Germany (A 59)

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Training ship Germany 1986 in New York
Training ship Germany 1986 in New York
Overview
Type Training ship class 440
Shipyard

Nobiskrug , Rendsburg , construction number 618

Keel laying September 11, 1959
Launch 5th November 1960
Commissioning May 25, 1963
Decommissioning June 28, 1990
home port Kiel
Whereabouts Canceled in Alang from 1994
Technical specifications
displacement

4,880 ts standard
5,684 ts use

length

138.23 meters

width

16.05 meters

Draft

4.50 meters (5.28 with sonar)

crew

30 officers
30 Portepee NCOs
90 NCOs
180 crew ranks
120 cadet  officers
6 civilian employees

drive

4 MTU diesel engines with 2000 HP each for the outer shafts
2 WAHODAG high-pressure superheated steam boilers and 1 steam turbine with 8000 HP for the medium
shaft 3 shafts with Escher Wyss variable pitch propellers

speed

16  kn (diesel only)
21 kn (diesel and steam)

Range

3,800 nm (at 12 kn)
1,700 nm (at 17 kn)

Bunker quantity

643 m³

Armament

4 Creusot-Loire 100 mm / L55 single towers
2 Breda 40 mm / L70 double mounts
2 Bofors 40 mm / L70 single mounts
2 × 4 Bofors 375 mm anti- submarine rocket launchers
4 533 mm torpedo tubes
2 WaBo drainage platforms
Mines : approx. 75 m track length with one throwing point

Callsign

DBWH, from 12/81 DRAW

Insinuation

Command of the training ships
Naval School Mürwik
(from October 1, 1966)

The Deutschland was a training ship of the German Navy , which was in service from 1963 to 1990.

tasks

The Germany was like the sail training ship Gorch Fock , first the command of the training ships and from 1966, the Naval Academy Mürwik in Flensburg - Mürwik assumed and had the task of educating the cadets continue (OA) for supervisors and acquired in the previous training course theoretical knowledge in to deepen practical on-board operations. In addition, the officer candidates should be made familiar with the weather conditions on the high seas and the close coexistence on board.

Construction and delivery

The ship was designed as a training ship with multi-purpose use ( troop transport , hospital ship , minelayer ). The mixed propulsion system, the armament and the rest of the equipment of the ship corresponded to the systems existing at the time and reflected the equipment of the fleet under construction. The design was for this reason resemblance to the ships of the Hamburg - and Rhein class .

For 95 million DM (about 48.5 million euros ), the new building was commissioned in autumn 1958 in order and at the shipyard on September 11, 1959 Nobiskrug in Rendsburg to put Kiel . A good year later, on November 5th, 1960, the launch took place in the presence of the then Federal President Heinrich Lübke . His wife, Wilhelmine Lübke , named the ship Deutschland , a traditional name of the German navy. The initially planned name Berlin was waived for political reasons (objection by the Allies ).

The commissioning took place on May 25, 1963 in the presence of the Defense Minister Kai-Uwe von Hassel and the Inspector of the Navy Vice Admiral Karl-Adolf Zenker . The class 139 school tenders used previously, the Eider and Trave , were given new tasks as early as July 1963.

crew

commander from to AAR
Sea captain Herwig Collmann  May 1963  July 1965 29
Sea captain Burkhard Hackländer  Sep 1965  Sep 1966 32.
Sea captain Ulrich Rehder  Sep 1966  Sep 1967 34.
Sea captain Karl H. Peter  Sep 1967  Dec 1968 36-37
Sea captain Hubert Nordheimer  Jan. 1969  Sep 1971 38-40
Sea captain Karl Welz  Sep 1971  July 1973 41-42
Sea captain Kurt F. Siewert  July 1973  Sep 1977 43-48
Sea captain Gerhard Krancke  Oct 1977  Sep 1980 49–54
Sea captain Dieter Leonard  Oct 1980   1983 55th-58th
Sea captain Wulf D. Plesmann   1983   1986 59–62.
Sea captain Franz-Hermann Koehler   1986   1990 63-68

The crew was led by a commander and his deputy, the first officer, and was divided into the last usual on-board organization:

  • I. Division (naval weapons and deck service) with naval weapons officer (SWO), I. artillery officer (I AO) and artillery weapons control officer (AWLO)
  • II. Division (ship technology) with ship engineering officer (STO), ship safety officer (SSO), electrical engineering officer (EO) and propulsion officer (AnO)
  • III. Division (ship operations) with ship operations officer (SOpO), navigation officer (NO), locating officer (OrtO), telecommunications officer (FmO), command electronics officer (FüElo) and the meteorologist (Met I) *
  • IV. Division (ship supply) with ship supply officer (SVO), personnel officer (PersO), ship's doctor (SA), dentist (SA (Z)), Catholic * and Protestant military pastor *
  • K-Division (cadet training) with cadet officer (KO) * and platoon officers II OrtO * , II AO * , II NO * , II AnO * and the barrage officer (SperrO) *

The regular crew also included civilian personnel: 2 board stewards and 1 board washer, board shoemaker, board tailor and board hairdresser

* Only during training trips abroad

commitment

Before its first foreign training trip, Germany carried out three test drives. The first trip took the ship in August 1963 around the UK . During the warm water test from January 29 to March 20, 1964, the ports of Gibraltar , Monrovia , Abidjan and Santa Cruz de Tenerife were called and during the cold water test from April 28 to June 29, 1964, the Norwegian naval base Haakonsvern .

