wooden boats, through the period of industrialization and steamships to modern inland shipping. This development is closely related to the expansion of the Main as a traffic route. Display boards show the technical side of these changes, but also deal with the political and economic framework conditions in the 19th century. On the top level, the museum deals with boat life, everyday life and life on the ship, as well as changes in the workplace due to technology and economic structural change .
The museum is housed in the nave of the former St. Wolfgang Church, which was redesigned for this purpose. In addition to the main exhibition with the subject of shipping and shipbuilding, there are further secondary exhibitions on the subjects of Main fishing, nail forge and “The Romans in Wörth”.
Shipping and shipbuilding in Wörth
The oldest records in the city archives, which prove the practice of the skipper's profession in Wörth, go back to the year 1513. Wörth developed more and more into a regionally important intermediate trading place especially for timber handling. This is certainly a consequence of the city's strategic location between the wooded regions of Spessart and Odenwald . At that time, many boatmen were also timber traders.
A favorable starting situation was also created for wooden shipbuilding, because building materials and trade were on site. Shipbuilding has been documented in various places since 1652, in some cases it is reported by three shipyards . Wooden main ships, shells and smaller boats were built . This tradition only came to an end in 1918, after the last remaining shipyard moved to Erlenbach am Main on the opposite side of the Main due to lack of space . Large transport ships for the European waterways are still being built here today.
From the Middle Ages to 1963 there were various Main ferries in Wörth. The place has remained home to 16 inland waterway operators to this day.
History of the museum
Architecture of the museum building
The three lower tower floors belong to the oldest structure of today's St. Wolfgang Church. The lowest storey dates from the late Middle Ages and was originally part of the city fortifications. The tower was raised in 1631 by putting on today's pointed helmet. This year can be found in the pointed arch of the top tower window. At that time, the bell tower and the nave were still separate from each other.
After the Thirty Years War , the interior was poorly renovated and in 1685 the nave was raised . However, the nave was torn down again in 1729, so that only the tower remained of the original St. Wolfgang church. Between 1729 and 1748 the nave was rebuilt in the baroque style . After this construction, the nave consisted of four window axes without a choir separation. The construction was carried out by the mason and stone mason Nikolaus Mangein from Wörth (foundation stone laid on July 17, 1729). After the renovation, there was a dispute between the Aschaffenburg monastery and the city of Wörth regarding the assumption of the costs for the choir expansion. This went through several instances, until in October 1748 the highest ecclesiastical instance, the court at the papal chair in Rome ( Rota ) ruled in favor of Wörth.
The catastrophic floods at the end of the 19th century and the increasing population numbers led to the establishment of a new district in a flood-free area. As a result, a new church was built, the St. Nicholas Church , which meant that the old St. Wolfgang Church lost its function as a town church. On September 28, 1903, the St. Wolfgang Church was profaned by the Diocese of Würzburg . The city then first used the former church as a storage room for poor wood, then as a replacement gymnasium and finally as a parking space.
In 1985, the Senate of the City of Wörth decided to renovate and convert the former St. Wolfgang's Church into a museum, and with a contract dated December 19, 1985, it bought it from the Catholic Church Foundation St. Nikolaus. According to the plans of the architects Klaus and Verena Trojan (Darmstadt), the renovation and conversion of the hall church into a museum of the Main Shipping took place in 1986–1991 . The website of the Association of German Architects states: The steel construction that has been discontinued is sensitively designed and keeps a respectful distance from the historical substance. By concentrating the exhibition on the surrounding gallery, the room, which has been preserved in its original character, can also be used for other cultural activities. Small interventions in the facade indicate the new use from the outside. In 1991, the city of Wörth was awarded the State Prize of the Association of German Architects for the redesign of the building in line with monument requirements.
Development of the museum
After the founding of the Association for the Promotion of the Shipping and Shipbuilding Museum eV in 1980, the first concept for a museum was created and the association then compiled an extensive collection of contemporary documents and sources. In 1989, parallel to the construction work on the former church, the scientific inventory of the collection took place. Immediately afterwards, the museum was set up, consisting of historical documents and handcrafted detailed ship models. On July 27, 1991, the museum was opened under the sponsorship of the city of Wörth as part of the city's 700th anniversary.
The collection has grown steadily since then. Even today, at least one additional model is added to the collection every year. The museum has lent some of the ship models to other museums or cities for special exhibitions. In 2004, a permanent exhibition on the Roman era in Wörth was set up in the Bürgerhaus, a nearby half-timbered house built around 1600. In 2005, members of the association restored the disused PAX diesel engine tug , which had been in use for a long time on the Main, and set it up for inspection at the northern entrance to the village. In 2009, the media room (former sacristy of the church) was refurbished and a true-to-original control station for a barge was built on the second gallery.
