Owner unreachable as historic Tegernsee boat continues to rot
Sunday 16th August 2026 on 06:30 in
Bavaria
A roughly 90-year-old wooden excursion boat is rotting in the mud on the shore of Lake Tegernsee, while its owner has not responded to attempts to have it removed, BR reported.
The MS Bad Wiessee once carried passengers across the lake and was later used as a café and bar on the shore. The boat has been deteriorating for several years, and the city of Tegernsee and the Miesbach district office want the wreck recovered.
Tegernsee Mayor Johannes Hagn said the vessel had already tipped over and was now lying in mud. The wood was slowly crumbling and the paint was peeling, he said. The Miesbach district office confirmed that the current owner had not responded to any of its notices.
The MS Bad Wiessee was the last wooden boat operated by the Bavarian lake shipping company. It was retired about 20 years ago, sold to a Tegernsee business owner and converted into a café and bar. After the property and boat were later sold to a new owner, the vessel was forgotten.
Hagn said the boat could still be operating today. It had once been intended for sale to Poland, where it would have been preserved and used on the Masurian lake district. A local initiative collected signatures to keep it on Lake Tegernsee. The mayor is now concerned about safety and believes the wooden boat will soon fall apart.
The district office said it had ordered the boat removed five times since October 2025. The most recent order, issued in May 2026, has not yet been delivered because the owner changed address twice. The removal deadline cannot take effect until the order has been served.
The district office could hire a specialist company to remove the wreck and charge the costs to the owner under a procedure known as substitute performance. However, the measure would pose a financial risk for the authority and must be carefully examined.
Experts from the district office’s water and soil protection department inspected the wreck in February 2026. At that time, they found no evidence of a threat to the water.