From the ship's bridge to the big city

The new, wooden "ship's bridge", which led to Fechenheim in the extension of the former Schlossgrabengasse, was around 155 meters long and five meters wide. It was constructed in such a way that even four-horse carriages with heavy loads could pass. If a ship wanted to pass the bridge, the crossing, which rested on twelve large barges, was opened at a certain point by the bridge keepers. Although the crossing could be adjusted to the water level, it had to be lowered at high tide. But the ship's bridge was much more than just a crossing over the Main. It was the visible part of a major political infrastructure project with which the Grand Duchy of Hesse massively promoted Offenbach's economy and thus made its development into today's major city possible in the first place.

Offenbach was a border town at the time: the River Main marked the border between two sovereign states. On the south side of the river was the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, on the north the Electorate of Hesse-Kassel. There were no close family ties between the ruling families. However, building a bridge between two states was only possible together. The "Offices for Foreign Affairs" of both states negotiated for months, writing letters, notes, proposals and replies. The result: the bridge became a joint project, defined by a 30-paragraph treaty concluded in 1818. The "direction" of the bridge was led by two high-ranking "commissioners": The Privy Court Chamber Councillor Wilhelm von Bodé and the Chamber Councillor Carl Georg Schönhals. They were followed by the bridge master, six bridge keepers, a bridge money collector, a bridge judge and the bridge police. Planning and construction, the personnel as well as all repairs and other costs were financed by the bridge toll income and half from the coffers of each of the two states. In total, the construction of the ship bridge alone cost just over 65,000 guilders, the equivalent of around 1.33 million euros.

But those responsible thought bigger: with the construction of the bridge, both states also had a new, paved trade route built to improve access to the city and thus enable better trade for companies. This included the "Chaussee to Sprendlingen", which was opened in 1820 and connected Offenbach to the direct route to the capital Darmstadt for the first time - today the Sprendlinger Landstraße. The Grand Duchy also had a road built via Bieber to Seligenstadt to provide a route to Aschaffenburg. To the north of the Main, the Electorate also built a trade route, which drastically simplified the route to Offenbach. The Starkenburg Road, which still exists today, led from the Schiffbrücke bridge to Fechenheim and the Mainkur from 1819, to Bergen from 1822 and to Vilbel, the southernmost town in the large Hesse-Darmstadt province of Upper Hesse, in 1823. There, further trade routes crossed the now first direct north-south connection to Offenbach and Darmstadt - and the agricultural electorate also benefited from this.

With this project, both states removed a major obstacle to their economic development: for centuries, the Main could only be crossed by wagons on the route from the mouth of the Rhine to Aschaffenburg via the Old Bridge in Frankfurt. The city demanded high bridge tolls, as well as transit duties for the transportation of goods on the city's roads. It was therefore very expensive for companies to come to Offenbach from the north or to transport goods to the other side of the Main. With the ship bridge and the new, convenient roads, traders, craftsmen and entrepreneurs along the north-south route could for the first time save themselves the long detour via Frankfurt, the toll and part of the bridge toll. The journey to and from Offenbach was now significantly shorter and much cheaper than over the Old Bridge due to the low customs tariffs.

Just a few weeks later, Grand Duke Ludwig I issued an economic development program for Offenbach in explicit connection with the construction of the ship bridge: anyone who settled in the city was granted "complete civil freedom of trade in every respect, without any distinction of religion or denomination". He also introduced the right of exchange in Offenbach - allowing money to be exchanged for other currencies in the city for the first time. He also reformed the trade tax and allowed the establishment of a chamber of commerce. Anyone building in the city was also granted tax exemption for these buildings. All of this brought Offenbach's entrepreneurs many new opportunities, possibilities and advantages - and they took advantage of them. In addition, many factory workers and craftsmen from Fechenheim and the surrounding area soon came to work in booming Offenbach via the ship's bridge. The city grew as rapidly as the companies and factories.

The wooden ship's bridge existed until October 1, 1887, when a permanent bridge over the Main was opened on Kaiserstraße, today's Carl Ulrich Bridge. During the celebration in the "Schlossers Garten" restaurant, the bridge keepers untied the ropes of the barges on the ship's bridge and brought them ashore together with the roadway sections. However, due to pressure from the population, the centuries-old ferry connection across the Main was resumed just one year later: On December 1, 1888, the ferry crossed the Main again for the first time in a long time. Despite the new bridge, it was used intensively by the residents of Offenbach and Fechenheim. It was only with the increase in car traffic after the Second World War that the number of passengers fell to sometimes just a few per day. At the end of 1967, Georg Sator, Offenbach's last ferryman, moored his small motorboat "Michael Matthias" for the last time.