Due to its importance, the Wörth Shipping and Shipbuilding Museum is part of the Route of Industrial Culture Rhine-Main Bavarian Lower Main . The website Maritime Museum awarded it two out of four stars in the inland shipping category, which corresponds to a medium-sized collection.
Exhibitions
Main exhibition on the Main Shipping and Shipbuilding
The main exhibition is always open on Saturdays and Sundays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and shows the main development history of the topic of shipping and shipbuilding technology on the Main. The exhibits include various ship models, ship parts and accessories, tools, devices, photo evidence and written sources such as patents , service books, certificates , shipbuilding plans , etc. The exhibition extends over three levels.
The subject areas of shipbuilding, the Main as a shipping route, political and economic framework conditions can be found on the ground floor. The exhibition on the first gallery deals with the different types of ships and their development, such as steam shipping, tug shipping, motor shipping and the Wörther ferry. The exhibition on the second gallery is dedicated to boat life.
Wooden shipbuilding and shipping
The boards on one side of the ground floor of the museum show and describe everyday wooden shipbuilding around 1900, the creation of a wooden ship, the material wood, the equipment of a shipbuilder and the ship shapes in the main area.
It is reported that wooden shipbuilding used to be limited to the period from spring (after the last flood) to late autumn. Usually one ship was built per season. In winter, many shipbuilders used the trees' pause in growth to work as woodcutters to gain boards and beams for the next season, others broke ice for the breweries. The ships were built without planning or drawing templates. Memory and experience alone helped the shipbuilder with the construction.
Shipbuilding around 1900 required hard manual labor that was done without machines. Various tools for making the ships are exhibited as replicas in the museum. In addition, the importance of wood is also explained. The grown shape of the trees was used as optimally as possible. Long straight trees resulted in masts , while crooked woods formed the basis for curved ship parts such as frames . In order to save weight, light woods were preferred for interior work.
The ships on the Main had a shallow draft of less than 1.20 meters due to the many shallows of the river . Different types of ships were distinguished depending on their size. They are exhibited as models in the museum. The main ship was built as a sailing boat and could carry up to 200 tons of payload. The shelves were smaller and had an open hold. Even smaller wooden boats were called boats and were mainly used to transport people or as fishing boats. As anchors they accompanied large ships on the Main.
The Main as a shipping route and political border
The Main as a river has undergone numerous changes over the centuries. Before 1800, the Main was a shallow body of water with many loops, bends and side arms. This condition is explained on the first panel to the left of the altar with pictures and texts. Strong floods in autumn and spring led to floods, bank breaks and siltation . In summer, on the other hand, the river bed, which was often only 1 meter deep, partially dried up and shoals and sandbanks were created. The course of the river changed frequently and was difficult to predict. The river banks were often unpaved and partly swampy.
Downriver the boatmen let their ships drift or move them forward as sailboats by the wind power. Upstream, the ships were usually pulled by horses as a group of several ships. This locomotion, called treideln , is clearly visualized on the large model of the old town in the middle of the room. At the same time, the visitor gets an impression of how the city of Wörth used to look.
The main corrections, the canalization and the three canal projects Karlsgraben , Ludwig-Danube-Main Canal and Main-Danube Canal are the further topics of the display boards in the left choir area of the museum church. The regulation of the Main began in 1820 under pressure from the boatmen . River loops were eliminated with the help of punctures that served as shortcuts. The bank of the straightened Main was fortified by stone walls, islands were removed and the fairway deepened. This was the prerequisite for larger ships and the beginning steam shipping . From 1866, the Main canalization was further advanced. Barrages regulated the water level and allowed the Main to be navigable all year round, until 1962 the entire length of the Main to Bamberg was regulated by a total of 34 barrages and a kind of "lake staircase" was created. The Main became a major shipping route . With the completion of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal in 1992, a project that had been pursued for a long time was realized: a 3,500-kilometer-long waterway from the North Sea to the Black Sea.
In addition to the technical development of the Main shipping route, the display boards in the right choir area deal with the political significance of the river and the economic framework conditions of the various time periods. The Main first gained political importance through the Romans as a border line ("wet Limes "). After the Romans, the German kings had sovereignty over the navigable waters. They offered the sailors protection, but also collected taxes and duties . A map shows the many small states that formed as a result of the fragmentation of German imperial unity. The Main used to flow through twelve domains, at whose borders 32 customs posts were established on the Main by 1803. The text on one of the blackboards reports that the stacking and handling rights demanded by many cities made shipping more difficult in the long term. Shipmen were forced by the stacking right to unload their goods and offer them for sale for a few days. The transshipment law even forbade them to continue their journey. The goods had to be reloaded onto another means of transport. This only changed when the Main became Bavarian in the 19th century and the Mainzölle were abolished by 1867.
