Boßler family

The Boßler or Bossler family is a German family from Neckarsteinach in the state of Hesse. Members of the family were entrepreneurs in inland navigation on the Neckar and the Rhine. There is a family line that was active in freight shipping called the older line and a family line that was active in passenger shipping called the younger line. The younger line of the family is still co-owner of the Weiße Flotte Heidelberg.

History
Johann Jacob Liebig was married to a Boßler and was an uncle of the eminent scientist Justus von Liebig

The family tree begins in 1616 in the hessian Amt Lichtenberg. The progenitor of the family was Martin Boßler (1616–1694). His descendants were foresters in the service of the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt, mayors, higher tax officials in the Amt Lichtenberg and Burgraves of Lichtenberg. The grand-grandson of Martin Boßler Johann Ludwig Boßler (1710–1783) became resident in Nieder-Modau[1] in the district Darmstadt-Dieburg.

The teacher Johannes I. Boßler (1796–1834) from Nieder-Modau became resident in 1822 in Neckarsteinach, another town in Hesse directly on the Neckar. There he was a landlord. His wife Catharina Friederike Pfautz (1785-1856)[2] comes from the Pfautz family who lived in Sinsheim and the surrounding villages. Members of the Pfautz family already went to the USA in the 18th century. Herbert Hoover was one of the descendants.[3]

Elisabeth Margaretha Boßler was married to Johann Jacob Liebig, an uncle of the chemist Justus von Liebig.[4] The astronomer Jean Bosler was also a member of the Boßler family from Hesse.[5] His great-grandfather Johannes Boßler came from Reinheim and went to Paris. In France the surname Boßler was changed to the form Bosler.

Entrepreneurship
House flag of the Bossler shipping companies

The entire Boßler family is divided into two lines, a younger line and an older line.

Werner Ludwig Boßler (1931–2018) from the older family line had placed the construction order for the largest inland cargo ship in Germany in 1990. This was completed in 1991 and could carry 3200 freight. Another cargo ship built by Werner Ludwig Boßler was the Jean Bossler III this inland freighter ship was under the name Excelsior involved in an accident on the Rhine in 2007 that went down in the history of the river. After this accident, the Rhine was closed for five days.[6]

The younger line of the family had owned shipping companies in passenger shipping. In 1926 Andreas (1884–1961) and Georg Boßler (1881–1946) founded the shipping company Personenschiffahrt Gebr. Bossler.[7][8]

Herbert Rudolf Bossler (1907–1999), who also comes from the younger family line, became resident in Bad Friedrichshall in the district of Heilbronn. In 1948 he created the Personenschiffahrt Herbert Bossler. The shipping company of Herbert Bossler was unrivalled until 1975. In 1986 Personenschiffahrt Herbert Bossler was sold to Personenschifffahrt Stumpf from Heilbronn.[9][10]

Gebr. Bossler was followed by Heidelberger Fahrgastschiffahrt Bossler oHG in 1968.[11] In 2013, Heidelberger Fahrgastschiffahrt Bossler oHG merged with another company to form the Weiße Flotte Heidelberg. Thus a family branch of the younger line is involved in one of the largest tourism companies in the shipping industry in southern Germany.[12]

Bibliography in German language
  • Europa-Verkehr = European transport = Transports européens. Band 18, Otto Elsner, Darmstadt 1970, p. 122–123.
  • Helmut Betz: Historisches vom Strom Band. V – Die Neckarschiffahrt vom Treidelkahn zum Groß-Motorschiff, Krüpfganz, Duisburg 1989, p. 53, 122, 128, 142–148.
  • Günter Benja: Personenschiffahrt in deutschen Gewässern – Vollständiges Verzeichnis aller Fahrgastschiffe und -dienste, mit 115 Schiffsfotos, Gerhard Stallinger Verlag, Oldenburg 1975, p. 34–35.
  • Johannes Feick: Lichtenberg im Odenwald in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart – nach den Quellen geschildert. Band 2. Kommissionsverlag Ludwig Saeng, Darmstadt 1903, p. 106.

Notes
  1. Diethard Köhler, Familien in Rodau, Asbach, Klein-Bieberau, Webern 1635–1750. Rodau 1700–1780, Kirche Groß-Bieberau, Ober-Ramstadt 1987
    Hessen-Darmstadt, Hochfürstlich Hessen-Darmstädtischer Staats- und Adreßkalender, Darmstadt 1796, p. 53, 121
    Hessen-Darmstadt, Hochfürstlich Hessen-Darmstädtischer Staats- und Adreßkalender, Darmstadt 1785, p. 53
  2. Nadine Sauer, Familien in Neckarsteinach 1603–1900, Band I. die evangelischen Kirchenbücher, Band 171 der Reihe B der Deutschen Ortssippenbücher, Neckarsteinach 1999, p. 76
  3. William Shurtleff, Akiko Aoyagi, Fouts Family of Indiana--soybean Pioneers: Bibliography and Genealogy, 1882 to 2000, Lafayette, CA 2000, S. 95, 111, 113, 114 Google Books
  4. Bernhard Koerner, Hessisches Geschlechterbuch, Band 52 der Gesamtreihe des Genealogischen Handbuchs bürgerlicher Familien, Starke Verlag, 1927, p. 304-305, 309, 321-323
  5. Jean Bosler in the German National Library
  6. Boßler, Werner Ludwig, in: Hessische Biografie
  7. Helmut Betz: Historisches vom Strom – Die Neckarschiffahrt vom Treidelkahn zum Groß-Motorschiff, Krüpfganz, Duisburg 1989, p. 142
  8. Boßler, Andreas I., in: Hessische Biografie
  9. Helmut Betz: Historisches vom Strom – Die Neckarschiffahrt vom Treidelkahn zum Groß-Motorschiff, Krüpfganz, Duisburg 1989, p. 144– 145
  10. Herbert Bossler in the Landesbibliographie Baden-Württemberg
  11. Helmut Betz: Historisches vom Strom – Die Neckarschiffahrt vom Treidelkahn zum Groß-Motorschiff, Krüpfganz, Duisburg 1989, p. 144
  12. Daten und Fakten – Weiße Flotte Heidelberg (PDF; 76 kB)
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