Seaman's schools in Germany
The seaman's schools in Germany are vocational schools in which the training and further education of specialists for seafaring professions is carried out. In earlier years this was mainly the job of a sailor ; since the mid-1980s, young seafarers in Germany have been trained here as ship mechanics. Up until the 1950s / 1960s one also spoke of ship boys ' schools and colloquially they called seaman schools in Germany often "Moses factory" (ship boys have the nickname "Moses" on board).
Hamburg seaman schools
history
The first Hamburg seaman's school was opened on Steinwerder in December 1862 . This happened on the initiative of a number of well-known Hamburg merchants and shipowners, including personalities such as Adolph Godeffroy , F. Laeisz and Robert M. Sloman .
One of the reasons for setting up such a teaching and training institute was the numerous accidents that occurred on German merchant ships - at that time mainly sailing ships - and which mostly affected the young, inexperienced young professionals d. H. in this case the cabin boys . The aim was to prepare the boys for their future careers through appropriate training. The training lasted two years and should include a. through physical exercise such as rowing, climbing and swimming, but also through education in order, cleanliness, punctuality, etc. In addition, the boys should be familiarized with deck work such as knots , splicing , sewing sails, etc. and get used to working in a community. The training period was later reduced to six months. In 1887 the school, which had been operated as a public limited company , was converted into a foundation.
In 1889 the school moved to Waltershof and in 1913 to Finkenwerder , where in 1923 one of the later most famous students, the boat commander of U 47 KKpt. Günther Prien , received his first nautical training. In 1944, teaching was relocated to the training ship Grand Duchess Elisabeth , which was made available and which was heavily damaged by the war in 1945.
Training institutions
From 1952 it became a legal requirement in West German merchant shipping; see fourth ordinance amending the manning order of March 24, 1952 (Federal Law Gazette II p. 514), Article 1. No. 4 letter e. that every budding navigator had to complete a two-month, from 1956 three-month training course at a state-recognized seaman's school or ship's boys' school. In addition, the profession of sailor became a teaching profession in 1956, the schooling of which was carried out in the seaman's schools.
After the Second World War , the Hamburg seaman's school resumed operations in 1953 in Hamburg-Blankenese on the Falkenstein . Its first leader was Captain Ernst Wagner, the author of the deck work manual . At the time, this was the authoritative reference work - the "Bible" - for aspiring seafarers. In September 1957, two more training centers were opened, starting from Hamburg, namely those in Finkenwerder at Finksweg 75 (first manager of Captain Mundt) and in Bremervörde at Brackmannstrasse 8 (first manager of Captain Neugebauer). There was also talk of the Hamburg seaman's schools . The official address was Seemannsschule Hamburg, branch Finkenwerder or Bremervörde. The head office was in the Falkensteiner School and the prospective cabin boy had to apply there. The influence on which of the three schools he was later allowed to complete his training course at was minor.
The first Hamburg school was the former Villa Grüneck , a building with a view of the Elbe by the two Hamburg architects Hans and Oskar Gerson , which was built in 1912 on behalf of the Hamburg merchant Richard Schulz. Later the sanatorium on the Falkenstein was housed in the house. The Association of German Shipowners then acquired the villa and made it available for training the next generation in German shipping. On the Elbe beach below the villa on Falkensteiner Ufer there was a jetty for three cutters for pulling and small boats for sculling . The davit with the boats from the Hamburg-Finkenwerder seaman's school was at Köhlfleet. The training mast was also located here and there was a hatch for fire exercises under breathing apparatus.
The nautical lessons took place at the seaman's schools, the general education was initially held by teachers from the trade school for shipyards and ports (vocational school) in the seaman's schools, later the trainees had to go to the trade school for lessons.
Structure of the seaman's school
The staff of the seaman's school consisted of a director, the seaman's school captain and several officers (instructors), a boatman and kitchen staff.
education
Training schedule
As a rule, the trainee attended the seaman's school for three months.
At the end of the course he was given a diploma and he was given his first nautical book with a note of participation while still at school . Then he was able to sign on as a deck boy on board a ship. On board he spent about six months as a deck boy, six to eight months as a junior and about a year as an ordinary seaman, before he was able to take the seaman's examination at a seaman's school after about three years of sailing. The sailor 's letter was then issued by the seaman's office.
