Verkäuferinnen auf Passagierschiffen

Abstract

Beginning in the 1930s, saleswomen were employed on the express steamers BREMEN and EUROPA as well as on passenger ships of the Hamburg Süd. The German Maritime Museum possesses four biographical accounts by women who documented their lives as saleswomen on board in different ways. They signed on as regulars but were employees of firms which had business relationships with the shipping companies. The Ocean Comfort Company of Bremerhaven, for example, ran so-called art salons on the express steamers BREMEN and EUROPA; on other passenger ships, the Stilke Company of Hamburg operated shops in which passengers could buy magazines and objects of practical necessity. The female sales managers of the art salons were required by the shipping companies to possess good command of English as well as a certain amount of knowledge of art. Commercial training was not required even though the responsibilities included bookkeeping and in some cases the purchase of goods. The sales manager was in charge of goods with an overall value of approximately 100,000 deutsche mark. The art salons were among the public rooms in the first-class section and oriented toward an elevated clientele. As "functionaries" who did not belong to the actual ship's company, the saleswomen resided in tourist-class cabins and took their meals there as well. Their dealings with the passengers were regimented; their participation in events held for the passengers was unwanted. Nevertheless, there were cases in which the captain - and in one case the general director of the Norddeutscher Lloyd - permitted a passenger to invite a saleswoman to the first-class lounge as a guest. The accounts written by the handicrafts saleswomen testify to relatively long periods of employment on board (three and nine years, respectively). The saleswomen employed by the Stilke Company were likewise not required to present proof of training in any particular vocation. They received simple on-the-job training on land and then independently operated a ship's kiosk. They were not equal in status to the art salon sales managers, due in part to the fact that the kiosk was not located in the first-class section. There were also female gardeners on board with positions similar to those of the kiosk saleswomen. Unlike the latter, however, they were not only in charge of a shop but also responsible for providing and tending to the floral decoration on the ship.