Pünte (Wiltshausen)

The Pünte in Wiltshausen, part of the borough of Leer in East Frisia, Germany, is a small, hand-operated cable ferry over the River Jümme, close to its confluence with the Leda.

It links the villages of Amdorf and Wiltshausen and is believed to be the oldest hand-hauled ferry in Northern Europe.

When its closure was announced in 1974 a citizens' movement formed the "Society for the Preservation of the Historic Pünte As A Monument on the Water" (Verein zur Förderung und Erhaltung der historischen Pünte als Denkmal auf dem Wasser), which restarted the operation of the ferry in 1988.

[3] From the outset, the society had several hundred local members; later people joined from all over the world, even those who had never seen the pünte themselves.

Other pünten in the county of Leer, in Halte, Hilkenborg, Esklum and Loga, had been closed before the pünte at Wiltshausen.