Training trips abroad (AAR)

The voyages began and ended in the home port of Kiel.

AAR Period Nautical miles Ports
29 January 26 - June 29, 1965 29,845 Gibraltar - Suez Canal with Port Said - Aden - Cochin - Manila - Tokyo - Osaka - Honolulu - San Francisco - Panama Canal with Rodman Station - Cartagena - Ponta Delgada - Brest
32. February 16 - June 16, 1966 22,224 Dakar - Santos - Puerto Belgrano - Valparaíso - Guayaquil - Panama Canal with Rodman Station - La Guaira - Funchal
34. January 31 - June 20, 1967 26,746 Ponta Delgada - Charleston - Houston - Panama Canal with Balboa - San Diego - Vancouver - Mazatlán - Panama Canal with Rodman Station - New Orleans - Hamilton
36. February 26 - May 31, 1968 16,289 Funchal - Salvador da Bahia - Fort-de-France - Kingston - Ponta Delgada
37. August 26 - December 10, 1968 18,294 Las Palmas - Accra - Rio de Janeiro - Salvador da Bahia - Belém - Port of Spain - Lisbon - Brest
38. August 18 - December 17, 1969 20,290 Ponta Delgada - Halifax - New York - Guantanamo - Nassau - Las Palmas - Naples - Cartagena
40. April 15 - June 23, 1971 11,903 Livorno - Istanbul - Casablanca
41. February 1 - June 23, 1972 23,748 Safi - La Guaira - Cartagena - New Orleans - New York - Las Palmas - Brest - Tromsø
42. February 1 - June 26, 1973 28,100 Ponta Delgada – Panama Canal with Rodman Station – Callao - Acajutla –San Francisco – Vancouver– Acapulco –Panama Canal with Rodman Station – Ponta Delgada– Algiers
43. November 1 - December 14, 1973 9,148 Izmir - Taranto
44. February 14 - August 30, 1974 38,369 Las Palmas - Simon's Town - Port Louis - Fremantle - Jakarta - Tokyo - Honolulu - Los Angeles - Panama Canal with Rodman Station - Hamilton - Lisbon - Portland
45. February 13 - April 24, 1975 14,157 Toulon - Venice - La Maddalena - Oran
46. June 4 - August 29, 1975 15,339 Rouen - Piraeus - Istanbul - Alexandria - Wilhelmshaven
47. February 3 - May 12, 1977 20,589 Las Palmas - Recife - La Guaira - Veracruz - San Juan - Norfolk - Ponta Delgada
48. June 11th - August 30th 1977 15,439 Suez Canal with Port Said- Muscat - Bandar Abbas -Sueskanal with port Said- Palermo
49./50. February 1 - August 30, 1978 39,954 Suez Canal with Port Said- Bombay - Port Kelang - Singapore -Manila-Tokyo- Apra Harbor - Apia - Nuku'alofa - Suva - Wellington -Fremantle- Colombo -Sueskanal with port Said- Cádiz
51. February 6 - April 26, 1979 16,085 Freetown - Port of Spain - Kingston - Guantanamo - Santo Domingo - Ponta Delgada
52. June 5 - August 30, 1979 15,984 Tromsø - Reykjavík - Montreal - Ponta Delgada - Santa Cruz de Tenerife - Dublin
53. February 6 - April 24, 1980 14,272 Piraeus – Istanbul– Rijeka - London
54. June 5 - August 28, 1980 16.001 Bordeaux - Barcelona - Venice - Lisbon
55. March 15 - May 28, 1982 16,403 Ponta Delgada - Bridgetown - Kingston - Panama Canal with Rodman Station - Guayaquil - Callao - Panama Canal with Rodman Station - Ponta Delgada
56. July 2 - September 15, 1982 11,870 Las Palmas - Tunis - Thessaloniki - Izmir - Algiers
57./58. March 15 - August 16, 1983 31,040 Suez Canal with Port Said – Colombo– Chittagong – Jakarta – Singapore– Penang –Manila– Bangkok – Colombo – Suez Canal with Port Said– Kali Limenes
59. March 15 - May 30, 1984 14,072 Las Palmas - Freetown - Abidjan - Lomé - Libreville - Abidjan - Dakar - Las Palmas
60. July 2 - September 15, 1984 16,554 Ponta Delgada - Washington - Norfolk - San Juan - New Orleans - New York - Ponta Delgada
61./62. March 24 - August 14, 1986 25,222 Las Palmas – Conakry – Abidjan – Montevideo – Buenos Aires – Rio de Janeiro – Belém – San Juan – Hamilton – New York – Funchal – London
63./64. April 9 - September 18, 1987 31,395 Palermo – Suez Canal with Port Said– Port Sudan - Madras –Singapore – Manila– Subic Bay - Incheon –Tokyo – Shanghai –Jakarta– Port Victoria –Mombasa – Suez Canal with Port Said – Lisbon
65. March 22 - June 3, 1988 13,373 Santa Cruz de Tenerife – Norfolk – Santo Domingo – Bridgetown – Ponta Delgada
66. July 14th - September 25th, 1988 10,268 Ponta Delgada – Montreal - Saint Lawrence River - Toronto - Detroit - Chicago
67. March 7 - May 26, 1989 8,700 Alexandria – Istanbul – Piraeus – Naples – Vigo
68. July 4th - September 12th 1989 6,200 Funchal– Edinburgh –Tromsø– Copenhagen - Kristiansand

