Prompted by the success achieved by the Harzgraben-Fähre, and with the wish of the public for a further ferry underneath the Rhine bridge, in April 1860 the Künstlergesellschaft (Artist Company) sought permission from the government for the opening of a second ferry between the St Johanns-Graben and the outside Klingentalweg. The necessary share capital of 10, 000 Franks was raised without difficulty.
However the location of the projected ferry did not please all of the Baukollegium (building consortium) responsible for the handling of the request. This was because on the Grossbasel side the departure site from the Seidenhof (silk yard) to the Rhine was not yet completed and because on the Kleinbasel side the landing stage fell with the working area for the “wood rafts” and wood stock-pile then present on the Rhine. Furthermore due to large are of shallow water at the bank there was a requirement for a longer landing jetty than usual. And finally the height necessary for the cross river guide rope would adversely affect the fascade of the planned barracks building.
The project had to be revised. After much discussion back and forth the representatives of the Künstlergesellschaft succeeded in convincing the authorities that the location for the planned ferry was suitable because in the within the two years these discussions took the urban wood stock pile and the wood market had been shifted further down the Rhine eliminating this objection. On February 27th, 1862 the concession was granted.
The “lower Rhine ferry by the silk yard” was built and tested. The ferry was recommended by the delegates of the Baukollegiums of the high government, within two days garlanded and bearing the inscription “ Es lebe die Künstlergesellschaft” (The Artists Society lives) it transported 2,597 members of the grateful public from one bank to the other.
Until the 15th September 1936 the Künstlergesellschaft bore the responsibility for the enterprise of the Klingental ferry. On that day it left donated it to Fritz Bürgin who had driven the ferry for many years. Between 1862 and 1936, 7,6 million passengers used the Klingental ferry.
On 7 July 1962, the government celebrated the100th anniversary of the “Vogel Gryff”. Blasius, the Basel poet laureate wrote a “Fähri song”, set to music by George Marty, which was performed by a child choir from the Rhine school.

Source: Basel ferries, gs publishing house 1992 (ISBN 3-7185-0124-4)