House Flags of German Shipping Companies (f)

Deutsche Reedereiflaggen (f)

Last modified: 2014-03-10 by german editorial team
Keywords: feindt | feldmuehle | feldtmann | felter | flechsig | flensburger dg | flensburger schiffsparten-vgg | flensburg stettiner dampfer linie | flint(ma) | fluss-schiffahrts-kontor hh | foerdereederei | freese | freter | freymann | f |
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• H. Feindt
• Feldmühle
• Feldtmann
• H. & W. Felter
• Flechsig Shipping and PragerShip
• Flensburger D.G. 1869
• Flensburger Schiffsparten-Vereinigung
• Flensburg Stettiner Dampfer Linie
• M.A. Flint
• Fluß-Schiffahrts-Kontor Hamburg
• Förde Reederei
• Römö-Sylt-Linie
• Reedereigruppe Freese
• Reederei Kapitän W. Freter
• Georg Freymann
• Reederei Eugen Friedrich
• Adalbert Friesecke
• Herhard Frommann und Söhne

• Fairplay Tugs
• Rolf Faulbaum Reederei
• Fendel
• F.W. Fischer
• Fisser & Doornum
• Flügge, Johannsen & Lubinus
• Carl F.A. Flügge
• Föhrtmann & Behne
• H. Fölsch & Co
• A.C. de Freitas & Co.
• Frigga A.G.
• Johs. Fritzen & Sohn
• Fuhrmann, Nissle & Günther

• House Flags of German Shipping Companies
• House Flags of Shipping Companies
• Germany

H. Feindt

The company was located in Hamburg. The white flag had a red bordure and a black capital "F" in the centre.
Source: Lloyds 1912 ; p.58, flag no.450
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 9 May 2012

Feldmühle

Feldmühle is the firm which took over the Koholyt shipping company in 1930.  Feldmühle is a very well-known name in paper production, see this webpage and following pages.

What I had not seen right away was the company’s very own house flag, also shown in the 1928 Flaggenbuch, part II, no. 424 (page 42/99).
National colours of that period i.e. black-white-red: quarterly divided black (top, bottom) and white (left, right); a large white disk in the centre - enclosed by a red rim - bearing a black letter ‘F’ (no serifs).
Caption: Feldmühle, Papier- und Zellstoffwerke Aktiengesellschaft (i.e. Feldmühle, Paper and Cellulose Factories Co. Ltd), Stettin.
For the moment I do not know when shipping activities started nor when they were stopped.
Jan Mertens, 23 Mar 2008

Feldtmann

Helmuth & Carl Heinz & Günther Feldtmann
The company was located in Königreich (Jork, SW Hamburg). It is a white flag with a red lozenge in its centre containing black, dotted capitals “H.F.”. The lozenge is touching the edges.
Source: „Flaggen, Schornsteine, Reedereien- Flaggen und Schornsteine der deutschen Reedereien und ihre Schiffe über 300 BRT“; Hamburg 1957; p.F8.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 Apr 2009

H. & W. Felter

H. & W. Felter
The company was located in Lübeck-Travemünde. It is a blue flag with a white diamond, fimbriated red and containing a black capital “F”, in its centre.
Source: „Flaggen, Schornsteine, Reedereien- Flaggen und Schornsteine der deutschen Reedereien und ihre Schiffe über 300 BRT“; Hamburg 1957; p.F8.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 Apr 2009

Flechsig Shipping and PragerShip

Dov Gutterman spotted the link of Flechsig Shipping and PragerShip: flag: horizontal blue - white - blue, proportiones 1:2:2; in center red "FP", fimbriated pink.
Santiago Dotor, 11 Nov 2003

Flensburger D.G. 1869

Difficult to decipher as the original image is – the local shipping museum in  Flensburg confirmed the design ('Flensburger Dampfschiffahrt Gesellschaft' or Flensburg Steam Shipping Co.)– what we really needed was an image such as the above.
Still on offer at Beste Auktion (German auction site), it has a page of its own: identifying it as belonging to ‘Lloyd Reedereiflaggen der Welthandelsflotte’ (i.e. Lloyd shipping company flags of the world’s merchant fleet) published by Brinkmann’s cigarette factory, Bremen, in 1932 (album).

A similar image (same source) is found here, belonging to ‘Flaggen ,die über Meere Völker verbinden’ (i.e. Flags linking peoples across the seas) published by Massary’s cigarette factory, Berlin, in 1930 (album).