Highlights

year event AAR
1966 Only circumnavigation of Cape Horn . 032.
1969 Participation in the 16th Steuben Parade in New York. 038.
1974 Only circumnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope ,
visits to ports on all five continents. 		044.
1978 Federal President Walter Scheel , accompanied by Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher , gives a reception on board in Tokyo, visiting the board choir with Emperor Hirohito , King Taufaʻahau Tupou IV. Invites 100 crew members to a Tongan Feast and is a guest on board the next day. 049.
1979 Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in Santo Domingo for a state reception on board. 051.
1982 Federal President Karl Carstens in Kingston for a state reception on board, President of Peru as a guest on board. 055.
1984 Guest at the World's Fair in New Orleans. 060.
1986 Participation in the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty . 062.
1987 Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl on board in Shanghai, 1st visit by the German Navy to China, assistance at sea for MS Mimi K ; Sinking of the Mimi K April 17, 1987, 10:24 a.m. 064.

Other trips

Training ship Germany at the Tirpitzmole in Kiel
occasion Period Nautical miles Ports
School trip MOS November 8 - November 19, 1971 2,332 Cherbourg
School trip MOS November 27 - December 7, 1972 1,621 Oslo
Deep water mile November 28 - December 9, 1981 1,489 Mountains
Shooting training October 25 - October 29, 1983 0588 Flensburg
SEF 841 February 6 - February 17, 1984 2,328 Newcastle upon Tyne
AAG 713/84 October 15 - October 29, 1984 1,776 Wilhelmshaven - Den Helder - Rendsburg
AAG 128/84 November 26 - November 30, 1984 0849 Copenhagen
DESEX 1/86 January 31 - March 2, 1986 5,306 El Ferrol
AAG 707/86 October 20 - November 2, 1986 1.965 Copenhagen

Whereabouts

Anchor of Germany on the village square in Sengwarden

Earlier than expected, it was decided in 1989 to decommission the Deutschland in the following year. The ship, which was equipped with all essential systems, weapons and devices of the floating navy when it was built, no longer met the requirements of the "mirror image of the fleet" after 27 years of service due to the development in the navy boats and ships. Even with a high financial outlay, the ship could no longer have been modernized in such a way that it could guarantee a level of fleet-related training corresponding to the technology. High annual operating costs and the necessary extensive basic repairs in the amount of 40 million DM (approx. 20.4 million euros) were the decisive factors for the decision.

The training previously carried out on the training ship was then taken over by units of the destroyer flotilla . The name Germany was originally to be continued from the first frigate of the F123 class in the German Navy; but this was not realized.

At the beginning of October 1989, the ship went out of service and about 50 crew members prepared for decommissioning.

Laid up in Arsenalhafen, the Deutschland caught the eye in particular. All considerations of keeping the ship in Wilhelmshaven - as a location for the naval museum planned at the time or as a hotel - could not be realized. If it had been used appropriately, the federal government would have been willing to leave the ship free of charge, but no one was found who could have paid the conversion and usage costs. The demilitarized ship, on the hook of the Russian deep- sea tug Svetlomor 3, began its last voyage to the scrapping beach at Alang on December 27, 1993 , where Germany arrived 80 days later. Only one anchor remained and is now in the village square of Sengwarden .

literature

  • Training ship “Deutschland” in 1968. Its path - recorded from the diaries of the former commandant Karl H. Peter . Druckhaus Möller, Rendsburg.
  • Jürgen Rhades: Training ship DEUTSCHLAND . Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1987, ISBN 3-7637-5221-8 .
  • Gerhard Koop, Siegfried Breyer: The ships, vehicles and planes of the German Navy from 1956 until today . Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-7637-5950-6 .
  • Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 1-10 . Mundus, Ratingen 1979, ISBN 3-88385-028-4 .

Web links

Commons : Germany (A59)  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marineforum Issue 11/1989, p. 422.
  2. ↑ Marine-Rundschau issue 5/1989, pp. 307–308.
  3. ↑ Marineforum issue 5/1994, p. 166.
  4. ↑ Marineforum issue 4/1995, p. 25.
  5. ↑ Koop / Mulitze: The Navy in Wilhelmshaven. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1997, p. 219.