Alleged mutiny on the Gorch Fock
As a mutiny on the Gorch Fock in 2010, a protest action by young officer candidates of the German Navy against their superiors on the sailing training ship Gorch Fock was spread in the media . Contrary to the representation in the media, however, it is not a mutiny in the strict sense. Before the action, the officer candidate Sara Lena Seele fell from a sailing mast onto the deck of the ship and died.
The death and the protest action were the subject of extensive investigations and discussions, for example by the then Defense Commissioner Hellmut Königshaus and the Defense Committee of the Bundestag . However, there was no conviction of candidate naval officers due to this incident for mutiny ( Section 27 of the Military Penal Act ).
To the prehistory
On November 7, 2010, a 25-year-old officer candidate fell from the rigging to the deck from a height of 27 meters during an exercise near Salvador de Bahia and died.
It wasn't the first death. In 1998, a candidate officer died after falling from a height of twelve meters. In 2002 a 19-year-old military service provider died after falling from the main mast. The two were inexperienced, as was the young officer candidate. She only went on board on November 2, 2010, five days before her death. On September 4, 2008, the 18-year-old officer candidate Jenny Böken died when she fell from the Gorch Fock into the North Sea.
Crew reaction
This incident unsettled many crew members. There were allegations that the officers were not handling the special situation properly. Crew members missed opportunities to mourn, complained of great pressure and coercion from officers and refused to mount a mast of the Gorch Fock and thus defied an order. As a result of the events, some crew members wanted to leave the ship. Two more experienced crew members tried to make the ship management understand the problems and fears of many crew members. A discussion broke out on how to deal with the death of a comrade.
Sea captain Schatz, who has been in command of the Gorch Fock since the beginning of 2006 , instructed two senior cadets to mediate between the grieving soldiers and the ship's command .
After the incident
Later, Schatz and the first officer accused the two mediating officer candidates and two other crew members of “poor cooperation with the ship's command”. Subsequently, fundamental points of the Navy were questioned at the highest level. The training methods were revised, the sense of so-called "Aufentern", the climbing of the mast, was questioned because it was no longer up to date. The decision to resume operations promptly after the death on board was also criticized. The events on the Gorch Fock also sparked a debate about obedience in the Navy.
On January 21, 2011, the then Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg suspended the commandant of the Gorch Fock. Marine Inspector Axel Schimpf defended the suspension.
In mid-2011 the Federal Ministry of Defense (Minister at the time was Thomas de Maizière ) submitted a report to the chairmen and officers of the Defense Committee, in which the ship's command was accused of “misconduct” and “omissions”. In addition, the supervision had been inadequate "over a long period of time"; the Ministry of Defense rated this as "unacceptable".
In April 2012, the Gorch-Fock training mast was set up at the Mürwik Naval School and its users are secured when practicing.
Individual evidence
- ^ Mutiny on the "Gorch Fock" . In: sueddeutsche.de . January 19, 2011, ISSN 0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed May 20, 2017]).
- ↑ welt.de May 14, 2002
- ↑ Bundeswehr: Mutiny on the "Gorch Fock" puts navy under pressure - WELT. Retrieved May 20, 2017 .
- ↑ After Cadet's fatal fall: Apparently mutiny on the Gorch Fock . In: FAZ.net . January 19, 2011, ISSN 0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed May 20, 2017]).
- ↑ spiegel.de January 19, 2011: Mutiny on the "Gorch Fock"
- ↑ spiegel.de January 21, 2011 / Roland Nelles : Mutiny on the "Gorch Fock": End of cadaver obedience ( comment )
- ↑ Abendblatt.de
- ↑ welt.de January 28, 2011
- ↑ spiegel.de July 1, 2011: Ministry sees serious deficiencies in "Gorch Fock"