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House Flags of German Shipping Companies (r) - part 2

Deutsche Reedereiflaggen (r) Teil 2

Last modified: 2014-03-10 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: rhederei-ag 1896 | rhederei-vgg | rhein-fracht | rhein-lloyd | rheinischer lloyd | rheinische tank | rheinkies-baggerei | rhein-ruhr-hafen | rhein- und seeschiffahrts ges | rheintrans | rheinunion transport |
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[Germany] 3:5 image by António Martins-Tuválkin See also:

Rhederei-Actien-Gesellschaft von 1896

[Rhederei-Actien-Gesellschaft von 1896] image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 28 Mar 2007

Rhederei-Actien-Gesellschaft von 1896 - The company was established by the ship brokers Axel Dahlström und Willy Dahlström. It was a small company since 1906 when all the ships of B.Wencke Söhne were bought. The company's last sailing ship was confiscated by US government in 1917. The company existed until 1927 as a shipping company only having steamers.
The company used a quarterly divided flag white, red, red and white. In its centre was a white black edged ellipse with black numerals "1896" inside.
Source: Jürgen Meyer: "Hamburger Segelschiffe von 1795-1945"; ISBN 3-89225-400-1; Hamburg 1999; p.170ff.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 28 Mar 2007

Rhederei-Vereinigung

[Rhederei-Vereinigung] image by Ivan Sache, 30 Mar 2008

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of "Rhederei-Vereinigung GmbH" (#140, p. 43), a company based in Hamburg, as red with a green saltire.
Ivan Sache, 30 Mar 2008

Rhein-Fracht

[Rhein-Fracht] image by Eugene Ipavec, 25 Mar 2006

I encountered the striking house flag of Mannheim-based Rhein-Fracht GmbH ('Rhinefreight') on this page: Made up of seven black and yellow horizontal stripes (four black and three yellow), the flag also contains a yellow canton with a descending red diagonal.

The black and yellow colours seem to recall Württemberg, the red diagonal on yellow certainly represents Baden. See it in action here, tiny but recognizable - i.e. entry of Wed. 20 July 2005, three photos of barges named ?Ventura? and/or ?Nautilus?, about 3/4 down the page.

Details on the company can be found here: VTG Lehnkering Reederei took over Rhein-Fracht in 1999, thereby strengthening its position as a chemical and petrochemical tanker company. Forty barges joined the fleet, not counting long-standing relationships with privately operated barges.
More takeovers are reported here.
In 1999 about 80% of the VTG Lehnkering shares had just been bought by Hapag-Lloyd at the moment of the Rhein-Fracht takeover.  In 2002, this became 100% only to be bought up ? again, and all of it ? by Compagnie Européenne de Wagons S. A. at Luxembourg in 2005.

What I have not found out is when Rhein-Fracht was founded. Also it would be nice to have confirmation of the reasons for the flag design.
Jan Mertens, 24 Mar 2006

Rhein-Lloyd

?Rhein-Lloyd GmbH? at Mannheim is the fourth seven-stripe example of the ?Lloyd Seeschiffahrt? basic flag model (archivexillum) shown in ?Flaggen auf dem Rhein? (1952 ed.).
It is also that of Rhein-Fracht, already present on FOTW-ws.
This time, the canton certainly represents Baden. The flag in action on tanker ?Kalmit? (Binnenvaart site), colour photo by Teun de Wit. The exact connection between Rhein-Fracht (apparently still going strong) and Rhein-Lloyd (founded when?) is still unknown to me but the flag is, of course, the same.  Let us for the moment assume that ?Fracht? succeeded ?Lloyd? for legal or commercial reasons.
Unfortunately the Lehnkering and VTG site links (no. 3 and 4 of Rhein-Fracht article) brought in as ?evidence? are now dead and the second link ?See it in action here?? is no longer relevant.  The first link (Vlootschouw) however is still active.
Some information is found on 2003 Verdi (German union) pdf file, p. 19: Small inland shipping company Rhein-Fracht, operating six chemical tankers, was taken over by Lehnkering Reederei (at that period owned by VTG-Lehnkering, owned by Hapag Lloyd, largely owned by Preussag!) in 1999.   The next year Rhein-Fracht ?de-flagged? shipping personnel to Protrans (LU, half of it owned by Lehnkering) for fiscal purposes.  The vessels were put under a bare boat charter, also through Protrans.
Jan Mertens, 2 Sep 2008

