Brandner Shipping Company
Brandner is a family-owned enterprise that has been involved with shipping on the Danube since 1776.It all began with rafts transporting lumber to Vienna and Budapest. Then came freighters and tanker ships. In the mid-1970s, the company began to focus increasingly on waterway engineering projects. Today, at the outset of a new millennium, this family-owned enterprise that has successfully combined tradition and innovation ever since its inception is involved in waterway engineering (e.g. revitalization of a stretch of the Danube adversely affected by power plant construction), sand and gravel, hydrographic surveying (using state-of-the-art equipment), marine salvage and scheduled passenger service.
CEO Franz Brandner, the last of the Danube captains in possession of a raft license, and a dynamic young generation of managers—Wolfram Mosser, Barbara Mosser-Brandner and Birgit Brandner—are the experienced hands at the helm of this corporate ship. The first Austrian women to hold Danube captain patents, Barbara Mosser-Brandner and Birgit Brandner are in command of the passenger fleet.
A work of beautification as well as a significant impetus to tourism has been the construction of Danube landings that invite passengers to debark and explore charming riverside towns and picturesque landscapes. These attractive facilities—advertisements for the entire region—are operated jointly by Brandner Cruises and the Province of Lower Austria.
The inventiveness that has come to be associated with the company, the know-how of its in-house experts and the productivity of its entire staff have been displayed in recent years in several outstandingly successful projects that have been singled out for public recognition. For example, Brandner Company was named “The Most Hospitable” and honored with the Award for Young Entrepreneurs in 1997, and received a 1999 Maecenas, Austria's cultural sponsoring award, for its participation in the “Stromlinien” project. The raft ride it staged in 1997 and its essential part in “actopera” at the Linzer Klangwolke in September 2000 garnered the company Maecenas Awards of Distinction both years.
The most ships to date were deployed in conjunction with the 2002 Klangwolke: four barges, a pontoon and “The Three Brothers,” the largest waterway engineering and salvage vessel on the Danube. Set up bank-to-bank perpendicular to the current, they blocked the Danube and linked up the two halves of Linz for a few hours.
In early 2003, the MS Austria Princess was added to the passenger fleet. This ship, the MS Austria’s “little sister,” was completely refurnished in the distinctive Brandner style. Since then, it’s been the venue of extraordinary events.
2005 was another year marked by notable awards for Brandner Shipping. At the Melk Summer Festival, the company was involved in a production of Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” In the third act, a Brandner equipment barge carried the stage as well as the grandstand a ways down the Danube. CEO Captain Franz Brandner personally manned the wheel at all 17 performances. The Wallsee family-owned enterprise was singled out for recognition with the Austrian and Lower Austrian MAECENAS cultural sponsoring awards for the commitment it displayed in making this production possible.
