History


Fish trawler PG-3-SAGITTA

The beginnings in Geestemünde

Before the age of trawlers fishing was mainly carried out along the coast or on inland waterways from sailing ships. In 1885 the Geestemünder (now: Bremerhaven) Fischgrosshändler Friedrich C. Busse built the first iron trawler, the “SAGITTA“, marking the dawn of industrialised deep-sea fishing in Germany. The “SAGITTA“ embarked on its maiden fishing voyage on February 7, 1885. This first German trawler was 33.14 metres long, 6.38 metres wide and had a draught of 3.47 metres.

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Fish trawler FRITZ SCHRÖDER

Between the Wars

The First World War marked a turning point for German deep-sea fisheries. Of the 263 deep sea fishing vessels before the war, only 82 old trawlers were left in 1919. Work on rebuilding the fleet after the war was started quickly and just two years later there were already 252 trawlers on the seas. In 1924 the fleet reached a historic peak of 401.

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Fish trawler ALEMANNIA

Post-War Years

The Second World War had far reaching implications for the German deep-sea fishing industry. At the end of the war only 58 fishing vessels remained and initially no new ones were allowed to be built in Germany. It was only in 1949 with the Bonn-Petersberg Agreement that these building restrictions were lifted. At the beginning of the 1950s the German deep-sea fishing industry had one of the most modern fleets in Europe. Diesel engines and fish meal plants were some of the new technical innovations installed on side trawlers.

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Fish trawler JUNGE WELT

Nationalisation

The launch of the first factory ships meant that crews increased from an average of 22 to 33 and even as many as 65 on each trawler, but some 2000 deep sea fishermen lost their jobs as a result of the reduction in ship tonnage. Despite the reduction in the number of vessels, the fishing capacity of the fleet doubled world wide after 1970 thanks to new technology. Even at the beginning of the 1960s new fishing techniques had led to huge increases in the catch. As a result, the populations of many fish species fell drastically.

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Fish trawler JUNGE WELT

Globalisation

In 1984/85 the German deep-sea fishing industry started declining fast. The number of shipping companies in West Germany was reduced to just four and in 1991 the last West German wet fish trawler was sold abroad. In East Germany, the fishing combine in Rostock was restructured and at the same time the East German deep-sea fishing industry collapsed as a result of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ensuing political change. The oversized fishing fleet in Rostock, which had been working at a loss for years, went into liquidation.

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