- Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft
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DDSG Blue Danube Schiffahrt GmbH 
Type Public Industry Shipping Founded 1829 Headquarters Vienna, Austria Products Shipping, transport Revenue 
Employees ~ (2004) Website www.ddsg-blue-danube.at/ The Erste Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft, or Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft (DDSG) (the word means Danube Steamboat Shipping Company) was a shipping company founded in 1829 by the Austrian government for transporting passengers and cargo on the Danube.
In 1880, the DDSG was the world's largest river shipping company with more than 200 steamboat ships and about 1000 cargo tubs.
During the Third Reich era, the DDSG was involved in transporting Jews after Kristallnacht, when the Jews were pressured to immigrate elsewhere. Beginning in 1938, the DDSG transported Jews that were on what were called "B-immigration transports." The DDSG was also involved in taking excessive amounts of money and property from the Jews in order to transport them. The SS worked with the DDSG in making the exit permits for Jews easier to obtain, since, at this point, the Nazis apparently just wanted them out of the country. Although the Gestapo had leverage over the DDSG, the DDSG was a group that operated on its own will, in order to profit from forced Jewish immigration.[1]
In 1991 the company was split into a passenger transportation enterprise and a cargo transport company.
The company was sold to a private owner in 1993. Today the DDSG exists in the form of the two private companies DDSG-Blue Danube Schiffahrt GmbH (passenger transport) and the DDSG-Cargo GmbH.
Since the German spelling reform of 1996, "Schifffahrt" is written with three "f", however since the name belongs to a company that existed before the spelling reform, the old form of the name is used, when referring to the company.
Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänsmütze is also[clarification needed] a joke word, probably never actually used, which means a type of "DDSG Captain's hat". Another, commonly known joke word is Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänskajütenschlüssel which means "DDSG Captain's cabin's key".
See also
- Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft, a notoriously long word, of similar origins.
- Steamboats on the Danube
References
- ^ Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933-1945, by Yehuda Bauer (New Haven/London: Yale U.P., 1994; pp. xiii + 306. See page 48
External links
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