Geestemünde is the cradle of industrial fishery. The most important unloading and market centres as well as Germany's largest dedicated fishery port were all to be found here. Trading in fish had been practised here since the 1860s. The advantage of the Geestemünde fisheries port lay in its geographic proximity to the catching grounds of that period.
Dutch and English fishermen also unloaded their catches in Bremerhaven. The fish was either sold directly in Bremerhaven or forwarded inland by rail.
To cater for the fish trade's requirements inland, the volume of fish unloaded had to be increased. This was not possible with scullers and cutters alone. And so, following the example of their English counterparts, the merchants decided to have fishing steamers built. At first the vessels used long lines as tackle; soon, however, they switched to trawl nets. The fish these vessels unloaded was already cleaned and ready to be put on ice for transportation and storage.
The original fishing grounds were in the southern part of the North Sea. As from the 1890s, the vessels ventured as far afield as northern Norway and Iceland.
The first German fishing steamer was the SAGITTA. It was built by Bremerhaven's Wencke-Werft in 1884/4 for the Geestemünde fish trader Busse. The SOLEA followed in 1886. Within the next three years, nine steam powered vessels were added to the fleets in Geestemünde and Hamburg. The first fish auction in Geestemünde took place on June 13, 1888.
Geestemünde was on Prussian territory, and so it was important for Bremen that Bremerhaven (on Bremen territory) was not left behind when it came to deep sea fishing. This inevitably led to direct competition. In 1891 the Alter Hafen (old port of Bremerhaven) was re-equipped as a fisheries port as it no longer fulfilled adequately its function as a trading port. The first auction took place on February 15, 1892.
1906 saw the creation of a railway despatch centre for fish. Bremerhaven was home not only to fish trading and deep sea fishing, but also to a formidable fish processing industry.
Despite its railway connection and spacious premises in the Alter Hafen, the Bremerhaven fish port was not able to assert itself against Geestemünde. This was the port of preference for most vessels due to the fact that in Bremerhaven they had to pass through locks. In addition, only two vessels could be handled there at any given time. The prices they realised for their catches there were also lower.
Related objects:
Barcelona: The Longliner Fishing Boat Madrona
Dunkerque: Cod Fishing in Iceland
Gdansk: Fisheries Museum
Taranto: Fishing techniques