From steam shipping to motor shipping
With industrialization, long-lasting iron ships replaced the less durable wooden ships. No longer the horse, but the steam engine was the driving force of the ships. Well-funded companies were founded in shipbuilding . Planning, division of labor and industrialization moved into the shipyard. The manufacturing techniques were adapted to the material and continuously improved.
The expansion of the Main made new and larger ships possible. Initially, paddle-wheel steamers with no tail or side-wheel drive operated on the Main. Later these were replaced by screw drives. Almost all steamships were in the hands of steamship companies. Several ship models in the museum show the various types of ships that operate on the Main and explain how the steam engine works.
The era of tug shipping began with the steamships in 1886. Tug shipping on the Main reached its peak with chain tugs that pulled 5–7 barges. A chain was laid in the Main over a length of around 390 km from Mainz to Bamberg. In the Shipbuilding and Maritime Museum in Wörth am Main, in addition to the scale model of a Royal Bavarian chain ship, a 1: 5 scale replica of a double winch can be seen which winds and unwinds the chain at the push of a button. In addition, the visitor will find a piece of the original chain here.
With the expansion of the Main to a large shipping route, locks were built, which in the early 1930s marked the end of chain shipping. The age of motor shipping had begun. Various models of tugs , motor tankers and motorized goods ships can be seen in the museum. In addition, the structure of a coupling formation consisting of a push boat and push barge is shown. But the museum also deals with different types of work boats.
The boatman's life
The third level of the museum is dedicated to boat life, everyday life and life on the ship, as well as changes in the workplace due to technology and economic structural change. For many families, their own ship was both their place of work and home. A cut-open model of a barge shows the various cabins and living rooms. School-age children had to separate from their families and lived in boatmen's orphanages or with relatives on land.
Little by little, larger shipping companies have taken over the ships. For the employee of a shipping company who is on shift and changing duty, the ship is only a temporary work and living space. A true-to-life replica of a modern control room gives an impression of the workplace of today's shipper. In addition, original documents such as patents, service books or certificates are issued.
Side exhibitions
In the adjoining room of the museum, you can marvel at the original of the historic nail smithy of the last Wörther nail smith. The bellows was powered by a dog pulley. The nail smith forged all kinds of nails, such as ship nails, horseshoe nails, shoe nails, carpenter nails, etc. With the introduction of iron shipbuilding - from 1805 - the need for ship nails decreased. In 1948 the last nail blacksmith stopped working.
At the fishing stand, the visitor receives information about the Main fishery. The fisherman's equipment and tools are shown. In addition, boards and light displays provide information about the fish population in the Main.
In 2004, a small permanent exhibition about the Romans in Wörth was set up as a branch in the nearby community center, which can be viewed during the opening hours of the museum (please contact the museum supervisory authority) or after consultation with the city administration. Around 100 AD the Main was part of the Roman border . Watchtowers and forts built by the Romans were used to secure and control the border. The Wörther Fort lies in the ground and is one of the few castles on the Limes that have not been built over . The virtual reconstruction of the fort, as well as finds and information boards give insights into life back then.
Specialized library
In addition to the museum, a specialist library was created with more than 800 books, over 70 folders of archival material with over 15,000 photos, 2,000 certificates and documents dealing with the subject of shipping and shipbuilding on the Main. Newspaper clippings from 1885 onwards were collected and typed. This material can be used for research by students and historians. In addition, there are almost 20 other ship models in the magazine that are not permanently on display in the museum.
Special exhibitions
Several special exhibitions are organized in the museum church every year. These can be related to shipping or have a completely different focus on the topic. These included B. the special exhibitions:
- 2007 - Shipping in Roman times
- 2008 - Special show of the district of Lower Franconia with the title "Sheep's head and music box - Insights into Lower Franconian village inns 1950 to 1970"
Ship models
Almost 50 ship models are constantly on display in the museum. Most of the ships, which are painstakingly handcrafted from wood, come from the former carpenter Kurt Fries from Gerbrunn. The smallest model is around 40 cm long, while the replica of the “Mainkuh” chain tractor measures around 2.50 m as the largest model. The basis of the models were (if available) construction drawings of real ships. Photos, drawings and descriptions served as the basis for the models of the wooden shipping. Other models are still kept in the archive.
