BERLIN CALENDAR: FERRY CROSS THE MÜGGELSPREE
Today in Berlin: May 1, 1911
Let’s start with a disclaimer - the day is only a random guess based on today’s situation. There is no way of telling when exactly this popular and still very well-loved service started: the entry in the Arbeitsbuch (Worker’s Employment Book) of the first ferryman names only the year. But for the sake of the discussion - and because for the past decades it was always May the 1st when Berlin’s only rowing-boat ferry has begun crossing the river - we will agree that May the 1st it was.
It might have been in the summer of 1910 that a local fisherman from Rahnsdorf - then a small fishing village at the river Spree and the Müggelsee lake, and now the smallest Berlin locality - Richard Hilliges, noticed that more and more leisure-seeking Berliners arriving at their settlement were forced to make a long detour, if they wanted to reach the opposite bank of the Müggelspree (that’s what you call the Spree right before and behind the Müggelsee lake).
Only some 37 metres separated Rahnsdorf from another Berlin locality (then an independent village, too), Müggelheim. The weary visitors began to ask local boat-owners to help them reach the other side.
Where there is demand, there shall be supply. So it was on May 1, 1911 - exactly 114 years ago - that Herr Hilliges decided to offer them more or less regular ferry-service. In a rowing boat. The rest in history.
Today the ferry line is operated by Berlin’s Public Transport Company, the BVG, and has just opened again, this time for the season 2025. You can take Line F24 (its official name in the BVG network) on holidays and weekends from 11 AM until 7 PM using nothing more than a regular Kurzstrecke (short distance) BVG ticket.
Like his predecessors - Richard Hilliges, Richard Hörnke, Paul Rahn and Ronald Kabelmann - the current ferryman, Marcel Franke, will need some seven, maybe eight strokes of oars to carry you and seven other lucky strollers from Rahnsdorf to Müggelheim or in the opposite direction.
And only strollers, as from 2025 on bikes will no longer be transported by the boatsman - until last year they would have been brought across the river, too, but their loading and unloading proved quite a pain. And they took the space so needed by the again growing crowds of strollers. Also, if you are cyclist, trust me: you will enjoy the ride around to Müggelheim, through Hessenwinkel and the 1913 Triglav Bridge far more. More than trying to hold your bike upright in a swinging boat under irritated looks from the waiting pedestrians.
A boat which, by the way, has a lovely name: “Paule III”. And as the said name suggests, it is the third “edition” of the ferry whose proper name honours the third ferryman who operated the line. Paul Rahn (funnily enough, Rahnsdorf means the Village of Rahn) rowed the boat across the Müggelspree from 1978 until 2000. A street was also named in his honour - two other streets got named for Richard Hilliges and Richard Hörnke.
And if you are planning to use the service, remember: the boat crosses at every full hour. But if you should miss it, just holler “Fährmann, hol’ über” and Marcel Franke will pick you up. Start to practice hollering those Umlauts now:-)
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Love this story, going to make an effort to shout out “Fährmann, hol’ über” during my next visit to Berlin