About the Bayerische Seenschifffahrt
The Bayerische Seenschifffahrt GmbH operates passenger boats on the upper Bavarian Lakes of Königssee, Tegernsee, Starnberg and Ammersee. With over 30 boats and about 160 employees, this shipping company is one of the largest inland marine companies in Germany. Every year, around 1.5 million passengers are transported.
Each lake operation maintains its own boatyard for the maintenance of the boats. On Lake Königssee, new electric passenger boats are also being built. The boatyard at Lake Königssee is thus the most southerly and highest-situated boatyard in Germany.
The State Lakes Shipping was privatised on the 1st January 1997 and this was the birth of the Bayerischen Seenschifffahrt GmbH. Today, the company is still a wholly owned subsidiary of the Free State of Bavaria.
The registered office of the company:
Seestraße 55, 83471 Schönau am Königssee
Managing Director:
Herr Dipl. Betriebswirt (FH) Michael Grießer
Company Signatory:
Herr Dipl. Betriebswirt (FH) Marcus Weisbecker
Lake Königssee Division
The most profitable division employs around 80 employees with the 19 passenger boats having been purely electrically powered since 1909. The power comes from the batteries in the boat's hull. To ensure that the boats can be used for the whole day, the batteries must be charged overnight.
During the winter months, the boat personnel work back in their learned professions as boat builders, carpenters, painters, electricians, saddlers or locksmiths. This is when the boats are repaired or rebuilt. The mostly wooden-built boats and the 16 huts covered with wooden shingles require a high amount of financial support and personnel maintenance. However, we gladly do so to retain the characteristics and charm of this lake, located in the National Park.
We sail on Lake Königssee all year round.
Operations Manager: Michael Brandner
Lake Tegernsee Division
The smallest division employs about 20 employees and has 5 passenger boats. The largest boats are the identically built sister boats ROTTACH-EGERN and TEGERNSEE. Both boats are 31.1m long and can each carry 250 people.
These two larger boats are served by Peter Blümer’s Gastronomy.
During the winter months, all necessary repairs are carried out by our own staff in the Tegernsee boatyard. The particularly innovative floating dock really helps here. With this steel floating body, a boat can be completely lifted out of the water, so that work on the hull can easily be carried out.
The boats sail daily on Lake Tegernsee from mid/late March to the beginning of November. In the winter months, the sailing operation is limited.
Manager of the lake: Stephan Herbst
Lake Starnberg Division
Lake Starnberg, located at the gates of Munich, has the largest boats of the Bayerischen Seenschifffahrt. The MS SEESHAUPT is the longest boat at 60m and can carry up to 800 people. The double-hulled Gallery Catamaran STARNBERG is unique on Bavaria's lakes. This 56m long and 15m wide boat can also carry 800 people. All in all, the sailing operation has 5 passenger boats.
At Lake Starnberg, there are around 30 employees. In the home port of Starnberg, all boats can be pulled out of the water on a large crosswise lift. This allows for repair work and TÜV examinations (on the boat's skin) to be carried out. During the winter months, our staff make the boats fit again for the following season. These relatively large vessels therefore require quite a lot of maintenance. A lot of the work is done outdoors and can only be carried out in mild and dry weather conditions. Thus, it is a big challenge to complete all the necessary work on time for the start of the season.
The sailing operation at Lake Starnberg is from Easter to mid-October.
Manager of the lake: Matthias Leis
Lake Ammersee Division
In the ranking of passengers transported, Lake Ammersee is in second place, just behind Lake Königssee. Approximately 25 employees work at Lake Ammersee in the Inning/Stegen harbour. Lake Ammersee has a considerable steamer fleet which is both historically accurate and matched to the latest technical standards. In addition to the two paddle steamers of HERRSCHING and DIESSEN, there are the newly built 1920’s styled motor boats UTTING and AUGSBURG. All boats can be comfortably accommodated in the approximately 60m long dry dock.
The sailing operation is from Easter to mid-October.
Manager of the lake: Florian Schmid
