House Flags of German Shipping Companies (r) - part 1

Deutsche Reedereiflaggen (r) Teil 1

Last modified: 2019-07-10 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: rahder | richard-cort-rahmann | railship | rasche | reckmann | reederei transport ges | reibel ag | reimers | reinhold | reiss rhynav | rendsburger kuesten | renne | research shipping | reusch | red star | rosenberg u lo |
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• Reederei H.G. Rahder
• Richard, Cort & Gerhard Rahmann
• Railship
• Reederei Rambow
• Reederei Rasche
• J. Heinrich Reckmann Reederei
• Reederei und Transportgesellschaft
• Red Star Linie - Rosenberg, Loewe & Co.
• Red Star Linie - Dampfschiff-Genossenschaft der Vereinigten Elbe und Saale Schiffer
• Reibel AG für Spedition und Schiffahrt NfL Plamper & Thamer
• F. J. Reimers, variant
• F.G. Reinhold
• K. Reinholz
• Reiss Rhynav
• Rendsburger Küstenschiffahrt GmbH
• C.Renck und A.Sanders & Co.
• H.G.C.Renck
• Renne
• Research Shipping
• Rudolf Rettich
• A.D. Reusch Carl Eggers Nachfahren

• House Flags of German Shipping Companies
• House Flags of Shipping Companies
• Germany

Reederei H.G. Rahder

Starting out with a cutter on fishing trips in 1972, Hans-Georg Rahder's enterprise has developed into an important tourist shipping company based at Büsum, a German harbour on the North Sea. Now led by son Hauke, the firm operates four ships and organizes day outings  to Helgoland, almost any day, and fishing trips, ecologically oriented tours (e.g. spotting seals in the Wadden Sea), etc.
Website (German only). Additional activities include trips inside Büsum harbour, marriage receptions, and burials at sea (meaning dispersal of ashes, I suppose). As explained on the site, this branch of shipping had to be inventive and innovative after tax free trips were abolished by the EU.
Shown many times on the site as a drawing, and a few times on photos, the house flag bears a blue saltire defining two white triangles (hoist, fly) and two red ones (top, bottom); in the centre is a blue-rimmed white disk bearing a blue initial "R" without serifs.
Image however gleaned from this Elbebilder (i.e. pictures from the River Elbe) page: Photo made on 18 May 2007 (by Martin Leuschner, I believe).
The flag colours recall those of the Schleswig-Holstein flag and of the Büsum coat of arms.
Jan Mertens, 30 Sep 2008

Reederei H.G. Rahder - The company runs a ferry service from Büsum to Helgoland. The flag is divided by a blue saltire into white and red. In its centre is a white disc, fimbriated blue and containing a blue capital "R"?.
Source: www.marcollect.de, maintained by  Klaus-Peter Bühne
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 7 May 2009

Richard, Cort & Gerhard Rahmann

The company was located in Estebrügge. It is a red flag divided by a yellow centred cross with a black capital "R" upon the centre of cross.
Source: "Flaggen, Schornsteine, Reedereien- Flaggen und Schornsteine der deutschen Reedereien und ihre Schiffe über 300 BRT", Hamburg 1957; p.F21
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 13 Apr 2009

Railship

Railship G.m.b.H., Lübeck - orange flag, in center two horizontal black stripes, interrupted by orange field charged with a cartwheel, a ship's stem and a horizontal wave, all black.
Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995 [lgr95]
Jarig Bakker, 17 Jan 2006

Railship. Railship GmbH & Co. was formed by an international consortium in the mid 1970s and was initially managed by H.M.Gehrckens GmbH & Co. In 1997/8 Finnlines gained full ownership and the ships were incorporated into their fleet with changes in name and, presumably,colours. According to Brown 1995 the flag details were the same as the design on the ships funnels and whilst I have not come across any photos of the flag, I have seen photos of the 3 ships involved and their funnels are not the same as shown by Brown and consequently it is quite possible [or likely] that the flag detail is also not correct. The ship photos are taken at an angle in the more middle distance rather than the most desired close broadside position so there is a bit of distortion possible in my calculations.

The funnels were orange, not yellow as shown by Brown, and the bands and the emblem, apart from the wheel spokes, used lines of the same width. The chevron shaped part of the emblem, representing a ships bow, is placed higher and is stepped on the upper horizontal line and the other is more erect thus representing a bow with a forecastle rather than flush decked. The wheel is placed lower down, the central ring core does not exist and there is no vertical spoke. Finally the wavy line of sea is longer [see image below]. Of the photos only one shows a reasonably identifiable flag with "Railship II" [their other vessels were "Railship I" and  "Railship III"] 1.7.1995 apparently flying the flag of the manager.
Neale Rosanoski, 9 Oct 2009

