Vienna, April 2004

Franz Dosch

As early as in prehistoric times, the Danube had a special position as a transport route for trading in metals, salt, furs and amber. The expansion of the Roman Empire increased the significance of the Danube even more, because the Romans supplied their garrisons along the northern border of their empire via this route. Even during the era of the great migration of Germanic and other tribes, transport along the Danube did not come to a standstill, and it remained the only efficient west-east route after the Roman roads fell into decay. In the Middle Ages, the Danube was the principal axis for long-distance trade with Greece and India. Merchants of the then known world met to do business in the Danube region. Only after the Turks had reached and blocked the middle Danube after the conquest of Constantinople, was this development interrupted. Nonetheless, waterway transport remained important for regional trade; during the Turkish Wars, the Austrian troops received their supplies along the Danube route.

From a technical point of view, there were hardly any changes in navigation in the course of these centuries. Wooden ships and rafts drifted downstream with their cargo and were usually dismantled at their destination, with the wood being sold. However, larger boats were hauled upstream again. Strings of barges were towed by horses, a method that proved to be extremely laborious and cumbersome for man and animal.

Due to the steady growth in traffic, the difficulties concerning the transportation of wooden ships against the current became increasingly obvious. The imbalance in the capacity utilisation that was the order of the day on account of this form of traffic handling also encouraged efforts to develop more adequate transportation forms for Danube navigation.