Donau-Schiffarts-Museum-Regensburg

Description

At Marc-Aurel-Ufer in Regensburg, the Donau-Schiffahrts-Museum Regensburg preserves evidence of Danube navigation and illustrates the technology and daily work of inland-waterway sailors. Two permanently moored tugs serve as exhibition spaces: the paddle steamer Ruthof / Érsekcsanád and the diesel-powered tug Freudenau.

The association Arbeitskreis Schiffahrts-Museum Regensburg e. V. was formed in January 1979 from the initiative to save the paddle steamer Ruthof, built in Regensburg in 1923, from being scrapped. In the same year the ship was taken over by a Hungarian shipping company, conserved and brought back to Regensburg in 1980. The museum opened in 1983; the interior fit-out was completed in 1984. In 1987 responsibility for the former ship-hauling installation at the Steinernen Brücke was added. In 2004 the museum moved its berth to the Old Town; since then Ruthof / Érsekcsanád and Freudenau have lain on the southern bank between Eisener and Steinener Brücke.

The Ruthof was built in 1922/23 at a Regensburg shipyard as part of the post–First World War reconstruction. She was fitted with an inclined two-cylinder compound steam engine with injection condensation; the paddle wheels, each with seven floats, were controlled by an eccentric mechanism so that they dipped vertically into the water, and the funnels could be folded down for low bridges. After conversions of the firing system between coal and oil, the ship hit a mine and sank in 1944; five crew members died. The wreck was salvaged and restored in 1956, returned to service in 1958 and later decommissioned. In 1979 the association brought the ship into the museum and had it repaired; another overhaul took place in Regensburg in 1992. In the bow compartment panels and models explain the development of Danube navigation, while the oil bunkers, boiler, engine and crew rooms, as well as the bridge and deck equipment, provide insight into ship operations and life on board.

The Freudenau was built in 1941 and was diesel-powered from the outset; more powerful engines replaced the original machinery in the 1960s. After being taken out of service in 1993, the ship entered the museum collection in 1995. It largely appears in its original condition and is still seaworthy; it is occasionally used for excursion trips.

The historic ship-hauling installation at the Steinernen Brücke demonstrates a technical solution for overcoming strong currents and backwater. The electrically driven rope winch from the early 20th century operated with a 550-volt direct-current motor, supplied from the municipal tramway power network; the installation was taken out of service in the mid-1960s and reopened in 2012. Further exhibits along the Danube between Eisener and Nibelungenbrücke complement the offering: on the southern bank the Helga, the steam boiler of the Elbe steamer Sachsenwald (ex Ida-Erna, 1914), remains of a concrete ship and a hand-operated harbor crane; on the northern bank a damaged propeller and an anchor recall the former berth.