A text by Marc Bielefeld
Freiburg on the Elbe: A place full of history
There's not much going on in the Kehdinger Land. Fields, apple orchards, small villages. Moors come into view, meadows, tractors. There is snow this February. The Elbe marshes are covered in frost, the ferry from Wischhafen to Glückstadt has stopped operating. Ice pushes its way up the side arms of the Elbe, which flows ever wider towards its mouth here. It gnaws at the small harbours and piers that still exist here.
In Freiburg on the Elbe, the countryside becomes even emptier. The main road turns off to the right and leads across the dyke at Schleusenfleth to a small historic harbour. A fishing cutter lies in the water, opposite it on the slipway rests a 12.80 metre long pile barge. The "Oderik von Oederquart", a sailing flat-bottomed ship with large centreboards. The boat is a faithful replica of the labour barges that sailed fruit, peat and bricks across the sands of the Lower Elbe until the 19th century. The "Hamborger Lock", home port Helgoland, is moored next to the "Oderik". And this also fits in with the anachronistic atmosphere of this northern German region: the boats are made of wood. As they have been for hundreds of years.
The shipyard at the basin
There is no one to be seen in the harbour. The easterly wind whistles over the Allwörden outer dyke, sweeping around the few houses and warehouses that stand down by the basin. A few white sheds line the banks, their windows and gates a dark grey-blue. Above them is the name of the Freiburg-based company, which today can confidently pass as unique: Bootswerft Hatecke - one of the last traditional boatyards on the Lower Elbe, now in its fifth generation.
Work instead of anniversary celebrations
At the back of one of the halls, in an office nailed together out of wood, sits Rainer Hatecke. The stove is burning, fresh coffee on the table. There are screw clamps hanging from the ceiling, construction drawings of classic dinghies and pictures of old full-rigged ships and schooners on the walls. The workbench is full of paint pots, brushes, thinner, paint rollers and tools.
Hatecke, 65, is the boss and is actually already half-retired. But rest is out of the question. His ancestor Berthold Hermann Hatecke founded the shipyard in 1861, which is why the 165th anniversary is coming up in 2026. But there will be no celebrations. "It's just one year," says Hatecke. "Besides, we have our hands full."
Young talent with tradition
Journeyman Elia Wirth is mixing a bowl of epoxy. He came here from Stade to learn right after leaving school. At 22, he won the Lower Saxony state competition for boatbuilding and is now in his third year as a journeyman. Wirth, 25, soon disappears among the ships again. Here in Freiburg, he is still busy planing, ploughing and shaving, even when the temperatures in the halls are below zero. "You get used to it," says Elia Wirth. "It's just winter."
He is one of many trainees who have learnt at Hatecke over the last 30 years, winning competitions and carrying on the art of wooden boatbuilding even in difficult times. The old shipyard in Freiburg has stuck to its tradition. As ever, classic boats are built, restored and maintained here. Rainer Hatecke has never been swayed from his course. He just likes wood. The family has a century and a half of experience and a deep affinity with Nordic ship types.
Ewer, Tucker and Börteboote
Not only sailing yachts are built here, but also ewers, tucker boats and traditional fishing barges. The construction of wooden masts and spars is just as much a part of everyday life as the construction and maintenance of the massive Helgoland Börteboote - one of the company's specialities.
There can be no question of a quirk. On the contrary, sticking to old materials and maritime traditions has paid off. Wood is now back in demand. A timeless antithesis to high-tech bolides made of carbon, Kevlar and the like. And fortunately, some people still know how to work with wood.
Shipyard expansion 2023
In 2023, Rainer Hatecke even expanded and took over the shipyard from his father's cousin, Hans M. Hatecke & Sohn. "We now have more space for winter berths," he says, and he also wanted to keep the shipyard in the family. In the end, his wife spoke the decisive words in favour of the expansion. "You want this," she said to him, "then let's do it." The two of them live round the corner, used to surf together a lot, she is also a woman of the water, of boats. The shipyard now has seven halls. Space for several dozen boats that are in winter storage in Freiburg. Yachts made of wood, some of GRP, plus 100-year-old motor yachts and boats of pretty much every calibre.
