Leseprobe

149 ON LAKES AND RIVERS At the beginning of the twentieth century, Germany experienced a boom not only in the number of ships traversing the high seas, but also in the production of passenger vessels operating on lakes and rivers. Pleasure cruises were popular, especially on the Rhine, Danube, Elbe and Moselle rivers as well as on Lake Constance. The companies offering these trips took great care to reproduce, in their inland ships, at least a portion of the cosmopolitan charm offered onboard the imposing luxury ocean liners of the day. They thereby sought to distance themselves from the stereotype of inland steamships as second-class ‘floating pubs’. The new passenger ships were certainly not comparable to the ‘ocean giants’ in size, though, with regard to interiors, some of them were able to hold their own. Older ships were often modernised at great expense. Harbour in Lindau c. 1936 Deutschland on Lake Constance Maiden voyage on 4 June 1935