Altona – Dresden seaplane route

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Larsen JL-6 with floats; the identical Junkers F 13 flew on the seaplane route

The Altona – Dresden seaplane route (also known as the Blue Line ) was an air transport connection with seaplanes between Altona (now part of Hamburg ) and Dresden between 1925 and 1926. It was the first in Germany and ran along the Elbe with a stopover in Magdeburg .

prehistory

In 1920 joined the Colombian airline SCADTA ( Sociedad Colombo Alemana de Transportes Aereos ) with three aircraft of type Junkers F 13 of the Junkers aircraft factory in Dessau the port cities of Barranquilla and Cartagena along the Magdalena river with the Colombian capital Bogota . On June 5, 1925, a European seaplane connection from Danzig to Stockholm was opened.

The cities of Dresden, Magdeburg and Altona then signed a contract with Junkers Luftverkehr AG in order to carry out regular air traffic on the Elbe from 1925, initially for a period of three months. The city of Dresden bought the machines and the cities Altona and Magdeburg had the cost of the operation amounted to 67,500 Reichsmarks guarantee. The Reichspost also had to support every flight financially.

Junkers Flugzeugwerke built two F 13 aircraft that were fitted with floats in the Königsberg shipyard . The aircraft had the registration numbers D 272 and D 583 (also known as herring gull and wild duck ). Another machine with the registration number D 433 was added later. The first airplane arrived in Dresden on Sunday, August 9th, 1925. Altona also received a converted machine.

Start of connection

Aerial photograph of the Dresden-Johannstadt seaplane base (1925)
Dresden-Johannstadt Seaplane Base (1925) with the D433 in the foreground
Former terminal building in Dresden-Johannstadt, 2017

First, on May 29, 1925, a test flight was carried out with an F-13 from the Elbe near Dessau to Dresden. On August 10, 1925, the time had come, the first take-off of an aircraft on the bank in Dresden-Johannstadt at the level of what was then Gneisenaustrasse (now Bundschuhstrasse) with the participation of many onlookers. The F 13 with the registration number D 272 started with three passengers on board at 11:45 a.m. The almost 450 km long route from Dresden via Riesa , Torgau and Wittenberg led to Magdeburg, where a 20-minute stopover was planned. During the opening flight, however, there was an accident in Magdeburg , the machine collided with a boat hook, had to be repaired and there was a time delay. The onward flight via Tangermünde , Wittenberge and Lauenburg went without further incidents, so that the aircraft landed late in Altona around 6 p.m.

The Blue Line in Altona was opened on the same day by Altona's mayor Max Brauer (who later became head of the Senate ). The opposing aircraft with the registration number D 583 took off at 12:45 p.m. with the pilot Neumann in Altona and was able to land 120 minutes later at the Rotehornspitze in Magdeburg after a flight at an average altitude of 800 m with an hourly average of 145 km . At 4:45 p.m. the machine reached Dresden-Johannstadt. From now on, two planes operated on the seaplane route between Dresden and Altona every day except Sundays.

In the Dresdner Anzeiger of August 12, 1925, the exchange of telegrams between the 2nd Lord Mayor Wilhelm Külz (Dresden) and the Lord Mayor of Altona on the occasion of the opening of the Dresden - Hamburg-Altona seaplane was printed:

“We warmly reply to the greetings sent at the opening of the new airline with sincere wishes for the city of Altona to flourish and prosper. May this new promotion of transport bring the cities on the German Elbe closer together and prosper the father's economy as a blessing. "

- Dr. Külz, 2nd Mayor of Dresden : Dresdner Anzeiger from August 12, 1925, page 1

The flight prices between Dresden and Magdeburg were 40 Reichsmarks (RM) and between Magdeburg and Altona 50 RM. Each passenger could carry free baggage up to 10 kg free of charge; Fixed prices applied to excess baggage and freight shipments. The cash register for paying for the flight tickets was located in the former boathouse in Dresden-Johannstadt - today's Restaurant Johannstädter . The tickets in Altona for the passage, which is occupied twice a day, were sold in a wooden barrack, today's Elbkate restaurant . In contrast to a boat entrance in Dresden, from which the passengers could board the plane directly, in Altona a rowing boat carried the passengers to the machine on the Elbe.

With the seaplanes - as usual with other airplane routes - letters of all kinds, parcels (which were not allowed to exceed 60 cm in any dimension) and newspapers were transported from August 15, 1925.

attitude

Bollard of the former landing stage in Dresden-Johannstadt am Elbufer, 2017

The blue line was not a success. By the summer of 1926 only 134 flights had taken place. Airmail delivery ended on November 11, 1925. Due to floods and ice floes, the planes often couldn't start in winter, and the cold meant the passengers stayed away. On January 6, 1926, Luft Hansa took over operations, a merger of Junkers Luftverkehr with Deutsche Aero Lloyd . The new operating company was even planning to extend the line to the island of Helgoland . But it didn't come to that. The water airport at the southern tip of Magdeburg's Rotehorn Park appeared to Prussian officials too small and the landing license was withdrawn. When a land flight connection from Dresden-Heller Airport to Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel was offered in the summer of 1926 , the seaplane could no longer keep up and ceased operations. The Junkers F 13 seaplanes were transferred to Dresden and converted from swimmers to wheels in a hall of the old Dresden-Kaditz airfield .

Today only the terminal building and the bollards of the landing stage in Dresden-Johannstadt are preserved.

Aftermath

The Philatelists Association of GDR issued a special postcard with special cancellation of the 65th anniversary of the opening of the line.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the opening of the first European seaplane route, a festive event took place on August 12, 1995 on the banks of the Elbe in Johannstadt. A Maule M 6 seaplane with pilot Jörg Steber († 2006) from Himmelsschreiber GmbH Wasserflug Hamburg therefore flew from Altona to Dresden.

On August 23, 1997, a DHC 2 Beaver flew from Hamburg-Altona to Dresden on the occasion of the 10-year city partnership.

literature

  • Roland Wauer (Hrsg.): The biggest show in the world: Dresden city stories . Saxonia-Verlag, Dresden 2004, ISBN 978-3-937951-05-8 , pp. 84 f .

Web links

Commons : Wasserfluglinie Altona-Dresden  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jens Meyer-Odewald: In the Elbkate, not only the host is an original. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . June 9, 2016, accessed March 6, 2020 .