Historic highlights

For BASF, the Rhine has always been hugely important as a transport route. Proof of this is BASF’s own fleet of tanker ships which was in operation right up to the middle of the last century.

Elaborately designed and equipped with the highest technological standards to ensure the special transport of chemicals, the six ships of BASF’s tanker fleet regularly undertook the journeys from Oppau to Basel or to the Netherlands, and were responsible for delivering the lion’s share of goods to the company for many years.

The first ship in the fleet, “BASF 1,” began its service in 1898 and was used to transport sulfuric acid to Leverkusen. In 1925, “BASF 2” was added to the fleet and was mainly used to transport nitric acid. Both ships had an impressive loading capacity of approximately 500 metric tons. Joining in 1927, the “Justus von Liebig” was designed to transport sulfuric acid, as was the “Rudolf Knietsch,” which was added to the fleet in 1938. Two more ships rounded off the fleet in 1937 and 1938. The “Friedrich Wöhler” and “Fritz Haber” were used to transport ammonia and ammonia water.

The tankers generally had a crew of three people: the captain, the sailor and the cabin boy. While the sailor was also responsible for monitoring the machinery, the cabin boy was tasked with cleaning the ship and – if the captain traveled without his wife – cooking the meals.

In those days, the captain’s job was as demanding as it is today: He had to keep an eye on the water level and the weather, as well as the wandering gravel banks of the Upper Rhine, to ensure he brought the approximately 500,000 DM ship safely into harbor.

During the summer months, the ship’s crew worked for around 14 hours a day; in winter, they worked for twelve hours. A total of around eight days was planned for the entire journey from Ludwigshafen to Leverkusen and back, including filling and draining the cargo. “Die BASF,” the company magazine, reported on the (at the time) cutting-edge fleet and its equipment in 1952: “Central heating, electric light and clean running water are as much part of the equipment as the radio communications system, which (…) enables telephone connection to all outside lines on land within two to three minutes, thanks to the Rhine radio communication.”

Only “BASF 2” was destroyed by an air strike near Leverkusen in 1944; all other tankers remained in service after the end of World War II. BASF may no longer have its own fleet of tankers, but twelve ships still dock at the Port of Ludwigshafen and the North Harbor each day.

February 1929 marked a once-in-a-century event: The Rhine froze over. Peruse the history of the company with the Corporate History findings.

In February 1929, an extraordinary cold snap meant that temperatures dropped rapidly. On the morning of February 6, the temperature was measured at 1 degree Celsius, however, the temperatures dropped quickly over the course of the following days, with minus 21 degrees Celsius being recorded on February 12.

However, this was just the start: The Rhine froze over, not just at Ludwigshafen, but almost along its entire length. The issues this caused for the site managers and plants – with the interrupted shipping being just one factor – were of no concern to the droves of curious onlookers. Soon, the first trails over the Rhine between Mannheim and Ludwigshafen were stamped out.

The site newspaper at the time reported on the disappearance of the ice on the Rhine:

At the end of the 19th century, a spectacular and colorful event awaited VIP visitors to Ludwigshafen. An event which is unimaginable today: Colorful fountains were sprayed into the Rhine to honor the special guests. This was the case in September 1888. Prince Regent Luitpold visited the Palatinate region, stopping in Edenkoben, Speyer and Ludwigshafen, before embarking on a boat trip on the Rhine on September 23, during which he traveled past the BASF site premises. As reported in the Generalanzeiger newspaper: 

The colored water was presumably pumped with the necessary pressure through a pipe specially laid from the water plant. The objective here was probably not simply limited to entertaining the guests; those responsible also wanted to use the opportunity to advertise dye production, a vital part of BASF’s business at the time.

The color fountains were used again from time to time over the following years, for example during the visit of Prince Ludwig of Bavaria on May 26, 1894: The program for his visit included a tour of the city, viewing churches, social institutes and the hospital, as well as a trip along the Rhine with a visit to the new harbors and BASF’s company welfare facilities.

The Ludwigshafen Generalanzeiger newspaper reported on the “fountain as high as a house” on the Rhine and described it as first being white, then blue, orange, violet, green and pink, “in short, in all the main colors produced at the factory.” It was a spectacle which lured many spectators to the banks of the Rhine, as can be clearly seen from the image.

Many years later, in 1957, Carl Holdermann noted that the fountains are supposed to have reached heights of around 10 meters. Shortly after joining BASF in around 1906 he was able to experience a visit by Prince Regent Luitpold himself. However, this was the last time that the fountains in the Rhine were used.