Seven halls full of work
What Rainer Hatecke means when he talks about a lot of work, however, can only be guessed by taking a tour of the shipyard site. A place not only full of ships, but also full of stories. And everything smells of wood.
Outside, a few boats are parked in front of the halls, but most of the treasures rest behind the gates. In the hall opposite, on the west side of the basin, Hatecke enters the timber store, where old planks and boat timbers are stacked up to the ceiling. Precious raw material for everything from full restorations and new teak decks to hand-laminated fork tiller.
Kites and boats
In the neighbouring hall, fenders and cradles hang on the walls, rudder blades lean against the floor, and there are milling machines and saws. The two beauties that are currently being cared for here fill almost the entire hall. A good ten metre long kite is jacked up, covered in sanding dust, covered with strips and quarter bars. The slender boat was built by the well-known Børresen shipyard in Denmark and is being restored here.
Next to it is a special piece of recent shipyard history. White hull, red underwater hull, green coaming. It is the "Elena", an original Helgoland Börte boat - the first to be built at the shipyard since 1971. The "Rudder", which weighs up to eight tonnes, is used on the North Sea island to disembark passengers when the steamers from the mainland anchor in the roadstead. The barges, which are usually up to ten metres long and three metres wide, are made of solid oak and have a draught of one metre. The open boats, which are also used for fishing and deep-sea fishing, can hold 40 to 50 people. The design is unconventional. A mixture of clinker and carvel planking. The Hatecke shipyard has been building the Börteboote for Heligoland since 1930, and most of them were built here in Freiburg an der Elbe.
A boat in Venice
The "Elena", however, has a special story to tell. Rainer Hatecke pulls out his mobile phone and shows photos from 2010, in which he can be seen in the Alps with his car and trailer on a mountain pass, towing the snow-white North Sea boat. The mission back then: Hatecke and his Helgoland gem were on their way to Italy - to Venice of all places!
"The Italians were amazed," he recalls. "They had never seen a boat like this before." The Börteboot was commissioned by one of the Rickmers brothers from the famous shipping family. He wanted to take guests on a tour of Venice in his Helgoland Börteboot - right across the Grand Canal, past St Mark's Square and the Rialto Bridge. Rainer Hatecke had to modify the boat especially for this purpose. At 7.20 metres long and 2.20 metres wide, this boat was exceptionally short and narrow - after all, it had to fit through the canals in Venice. During construction, the shipowner regularly travelled to Freiburg to follow every step. He often even cancelled appointments. Instead, he travelled to Hatecke's workshop and sniffed the oak planks. "He was more interested in the small wooden Börte boat than his container freighters."
After delivery, Hatecke often travelled to Italy in the winters to maintain the "Elena" on site. Today, however, she is here in Freiburg on the Elbe. Hatecke is sprucing the ship up again before she continues on to Sweden. The owner wants to use it in the archipelago soon.
Current projects
As we walk through the halls, further projects come into view. The lugger-rigged "Hanni" is being repaired, a historic plank ship with three masts that sails on the Weser as an excursion boat. Not far away, the team is working on the Pfahlewer, which is getting a new cockpit. In the hall behind the dyke, however, the most complex project is currently underway: the complete restoration of the largest Börte boat ever built. The wooden giant stretches over 14 metres, scaffolded from bow to stern and completely gutted. The boat is being fitted with new planks and completely rebuilt. A daunting task.
The winter storage facility is also well utilised. The yachts are packed tightly together in the halls, with masts hanging right up to the ceiling. Various jobs and repairs for customers are also carried out here. Not to mention chatting with the boss. Rainer, have you got one? Rainer, can you have a go? Rainer, where can I get a piece of teak?
Nine boat builders and no shortage of young talent
There's no question that the retired boss is busy. He currently has five journeymen and two trainees working with him. And then there's the old master, who drops by every day: His father Jürgen, the fourth generation to take over the shipyard in 1967. Nine boatbuilders, then, and there is no shortage of new recruits. "I must get ten applications from young people every year." Rainer Hatecke stands in the cold hall wearing a cap and lined checked shirt and points to the certificates and awards he has pinned to the wall over the years. He looks like a living piece of evidence. Wood is not dead. Wood is alive.