So the house flag is white with black initials FDG and the year 1869 in the corners, the Flensburg city arms – with mural crown – in the centre.  In the image found by Jorge the initials and year were put right into the flag’s corners and so did Lloyds 1912.  After WWI – if we may believe the later images – these were more evenly distributed.
Jan Mertens, 24 Sep 2006

Flensburger Schiffsparten-Vereinigung

Flensburger Schiffsparten-Vereinigung  AG (FSV) c/o Uwe C. Hansen Befrachtungskontor.
The company is located in Flensburg and was established by Heinrich Schmidt on 14 December 1904. In order to match conditions due to German law the partners of Schmidt, mostly foreigners, had to merge in one new company. Schmidt and his son Heinrich Wilhelm became general managers.
At the end of WWI all ships had gone lost. Heinrich Schmidt died the same year and his sons Hans and Carl became members of the board and the company was successively rebuilt. The company increased from 1925 to 1928, but until 1934 non profitable ships were abolished. After both sons had died, Dr. Kähler became general manager. The last three ships got lost at the end of WWII. Main shareholder was Greta Korn, Schmidt’s widow. With help of her son in law Uwe C. Hansen the company was rebuilt again and since 1951 many new ships were acquired. In 1987 there was a successful partnership with “Hapag-Lloyd”. The same time Hansen established “Baltic Bereederungs GmbH” together with “Flensburger Fahrgastreederei Seetouristik”.
In 1989 Greta Korn died. Uwe C. Hansen resigned in 1990 and delivered the company to his son Claus-Otto Hansen.
FSV, today „Uwe C. Hansen Befrachtungskontor” and “Baltic Bereederungs GmbH” still exist.
“Seetouristik” merged with “Förde Reederei” forming the new company FRS.
Source: Klaus-Peter Bühne; translated by Klaus-Michael Schneider.
Description of flag: The flag is divided per saltire into blue (top), red (bottom) and white. The colours are the colours of Schleswig-Holstein.
Source: “Deutsche Reedereien und ihre Erkennungszeichen”; 2nd ed.; Hamburg; 1956; p.18.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 15 May 2009

Flensburg Stettiner Dampfer Linie

This time, the flag is blue with a red cross pattée. The caption seems to read something in the lines of "Reuse Sirt Dampf Ge.", but this includes, again, a huge dose of imagination.
Jorge Candeias, 6 May 2004

That is probably "Flensburg Stettiner Dampfer Linie", of Otto Weide, Flensburg.
Jarig Bakker, 6 May 2004

M.A. Flint

The company was established in 1870 and is still existing in Hamburg. It is a dockyard, the special services are diving services and ship repair. The flag is a horizontal black over white over red tricolour with dotted capitals "M.A.F." in the centre of the white stripe.
Source: "Flaggen, Schornsteine, Reedereien- Flaggen und Schornsteine der deutschen Reedereien und ihre Schiffe über 300 BRT"; Hamburg 1957; p.F9
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 21 May 2009

Fluß-Schiffahrts-Kontor Hamburg

Fluß-Schiffahrts-Kontor Hamburg
It is a 5-striped flag with 5 horizontal alternating celestial blue and white stripes. The third at the hoist is checkered of the same colours with a white canton having black capitals “FSK”.
The flag was identified with help from J. Nüsse.
Source: I spotted this flag at Billwerder Bucht in Hamburg on 30 April 2007
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 7 Mar 2009

The German inland shipping company FSK (‘Fluss-Schiffahrts-Kontor GmbH’ i.e. Riverine Shipping Office) is based in the Hamburg port area. Company website, showing the house flag as a drawing. Largely made up of privately owned vessels, the FSK fleet is specialized in transporting wheat, malt, and other agricultural produce mainly in Northern Germany, and to other ports on request. Bulk goods (fertilizer, sand, gravel, wood, coils, etc.) are carried all over Europe; heavy special loads are also accepted. Among FSK’s related activities are financial advice concerning vessels, insurance, centralized freighting arrangements, and human relations administration.

When Claus Friedemann and some business partners founded the firm in 1953, they wanted to provide a successor to the ‘Elbe-Schiffarts-Kontor’, the fleet of which was owned by Deutsche Maizena-Werke (in its turn owned by US company, Corn Products) but sold to Rhenania. Local offices were established in Berlin and Duisburg, the latter being FSK’s seat from 1960 on (moved to Hamburg in 1995).  The well-known German logistics firm ‘Kühne & Nagel’ took over 25% of the shares in 1998.  Five years later FSK took over most of ‘Peute Reederei’.

I would have expected that the house flag’s drawing was a faithful rendition. The basis of the flag are five horizontal stripes BWBWB, with one third of the flag, near the hoist, taken up by a white canton bearing black initials ‘FSK’ (no serifs), height two horizontal stripes, and the rest of this area chequered blue and white, starting with blue, height three horizontal stripes. There is a visible difference to the drawing as its initialled and checkered part takes up well-nigh half of the flag.  Luckily… where else but on German eBay would above flag photo have appeared…  It was offered by “lz530”, item no. 330041623154, end 31 October 2006, dimensions given as  0,90 m by 1,50 m.
Jan Mertens, 5 Jul 2007

Förde Reederei

Förde Reederei G.m.b.H., Flensburg - blue flag, yellow standing anchor.
Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995 [lgr95]
Jarig Bakker, 3 Jan 2006

‘Förde Reederei Seetouristik’ (i.e. Förde Shipping Co. Sea Tourism) or FRS in short flies a radically different flag illustrated on the Elbebilder site: Yellow field, stylized italic initials ‘FRS’ which are coloured, remarkably, per ascending saltire, green above blue.  Photo made by Martin Leuschner on 18 May 2007, copyrighted, for List use only reduced and attached as < de~frs.jpg> .
 