Lloyd AG; Basel and its daughters
The basic colour of all flags was yellow, superimposed by four or five black stripes.
Rhein-Lloyd GmbH; Mannheim
Was founded by Lloyd AG, Basel as a German daughter, probably in 1935.
Klaus-Peter Bühne; translated by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 27 Mar 2009

Rheinischer Lloyd

[Rheinischer Lloyd]image by Eugene Ipavec, 30 Aug 2008

I do not know whether the 'Rheinischer Lloyd' (Duisburg-Ruhrort), as found in ?Flaggen auf dem Rhein? (1952 ed.) has anything to do with its current namesake at Duisburg (DE) using as second name ?Ernst Peter Schwarzlose Reederei- und Transportges. mbH?.
This ?Rhenish Lloyd? (as of 1952) also flew a house flag in the ?Lloyd Seeschiffahrt? pattern: seven black and yellow horizontal stripes with a local emblem in the canton (archivexillum).
See image: the local element, rendered rather roughly, shows part of the Duisburg municipal arms in white outline on a red field, four stripes high.
Consult Ralf Hartemink?s site for these arms ? either the 1952 picture is incomplete, or only the ?characteristic? part, the castle (in a rendering with perspective) was used in the canton:
I could not find any interesting photo or relevant information. (To complicate matters, a ?family member?, ?Rhein-Lloyd?, is at that period of time active at Mannheim under a similar flag.)
Jan Mertens, 30 Aug 2008

Lloyd AG; Basel and its daughters
The basic colour of all flags was yellow, superimposed by four or five black stripes.
Rheinischer Lloyd GmbH; Duisburg-Ruhrort
Was founded later by Rhein-Lloyd Gmbh; Mannheim as a local branch company.
Klaus-Peter Bühne; translated by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 27 Mar 2009

Rheinische Tankreederei (RTR)

[Rheinische Tankreederei] image by Eugene Ipavec, 15 Apr 2009

RTR or ?Rheinische Tankreederei GmbH? (i.e. Rhenish Tanker Shipping Co.) was a German, Düsseldorf-based firm owned it seems by Van Es, a Dutch firm related ? as so many others ? to Van Ommeren. I gather RTR was active during the nineteen sixties/eighties.
As the Binnenvaart site no longer yields its (interesting and noteworthy) images so easily it is
hard to be more specific.   No photo either.
However the RTR house flags is still up  ? a direct link, while it lasts.
Van Ommeren archivexillum ? five horizontal stripes RWRWR and a white rhomb in the centre bearing black initials ?RTR? without serifs, placed vertically.
Jan Mertens, 14 Apr 2009

Rheinkies-Baggerei Wesel

[Rheinkies-Baggerei Wesel] image by Eugene Ipavec, 25 Mar 2006

A simple flag for a firm with a very long name ? see this website (German only): Rheinkies-Baggerei Wesel Dr. Wolfgang Boettger GmbH & Co KG meaning ?Rhine Gravel Dredging Co. Wesel (etc.)" Wesel being a town on the Rhine/Lippe confluence (West of the Ruhr industrial area) and Boettger being the name of the family currently owning the firm.
Founded in 1919 as ?Kiesmutung GmbH? to be renamed shortly afterwards Kies-Gesellschaft mbH as a riverine gravel dredging company (Rhine, Lippe) using advanced equipment.  In 1926 a blue flag bearing a white "K" was adopted.  Several owners were succeeded 1943 by Dr. Wolfgang Boettger who died in 1981, leaving the firm to his family.

