Fisherman's bid to sell world's oldest message in a bottle on eBay thwarted

German fisherman Konrad Fischer holds the message in a bottle from 1913 in Kiel, Germany. Photo: AFP

Eryk Bagshaw
Journalist
Konrad Fischer pulled the beer bottle from the water off the coast of Kiel in northern Germany in March this year.

“This is certainly the first time such an old message in a bottle has been found,” said Holger von Neuhoff from the International Maritime Museum in Hamburg.

“Particularly with the bottle intact.” Within the sealed bottle, Mr Fischer found a postcard dated May 17, 1913.

The postcard was written by a 20-year-old baker’s son, Richard Platz, and simply asked the finder to send the bottle on to his address in Berlin.

More than 100 years later, researchers tracked down Mr Platz’s granddaughter, Angela Erdmann.

While Mr Fischer tried to sell the bottle on eBay so he could repair his 78-year-old boat Maria, Ms Erdmann was working to ensure that the sale could never go ahead.

On Monday, Ms Erdmann succeeded in putting in a claim of ownership for the bottle, halting the auction minutes before it was due to end at €3660 ($5240). Read more