Blankenese Pfahlewer

The first recorded evidence of fishing on the Elbe from Blankenese dates back to 1325. Later, in the 16th and 17th centuries, disputes with Hamburg fishermen are documented.

Among other things, the Blankenese pfahlewer is mentioned for the first time in the "Schleswig-Holstein Provincial Report" from 1787 by Pinneberg. The pfahlewer The was the most common fishing vessel on the Lower Elbe at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, as shown by the fact that 172 pfahlewers were recorded in Blankenese alone in 1806. The fishing grounds were the Lower Elbe and the North Sea, and the species caught were flatfish such as plaice, sole and turbot, and in autumn and winter, smelt was caught in the ice-free Elbe. The fish were caught using drift nets, triple-folded nets or wall nets, which were set close to the bottom and in which the fish became entangled. These nets were up to 100 m long. The caught fish were brought alive to market in the bünn

, which was the name given to the fish farm at the stern of the pfahlewer. The catches were sold in Hamburg and Altona and, when competitive pressures caused prices to fall, also on the Dutch coastal markets.

An important reason for the competitiveness of the Blankenese fishermen compared to the Dutch was the quality of the fish, which was due to the different fishing methods. The Dutch fished with a trawl net, the Kurre. According to Pinneberg in the Schleswig-Holstein Provincial Reports in 1787:“With this net… one sails and catches the fish that enter its mouth. One consequence of this is that the fish caught in the bag of the cod-end are often killed, injured or permanently disabled.” “Instead, the Blankenese fish with drift nets, triple- folded or wall nets, which are moved close to the bottom of the lake or the shore where the fishing is done, and in which the fish is entangled like a lark or a quail, and after the nets have been removed, it is released unharmed. The cost of such equipment is more than ten times that of the nets commonly used by the Dutch; “The Blankenese are only compensated for by their high catch reliability, quality and pleasantness.”

The pfahlewers were s around 15 m long and 3 m wide, had a sharp shape, a flat bottom and a particularly high bow with a cabin for a three-man crew. They had daggerboards on both sides of the hull and were fitted with a single mástil without shrouds, with a narrow, high square sail, supplemented by a small jib. Thanks to these features, the pfahlewer could sail very well close hauled and was even used as a pilot boat on the Elbe.

On the Lower Elbe, the freshwater current of the river flows into the North Sea in the upper part, while, depending on the tide, the saltwater current of the North Sea flows into the Elbe in the lower part. In addition, the low tide continues on the north side of the Elbe, even when the high tide has already begun on the south side. If storms and floods are added to these special conditions, the course of the Lower Elbe can change quite quickly and, together, make this area difficult for navigation even today.

From 1111 Blankenese was part of the territory of the Counts of Schaunburg and from 1640 to 1866 it was subject to the Danish king, who inherited the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein and ruled them in personal union. The fishing village later belonged to Prussia.

As a result of military conflicts during the Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the 19th century, the fishermen of Finkenwerder gradually acquired the pfahlewer from the inhabitants of Blankenese and fished in the fishing grounds that the inhabitants had to abandon when they were persecuted by the English navy as members of the Danish kingdom, which was their enemy.

The model I am presenting dates back to that period and therefore bears the flag of Finkenwerder (Hamburg).

The end of the 18th century was also the heyday of fishing with these boats. Then, in the mid-19th century, trawling became increasingly popular, something that could not be done on the single-masted trawler. Then came the two-masted vessels, and with them the end of the pfahlewer.