1861: The foundation by Berthold Hermann Hatecke
Back in the office, he recounts how it all began. With a cigarette and a glass of water. It was Berthold Hermann Hatecke who founded the shipyard in 1861. "That must have been my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather." The first generation initially earned their money by scrapping large barges and selling the timber. Pitch pine and thick beams for building houses in the surrounding area. It was only with the construction of the slipway that the first ship repairs were added. Around 1900, the shipyard itself built its first large barges, still in the open air. The construction of fishing boats was soon added, and the first Börteboote were built before the Second World War. Between the wars, various sailing yachts were built at Hatecke, especially the Spitzgatter, which were popular on the Elbe and North Sea. And one thing has not changed to this day: The tidal calendar has always determined the launches.
From prisoner of war to boat building
In addition to fishermen and professional skippers, private individuals were now among the customers. The shipyard built rowing boats, dinghies and yachts, which from then on travelled between Hamburg and Heligoland. Rainer Hatecke remembers his grandfather Heinrich particularly well. When he flatly refused to build ships for the navy during the Second World War, he was conscripted and taken prisoner in France. "The French quickly realised what Grandpa Heinrich was good at," says Rainer Hatecke. "He promptly had to build boats again." Grandpa only returned years after the war. An emaciated boat builder who soon got back to calfing at the shipyard.
It was also his grandfather with whom Rainer Hatecke would later build his first boat. He was just twelve at the time. "We stood at the machine together, sawing out the frames." His grandfather worked by eye, according to drawings. He said to his little grandson Rainer: "You just have to look carefully, mien Jung!" The boat was soon finished. A small flat-bottomed boat for rowing and fishing on the side arms of the Elbe.
The 1960s to 1980s: the heyday of wooden yacht construction
When his father Jürgen Hatecke ran the shipyard from the 1960s onwards, he mainly built sailing ships, including traditional vessels and 20-metre schooners. It was the heyday of wooden yacht building, with up to 30 men working at the shipyard. One outstanding ship that was later built at the shipyard was the "Johann Ehlers". A Gloucester schooner, originally developed for fishing in the North Atlantic.
Two brothers from Schleswig-Holstein had commissioned the boat - but only had photos of their dream vessel. Rainer Hatecke was now in his twenties and had long since become fully involved in the shipyard business when the elegant schooner was built at the shipyard in 1982 under the supervision of Germanischer Lloyd. The design was by Fenwick C. Williams from 1929 and was based on an Edward Burgess design, according to which the well-known Newfoundland schooners "Fredonia" and "Nellie Dixon" had already been built. However, his father Jürgen had another task to solve: He had to redraw the plan of the "Johann Ehlers" to the desired 17.50 metres - without a computer, of course.
Rainer Hatecke remembers every detail and tells the story. And he could do this all day long. After all, shipyards are full of stories. After all, the ships that everyone dreams of are born here.
Hard times in the 1990s
When he finally took over the shipyard in 1995, times were tough. "Between 1990 and 1995, we had a low point in wooden boatbuilding," he says. The shipyard kept its head above water with various jobs. Instead of shafts for masts, they sometimes made cabinets. The winter storage facility also picked up the slack, with Rainer Hatecke even shaping surfboards from time to time. The topic of wood weakened. But it couldn't be killed off.
Cutter for Romania
One day, for example, Rainer Hatecke travelled to Romania. He was to build two 8.50 metre long naval cutters for the Romanian training ship "Mircea", a sister ship of the old "Gorch Fock". After he had handed over the nine-metre-long boats, the "Mircea" was moored at a windjammer meeting in New York, where the sailors won a competition in harbour poling, so light and fast were the cutters. The captain of the "Mircea" was delighted - and immediately ordered ten more! The order books in Freiburg filled up. Other jobs soon followed: restoring old boats, building new Nordic classics, new teak decks, plus repairs and smaller jobs.
Hatecke stays with wood
Hatecke tells us. The oven is roaring in the office. A customer comes in, the phone rings. The boss adjusts his cap on his head. Almost as if he wants to pull his hair out. As if to say: Yes, I'm coming! He says he wants to carry on for many more years. The man from the Lower Elbe, where today wind turbines turn and farmers produce biogas. Hatecke sticks to wood. It just can't be killed off. And if everything goes well, they can celebrate a little in five years' time. After all, 170 is a nice number.
