Suchergebnisse

After World War I, the war-inflated shipbuilding operations in Germany had a capacity of some thirty to fifty percent over demand. A reduced demand for new vessel constructions, low cargo rates and the lack of orders for war vessels led to a ruinous crisis in the shipbuilding sector lasting from 1924 to 1934, with an interim respite from 1927 to 1929. Shut-downs, closures and mergers were the consequence. Due to their unfavourable location, the shipbuilding companies in the Baltic Sea regions were hit disproportionately hard by the capacity scale-down and the structural crisis. By means of strikes, the shipyard workers and labour unions attempted to hold onto the privileges they had obtained after World War I, but to little avail. The Verein Deutscher Schiffswerften (VDS; association of German shipyards) tolerated the tough competition within the sector, to which many well-known German shipyards fell victim despite numerous technical innovations. The shipbuilding business was suffering internationally, as was shipping itself - two further factors accounting for the crisis in the German shipbuilding industry. In 1925, as a means of overcoming the crisis, the Reich government supported the faltering ship yards with a "ship renewal fund" of fifty million Reichsmarks (loan for financing up to fifty percent of new vessel constructions). In 1926/27 there was moreover a programme for reducing interest on loans for new ships. In 1932 the Reich government instituted a scrappage programme with a budget of twelve million Reichsmarks for ships twenty years and older, with bonuses and interest-free loans. The world economic crisis and the agreement concluded in 1930 between Hapag and the Norddeutsche Lloyd (Hapag-Lloyd-Union) brought about a further reduction in the demand for new tonnage since the concentration of the two major German shipping companies led to a slackening of orders for new ship constructions. The National Socialist government then introduced rearmament measures which encompassed a fleet-building programme for the navy. In conjunction with the aspirations toward selfsufficiency which led to the expansion of deep-sea fishing and the establishment of a whaling fleet, these measures were what finally brought about a noticeable improvement in the circumstances of the German shipbuilding industry, where there was now full employment. The social advantages which the labour unions had achieved for the manual labourers and office workers in the shipyard sector during the Weimar Republic, however, were revoked during the National Socialist period. The laws governing forced compliance with the NS system ultimately led to the defeat of the labour movement and the break-up of the unions.

A boom in shipbuilding was expected after World War I due to the necessity of reconstructing the German trading fleet and the reparation payments, resulting in a rapid expansion of shipyard capacity after 1918 - a 50-percent increase in comparison to 1914. Determined to retain full employment in the shipbuilding industry and the supplier firms in the volatile political and economic situation after World War I, the Reich Naval Office, the Reich government, the shipowners, the heavy industry connected with the seagoing shipyards, shipbuilding entrepreneurs, workers and trade unions had no interest in a reduction in the number of German shipbuilding companies. Nor were the necessary modernization and rationalization measures called for by such bodies as the Schiffbautechnische Gesellschaft implemented. The Reich Naval Office supported the preservation of the former warship-yards of Blohm & Voss, AG "Weser," Schichau, Germaniawerft and Stettiner Vulcan in order not to lose its knowhow in submarine construction and its technological edge in naval shipbuilding despite the demilitarization of the German shipyard industry called for by the Treaty of Versailles. After talks with the German naval high command, a secret construction office for submarines was founded in The Hague, Holland, by Germaniawerft, AG »Weser« and Stettiner Vulcan. German submarine construction specialists were also very active as consultants in Argentina, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Turkey, the USSR and Japan. The massive subsidies from the Reich government only strengthened the boom in shipbuilding and concealed the overcapacity and structural problems in German ship construction, which became very clear after the slowdown due to inflation at the end of 1923. The shipyard capacities had to be drastically reduced. The large number of layoffs resulted in economic and political turmoil. From 1923/24 onwards, after the reconstruction programme for the German shipping companies had expired and inflation had been brought to an end by the introduction of the 'Rentenmark' as a stable currency, there was a considerable drop in orders for ships. This necessarily led to a reduction of the shipbuilding capacity that had expanded so sharply after World War I and it plunged the German shipbuilding industry into a deep crisis that would last more than a decade. The global recession at the end of the 1920s accelerated this restructuring process and led to attempts at rationalization in the German ship industry by means of technological innovations, as well as to several mergers (Deschimag, Howaldtswerke, Deutsche Werft and Reiherstieg) and yard closures (Deutsche Werke in Rüstringen, Eiderwerft,Tecklenborg, Stettiner Vulcan, Nüscke, Klawitter, Frerichs, Henry Koch) with mass redundancies. The economic outlook for shipbuilding only improved from the mid 1930s onwards, when the efforts at rearmament and autarky by Nazi Germany - the first fleet-building programme for the navy, the expansion of fishing on the high seas, and the creation of a whaling fleet - brought the German shipyards renewed orders.

The SEUTE DEERN is one of the last surviving historic wooden cargo sailing vessels, not only in Germany, but in all of Europe. It is the flagship and outstanding attraction of the museum harbour of the German Maritime Museum (DSM) and has become the trademark of Bremerhaven. As a museum ship and floating restaurant, the windjammer has been berthed in the Old Harbour - the oldest harbour of Bremerhaven and the site of the city's origin - since 1966. The barque SEUTE DEERN was the inaugural object of Germany's first open-air maritime museum, from which the DSM developed. Furthermore, the wooden sailing ship represents the local shipbuilding tradition, within whose framework over 250 deep-water sailing vessels were built - initially of wood, later of steel - in the shipyards on the Geeste, particularly Rickmers and Tecklenborg. Finally, the present-day flagship of the DSM demonstrates the international character of sailship construction and navigation. Originally the four-masted schooner ELIZABETH BANDI, this ship was built in 1919 in the American gulf port near the mouth of the Mississippi for the transport of wood. From 1931 she sailed under Finnish flag until being acquired by the Hamburg shipowner John T. Essberger in 1938. In 1939, Essberger had the schooner altered to a barque by the Hamburg shipyard Blohm & Voss; now she was to serve as a cargocarrying training ship for junior nautical officers. By 1944 she had made many a journey on the Baltic Sea and the end of the war found her berthed in her winter quarters in Lübeck. Following alterations carried out in Travemünde (1946-47) the SEUTE DEERN operated until 1954 as a hotel ship in Hamburg. Subsequently, until 1964, she rode at anchor under Dutch flag in Delfzijl, now as the youth hostel ship PIETER A. KOERTS. Following a short stay in Emden, the ship reached Bremerhaven. The SEUTE DEERN has been at her present berth in the museum harbour in front of the main building of the DSM since 1975. Due to severe damages to the main deck and hull, the floating cultural monument is being restored in 2001-2002. The DSM is undertaking every effort to preserve for posterity one of the last existing wooden cargo sailing ships in Europe as a living testimony to our maritime cultural heritage.