The Wittelsbach was built in 1879 as the last Bavarian steamship at Maschinenfabrik Escher, Wyss & Cie. built in Zurich . It was named after the Bavarian dynasty of the Wittelsbach family, to which the then King Ludwig II belonged. After the end of the monarchy , the ship was renamed Augsburg and taken over by the Deutsche Reichsbahn .
The Wittelsbach with the Bavarian lion on the bow in the port of Rorschach .
The Wittelsbach was the first Bavarian steamship on Lake Constance to be built as a half-saloon steamship . In keeping with the importance of tourism, the ship was soon given a uniform ivory paint. The Wittelsbach caused a sensation with a three-meter-high figure on the foredeck that represented the white and blue Bavarian lion, the heraldic animal of the Wittelsbach family. This corresponded entirely to the idea of the “fairy tale king” Ludwig II, whose Linderhof Palace had been completed a year earlier. The plastic was removed after two years because it prevented the helmsman from seeing. In 1928 the Wittelsbach was retired and canceled. It was replaced by the largest three-deck motor ship on Lake Constance Allgäu .
Dietmar Bönke: paddle wheel and impeller. The shipping of the railway on Lake Constance . GeraMond Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-86245-714-4 , pages 216f.
Werner Deppert: With a steam engine and a paddle wheel. Steam navigation on Lake Constance 1817–1967 . Verlag Friedr. Stadler, Konstanz 1975, ISBN 3-7977-0015-6 , pages 121f.
Klaus von Rudloff and Claude Jeanmaire: Schiffahrt auf dem Bodensee , Volume 2: The heyday of steam shipping, contribution to the history of Lake Constance, history of the individual ships and registers, Verlag Eisenbahn, Villigen (CH) 1981, ISBN 3-85649-071-X , Page 18 and illustrations no. 23–28.
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