3-053-441 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Unlading fruit-boats in Berlin, 1873. '...the narrow waters of the Spree in the more populous parts of Berlin are crowded with fruit-boats which lie off the quays of the Burg and Unterwasser Strassen, as well as those adjacent to most of the bridges, more particularly the Schloss and Jannowitz Brücken...when the cargoes are being discharged, the quays present a most animated appearance. Trucks, barrows, and dog-carts...wait along them for hours to secure their loads of pears and apples...At certain times of the day the boats, lying close beside each other, present somewhat the aspect of a fruit market, being crowded by Berlin housewives and servants, who, provided with their large market-baskets, pass from one boat to another to bargain for fruit for those preserves for which a German looks as for his daily bread. The boats...come principally from Bohemia...Their principal cargo is apples, which are sold...at the rate of from one thaler twenty groschen to two thalers (five to six shillings) the scheffel of fifty litres, equivalent to eleven English gallons. M. Loeffler's spirited sketch shows the Schloss-Brücke, with its marble groups depicting incidents in the life of a hero - all Berlin sculpture is military - in the background'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.