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In the early Twentieth Century Berlin had developed as the principal transportation centre of north-central Germany, not only for its railway connections but for the extensive river and canal system that served it. To support this traffic several river port facilities had been constructed in the area of Greater Berlin – the Spandauer Südhafen (constructed between 1906 and 1911), the Osthafen (constructed between 1907 and 1913), the port of Neukölln (constructed between 1912 and 1922) and the Westhafen (constructed between 1914 and 1923). In the postwar period the control of these and other transportation infrastructure in Berlin were transferred to the control of the new enterprise, whose shares were held by the municipality of Berlin.

In addition to river port facilities the enterprise also controls twelve kilometers of industrial railway in the Südhafen and the Westhafen, with its own locomotives and good wagons, and large motor vehicles for the transport of heavy cargos. It owns and operates a series of public warehouses for the storage of commodities that were extended between 1937 and 1939. In 1940 a grain storage facility was constructed at the Westhafen.

The enterprise also owns half the shares of the Industriebahn-Gesellschaft Berlin GmbH, which controls the city’s industrial railways outside the immediate area of the ports.

This enterprise, owned by the municipality of Braunschweig, manages the inland harbour of the city and the associated transit and storage facilities located therein. Long a center of inland navigation, the opening of the Mittellandkanal in 1906 radically changed the role of the city, which became a hub for river, rail and road transportation. In 1926 the municipality began construction of a new river harbour in the northern part of the city, near the Mittellandkanal, and erected dock facilities, cranes and wharves, public warehouses and terminals for the interchange of cargo. The port was formally opened in 1934 and since has seen great increases in inland traffic along the rivers and canals in the region.

This firm is the operator of the river harbour of Duisburg-Ruhrort and its satellite facilities. It is owned by the city of Duisburg, and the State of Prussia in equal parts. The enterprise was founded in 1924 to take control of the inland port facilities that service the most important mining and industrial region in Germany, transshipping ore, coal, oil, iron, steel, and cereals in monumental quantities.

The origins of the port complex lie in Prussian development of Ruhrort, when the city began construction of its first dock. The Prussian Government took over the administration of the port in 1766, and gradually oversaw its reconstruction, an effort that gathered pace as the Nineteenth Century wore on. The construction of the Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn and its branch to Homberg accelerated development of inland navigation. A river port was constructed in Homberg in 1850, and in 1852 Homberg and Ruhrort were linked by rail with further connections across the Rhine.

Between 1860 and 1867 the Nordhafen and Südhafen were constructed, followed by the Kaiserhafen, completed in 1890, construction of which required the canalisation of the lower Ruhr River. In 1900 the combined port areas of Ruhrort had a total water area of more than fifty-three hectares.

At this time Duisburg had no direct connection with the Rhine, but in 1828 the merchants of the city established the Rheinkanal-Aktienverein to construct a canal linking the city with the river. This was constructed between 1828 and 1832, and two docks, the Außenhafen and the Innenhafen were constructed. In 1844 the Ruhrkanal was completed, opening navigation between the Ruhr and the Rheinkanal. Further expansion between 1882 and 1883 widened and extended the existing port facilities in 1899 a new Parallelhafen was completed. In 1901 the port areas of Duisburg comprised more than fifty-one hectares of water area.

Differences in administration between the two ports were partially resolved in 1905 by the formation of a joint management administration and the extension of the Vinckekanal and the Rhein-Herne-Kanal linked the ports with the canal system of western Germany. In the years prior to the Great War the port sustained the massive growth of the industrial complex of the Ruhr Valley.

The unification of the ports under a single administration in 1924 opened up an era of improvement and expansion. In 1926 the port handled more than thirty-four million tonnes of cargo, making it the largest inland port in Germany and among the largest in Europe. Investments were made in coordinated construction of railways, canals and roads to facilitate the movement of cargo through the docks. New terminals – including those for the storage and movement of petroleum – were constructed and areas laid out for construction of new factories.

The efforts of the enterprise continue to make the port of Duisburg-Ruhrort the busiest inland port in Western Europe.

