Christian Grohmann is a print and online journalist based near Cologne, Germany. He is chief editor and publisher of „Bonapart – Binnenschifffahrt aktuell“ (bonapart.de), a B2B news/magazine website all about inland navigation, waterway transport, ship technology and port logistics. As a freelancer he also feeds several special interest magazines. On those plattforms, he focuses on objective news, reports, correlations and business insights. He also works for the company newspaper of cologne inland port, where also narrative pieces occur. Besides he runs the blog solarzins.de, which concerns itself with renewable energy cooperatives. Grohmann studied technical journalism in Sankt Augustin from 2003 to 2007 and completed an editorial traineeship afterward. Onboard experience: Before studying, he passed military service in the german navy for one year, where he later served as reservist (press staff) from time to time until 2014.
Inland barges at the quai of CTS Container Terminal, Cologne.
On January 13th 2011, the inland tanker vessel „Waldhof“ capsized just in front of the famous Loreley cliff. Its payload – 2.377 tons of sulphuric acid – was not stored due to stability criteria and caused rolling of the ship‘s body on this nautically demanding track. Two sailors died. Danger of explosion complicated the progress of the salvage crews, so it took over a month to get the ship out of the fairway. Because the waterway was blocked for several weeks, shipping companies and ports experienced a loss about at least 50 Million Euro.