Reederei Schwaben (“Swabia Shipping Co.") GmbH at Stuttgart is the
main component of a group of firms active in transportation (on waterways
or otherwise), warehousing, moving, and the like but the Südwestdeutsche
Salzwerke (salt works) is the major shareholder. Company
website, from which most (but not all) information is gleaned:
Reederei Schwaben is of course mainly known for its shipping activities
consisting of dry bulk goods transportation e.g. of salt, coal, fertilizer,
and construction materials; there is a bunkering boat as well. (Related
companies not active in shipping are not covered here.)
Founded in 1918 - before the end of WWI- at the behest of the Württemberg
tax department to organize shipping on the River Neckar, the firm adopted
the then current black-and-red Württemberg flag.
Salt was for a long time the prime article shipped towards the big chemical
firms established along the Main and Rhine rivers. In the nineteen
fifties, motos tugs replaced the steam-driven vessels. When in 1958
the Stuttgart inland harbour was opened, the company seat was moved there
from Heilbronn although this town remains important for business.
The 1970's saw the introduction of bigger motor vessels and specialization
in bulk goods
shipping.
In all, the fleet now has a capacity of about 11 000 metric tonnes and
it is active on the major waterways of Europe. Additional
vessels are chartered or put to work in cooperation with other inland shipping
companies.
This is a link
to one of a number of articles describing the brand-new barge ‘Stadt (town,
jm) Heilbronn’. The article related photos are clickable and the second
one shows the house flag behind the speaker. We learned that this
flag is horizontally divided, black above red, but in addition it bears
a yellow shield with three black
antlers, placed vertically, in the centre and this, too, is a reminder
of Württemberg.
I would like to present the following
page from the Binnenvaart site, showing a different rendition of the
arms and a photo with this flag on the barge ‘Wunnenstein’, active for
"Schwaben" since 1986.
Jan Mertens, 20 Apr 2006
![[Reederei Schwaben]](../images/d/de~rswa.gif)
image by Eugene Ipavec, 23 May 2006
See also:
