Westfälische Transport AG
The Westphalian Transport AG (short: WTAG ) was a company of inland navigation , which existed from 1897 to 1976 and in that year in the Stinnes Reederei AG rose.
history
The history of WTAG is inextricably linked with the Dortmund-Ems Canal , which was built from 1892 to 1899, and the iron and steel industry of the (especially eastern) Ruhr area . The canal was built to make Emden a seaport for the eastern Ruhr area: coal was transported north by water, iron ore back. In 1913, one eighth of the iron ore imports from the Ruhr area were handled via the port of Emden . Emder was the seat of the shipping company (sic!) In the administrative district .
The Dortmund- based WTAG was majority owned by the Rhenish-Westphalian coal syndicate , minority shareholders were the metallurgical industry and the cities of Dortmund, Emden and Duisburg . In 1903, the WTAG fleet already comprised 56 freight ships , and in 1907 the majority of Schleppschifffahrts-Gesellschaft Dortmund-Ems GmbH (SGDE) was acquired. After the First World War , WTAG expanded its shipping area, the ships now also sailed on the Elbe , Weser , Main and Neckar . The handling facilities for coal and ore in the port of Emden, which had been owned by WTAG until then, were transferred to the state-owned (= Prussian ) Emden port handling company in 1926 . In 1927 the Münsterische Schifffahrts- und Lagerhaus AG (MSLAG) in Münster was taken over with several branches. At this point in time, WTAG was already represented in the Netherlands and Belgium . The fleet had its all-time high of 187 ships in 1944.
After the Second World War , the company quickly recovered from the war and post-war tonnage losses. WTAG countered the shift in traffic to the Rhine by opening new branches in Mannheim , Frankfurt , Wertheim, Nuremberg , Regensburg , Stuttgart and Plochingen , thus expanding its area of operations to include southern Germany. After further acquisitions, the fleet comprised 176 inland vessels, including 102 WTAG barges, 66 motor cargo ships and eight motor tankers. In 1976, WTAG was incorporated into the Stinnes Reederei AG Dortmund.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Unless otherwise referenced, this article is based on the essay by Peter Haas: Erloschene Namen große Rheinreedereien II ( Memento from June 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.6 MB), published on the Schifferverein's website Beuel , accessed on July 5, 2013.
- ^ Dietmar von Reeken : Ostfriesland between Weimar and Bonn. A case study on the problem of historical continuity using the example of the cities of Emden and Aurich . (Sources and studies on the history of Lower Saxony after 1945, Volume 7), Verlag August Lax, Hildesheim 1991, ISBN 3-7848-3057-9 , p. 16, note 7