The Erste (, ) or DDSG was a shipping company founded in 1829 by the Austrian government for transporting passengers and cargo on the Danube.

History The company built its first steamship building factory on the so-called "Óbuda Shipyard" on the Hajógyári Island in Kingdom of Hungary in 1835, which was the first industrial scale steamship building company in the Habsburg Empire.Tapie, Victor-L.: The Rise and Fall of the Habsburg Monarchy, p. 267

In 1880, the DDSG was the world's largest river shipping company with more than 200 steamboat ships and about 1000 cargo tugs.

During Nazi rule, the DDSG was involved in transporting Austrian Jews after Kristallnacht, when the Jews were pressured to emigrate elsewhere. From 1938, the DDSG transported Jews who were on so-called "B-immigration transports". The DDSG was also involved in taking large amounts of money and property from Jews in order to transport them. The SS worked with the DDSG in making the exit permits for Jews easier to obtain, since the Nazis at the time simply wanted them to leave 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 emigration.Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933-1945, by Yehuda Bauer (New Haven/London: Yale U.P., 1994; pp. xiii + 306. See page 48

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.

Ever since the German spelling reform of 1996, "-schifffahrt-" is written with three "f"s; as 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.

The name of the company is well known in German-speaking countries as a starter to humorously construct even longer compound words. is an example, which potentially might even have been used, but this is unlikely. It means a "DDSG captain's hat". Another common example is which means "Association for Subordinate Officials of the Main Maintenance Building of the DDSG".

References

External links DDSG-Cargo GmbH DDSG-Blue Danube Schifffahrt GmbH

Further reading