Theodor Heuss (ship, 1957–1997)
Theodor Heuss as a ferry on the Vogelfluglinie
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The Theodor Heuss was a combined RoRo and rail ferry operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) and the German Ferry Company Ostsee (DFO), which was used on the Großenbrode Kai ↔ Gedser ferry connection from 1957 to 1963 and then on the Vogelfluglinie until 1997 .
Construction and delivery
Just two years after the opening of the Großenbrode Kai ↔ Gedser ferry connection , the increasing volume of traffic made it necessary to use a second German ship. It was commissioned by the DB from the Howaldtswerke in Kiel in November 1955 and, according to the contract, was to be delivered in May 1957. However, due to a strike in the Schleswig-Holstein metal industry, this date was delayed by 6 months.
The originally planned name for the ferry was supposed to be Federal President Theodor Heuss , but in retrospect this name was felt to be too long. For this reason, the final name for the new ferry was Theodor Heuss .
On November 14, 1957, the Theodor Heuss went on a maiden voyage with the then incumbent and eponymous Federal President Theodor Heuss and numerous guests of honor on board .
Structural features
Car deck
Like all ferries on the Großenbrode Kai ↔ Gedser line, the Theodor Heuss had a combined railway and car deck. As the first ferry, it was also equipped with an additional car deck on which another 75 cars could be transported. For this car deck, additional loading ramps had to be built in the ports of Großenbrode Kai and Gedser.
Devices were created for both stern loading in Großenbrode Kai and bow loading in Gedser in order to be able to bring the movable ferry bridges up to the ferry and establish a secure connection. Due to the limited space in Gedser, the loading ramp there had to be built so that it could be brought up to the port side of the bow of the Theodor Heuss . As a result, the ferry port could only be operated by DSB ferries with an additional car deck if only the railroad deck was used, as these ferries had the so-called "Great Belt shape".
When the Theodor Heuss switched to the Vogelfluglinie Puttgarden ↔ Rødby Færge in 1963 , the bow was redesigned so that the loading of the car deck could now take place, as on all ferry ships with the "Great Belt" shape, via a ferry bridge that was brought up to the front of the ship's bow (cf. . also the following section).
"Great Belt Shape"
For their two most important ferry connections on the Great Belt between Nyborg ↔ Korsør and Halsskov ↔ Knudshoved , the Danish State Railways (DSB) had defined structural framework conditions in order to be able to exchange the ferries used on the lines at any time as required, without the need to modify the ship itself or at the ferry facilities in the respective ports, which was a particularly important point in view of the track layout for the use of the railway deck. These specifications saw u. a. in front:
- a uniform width of 17.70 m
- identical parameters for the angles at the inlet of the superstructures at the bow and stern
- identical parameters for the connections between the ship and the ferry bridges, the gangway for pedestrians and the land-side freight elevators for the provision of provisions
- For ships with an additional car deck: frontal approach of the ferry bridge to the ship for bow loading
- For ships with an additional car deck: both direct rear and side options for bringing ferry bridges to the ship for stern loading
Since the DSB always both the connection Grossenbrode Kai ↔ Gedser and later on the bird's flight Puttgarden ↔ Rødby the larger fleet and thus most of the tonnage presented, they could because of this position, the "Great Belt Form" prevail for both lines. As a result, the DB ships were also designed in this way.
This meant that Theodor Heuss would have (as well as the other DB ferries used until 1997, the Germany (built in 1953), the Germany (built in 1972) and the Karl Carstens (built in 1986)) if required and when required by the DSB withdrawn from the Großenbrode Kai ↔ Gedser line and later from the Puttgarden - Rødby line and can be used on the Nyborg ↔ Korsør and Halsskov ↔ Knudshoved lines operated exclusively by DSB on the Great Belt . Even a call to the ferry systems of the port of Warnemünde , which belonged to the GDR until reunification, on the Warnemünde ↔ Gedser connection operated by DSB and Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) would have been possible, since the DSB had also established the "Great Belt Form" here. In practice, however, these possibilities have never been exhausted.
commitment
In addition to the Germany of the DB and the Kong Frederik IX of the DSB, the Theodor Heuss was used from November 1957 as the third and largest ferry on the Großenbrode ↔ Gedser line.
After the construction of the Fehmarnsund Bridge and the ferry ports in Puttgarden and Rødby, the ferry connection and with it the ships used were relocated to the new and shorter Vogelfluglinie. On February 11, 1963, the Theodor Heuss made the first attempt at entry in Puttgarden. Pioneers had previously blown the ice in the frozen driveway, but the Fehmarans were able to accompany the ship on the ice in the harbor basin.
On May 14, 1963 , Federal President Heinrich Lübke traveled with Theodor Heuss von Puttgarden to Rødby Færge for the state ceremony for the opening of the Vogelfluglinie , where he went with the Danish King Frederik IX. on board the Kong Frederik IX to officially inaugurate the new connection on the crossing through the Fehmarnbelt .
The Theodor Heuss was spared spectacular accidents and accidents, but on March 14, 1969, she had to cross the Fehmarnbelt for 22 hours during a severe hurricane. When the ship was about to enter Puttgarden after the storm, it rammed the east pier. Nobody on board was injured.
To improve duty-free shopping , the interior was redesigned in early 1976 and a supermarket was installed. In June 1981 the first conversion to transport dangerous goods took place .
Due to the use of ever larger ferries on the part of DSB and the increased volume of traffic, which increasingly exceeded the existing capacities, the DB decided in 1983 to replace the Theodor Heuss with a new building, which on June 1, 1986 as Karl Carstens, was serving on the Vogelfluglinie took over. The Theodor Heuss was supposed to be sold after that, but the continued increase in traffic required further use. The ship was converted into a dangerous goods ferry in accordance with ADR at the Flender shipyard in August 1986 and then used as a pure cargo ferry on the Vogelfluglinie from September 1986.
With the founding of the Deutsche Fährgesellschaft Ostsee mbH (DFO) , Theodor Heuss , together with Karl Carstens and Germany , was taken over by them on July 1, 1993. The first visible sign was the change of the chimney marks and on February 17, 1994 the change of flag from the federal service flag to the federal flag .
In April 1997 the Theodor Heuss was finally decommissioned.
Whereabouts
An attempt to keep the ferry as a museum ship failed. On April 13, 1997, she began her last trip to the scrapping yards near Alang with her name shortened to Theodor . A sculpture called "Die Grüßende", consisting of parts of Theodor Heuss , was set up at the parking lot for day visitors in Puttgarden.
further reading
- Gert Uwe Detlefsen: Shipping in the picture Baltic ferry ships , Hauschild Verlag Bremen 1997, ISBN 978-3-89757-372-7
Web links
- Information on the Grossenbrode ↔ Gedser ferry connection (accessed on August 25, 2010)
- Information on the Vogelfluglinie (accessed August 25, 2010)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Carsten Watsack: Memories of the Theodor Heuss - 40 years on the way to the north , Edition Osteesland, Ilsede 2001, ISBN 3-935944-00-4 reading sample
- ↑ a b Günther Meier: The bird flight line and its ships . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford 1988, ISBN 3-7822-0441-7
- ↑ a b Carsten Watsack: Puttgarden-Rødby - The History of Vogelfluglinie , publishing German ferry publications Edition Baltic country in 2000, ISBN 3-8311-0357-7
- ^ Arnulf Hader, Günther Meier: Railway ferries of the world. From the Trajekt zur Dreideckfähre , Koehler Verlag, Herford 1988, ISBN 3-7822-0393-3