Inland vessels and lorries bring sand, gravel, and related products to the Rhine region and the Netherlands.  From 1975 on river dredging was abandoned to the advantage of mining without, however, dropping waterway transportation.  (I do not know if Rheinkies actually owned ships or preferred working through private shipowers.). The ?Renovation? section (?Restaurierung?, left menu) explains how the emptied sand and gravel mining areas are treated afterwards, see also ?Referenzen? (i.e. references) showing newly created ponds or lakes and even winter quarters for bats!   Hence the written sentence accompanying the flag image ?We create nature preservation areas.?
I found the flagimage on German eBay: this was offer no. 160175883122 (end 9 Nov 2007) put up by ?maiti35?.  Dark blue field, white initial 'K' without serifs.
Jan Mertens, 10 Sep 2008

This was a mere table flag and although the company site does show the flag(oid) I am happy to report that the item is presented in "Flaggen auf dem Rhein", 1952 ed. There, the caption is: 'Rheinkies-Baggerei Wesel Dr. Wolfgang Boettger, Birten über Xanten'.  Birten was merged into Xanten (on the Rhine) in 1969.
Jan Mertens, 10 Nov 2008

Rhein-Ruhr-Hafen

[Rhein-Ruhr-Hafen] image by Jorge Candeias, 14 Jun 2007

Offered and identified by a specialized source, MarCollect, another item was recently on view on German eBay: Rhein Ruhr Hafen (i.e. port), Duisburg.
This one preceded duisport - introduced in 2000 - and was termed, humourously, a ?late historic? product (offer no. 160102554054, end 12 April 2007).
It shows a white table flag bearing a blue logo (two tones of blue, actually) resembling a lowercase initial ?r? (vivid blue or even turquoise) turning upwards and changing into an arrow of five stems (dark blue).
Jan Mertens, 24 Apr 2007

Rhein- & Seeschiffahrtsgesellschaft

[Rhein- & Seeschiffahrtsgesellschaft] image by Ivan Sache, 27 Apr 2008

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of "Rhein- & Seeschiffahrtsgesellschaft" (#319, p. 52), a company based in Cologne, as
blue with a white "W" in the middle.

The company was mentioned with two other in the Brockhaus' Konversationslexicon (1894-1896), entry "Köln" (Cologne). The Prussian state took shares in the company in 1912.
The house flag of the company can be seen, hoisted over the ship "Energie", on a painting by R. Wahl dated 1887, kept in the Municipal Museum "Warleberger Hof", Kiel.
Ivan Sache, 27 Apr 2008

Rheintrans

[Rheintrans houseflag] image sent by Jan Mertens, 8 Apr 2006

?Rheintrans Reederei, Transport und Speditions-GmbH & Co. KG? at Duisburg has an impressive name for an inland shipping company. It was founded in 1959 and has a beautiful house flag. See the company site. In all, these pages are rather more dedicated to the advantages of barges above trucks, the evolution of order transmission from river agencies (loudhailers!) over radio to mobile phone, and a list of satisfied customers thanks to delivering an array of goods ranging from scrap metal to porcelain.

The company flag rather resembles a municipal or county flag. Divided by a white cross throughout and having red above blue corners in the hoist, counterchanged in the fly; in the centre is placed  a white shield bearing a red lion, rampant and double-tailed, with yellow tongue and bearing a yellow crown.

?Limburg? is what I think when seeing that lion but at the moment I do not know more about its meaning.  There is a ?Rheintrans BV? at Rotterdam, Netherlands, but which is the main firm and which the subsidiary?
Jan Mertens, 8 Apr 2006

Rheinunion Transport

[Rheinunion Transport] image by Jarig Bakker, 21 Aug 2006

Nothing to do with that Napoleonic creation, the Confederation of the Rhine; rather, Rheinunion is one more German inland navigation firm now become history.
A simple house flag shows four slanting lines meeting in the flag?s centre to form a cross shape, yellow on black.
The Dutch Binnenvaart site features some barges used by this company, in full ?Rheinunion Transport GmbH? based at Mannheim, see for instance the ?Citerna 50? (flag shown on page).
Piecing together this firm?s history is difficult, but there are some traces on the net: here and here. The oldest Rheinunion vessel mentioned on Binnenvaart was launched in 1942; the firm operated typical bulk boats but also tankers and a bunkering boat; moreover there were a number of owned loading quays in Duisburg, Cologne, Mainz, etc.  In 1975 Rheinunion was taken over by a major player, Rhenania.
Jan Mertens, 21 Aug 2006


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