PADDLE STEAMERS
Paddle Steamers I World of Ships I 49
ABOVE Always impressively turned out, Kaiser
Wilhelm’s forward and main after saloons.ABOVE Kaiser Wilhelm’s 168hp compound diagonal steam engine.Four identical diesel-electric paddlers built
at the VEB yard in Rosslau and named
after famous Communist figures joined the
Dresden fleet, with Ernst Thalmann, Karl
Marx and Friedrich Engels entering service
in 1963, to be joined by Wilhelm Pieck in- They each carried just over 1,000
passengers, and the hull design was said
to be based on paddle steamers Dresden
and Leipzig completed more than 30 years
earlier. However, there the resemblance
ended, the quartet having power from two
340hp six-cylinder diesel engines operating
twin VEB Elbtalwerk electric motors, one
coupled to each paddle wheel and which
could be operated independently.
Covered accommodation was provided for
a high percentage of passengers, and included
400 places in saloons and restaurants.
German reunification and the end of the
Communist regime in the east brought
new names in 1991, with Ernst Thalmann
becoming August der Starke after Wettin
ruler Augustus the Strong (1670-1733);
Wilhelm Pieck took the name Grafin Cosel,
the mistress of Augustus, and Friedrich
Engels became J. F. Bottger in honour of the
inventor of Meissen porcelain. Karl Marx,laid up in Dresden, was allocated the name
Daniel Poppelmann after the designer of
late Baroque masterpiece the Zwinger, but
never carried the name in service, as there
was no money available for restoration.
Daniel Poppelmann and J. F. Bottger
were then refurbished for static use as
part of a skills development programme
for unemployed people and put into a
Dresden-Neustadt dock as youth hostel
accommodation ships in 2008, although the
former later became hotel ship Koje. Grafin
Cosel and Wilhelm Pieck were both broken
up in 2008.BELOW The former Daniel
Poppelmann as hotel ship Koje.
DRESDEN’S DIESEL-ELECTRIC QUARTET07 Paddlers_Germany_NL.indd 49 17/04/2018 12:09