The centuries-old ferry connection across the Main
The opening of the ship bridge 200 years ago marks another anniversary: 600 years ago, in 1419, "the ferry to Offenbach across the Mayn" was first mentioned in writing in an inheritance contract of the Lords of Falkenstein. Over the following centuries, it repeatedly became a point of contention between the princes on both sides of the Main: a file in the Hessian State Archives in Marburg from 1559 documents an exchange of letters about "disputes between Count Reinhard von Isenburg-Büdingen and the Lordship of Hanau regarding customs and crossing the Main at Offenbach."
The "Main crossing at Offenbach" is also documented in many documents in the 18th century, although the rulers of Fechenheim, the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel, retained the right to use it. Later, the ferry service was apparently leased out, as documents from 1803 show. In 1806, there is evidence of an attempt by Prince Carl von Isenburg-Birstein of Offenbach, who had been insolvent several times, to exchange the right to use the ferry - and thus the right to the crossing fee - "for the recognition of Hesse-Kassel's feudal and sovereign rights in the Hutten property" in Offenbach. It was not successful. The last documents of this era date from 1813: in them, the Hesse-Kassel Ministry of Finance has the "costs of the Nähe ferry between Fechenheim and Offenbach" listed in detail. A "Nähe" was a wide boat with a very shallow draught, known as a "Nachen" in other regions. Six years later, in 1819, the era of the crossing was over for a long time.