The outbreak of World War I also strongly affected Danube navigation. Not only was a large part of the fleet used for military purposes, but the consequences of the peace agreement also threatened the existence of the DDSG, as it had to sell about half of its fleet of ships to the successor states. Moreover, the Danube was internationalised, the navigable tributaries and canals were declared national waters, and the DDSG was not able to use them for navigation any longer. The vessels sold by the DDSG formed new national shipping companies, which became competitors of the existing navigation companies. As a means of countering this development effectively, a partnership of operating companies consisting of German, Austrian and Hungarian shipping companies was formed on the DDSG’s initiative, which divided the freight volumes to be shipped fairly among the parties involved on the basis of standard tariffs. At the same time, an ambitious fleet modernisation programme was initiated that concentrated on the transition from steam navigation to motor navigation, and from paddle steamers to screw vessels.
World War II did not only mean the incorporation of the DDSG into the Reichswerke Hermann Göring group, but also entailed an extraordinarily large-scale investment programme for the companies DDSG and CMSG (combined in the German shipping group and both seated in Vienna), Bayerischer Lloyd (seated in Regensburg), and Johann Wallner of Deggendorf, which was implemented under the leadership of the DDSG. From 1939 to 1944, almost 60 tugboats, 250 tanker vessels and 100 cargo vessels were constructed in the shipyards between Regensburg and Budapest within the scope of the “1939 immediate action programme”.
The most famous ship types of this era are the tugboats of type N (e.g. MZS FREUDENAU) and of type R (e.g. MZS LANGEGG) as well as cargo and tanker vessels with 1000 tonnes deadweight capacity, the so-called 10,000 and 97 models.
Quite a few of the vessels launched at that time are still in use and have proven so reliable that a number of reconstructed series of vessels were built in the post-war era on the basis of the original ships. However, in World War II many of the additional vessels were soon lost in the course of fighting in the lower Danube section or ended up in the possession of Eastern European shipping companies after the end of WWII.
In 1945, the consequences of the war were even more devastating for the DDSG than after World War I. The company lost 83% of its assets, in particular, its entire property beyond the Austrian national border, including the shipyard in Budapest as well as the coal mine in Fünfkirchen. In 1946, the DDSG was nationalised. Due to the division of Austria into four occupied zones, the Upper Austrian section of the Danube was under American administration and the section from below the Enns delta to Hainburg was under Soviet administration. The result was a rather strange situation: the Austrian DDSG was seated in Linz and managed by the DDSG under Soviet occupation in Vienna. The Soviet Union claimed the DDSG’s entire remaining property in Austria under the title of “German assets” and only gave up its claims against payment of compensation with the signing of the Austrian State Treaty in 1955.
Nonetheless, passenger traffic between Linz and Engelhartszell was resumed as early as in 1946, while freight traffic between Linz and Regensburg started in 1947. However, it took until 1950 for the Austrian DDSG to extend transport to Vienna, and until 1953 for a ship under the Austrian flag to travel to Hungary for the first time.
In 1949, construction on the first new ships started. In order to prevent them from being claimed by the Soviet Union, these ships were put launched under the name Österreichische Bundesschiffahrt (ÖBS) and rented by the DDSG.
After the signing of the State Treaty the situation normalised, and the DDSG, in addition to the Continentale Motorschiffahrts-AG (COMOS), founded in 1922 and which had also been sailing under the Austrian flag since 1945, resumed navigation along the whole navigable section up to the Danube delta, with the transport of coal, ore and oil for VOEST in Linz accounting for its main freight. The annually shipped volumes increased from about 180,000 tonnes in 1947 with a constantly decreasing staff number to more than 3,500.000 tonnes by the end of the 1980s.
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