Weidlinge, Basel, Switzerland

this are „weidlinge“… the weidling is the cultural heritage of switzerland and the activity with it is called „wasserfahren“. several centuries ago it was used to transport heavy loads on the aare, reuss, limmat, thur and ultimately also on the rhine. for „wasserfahren“ you need the weidling, a rudder, an oar holder, the cuttings or rowing nails, and a spike or switch (this is a wooden spar with an iron spike). with the weidling one traverses rivers and/or uses them for descents or with the sting for upstream journeys. the weidling used to be made of wood, but is now mainly made of plastic. a weidling is usually 10 meters long and weighs around 320 kilograms. usually the crew consists of two men/women standing in the ship, a helmsman in the back of the weidling and a driver in the front of the boat, which is called a couple. a weidling can also only be driven by the helmsman alone, which is called single driving. the navigation goes back to the earlier rafting, which took place on the navigable rivers of switzerland from zürich, bern and konstanz. as early as 1200 this type of transportation was mentioned in the koblenz customs ordinance. in 1456 the millet trip took place. it was a bet between the cities of zürich and strasbourg, which was intended to prove how quickly the people of zürich could rush to the aid of the alsatians in the event of war. the fishermen and the boatmen organized themselves in guilds, which took their professions very seriously. e.g. in the late middle ages in basel an apprenticeship as a boatman could take up to four years before he was accepted into the guild. from 1820 a kind of engineering troops were formed from these guilds, which from 1850 were used in the swiss army as pontoon units and sappers for river crossings and building bridges. from 1869 the first water driving clubs were founded and the only military use was turned away and water driving was also used as a sport and as a competition.Read more