{"id":3313,"date":"2026-08-18T18:11:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/500-boat-operator-candidate\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T14:43:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:43:37","slug":"500-boat-operator-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/500-boat-operator-candidate\/","title":{"rendered":"500. Boat Operator Candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Grit, his wife, captures the moment of their arrival<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Simone Gahl, too\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Torsten M\u00fcnch receives the 500th certificate from boating instructor Wolfgang Gahl. Certificate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Group photo with Swiss vacationers (left)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

\n<\/p>

Wolfgang Gahl was born in 1959 and is a Lehd veteran. He experienced firsthand what life was like in his hometown of Lehde back in the day. Almost everyone\u2014including his parents and grandparents\u2014still worked on small commercial farms, and almost everything was transported by barge. But life was also at the mercy of nature’s forces: ice drifts, droughts, and floods meant that the rivers were not always navigable. But they were the lifelines of the lagoon village; they provided access to feed for the livestock and also to the outside world. It was used to transport potatoes and coal, and even to carry out quite a few moves. Little Wolfgang still remembered the days when his trip to school involved taking a boat. Even if it was just a matter of crossing to the other side\u2014a boat always had to be there; everything revolved around that vessel.<\/p>\n

Wolfgang Gahl learned to row as a side hobby, just like almost every boy\u2014and almost every girl\u2014from Lehd of his generation. At the age of fourteen, he was already working as an assistant ferryman at the L\u00fcbbenau harbor, helping the ferrymen on longer trips.<\/p>\n

Many years later, now a trained and busy boatbuilder at Karl Koal\u2019s local boatbuilding company, he himself takes vacationers from the family-owned \u201cHaus Kalmus\u201d on boat tours through the Spreewald. In the process, he repeatedly observes how it\u2019s usually the men who want to take charge of the pack themselves. With varying degrees of skill, they poked around in the mud. This gave Wolfgang Gahl the idea to start a rowboat school\u2014and, to go along with it, a rowboat rental service. Anyone may take up to eight people on a boat trip through the Spreewald without a government permit\u2014provided they are technically capable of doing so and are familiar with the rules of navigation. He has been offering this service since 2004; his most famous student was the well-known entertainer and singer Achim Menzel. \u201cBut there are also some driving students\u2014very few\u2014who just can\u2019t get the hang of it and give up in frustration, but at least they gave it a try,\u201d recalls the boat driving instructor.<\/p>\n

Wolfgang Gahl calmly watches his student Torsten M\u00fcnch from Halle\/Sa. as he pushes the boat through the narrow Lehde. Driving instructor Gahl is the only passenger, but a very important one: In the end, he will decide whether his student receives the certificate allowing him to pole a boat. Until then, Gahl had remained silent about his student\u2019s boat-pushing skills, but once they reached their destination, he couldn\u2019t help but offer a word of caution as they docked: \u201cBe careful\u2014don\u2019t let the pack get caught between the boat and the dock!\u201d\u2014which is exactly where it was headed. In the driving student’s defense, it should be noted that he was somewhat distracted and flustered by the audience and the reporter just as he was about to make this small mistake.<\/p>\n

Newly arrived vacationers from Switzerland had gathered at the dock on the Brodg Stream. Wolfgang’s wife, Simone, had asked them to come because something “important” was about to happen. Grit Sch\u00f6nberg-M\u00fcnch\u2014the wife of the prospective ferryman\u2014was also waiting at the dock. She was the mastermind behind it all and had set up this driving school for her husband; she knew about the anniversary trip, which her husband only found out about when he received his certificate to operate a boat from Wolfgang Gahl: It was the 500th!<\/p>\n

Torsten M\u00fcnch, a Skoda car salesman: \u201cWell, I\u2019ll even get to row a boat\u2014and I\u2019ll definitely be taking advantage of that during our vacations here at Gahls and rowing my wife through the Spreewald!\u201d<\/p>\n

The family from Halle has been staying here for 20 years, while Karin and Franco Bizzini from Switzerland have been guests only since 2017. \u201cWe come here every year for three weeks at a time; we absolutely adore the Spreewald. For us, there\u2019s no place in the world more beautiful; we\u2019re happy to put up with the long trip\u2014just to immerse ourselves in this unspoiled natural idyll. Here, we breathe much more freely and let the silence wash over us,\u201d says Karin Bizzini. Her husband Franco glances over at the driving school boat\u2026.<\/p>\n

Wolfgang Gahl’s driving school business will likely continue to thrive for quite some time\u2014only the prospect of the 1,000th… The idea of a certificate, perhaps in 20 years, seems to dampen the optimism a little. \u201cBut I\u2019m on the right track\u2014my students are constantly \u2018growing\u2019 in number. My two wooden rowboats are also frequently rented out for family outings, where the husband or wife takes the lead and they can explore at their own pace and on their own schedule!\u201d says Wolfgang Gahl, quite pleased with his business idea from 2004.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/spreewald-haus-kalmus.com\/kahnfahrschule\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Peter Becker, August 20, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grit, his wife, captures the moment of their arrival Simone Gahl, too\u2026 Torsten M\u00fcnch receives the 500th certificate from boating instructor Wolfgang Gahl. Certificate Group photo with Swiss vacationers (left) Wolfgang Gahl was born in 1959 and is a Lehd veteran. He experienced firsthand what life was like in his hometown of Lehde back in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kb_optimizer_status":0,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","slim_seo":{"title":"500. Boat Operator Candidate - Spreewald\u00addorf Lehde","description":"Grit, his wife, captures the moment of their arrival Simone Gahl, too\u2026 Torsten M\u00fcnch receives the 500th certificate from boating instructor Wolfgang Gahl. Certi"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nicht-kategorisiert"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1,"label":"Nicht kategorisiert"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5892-110826C2A9PeterBecker-1024x683-lwEVJN.jpg",1024,683,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"sven-hofmann","author_link":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/author\/881ce4191d54ed84\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":1,"name":"Nicht kategorisiert","slug":"nicht-kategorisiert","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":269,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1,"category_count":269,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Nicht kategorisiert","category_nicename":"nicht-kategorisiert","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3315,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313\/revisions\/3315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}