traditions of fishermen and boatmen
Episode 2 of the journey through the cultural heritage sites
In the north of the Oderbruch, most of the water leaves the river polder downstream towards the Baltic Sea. After the Alte Oder has circled the Neuenhagener Sporn and passed Oderberg, it flows into the Strom-Oder behind Hohensaaten. The water system of the Bruch is clearly shown on a model in the Oderbruch Museum Altranft. Although large parts of this landscape were predominantly shaped by agriculture, a long tradition of fishermen and boatmen can be traced in two cultural heritage sites, Hohensaaten and Oderberg.
Anyone who drives through Oderberg sees the white hull of the "Riesa" lying on the banks of the old Oder, shining in the sun. The large paddle steamer is now an event venue and also the flagship of the Inland Shipping Museum, founded in 1954 by the teacher and amateur archaeologist Hermann Seidel. The oldest technology museum in Brandenburg, not far from the steamer, has an extensive collection of exhibits on shipping and local history. A section is also dedicated to the history of the old boat lift in neighboring Niederfinow. But how does a paddle steamer actually get from the Elbe to the Oderbruch? Anke Marquard from the Inland Shipping Museum can answer this fascinating question: "The Riesa was decommissioned in 1976 due to a boiler defect and was due to be scrapped. The museum director at the time, Mr. Hoffmann, saw the ship during a visit to Dresden and bought the Riesa in 1978 for the scrap price of 20.000 East German marks. Visitors can find out how the Riesa was subsequently towed to Oderberg in an exhibition on the paddle steamer.
Anyone travelling by water towards the Baltic Sea, perhaps coming from Berlin, has to pass through the large lock system in Hohensaaten. It connects the Oder with the Havel-Oder waterway and without it there would be no shipping between Berlin and Stettin. In Hohensaaten, the local history society keeps the history of fishing and inland shipping alive. The 110 members of the society have secured many testimonies of the former water-based economy and exhibited them in their local history room, a small museum. They went from house to house and collected exhibits, from historical ship models and parts of the old locks to historical fishing utensils and household appliances of the former residents of "Hoh-Saathen". "At the end of the 19th century, the town had 36 ship owners, who usually owned their own steam tug and transported gravel from the nearby gravel pit to Berlin, among other things," says Irene Heinrich from the board of the local history society. She herself comes from a family of boatmen. Not only gravel was mined in the pit, but also the bones of a mammoth were found there. They can also be viewed in the local history room.
"Most farmers also had fishing rights and could fish in the Oder and its tributaries," says Christel Kollath, also on the board of the local history association, pointing to the prepared head of a catfish over two meters long that was caught in the Oder. The fishermen were once organized in a guild and met regularly. Their documents were kept in a guild chest, the "fisherman's chest," which stood in the hallway of her grandfather's house. Today, this gem can be viewed in the Oderland Museum in Bad Freienwalde.
For more information about the Oderbruch Museum and the cultural heritage in the Oderbruch, please see here.