Railship variant

Reederei Rambow

'Rambow Bereederungs GmbH & Co. KG' or, shorter, Reederei Rambow is a German shipping company established at Drochtersen on the River Elbe, to the N.W. of Hamburg. For further information click: company webpage (German only) and Verband Deutscher Reeder homepage.
A family business founded in 1890, Rambow started out operating a sailing ship, shifted to motorized transport in 1930 and to multipurpose freighters in the nineteen sixties; currently Rambow operates ten German or China built container ships, see "Flotte"' (i.e. fleet), left menu. Preferred partners are Peter Döhle, Stüwe, and Unifeeder.
Shown as a drawing on the website the house flag bears a thin blue saltire defining red fields (top, bottom) and white ones (hoist, fly); in the centre is placed a large white disk, thinly rimmed in blue, bearing a blue initial "R". Said initial is serifed, at least there is a visible sweep at the upper part of the bow; however at Josef Nüsse's site we see a straight item (Drochtersen page, about 2/3 down):
No photo of a real-size flag seen, or found - I suppose Josef Nüsse shows the present version.
Jan Mertens, 11 May 2011

Reederei Rasche

"Reederei Rasche" was founded in 1946 by Emile Mersserschmidt, who revamped an old boat from the German Army and renamed it "HEIDI". The company serves the ports of Born, Fuhlendorf and Prerow, located in Western Pomerania, north-west of Stralsund, in the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula . The peninsula is separated from mainland by an inland sea arms called Bodden. Until the 1960s, there were only few roads linking the peninsula to mainland and boat was the main way of transportation in the region. Later on, the region, especially Prerow, became a tourists' hotspot. It is now part of the "Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft" national park.

The house flag of "Reederei Rasche" is quartered per saltire red-white, with a blue "R" in the middle. Shown as a graphic all over the company website, the flag can be seen on  a photograph of the modern MS "HEIDI". There is another flag hoisted over the boat, horizontally divided blue-white with a coat of arms in the middle.
Ivan Sache, 7 Sep 2008

J. Heinrich Reckmann Reederei

The company was located in Hamburg. It was a celestial blue flag with a white lozenge in its centre containing a celestial blue "R".
Source: "Deutsche Reedereien und ihre Erkennungszeichen", 2nd ed.; Hamburg 1956; p.33
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 19 Sept 2010

Reederei und Transportgesellschaft mbH

The company was located in Hamburg. It is a red over green over red horizontal tribend with white fimbriations between the stripes and white capital "RTG" in the middle of the green stripe.
Source:  "Deutsche Reedereien und ihre Erkennungszeichen", 2nd ed.; Hamburg; 1956; p.34.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 31 Mar 2009

Red Star Linie - Rosenberg, Loewe & Co.

It is a white flag with a red 5-point star in the centre.
Source: Gratis Beilage zu Deicken und Behrmann's Neuen Monatsheften Neue Ausgabe Sommer 1897
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 25 Juneü2012

Red Star Linie - Dampfschiff-Genossenschaft der Vereinigten Elbe und Saale Schiffer

It is a white pennant with a red 5-point star shifted to the hoist.
Source: Gratis Beilage zu Deicken und Behrmann's Neuen Monatsheften Neue Ausgabe Sommer 1897
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 25 Jun 2012

Reibel AG für Spedition und Schiffahrt NfL Plamper & Thamer

The company was located in Hamburg. The flag is divided per saltire into white and blue. In the centre a white rectangle, fimbriated red and containing a red steering wheel with a red "R"" in its centre, is superimposed.
Source: "Flaggen, Schornsteine, Reedereien- Flaggen und Schornsteine der deutschen Reedereien und ihre Schiffe über 300 BRT", Hamburg 1957; p.F22
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 13 Apr 2009

F. J. Reimers

This flag is white with a red disc in the center, charged with an inverted, white, 5-pointed star. But the big novelty is that the caption is quite readable for a change: "F. J. Reimers"". [Source is a plate with old German houseflags found somewhere on the web, ed.)
Jorge Candeias, 19 May 2004

F. J. Reimers variant

F.J. Reimers. According to sources Lloyds 1904 and 1912 and the German cigarette card collection of Massary 1930 this flag is shown upside down i.e. the star point should be at the top, not the bottom. Based in Hamburg Reimers was a ship owner for at least 1895-1913 but presumably also operated post WW1 with the Massary collection showing him.
Neale Rosanoski, 29 Oct 2009

F.G. Reinhold

This flag is clear: 7 stripes of red (4) and white (3) with a very large black S in the center. The caption is not entirely clear, though. There are two initials to begin, an F and a G, and then a word that seems to me to read Reinholz OSLT. If so, then there's a puzzle: where did the S come from?
Jorge Candeias, 2 Jan 2005

No idea about the 'S'... but it's 'F.G. Reinhold, Danzig' under No. 898 in the on-line 1912 Lloyds Flags & Funnels. At some point in time, they moved to Hamburg.
Jan Mertens, 2 Jan 2005

My grandfather, Hans-Günther Siedler, was the last owner of the company. The letter S stands for the initial of our family name Siedler. F. G. Reinhold has been in possession of the Siedler family for many decades and was indeed located in Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland). Its main home market was the Baltic Sea.
Due to the approaching Soviet army, my  grandfather moved his family and what was left of the company first to Lübeck and then to Hamburg, Germany. The company was finally dissolved in the 1960s, as many of the established commercial relations had been severed due to WW2 and the Cold Wars.
Wolf-Jobst Siedler, 25 Jan 2009

