SCHIFFLEUTE VOM OBEREN DONAUTAL

The Schiffleute vom Oberen Donautal association was founded on 25 September 1992. The number of members has grown from eight to 20. The association was founded because the ancestors of many of its members were employed in the shipping industry.

The father of Siegfried Selle, the long-standing founding chairman and chairman of the association, travelled as far as Budapest on the large wooden rafts as a cook. An ancestor of the deputy chairman Adolf Antlanger was named as a forerunner in a description of a historical boat train (Christoph Antlanger). An uncle of the secretary Dr Lothar Leitner was the last shipmaster on the Danube in this region. The two founding members Rudolf Königsdorfer and Anton Witti represent the last boat builders (= Schopper) in Austria.

The primary aim of the association is to preserve and maintain the memory of the profession of boatmen from the Upper Danube Valley, as it played a very important role in economic and cultural life in the past. To ensure that the association is represented appropriately, a boatman's costume was purchased based on historical documents and a special hat was made. Since 1992, an annual boatmen's fair has been held alternately in Niederranna and Wesenufer on 8 December. The members of the association also take part in upstream trips (= downstream trips), church festivals, the boatmen's day and other celebrations.

The sudden death of chairman Siegfried Selle on 21 July 2007 was a heavy blow for the boatmen's association. He was the main organiser with many ideas and also important contacts to various institutions and people in Upper Austria and beyond.