A joint venture between the municipality of Lübeck and the Deutsche Bank, this firm manages the public port of the city of Lübeck and its environs. It employs more than one thousand workers in the several quays under its control and more in the warehouse and transit facilities that adjoin them. Its facilities include the general cargo piers of Wallhalbinsel and Konstinkai, the coal pier of Nordlandkai, and a newly constructed pier for forest products; Two grain silos have been erected in Vorwerker Hafen to handle bulk grain imports from the Russian Federation. Lübeck is developing from a general cargo port into a bulk goods terminal. Among the cargoes handled are timber, sulphur, gravel, super phosphates and coke. Also managed by the concern are the Skandinavienkai in Lübeck-Travemünde, from when ferry service is maintained to Scandinavia, and the Terminal Ostpreußen, which handles the steamer service to East Prussia.

The port has grown tremendously with the completion of the National Motorways links to Hamburg and Berlin; for bulk goods and heavy cargoes, the Elbe-Lübeck Canal plays an important part as a direct link with the European inland waterway network. All the city’s terminals are linked with the national rail network permitting rapid movement of cargo to and from the port.

An agreement reached in 1906 by Bavaria, Prussia, Baden and Hesse saw the creation of the modern river port complex at Aschaffenburg. Construction and expansion of the port began in 1914 and the first phase of its construction ended in 1921. Important goods of the first years were coal and coke for the region and the steam locomotives of the Reichsbahn. As early as 1924, twenty-eight large businesses had set up operations in the port, primarily shipping and freight forwarding concerns, coal wholesalers and industrial enterprises. In 1925 the ownership of the port was transferred to a mixed enterprise in which the provincial authorities in Bavaria held one half the capital.

With the decision to construct the Rhein-Main-Danube Canal in mind a second phase of construction was begun to expand and modernise the port facilities at Aschaffenburg. A new trade zone was developed to the southwest of the city, which has attracted many international firms. New facilities for the handling of petroleum and chemical cargos have been constructed, with each succeeding year seeing increased tonnages of such cargo pass through the port. Specially constructed spur roads link the port with the National Motorways system.

As early as the Eleventh Century merchants of the town of Bamberg are recorded as making good use of the rivers Main and Regnitz, but the true development of the city as a river port did not begin until 1846 and the opening of the Ludwig-Donau-Main Kanal, which linked Bamberg with Kehl. In 1912 a large port, the Prinz-Ludwig-Hafen, was constructed but this suffered much damage and has now been redeveloped as an industrial site.

The present river harbour, covering an area of ninety-six hectares, has been developed since 1935, and presently comprises two docks on the Rhein-Main-Donau canal and one pier for river traffic, with a total of 1,900 metres of quays served by no less than six port cranes. There are ten kilometres of dedicated rail line linking the quays with the Reichsbahn network and connections with the National Motorways system are being constructed. An adjacent area has been developed as an industrial zone which is home to some fifty firms engaged in cargo brokerage, freight forwarding and warehousing.

Half the share of the port operating company are owned by the province of Bavaria while the rest are held by various financial institutions that have funded the development of the port over the last decade.

The river port of Regensburg is operated by a public corporation, half of whose shares are owned by the Bavarian provincial government and the remainder by financial institutions and corporate investors.

The port facilities are divided into three distinct areas: the Donaulände (the oldest of the current port areas), the Luitpoldhafen (constructed on the western edge of the city between 1906 and 1910) and the Osthafen area which is presently under construction in anticipation of increased traffic occasioned by the eventual completion of the Rhein-Main-Donau canal. The facilities of the Donaulände, constructed between 1855 and 1865, were the first river port facilities that permitted direct interchange of goods between ships and railways, making Regensburg a hub of transportation across central Europe. The growth of traffic demanded construction of the larger Luitpoldhafen, which has flood-free port facilities and a pool 580 metres long and 80 metres wide. The Luitpoldhafen was extended between 1919 and 1923, with its quay extended to 800 metres, while a separate petroleum-handling facility with its own pool (350 metres long, 60 metres wide) was constructed at the same time.

