Crew (naval officers)
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Crew is the informal term for a class of naval officers who joined a German Navy at the same time , that is, the Imperial Navy , the Reichsmarine , the Kriegsmarine , the Federal Navy or the German Navy .
history
Under the Anglophile Wilhelm II , the Imperial Navy oriented itself towards the Royal Navy . Clay Blair explains how the term came about: “Normally, young German navies joined the Navy at eighteen, […] like the recruits in the Imperial Navy, they all spent their first year at sea as crew ranks on a sailing ship with full rigging. The year of entry was therefore referred to as the 'crew year', comparable to the 'class' year in other navies. "( Clay Blair ) The recruitment years were only designated with the year that is also found in the honorary rankings, for example crew 12. On October 1, 1910, the first crew of the Mürwik Naval School was drafted and was given the designation Crew 09. The Imperial Navy of the Weimar Republic retained the naming system.
Reichsmarine and Kriegsmarine
It was first necessary to enlarge a crew in 1932 when, when the training ship Niobe sank in the Fehmarnbelt in 1932, a significant number of the cadet officers of the crew who were taking part in lessons below deck were killed when the ship capsized in a sudden gust . In order to fill the gap that had arisen, on the one hand more recruits were accepted in the autumn, on the other hand it was made possible for NCOs to enter the higher career. In addition, civilian merchant ship officers were motivated to join the Imperial Navy. Günther Prien , Jost Metzler and Wilhelm Schulz were among these so-called HSOs, which came into being in 1933, but were "included" in the crew in 1932 without basic nautical training on a training ship due to their previous knowledge . The cadets and the HSO were merged into a crew in early 1934, promoted to ensigns and began their training together at the Mürwik Naval School. With the increasing number of crews in the Kriegsmarine , it became necessary to specify the month of recruitment. Sometimes a distinction was also made between companies and inspections. Some crews gave themselves nicknames , for example the Olympia Crew , Crew 38 Großdeutschland or the Skagerrak Crew 1942.
“This English word, which actually means crew, is the traditional name in the Navy for the officer cadets entering at the same time. The term crew wraps a firm inner bond around them, as strong as it is probably not even the case with the common age groups of schoolchildren and students. "
In the Reich and Kriegsmarine, it was customary for all members of previous crews and crewmates to leave the navy when a new commander in chief was appointed. This tradition was abandoned - due to the high demand for officers - when Karl Dönitz became Commander in Chief of the Navy.
armed forces
The crew concept was retained in the Bundeswehr . As a cross-sectional connection of a recruitment year, it complements the rank group of naval officers. For decades, most crews were on April 1 or October 1 convened since 1972 July 1. The exception to this is crew VI / 89, which was drafted on June 1, 1989. As in the navy, they are designated with the Roman month number and the Arabic year number; Crew IV / 64 was called in in April 1964 (for general basic training ). Since the year 2000, the years have been given in four digits: Crew VII / 2000, Crew I / 2001 ( officer candidates for the military technical service ), Crew VIII / 2001 ( reserve officer candidates ). The assignment of side entrants and former NCOs is common, but often not easy in terms of seniority .
In the German Navy, all unserviced officer candidates (and those transferring to the merchant navy ) completed basic training (German Armed Forces) in Naval Training Battalion 3 in Glückstadt . Today there are about 220-300 officer candidates of both sexes in a crew with a hiring date of July (VII, officer candidates for military service), including about 10% foreign officer candidates (e.g. 2-3 officer candidates from France every year). In the basic training, on SSS Gorch Fock , at the Naval School Mürwik and at the universities of the Bundeswehr , the crew mostly stays together. Naturally, the budding medical officers sometimes go other ways. The seafarer training took place on the training ship Germany until 1990 , since then in the deployment training association (EAV).
As a rule, ten officers on a crew achieve the rank of sea captain ; even fewer become flag officers .
cohesion
Membership in a crew is not an administrative act; but you cannot “leave” a crew. After death, it remains a characteristic of a person .
