A Strength through Joy trip on the Rhine steamer Hindenburg, 1937
A crowd waits on the Rhine quay under the Hohenzollern Bridge, presses toward the steamer Hindenburg and carries crates aboard below the cathedral spires.
Under the three steel arches of the Hohenzollern Bridge, several hundred men and women in hats and summer coats wait on the cobbled Rhine quay beside a sign of the Niederländer-Dampfschiffahrt, a tower and an equestrian statue at the bridgehead. Women in white straw hats press along the landing stage Brücke 4 toward the white paddle steamer Hindenburg, whose rail is already lined with passengers, and men carry crates of provisions up the gangplank under a sign allowing 100 persons, the twin spires of the cathedral behind them.
Strength through Joy, founded in November 1933 within Robert Ley's German Labour Front, sold millions of cheap day trips and holidays. For many of the workers on board, a steamer trip on the Rhine was the first holiday journey of their lives.