The Osthafen, presently under construction, is expected to bring the total area of the port to more than 175 hectares, with four docks, 5,200 metres of quays, and a port railway network aggregating more than thirty-two kilometres. There are a large number of dock-side cranes as well as several floating cranes to permit the rapid loading and unloading of cargoes.

The city of Halle in the southern region of Saxony-Anhalt has long been a focal point for the movement of freight by rail, road, and river for many decades. The old port facilities of Sophienhafen, opened in 1857, had by the turn of the century proven inadequate for meeting the demands of commerce. The first proposals to construct a new river port were brought forward in 1913, but no action could be taken before the outbreak of the Great War halted all such investments. The first concrete plans by the municipal civil engineering office were published in 1919, and the municipality undertook the work. By 1923 the new harbor of Halle-Trotha was opened for ships up to 1,000 BRT.

The equipment of the port includes a railway and road network, a commercial and industrial park, a harbor basin and quayside, several loading cranes of up to 45 tonnes capacity, scales, and all other facilities required for the efficient handling of goods of all sort. The port is connected to the national motorway and rail networks, while the river Saale is navigable from its junction with the Elbe to the town of Bad Dürrenberg.

Now headquartered in the industrial city of Dessau the firm was founded in 1889 to construct a river port at Aken, which lies equidistant between Magdeburg and Torgau, with wharves, warehouses, and grain storage facilities, as well as operating a freight-forwarding business. In 1921 the firm moved its base of operations to Dessau, taking over additional facilities in that city’s Leopoldshafen and Wallwitzhafen, and continuing to operate its facilities in Aken’s Elbehafen. A new facility at Roßlau is presently under construction. Its principal business the movement freight between the Elbe Valley and the Oder, carrying the products of Saxon industry and agriculture to markets in the West and in the East.

The port of Hamburg is one of the busiest in Europe, a status made possible by the creation of the Hamburg Speicherstadt, its warehouse district and free port. In 1871 the Hanseatic City of Hamburg became a part of the German Reich, yet at that time did not yet adhere to the German Zollverein, the national customs union. In order to avoid burdening the city’s transit trade with customs duties it was necessary to create an area in which merchants’ traditional privilege of storing, refining, and processing of imported goods in transit could be carried out. To this end the Hamburger Freihafen-Lagerhaus Gesellschaft was established in 1885, and its first section opened in 1888.

The Speicherstadt is located on the approximately twenty-six hectare area of the former Elbe islands Kehrwieder and Wandrahm, approximately 1.5 kilometres long and 150 to 250 metres wide in the north-eastern portion of Hamburg . It stretches from the Kehrwiederspitze and the Sandtorhöft in the west to the former Teerhof at the Oberbaumbrücke in the east.

In 1935 the Hamburger Freihafen-Lagerhaus Gesellschaft merged with the State Quay Administration, which operated the other port facilities in the city, as the Betriebsgesellschaft der Hamburgischen Hafenanlagen – the Operating Company of the Hamburg Port Facilities, which in 1939 adopted the current style. All stock of the firm is owned by the city of Hamburg.

The firm was founded in February 1877 by sixty five merchants of the city of Bremen who were desirous of improving the warehouse facilities and trading infrastructure of the busy port. In 1878 the first of five warehouses were opened on the left bank of the Weser in what would become known as the Hohentorshafen, with its own rail connection, a facility constructed by the firm itself. The warehouses dealt primarily with the trade in cereals, cotton, wool, and coffee.

In 1888 the firm expanded its activities into the new free port on the right bank of the Weser, and in cooperation with the city authorities the firm significantly influenced the further development of port facilities on the right bank of the Weser down to the outbreak of the Great War. The great grain storage and transfer facilities were constructed in 1897, and a new free trade zone was authorised in 1906.

At present the firm is engaged in development of the city’s new Industriehäfen, located on the right bank of the Weser on the borders of the districts of Burglesum, Gröpelingen and Walle. Here basins for the handling of oil, coal, chemicals, and other industrial products are under construction.