Naval station of the Baltic Sea

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The station command in Kiel, today as state House seat of the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament

The naval station of the Baltic Sea was an agency of the Prussian Navy , the Navy of the North German Confederation , the Imperial Navy , the Reichsmarine and the Kriegsmarine . In addition to the naval station in the North Sea, it was one of two permanent naval stations . In addition, there were temporarily several foreign stations in the period before the First World War . The naval station of the Baltic Sea was set up on May 1, 1854 in Danzig . In March 1865 it was relocated to Kiel and on February 1, 1943 it was converted into the Naval High Command in the Baltic Sea , which was dissolved at the end of the Second World War .

organization

Prussian Navy, Navy of the North German Confederation and Imperial Navy

Official seal of the Baltic Sea Naval Station

In the course of building up the Prussian Navy, the Danzig station command was set up in 1854 . After Schleswig-Holstein was placed under Austro-Prussian administration as a result of the German-Danish War , these two states agreed in the Gastein Convention in 1865 that Prussia could use Kiel as a naval port. The station command was then transferred there that same year.

The task of the naval stations was to manage the fortresses and training facilities in the command area. In addition, they initially led all naval forces in their area of ​​responsibility until a separate command for commanding the fleet was created in 1891.

In 1914, the Baltic Sea station command:

  • Ships lying in the home port that were not assigned to an active squadron .
  • a number of vehicles at overseas stations
  • Friedrichsort headquarters
  • Port captain Kiel
  • Settlement office in the Baltic Sea
  • I. Marine inspection
  • Inspection of the torpedo system (Kiel)
    • Torpedo Attempt Command (Kiel)
    • Torpedo workshop Friedrichsort
    • Torpedo school ships and boats (including large cruisers , two small cruisers )
    • I.-VII. Torpedo boat flotilla (including I.-III. In the Baltic Sea area)
    • I. Torpedo division (training) with reserve and school boats
  • Inspection of ship artillery ( Sonderburg )
    • Artillery test squad
    • Ship artillery school
    • School ships (including a ship of the line , two large cruisers, three small cruisers)
    • I. Sailor artillery department
  • Inspection of the marine infantry in Kiel
  • Submarine inspection (Kiel)
    • 2 underground flotillas
    • two small cruisers, a special ship

The station chief was also governor of Kiel. The inspections corresponded to the brigade level of the army and were led by a rear admiral . Your technical responsibility was not limited to the regional area of ​​the naval station.

Imperial Navy

After the end of the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles , Germany had to significantly reduce its navy. The following forces and facilities were subordinate to the still existing command of the Baltic Sea Naval Station (as of 1930/31):

Navy

After the start of German armament in preparation for the Second World War , the naval station of the Baltic Sea grew up in the 1930s and in June 1939 was structured as follows:

Commanding admiral of the Baltic Sea Naval Station

In the course of the war, the command area of ​​the Baltic Sea station expanded to include the occupied coastal areas. A number of additional command posts were created for this, some of which only existed for a short time:

  • Naval Commander Denmark , later Admiral Denmark, Admiral Skagerrak
  • Admiral Ostland
  • Renaming of the Coast Commanders to Admirals Western and Eastern Baltic Sea, resolution of the Coast Commander in Pomerania

In addition, a number of units were subordinate to the naval station:

Station bosses

The military leaders of the naval station of the Baltic Sea carried the designation chief of the naval station of the Baltic Sea, from 1935 commanding admiral of the naval station of the Baltic Sea and from 1943 naval command of the Baltic Sea.

Individual evidence

  1. a b Walter Lohmann , Hans H. Hildebrand: The German Navy 1939-1945. Collected work in three volumes, OO 1956, Volume I, Chapter 81, p. 1 f.
  2. Article 2 of the Gastein Convention in: Ernst Rudolf Huber : Documents on German constitutional history . Verlag Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1961, p. 182.
  3. Wilhelmshavener Heimatlexikon. Volume 2, p. 231, Wilhelmshaven 1987.
  4. a b c Konrad Ehrensberger; 100 years of organization of the German Navy 1890 - 1990 ; Bonn 1993; ISBN 3-7637-5913-1
  5. Sønderborg Barracks was built there as early as the Imperial Era, and was to serve as the Imperial Ship Artillery School and Rifle Barracks.
  6. Marine station of the North Sea at deutsche-schutzgebiete.de , accessed on February 17, 2019
  7. ^ Wilhelm Köhler, collaboration with Max Plüddemann. Illustrated German fleet calendar for 1932 (Koehler's fleet calendar), 30th year, Minden
  8. Walter Lohmann, Hans H. Hildebrand: The German Navy 1939-1945. Collected work in three volumes, OO 1956, Volume I, Chapter 3, p. 13 f.