Most crews have a more or less original coat of arms with a motto , for example the Big Dipper and Semper recta via (“Always on the right / right course”, Crew X / 67). True to the (survived) motto “First win, then marry!”, The “West India Crew” replaced X / 37 palm fronds and machete with swords and wedding rings.
The family camaraderie is cultivated with address directories, crew meetings, newsletters and homepages , sometimes also with magazines and yearbooks . General messages appear in the internal (yellow) part of the marine forum . The widows of deceased comrades are part of the crew.
"Bolt"
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An old custom is the so-called crew bolt, a joke of the ensigns at the end of the officers' course at the Mürwik Naval School . The children's party of Crew IV / 65 is legendary. Hundreds of families came to Mürwik when an advertisement in the Flensburger Tageblatt was not meant to be serious . Completely surprised and unprepared, one made a virtue out of necessity. The Marine Music Corps was alerted. Flensburg's bakeries and beverage markets helped generously. Navy helicopters made sightseeing flights over the Flensburg Fjord .
After their visit, an army unit did not find their Kübelwagen - they were buried in the forest behind the school. The stripper in ensign costume at the prom (Crew X / 69) and the parade elephant for the commander (Crew VII / 88) were not without charm . To the general disappointment, Crew VII / 98 had left the MSM without bolts - until their crocuses bloomed on the Admiralswiese in the spring of 2000.
The military history training center of the Naval School Mürwik keeps a bolt file.
Admirals by crew (Bundeswehr)
(Active admirals are marked blue.)
literature
- Jörg Hillmann : “The red castle by the sea.” The Mürwik Naval School since its foundation. Photographs by Reinhard Scheiblich. Convent-Verlag, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-934613-26-8 .
- Karl Hinrich Peter : aspiring naval officer. Your education from 1848 until today . 1969 ( pkgodzik.de [PDF; 2.6 MB ; Retrieved August 20, 2017] With some additions from 1973. Prepared for the Internet from the original manuscript and edited by Peter Godzik in 2009.).
- Dirk Richhardt: Selection and training of young officers 1930–1945. On the social genesis of the German officer corps . Marburg 2002 ( uni-marburg.de [PDF; 2.2 MB ; accessed on August 20, 2017] Marburg, Universität, Dissertation, 2003).
- Thomas Eugen Scheerer : The naval officers of the Imperial Navy. Socialization and Conflicts (= Small series of publications on military and naval history . Volume 2 ). Winkler, Bochum 2002, ISBN 3-930083-88-4 (also: Hamburg, University, dissertation, 1994).
Remarks
- ↑ The recruitment dates were based on the start and end of the school year and a high demand for young people. After the short school years 1966/67, from 1968 onwards, convocation was only held on October 1st, with the planned establishment of the Bundeswehr universities from 1972 on July 1st.
- ↑ With the crews that have organized themselves, leaving this organization is quite possible and is also practiced.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The hunters. 1939–1942 (= The U-Boat War . Volume 1 ). Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X , p. 72 .
- ^ A b Hubertus von Puttkamer : Foreword to Hillmann: "The red castle by the sea". 2002.
- ↑ 100 Years of the Naval School: History of the School . sh: z , August 11, 2010; accessed on August 27, 2016
- ↑ a b Fritz Brustat-Naval: Ali Cremer: U 333 (= Ullstein. No. 33074, contemporary history ). Unabridged edition. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-548-33074-6 , pp. 27-29.
- ^ Wilhelm Schulz: Above the wet abyss. As a commander and flotilla chief in the submarine war. ES Mittler and Son, Berlin a. a. 1994, ISBN 3-8132-0422-7 , pp. 62-63.
- ^ Heinz Schaeffer: U 977. Secret trip to South America. Unabridged paperback edition, 5th edition. Heyne, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-453-00561-9 , p. 80.
- ↑ According to the law in force until 1945, civil servants and officers required the superior's marriage permit.
- ↑ Department badge on German submarines. Naval Archives Forum, accessed January 24, 2016 (private website).
- ↑ Holger Ohlsen: Crew-Bolzen: When the bang ignites. In: shz.de. October 13, 2010, accessed January 24, 2016 .