DDSG First Danube Steamship Company, 1829-1997

Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft, Erste, DDSG (First Danube Steamship Company), founded 1829, navigated the River Danube and its tributaries, in 1834 also took up marine navigation (Trieste-Constantinople as first steamer line in the Mediterranean). Before World War I it maintained one of the largest inland fleets in Europe (1914: 142 steamers, 860 tugboats with a tonnage of 470,000 t) and even after 1918 remained the leading shipping enterprise on the River Danube (1937: 22 passenger steamers, 25 tug and freight steamers, 394 tugboats, 29 oil tankers). The number of ships was drastically reduced during World War II. During the occupation 1945-1955 the DDSG, which was designated German property, was put under Soviet administration; it was returned to Austrian ownership as a state-run enterprise under the State Treaty of 1955 (against financial redemption). In 1991 the DDSG was split into the DDSG-Cargo GmbH (freight) and the DDSG-Donaureisen GmbH (passenger transport). In 1993 the German Stinnes AG bought DDSG-Cargo, which was sold to the German group Gerhard Meier in 1997. In 1997 DDSG-Cargo GmbH commanded a fleet with a total tonnage of 175,000 t and employed approx. 150 people. In 1995 the DDSG-Donaureisen discontinued the passenger transport service.

In the same year the Österreichisches Verkehrsbüro tourist office and the Port of Vienna established the firm DDSG-Blue Danube Schiffahrt GmbH, which has 5 ships for excursion trips between Vienna and the Wachau region. The state-owned enterprise DDSG retained landing rights at approx. 50 landing-stages, for whose use a charge is levied