Another photo, clickable, showing FRS and Eils in October 2005.
The following overview presents the Flensburg based FRS Group as being active in North German tourist shipping; in ferry lines to Denmark, Finland, and Estonia; in linking Spain and Morocco, also by ferry; and operating bus services at Flensburg (url followed by quote): "In recent years, FRS has grown from a regional passenger ferry operator to an internationally active business group with more than 27 vessels and 735 staff. In 2007, FRS carried 5.6 million passengers and 1.6 million vehicles in total. The FRS success story as a short route ferry operator goes all the way back to 1866."
 
Of the above companies or subsidiaries, Reederei Hiddensee is already present on FOTW-ws. Questions. As to Förde/FRS, when was the present flag introduced and how was the new design explained?  On the other hand, was the simple Förde flag already flown in 1866?
Jan Mertens, 12 May 2009

Förde Reederei Seetouristik (Römö-Sylt-Linie)

Reedereigruppe Freese

Dov Gutterman spotted the link of Reedereigruppe Freese: flag: blue; in center turned, left bottom white "H", top right white "F". That is: Heinz Freese, Drochtersen.
Santiago Dotor, 11 Nov 2003

Reederei Kapitän W. Freter

The following page briefly recounts (in German) the rise and fall of a once very active tourist shipping ompany in the Baltics, Willy Freter: here
As the bridge linking Fehmarn isle to the (West) German coast was being built, local Heiligenhafen-based entrepreneur Willy Freter rented out boats to the construction firms and from 1960 on made supplementary money by offering boating trips to the bridge. This developed into tours around Fehmarn and to Rödbyhavn, a Danish town opposite.
These outings were popular not least because of tax-free sales on board. An additional activity was organizing fishing trips: according to the German weekly DER SPIEGEL (3 May 1976), the company in this way attracted almost 84,000 tourists in 1976 alone:
For further information click here
Although the Freter company expanded to become the largest operator in the Western Baltics, financial difficulties led to its demise in 1980. The house flag can be made out on the funnel of "Stadt Danzig": on this webpage and - you saw it coming - a recent German eBay offer concerned Willy Freter! No. 170231089563 (end 29 Jun 2008), a company brochure put up by "dercho05", shows the house flag.
The flag is divided per saltire (hoist and fly triangles red, top and bottom triangles white) and has black initials "W" on the top triangle, "F" on the bottom triangle. In fact - perhaps for fiscal reasons -two companies are mentioned: "Reederei Kapitän Willy Freter sen." (father) and "Reederei Kapitän Willy Freter jun." (son).
Jan Mertens, 22 Jun 2008

The company ran a tourist ship service in the Baltic Sea, probably from Fehmarn Island/Bay of Hohwacht down to the Bay of Neustadt. It's for sure , that there was a stop at Dahme(Ostholstein county). According to Jan Mertens the company is Heiligenhafen based. The flag was divided per saltire into red and white. In the white quarters were black capitals "W"(top) and "F"(bottom).
Source: the image is based on a photo, shot in August 1976 at the DLRG main rescue station in Dahme.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 7 Apr 2009

Georg Freymann

Georg Freymann
The company was located in Hamburg. It is a black flag with a white company logo in its centre. The logo consists of white connected Gothic initials “GF”. Having a load of a little bit of phantasy, you could imagine a ship with a big funnel exhausting steam.
Source:  “Deutsche Reedereien und ihre Erkennungszeichen”; 2nd ed.; Hamburg; 1956; p.19.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 Apr 2009

Reederei Eugen Friederich

The company is located in Bremen.
Former flag:
It is a white flag with a red serifed capital "F" in ist centre, surrounded by a black circle.Eugen Friedrich is said to have a different flag today, but I have no further information. Furthermore Klaus-Peter Bühne says, the changes are not very remarkable.
Source: page of Bremer Rhederverein
Erroneous depiction:
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 27 Dec 2010
It is a white flag with a red serifed capital "F" in ist centre, surrounded by a blue circle. According to the company there had never been a flag with a blue circle.
Source: Deutsche Reedereien und ihre Erkennungszeichen"; 2nd ed.; Hamburg; 1956; p.33
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 27 Dec 2010

Adalbert Friesecke

Adalbert Friesecke
The company was located in Hamburg-Blankenese. It is a white flag divided by two horizontal thin blue stripes with a capital “F” between both stripes.
Source: „Flaggen, Schornsteine, Reedereien- Flaggen und Schornsteine der deutschen Reedereien und ihre Schiffe über 300 BRT“; Hamburg 1957; p.F9.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 Apr 2009

Herhard Frommann und Söhne

Reederei Herhard Frommann und Söhne GBR: Light blue with a white cross throughout fimbriated black. A white square lozenge fimbriated black in the center of the cross with the letter 'F' in black.
Jorge Candeias, 13 Mar 1999