A hearty welcome for the Warnemünde Jolle
Heiko Bartling, captain of the passenger ship “Markgrafenheide”, gives three long shouts as “Oll Stromer” chugs leisurely past the steamer.
It is now 10.40:XNUMX a.m. this Sunday Warnemünder Woche. At 10.32:XNUMX a.m. the dinghy was still struggling with wind and waves while rounding the central pier and finally even had to furl the sails, as Uwe Heimhardt, chairman of the museum association, meticulously recorded. But now the inmates are sitting straight on the wooden benches: Renate and Werner Kreuscher in Warnemünde costume and the men from the historic boatyard of the shipping museum. They are all proud to have moored here below the station bridge.
The reception is also magnificent: organ grinder music, accordion and all the women, girls and men of the traditional costume group - and of course hundreds of onlookers. It is an unusual sight that a full dinghy is once again entering the old river. In 1288, according to the local museum, it was normal for fishermen to set out in fast dinghies to catch herring. From 1920 onwards almost only motorized dinghies went out to sea for fishing and even took part in regattas. The committed director of the shipping museum Dr. Kathrin Möller, together with the support group and the local history museum of the Baltic Sea resort, planned to lay a Warnemünder full dinghy on the keel. The launch took place in 2018, on the 800th anniversary of the Hanseatic city of Rostock. The Warnemünde dinghy, also known as the Twei-Smaker, is almost 7,50 long. It was created from an eight meter long tree trunk. Three boat builders and six volunteers lovingly handcrafted 56 frames before bending, hammered around 1.600 copper rivets into 18 planks, erected masts and attached 22 square meters of sails to them. But the boat builders didn't want to stop there. A restored Heuer from the Bodden waters, the “Dwarskopp”, and a work boat, the “Macker”, entered the stream at the same time today.
Back to the passengers on the dinghy, who were embodied today by members of the traditional costume group. Back then, the fishermen's wives were quickly on the boat, loaded their baskets full of fish and the men took them to Rostock. Only when there were no more fish tails wriggling in the baskets did they go home again. Today there were flowers in the basket of the fish woman from the traditional costume group.
Congratulations to the boat builders who have brought regional cultural assets to life.
Monika Kadner