K. Reinholz

The company was based in Kolberg. The flag was white displaying a red disc, charged with a white 5-point star. The funnel was yellow with black top and the disc with star on yellow. Hamburg based F.J. Reimers had the same flag but black funnel with white ring charged with disc and star.
Source: Flaggenbuch 1905, part V, p11., image no.29
,

Reiss Rhynav

Reiss Rhynav GmbH is a small company established at Kehl on the River Rhine, Germany (opposite Strasbourg, France) operating as a freighting office for inland navigation. This Vlootschouw page presenting the barge "NORMA" shows a flagoid at the very end: European in spirit, this house flag is blue bearing a white line drawing of an old inland sailing vessel (a tjalk or some such) advancing to the hoist, within a ring of twelve yellow five-pointed stars. White initials "R"" are placed in upper hoist and lower fly, respectively.
A dark blue version, more in line with the EU flag's basic colour and hardly serifed initials appeared on German eBay offer no. 6629315110 (end 21 May 2006) . This was a table flag, dimensions given as approx. 15 cm x 25 cm.
No life size version spotted yet unless you count the blue flag hiding behind the yellow pennant on the bow of "Norma".
PS: this firm may well be related to the similarly active Rhynav AG at Basel, Switzerland.
Jan Mertens, 24 Jul 2009

Rendsburger Küstenschiffahrt GmbH

The company was located in Rendsburg. It is a blue flag with a white lozenge containing red capitals "RKS". The lozenge is touching the edges.
Source: "Flaggen, Schornsteine, Reedereien- Flaggen und Schornsteine der deutschen Reedereien und ihre Schiffe über 300 BRT", Hamburg 1957; p.F22
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 13 Apr 2009

C.Renck und A.Sanders & Co.

According to source Hamburg shipowners register provides evidence of the company's existence at least from 1888 until 1889 and 1903 to 1904. There are also entries of A.Sanders & Co. (1854 - 1863) and Harburg based company H.C.G.Renck (1899 -1901). The blue flag is divided by a white saltire. Yellow initials are in the hoist quarter ("R") and in the fly quarter ("S") Source: Otto Mathies: "Hamburgs Reederei 1814 - 1914", Hamburg 1924, p.109
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 July 2012

H.G.C.Renck

The company was based in Hamburg. The flag was white with a black serifed inscription "S&R" at the fly end and a black-white-red horizontal tricolour in the canton. Source: Flaggenbuch 1905, part V, p12., image no47.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 8 July 2019

Renne

Renne stands for "Renne Kies- und Sandwerk Bremen GmbH & Co. KG" meaning: Renne Gravel and Sand [Extraction] Works Bremen - the firm in a nutshell. Company site, German only:
We learn that additional firms sail under Renne's flag, another extraction site: Leese on the River Weser - and a one trading in concrete. Leese extracts minerals from a river, cleans and sorts them, at last turning the site into a nature reserve:
Then there is concrete production as well plus transhipment at Renne's own inland harbour at Bremen. According to a slogan appearing on the site, the company has been involved in construction since 1862.
Shown as a drawing on the obsolete website, the house flag is orange with a white diamond (rhomb) not touching the flag's edges and bearing a black, non-serifed and initial "R"which resembles the large "R" of "RENNE" at top of that page:
Source: http://www.renne-beton-gesteine.com/ (obsolete)
A real flag, very tiny, appears in the photo on that page; see also left menu "Kies und Sand> Produktion Leese" (third photo) and here.
The flag was found , hoisted on the "Schiffermast" of the Bremen Inland Shippers' Association (third line from left): here and here http://www.binnenschifferverein-bremen.de/Flaggenmast/Geschichte/geschichte.html
Jan Mertens, 8 Jun 2010

Research Shipping

Research Shipping GmbH - White with a logo centered. The logo is composed of the letters "R" and "S", interconnected, and in red and blue, respectively, over a short blue wavy stripe.
Jorge Candeias, 22 Mar 1999

Rudolf Rettich

image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 10 July 2012

image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 10 July 2019

According to source Hamburg shipowners register provides evidence of the company's existence at least from 1884 until 1892. In the centre of the flag is a red initial "R". There are reported a blue flag (see left image above) and a white flag (see right image above)
Sources: Otto Mathies: "Hamburgs Reederei 1814 - 1914", Hamburg 1924, p.96 (blue flag) and Flaggenbuch 1905, part V, p.11, image no.11
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 10 Jul 2012

A.D. Reusch Carl Eggers Nachfahren

It was a white flag. In the centre was a red blossom ornament. It consisted of a diamond with four lens shaped elements and a white cross patty in the centre.
Source: Flaggenkarte, Hrsg.: H. Carly, Hamburg, c.1898
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 22 June 2012

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