Passenger ship
Lifting crane
Motor tanker (interior view)
Push ship of a push convoy
Motor tanker
Support association
The Association for the Promotion of the Shipping and Shipbuilding Museum eV was founded under the leadership of the then mayor of the city of Wörth, Otto Berninger and Dr. Trost was founded on October 17, 1980 and consisted of 55 members at that time. In the meantime (as of September 2008) the association has around 160 (honorary) members. The club house is right next to the museum.
Once a year this association publishes interesting facts about shipping and shipbuilding on the Main in its magazine Mainschifffahrts-Nachrichten .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Website of the city of Wörth am Main: The Main - defining for Wörth , accessed on June 2, 2011
- ↑ a b c d City and church history: St. Wolfgang and the shipping museum. Catholic parish of St. Nikolaus Wörth am Main, accessed on July 4, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c Werner Trost: Wörth am Main, chronicle of a small Franconian town (Volume 2), publisher: Bürgererverein eV Wörth, Druckerei Klein + Hiese GmbH Klingenberg (1991), pages 466–485 (The St. Wolfgang Church)
- ↑ a b Main tours on the Main: Route 3 Wertheim - Niedernberg, description of Wörth am Main
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Heidemarie Kirchner, Maritime and Shipbuilding Museum Wörth a. Main, published by Weltkunst, 1994, ISBN 9783921669129 (110 pages)
- ↑ a b BDA Prize Bavaria 1991: Refurbishment and conversion of the St. Wolfgang Church in Wörth am Main into a museum for shipping on the Main. Association of German Architects (BDA), accessed on July 4, 2019 .
- ^ Association for the Promotion of the Shipping and Shipbuilding Museum Wörth am Main, Mainschifffahrts-Nachrichten No. 24 of December 2008
- ^ Werner Kraus, Schauplätze der Industriekultur in Bayern, Verlag Schnell & Steiner GmbH, April 2006, ISBN 3795417902 , page 311
- ^ Route of the industrial culture Rhine-Main (Bayerischer Untermain III). (pdf) Initiative Bayrischer Untermain, accessed on September 26, 2009 .
- ↑ Ranking list of the inland navigation museums. Maritime Museum, archived from the original on February 22, 2012 ; Retrieved September 26, 2009 .
- ^ Georg Schanz, "The Main Shipping in the 19th Century and Its Future Development" , Buchner Bamberg 1894 ( digitized form of the book by Digitalis, Library for Economic and Social History Cologne, accessed on October 29, 2009)
- ^ Otto Berninger: 100 Years of Main Canalization in Main News, Bulletin No. 2 Wörth a. Main 1983
- ↑ a b c d e f g Schifffahrts- und Schiffbauuseum Wörth a. Main, short guide
- ↑ a b c FN summer tips: Schifffahrts- und Schiffbauuseum Wörth a. Main - Close to the water for good reason. Fränkische Nachrichten, archived from the original on April 27, 2010 ; Retrieved September 26, 2009 .
- ↑ Description. (No longer available online.) In: Spessart magazine . Main-Echo- Verlag, October 26, 2006, archived from the original on January 17, 2016 ; Retrieved September 26, 2009 . 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.
- ^ Leaflet from the Shipping and Shipbuilding Museum in Wörth am Main
- ↑ a b Speech by the District President on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Friends' Association on October 15, 2005. (pdf) (No longer available online.) Government of Lower Franconia, formerly the original ; Retrieved September 27, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d Main-Echo from December 21, 2007: Scale models, With Rudi Bauer in the magazine of the Wörther Schifffahrtsmuseum ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
Literature and video
- Heidemarie Kirchner: Shipping and Shipbuilding Museum Wörth a. Main , Weltkunst Verlag, 1994, ISBN 9783921669129 (110 pages)
- State Office for Non-State Museums in Bavaria, Museum heute magazine . Facts - Tendencies - Help , Issue 3 / March 1992 Museum portrait: Schiffahrts- und Schiffbauuseum Wörth a. Main
- State Office for Non-State Museums in Bavaria, Museum heute magazine . Facts - Tendencies - Help , Issue 27 / December 2004 Museum portrait: The Romans in Wörth am Main. The new Roman department of the Maritime and Shipbuilding Museum in the Bürgerhaus ( Memento from February 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), PDF, pages 26–29
- State Office for Non-State Museums in Bavaria, Film Series Museums in Bavaria No. 16: From Schelchen, Tugboats and Ships: Schiffahrts- und Schiffbauuseum Wörth a. Main , (1996), VHS video cassette (15 min)
Coordinates: 49 ° 47 ′ 49 ″ N , 9 ° 9 ′ 32.4 ″ E