Practical training
The future seaman was supposed to get used to life on board at the seaman's school, which is why there was no so-called shore leave at all at first and only to a limited extent at the weekend. Galley service , laundry and meticulous cleaning of the accommodations and the outdoor facilities were compulsory. The above-mentioned physical exercises were on the program; at that time under the term physical exercises (sport), as well as deck work and boat service.
Theoretical training
The curriculum included seamanship , bridge guard duty , fire protection and lifeboat service , knowledge of accident prevention regulations . The seaman's school service was strictly regulated. There was a uniform for the young men that consisted of dungarees, a khaki shirt and a bobble hat. We woke up at six in the morning, breakfast at seven, and lessons from eight.
In 1971, block teaching was introduced. From this time onwards the profession became a real apprenticeship for the training of sailors in German shipping. In West Germany, the training to become a sailor was discontinued in 1983, in the territory of the GDR with the reunification. Instead, ship mechanics are trained.
There were three blocks of lessons, each lasting two months, at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the training, which were also carried out at the State Trade School for Shipyard and Harbor in Hamburg. Work was also carried out here on diesel engines and in wood and metalworking, as well as on ropes and wire.
final exam
The training ended with a comprehensive two-day examination and the issuing of the sailor's certificate which corresponded to the journeyman's certificate. A special feature was the subsidized swimming training by the See-BG , so that the seaman could swim well.
Cessation of school operations
Around the mid-1960s , the first containers were loaded in the express freight service in the North America East Coast route at the two German liner shipping companies HAPAG and NDL , which regularly served this route . The transport of a wide variety of general cargo in containers was to lead to a global change in the entire maritime transport system just a few years later. This not only, but primarily, had serious effects on almost all areas of maritime shipping, such as shipbuilding , ports including all container transport , forwarding agents, etc. From around the early 1970s, the development was accelerated by the use of electronic data processing systems . Computer systems were used for logistical tasks in the ports and increasingly took on a wide variety of tasks on board. The shipping companies and, last but not least, the staff who had to do their work on the new ships and in the ports were affected by this change . Individual shipping companies began at this time, instead of trained specialists (boatswain, carpenter, sailor) z. T. employ unskilled personnel in deck service. A change in the manning regulations and flagging of seagoing vessels resulted as a result. The maritime training, as it has so far been given with great success at the seaman's schools, was no longer required. As a result of this development, all three Hamburg schools had to close; d. H. the own teaching of the seaman's schools in Hamburg was finally stopped at the end of 1984. The same happened several years later, in the spring of 2002, with the former seafaring school in Bremen, which also operated the training ship Germany .
Training today
In the Federal Republic of Germany there are currently three seaman's schools in which prospective seafarers are trained according to today's requirements. These are the teaching and training center in Elsfleth, the one in Travemünde on the Priwall, the longest-serving school after 1945, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2012, and the seaman's school in Rostock. The schools are equipped with modern maritime technology and facilities, and attendance is prescribed and regulated by law.
Schleswig-Holstein seaman's school
history
The full name of the school, located in Travemünde-Priwall in Holstein , was "Schleswig-Holstein Youth Development Work, Land Training Center for Young Seamen Priwall ". The school started operations on May 5, 1952, making it the first of its kind in the Federal Republic of Germany after 1945; its first leader was Captain Herrmann Heuer. On February 12, 1952, he had commanded the Passat - as a cargo-carrying sailing training ship and again under the German flag for the first time. In addition to the regular crew, there were 54 cadets on board, the journey led from Brake to South America. Originally, the Lübeck-Travemünde aircraft yard was located on the school grounds at Pötenitzer Wiek. During the time of the “ Third Reich ” under the leadership of the Reich Air Force, it had set up a testing facility for the aviation industry where all newly developed land and sea aircraft were tested. Details on this can be found under the See test site . The shape of the former airport tower on the main building of the school can still be clearly seen today .
As far as the number of trainees and the working hours were concerned, these were similar to those of the Hamburg schools. Usually there were three guards, each 25 to 30 men (in exceptional cases a fourth guard); at 6:00 a.m. the ship was awakened and at 10:00 p.m. it was quiet. Each month, after three months of training, the senior guard was dismissed from the profession and thirty new people were hired.
