German maritime associations 1945–1956

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The term German Sea Associations is understood to mean military-like associations and institutions that performed typical marine tasks in Germany from 1945 to 1949 under the direction of the Allies .

tasks

After the capitulation of the German armed forces and thus the navy came into force, the Allies faced a number of security tasks in German waters, for the fulfillment of which they recruited or recruited German citizens.

In the post-war period after the Second World War in Germany , the main tasks to be dealt with were the disarming of the navy and the clearing of sea ​​mines . In a second phase from 1949 onwards, some of the civil state tasks could be transferred to the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany , while military tasks remained with the Allies. To this end, they maintained German aid associations as part of the Allied service groups . In a third phase, starting around 1951, the rearmament of Germany became apparent, and the aid organizations were used for their preparation.

Western zones of occupation

First phase

The German coasts in the area of ​​the western occupation zones were largely under British control . Only the state of Bremen , and especially the port of Bremerhaven, belonged to the American zone of occupation .

The British took over the coordination of the mine clearance and set up the German mine clearance service as early as May 1945 , which consisted of remaining units of the Navy and initially had 27,000 German marines and around 800 vehicles. He fulfilled his evacuation order by the end of 1947 and was then dissolved. The Cuxhaven Mine Clearance Association , also under British supervision, was set up as the successor organization and continued work until 1951.

To disarm the navy, the United States Navy, under the command of the United States Naval Forces Germany, had set up a naval service group in Bremerhaven that looked after the warships to be handed over. After completing this work, it was greatly reduced and entrusted with support tasks for the American naval base in Bremerhaven.

Second phase

After the most urgent post-war tasks had been dealt with, the main concern of the Allies was to use the Germans for their support, while the task of clearing mines had to be continued to a lesser extent. One began to transfer tasks to the new German administration. The Cuxhaven mine clearing association established on January 1, 1948, was assigned to the German maritime customs . When it was dissolved in 1951, the British Naval Service Group was created , which took over part of the staff.

Also in 1951 began the establishment of the Federal Border Guard , which had its own boats and coastal facilities with a maritime border protection organization. The sea ​​border protection also took over part of the staff of the Cuxhaven mine clearing association, as did the American Labor Service Organization. This was set up to support the US armed forces in Germany and, with the Labor Service Units (B) and (C), had two ship formations with German personnel. The Labor Service Unit (B) (LSU (B)) supported the Bremerhaven naval base, while the LSU (C) was part of the Rhine River Patrol .

The Allies tried to use the German naval expertise in the dispute with the Soviet Union . This was primarily served by the studies of the Naval Historical Team , consisting of high-ranking former German naval officers , which, on behalf of the American naval intelligence service, the Office of Naval Intelligence , gathered relevant experiences from the Second World War .

With the beginning of the Cold War , the British and Americans began secret operations in the direction of Soviet rule in the Baltic Sea, for which they used German forces, among other things. The Americans used three speedboats belonging to the LSU (B). The British set up a special association under the MI6 intelligence service called the British Baltic Fishery Protection Service , which was supposed to investigate the activities of the Soviet Navy and at the same time drop agents on the coasts of the Baltic States .

Third phase

From 1951 onwards, with the negotiations on the European Defense Community, concrete steps to build up West German armed forces began. Under the impression of the Korean War , the USA supported this intention and used, among other things, the existing sea forces. In the Naval Historical Team, under the direction of the former Rear Admiral Gerhard Wagner, two memoranda were created that could serve as a concept for a future German Navy. At the same time, the LSU (B) was used to train personnel for the new West German naval forces.

Transfer of sea units to the Bundeswehr

After the official establishment of the Bundeswehr on November 12, 1955, the development of the armed forces began in January 1956. The newly established Federal Navy took over the LSU (B) and the maritime border protection almost completely, and both institutions were dissolved from 1956 to 1957.

The river associations of the LSU (C) were handed over to the Bundeswehr between 1957 and 1959 and formed the basis of the army's river pioneers .

Soviet occupation zone and GDR

There is only limited information about the corresponding activities in the waters of the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR . This applies in particular to mine clearance in the immediate post-war period, for which the Soviet Union, unlike in the west, did not maintain any German sea units.

The German border police , founded in 1946, had their own boats to secure the maritime border. In 1950 the Seepolizei (HVS) headquarters was set up on Soviet instructions , and among other things, it was entrusted with clearing mines on the coasts of the GDR. In 1952, the GDR's regular armed forces began to be built up under the cover name Kasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP), into which the Seepolizei main administration was incorporated on August 1, 1953 under the name of the People's Police See . When the National People's Army (NVA) was set up on March 1, 1956, the KVP Sea with almost 10,000 men was transferred to the administration of the NVA's naval forces , as the GDR's new naval forces were initially called.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hartmut Klüver (ed.): Stations of German Navy History (II): German Sea Associations 1945-1956, Düsseldorf 2001, ISBN 3-935091-08-7
  2. ↑ foerderverein-museums-schnellboot.de ( Memento from November 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Johannes Berthold Sander-Nagashima: The Federal Navy 1955 to 1972: Concept and construction . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2006. ISBN 978-3-486-57972-7
  4. ↑ US Army in Germany
  5. ^ Siegfried Breyer, Peter Joachim Lapp: The People's Navy of the GDR

literature

  • Heinz-Ludger Borgert, Walter Stürm, Norbert Wiggershaus. Service groups and West German defense contribution - preliminary considerations for arming the Federal Republic of Germany. Boppard am Rhein 1982. ISBN 3-7646-1807-8
  • Hartmut Klüver (ed.): Stations of German naval history (II): German sea associations 1945-1956, Düsseldorf 2001, ISBN 3-935091-08-7
  • Douglas C. Peifer. Three German navies - dissolution, transitions and new beginnings. Bochum 2007. ISBN 978-3-89911-101-9
  • Siegfried Breyer, Peter Joachim Lapp: The People's Navy of the GDR, Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1985, ISBN 3-763-75423-7
  • German maritime associations 1945–1956 . Lectures of the 2nd Forum Wilhelmshaven on naval and shipping history from 3rd / 4th November 2000:

Web links