Sea Chamber of the GDR

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The Sea Chamber of the GDR, also known as the GDR Seafaring Office - internationally known as the Marine Court of the GDR - was a tribunal established by the Seafaring Office (SFA) founded in 1953 to investigate accidents in shipping. She attached particular importance to the fact that she was not bound by any instructions with regard to the investigations and decisions, but only by the applicable law of the GDR . The sea chamber consisted of a chairman and four assessors. The head of the Sea Chamber of the GDR could issue administrative penalties. One of the sanctions she issued after a sea chamber hearing was the withdrawal of a certificate of competency / proof of authorization issued by the Maritime Office , either temporarily or permanently. A complaint against this was admissible. The so-called Great Arbitration Chamber decided on such complaints under a chairman and six assessors, who were considered shipping experts. A maritime commissioner acted as the state commissioner to investigate marine casualties and in the negotiations before the maritime chamber and the large tribunal chamber, who held the title of average commissioner until 1981. The average commissioner, like the GDR maritime commissioner since 1981, was appointed by the Minister for National Defense .

Prominent cases of marine casualty investigations in the international area (selection)

The GDR Maritime Authority was responsible for investigating incidents in international waters or in national territorial waters if DSR ships were involved.

International marine casualties within and outside of national sovereignty

  • In 1976 the sinking of the GDR oil tanker Böhlen off the coast of Crozon made international headlines. This case was investigated by the Sea Chamber of the GDR and described by the then average commissioner Friedrich Elchlepp .

International marine accidents in the FRG

If a collision took place on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, the investigations were carried out there first. Not infrequently, the ruling of the maritime office in Hamburg resembled the ruling of the subsequent negotiation of the sea chamber in Rostock.

  • Case of the collision between the DRS refrigerated ship Heinrich Heine and the Indonesian semi-container ship Mataram near the Brunsbüttel lock on April 2, 1988.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In 1960 the "Ordinance on the GDR Seafaring Office" and the "Order on the Statute of the GDR Seafaring Office" were published in the GDR Law Gazette (No. 34 from 1960).
  2. ↑ Lexikon Seefahrt, 3rd edited and supplemented edition, transpress VEB Verlag für Verkehrwesen, Berlin 1981, keyword “Seekammer der DDR”, p. 485, column 1.
  3. ↑ Hartmut Zimmermann: GDR manual . Ed .: Federal Ministry for Internal German Relations. 3. Edition. tape 2 . Verlag für Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-8046-8642-7 , p. 1142 .
  4. ^ Encyclopedia Seefahrt, 3rd edited and supplemented edition, transpress VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin 1981, keyword “Seekommissar” p. 485, column 2.
  5. ↑ Dietrich Elchlepp: The sinking of the motor tanker "Böhlen". In: PANORAMA maritim 27, German Society for Shipping and Marine History e. V. Ship and Time. ( PDF file , 20.4 kB, accessed on September 22, 2014).
  6. ^ Average claim 1966, section result (page 10)
  7. ↑ Werner Molle: 60 Years of the DSR - Tasks of the Chief Inspector , 2012 p. 6 ( PDF file , 837 kB, accessed on September 22, 2014).

literature

  • Friedrich Elchlepp, Manfred Kretzschmar: On a collision course - The negotiations of the GDR Sea Chamber . ISBN 978-3-938686-25-6 .
  • German shipping companies Volume 23: VEB Deutsche Seereederei Rostock . Author collective Verlag Gert Uwe Detlefsen, ISBN 3-928473-81-6 , page 243.