About us

Donauschiffahrt Wurm+Koeck - a shipping company with tradition

The company Ludwig Wurm was founded in 1893. The parents‘ house of the company’s founder Ludwig Wurm was the owner of a towing and rowing boat company based in Wischelburg (county Deggendorf) for generations. The company Ludwig Wurm, Irlbach has his seeds in the commercial fishing and in the cable ferry service between Irlbach and Waltendorf.

In 1896 the first wooden barge was acquired. In the following years a large transport-shipping company with 5 barges was build up and from 1934 they already had an own diesel engine tug. One of the barges was always constructed in a way that it could also be equipped with wooden benches and could be used for the transport of passengers. Horses were pulling the barges from the bank against the current, downstream large rudders were used for navigation. The passenger transport was mainly used for the transport of pilgrims, who got on in Irlbach to pilgrimage to the “Bogenberg”, the second largest Virgin Mary place of pilgrimage in Bavaria.

A passenger shipping company between Regensburg und Passau, as we know it today, was established in 1965 with the construction of the motorship “Agnes Bernauer”. This route was not regularly cruised by passenger ships since the middle of the 19th century.

The shipping company Wurm+Koeck was founded in 1974 by the merger of the company Ludwig Wurm and the company Hans Koeck, which was emanated from a traditional shipping and fishing family. In 1996 an additional location was founded in Linz. Since 2008 the families Wurm and Noé are the owners of the company "Donauschiffahrt Wurm+Koeck".

We are looking forward to your visit
Erich Wurm, Margit und Florian Noé