As in Hamburg, the training consisted of a theoretical and a practical part, with nothing more to be said about the latter because it almost corresponded to that of the three Hamburg seamans' schools. As far as theoretical lessons were concerned, however, a few subjects have to be added here that were only available in a similar form at the Hamburg schools. For example, basic knowledge of ship, compass and meteorology, as well as navigation, was imparted on the Priwall; there was the subject of commercial geography and signaling , which included light and radio morse code . The subjects German, English and arithmetic supplemented by civics and health care were also on the curriculum; these lessons were partly held by specialist teachers from the Lübeck trade school. In addition, cook boys (cook mates) were sometimes trained at the school. The history of the school also includes the sailing training ship Passat on which - if not in motion - the ship's boys had to do part of their service; this service was discontinued before 1966.
In the early years of its existence, the students wore modeled after the former Navy output uniform (Colani uniform) with light blue Priwall Ärmelband and boat with Priwall crest on their heads. The uniform work clothes consisted of a dark blue work suit (navy shirt), a troyer and a bobble hat . The uniform was abolished around the early 1970s. Some of the instructors were former members of the Navy, so the school service was held correspondingly tightly at the time. From the mid-1950s onwards, school graduates regularly reported to take up service with the newly established German Navy. A special feature of the ship boys' school was the coveted Priwall performance needle. This rare award was given at the end of the course to students with an exceptionally high average grade and very good leadership and demeanor.
Follow-up development
The upheaval in sea transport described under the end of the school operation also had a significant influence on the further development of the seaman's school on the Priwall. In contrast to the three Hamburg schools, which were closed in the early 1970s, Schleswig-Holstein managed to adapt to the new circumstances. The school's range of courses began to be expanded as early as the late 1960s. A boatman training course was introduced; Later another training course to become a deck mechanic started. The latter because it had been shown that in addition to nautical skills, more and more technical knowledge was required in modern ship operations. Specifically, this meant that the on-board personnel had to be able to perform qualified work both in deck and in engine operation. The apprenticeship was the forerunner of the three-year ship mechanic apprenticeship that was introduced years later and is now carried out by the school.
All these actions required high financial investments, which could be made because the state of Schleswig-Holstein took over the sole sponsorship of the school from 1972 and the responsibility and technical supervision from this point on lay with the Ministry of Economics and Transport. Great efforts were required of the faculty; H. the trainers themselves had to be brought up to the required state of the art through multiple training measures. In addition, not only nautical and technical expertise was required, but also educational knowledge, e.g. T. had to be acquired first. As a result of the changed situation, the three-month training courses for ship boys were discontinued in 1972 and so-called block time instruction was introduced. At the same time, the training was extended to 10 weeks per year and thus adapted to the increased requirements. Specifically, this meant that at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of a three-year training period, ten-week lessons were now taking place at the seaman's school. At the end of the last school block, the sailor examination was taken.
In the first years of its existence, the school management always tried to establish good connections to shipping companies, shipyards, maritime authorities and associations. There were also excellent neighborly contacts with the Travemünde population. This means that the seaman's school already had a good reputation in its early years and it was the special concern of the subsequent headmasters to maintain it. In this way, large purchases could later be made, extensive construction work carried out and facilities modernized, with some of the funds not coming from the public sector. These measures, which will be named in detail, were not only urgently required but, as has been shown, indispensable for the continued existence of the seaman's school.
From 1975 legal requirements were created in the Federal Republic of Germany that regulated generally applicable professional training in seafaring. This regulation was u. a. documented in a sailor training regulation. Furthermore, in 1978 the ship operator's regulation came into force, which should enable the course participants later in the on-board service to hold qualified instruction on board themselves. As described above, this expansion of teaching continued to require a high degree of commitment and commitment on the part of the school management and teachers, and last but not least, new and sometimes higher demands were placed on the trainee seaman students. At the same time, the expansion of the technical and nautical inventory had to continue.
From 1982 on, ship operations master courses were held at the school for the first time and supplementary courses were offered for sailors on the other; After successfully completing the course, the graduate received the ship mechanic certificate. In 1983, ship mechanic became a recognized training occupation, which in turn later served as the basis for training as a navigator and captain and as a nautical and technical ship officer; see below literature on vocational training , Hans Wilhelm Hoffmann. Construction work to expand the school had already started in 1978. This expansion and renewal of the old inventory was necessary on the one hand because of the increasing number of trainees and on the other hand because new technologies were required. The work was carried out in various construction phases and was completed in 1985.
- Seaman's School Travemünde-Priwall - 2008
Loading gear with MacGregor hatch cover system
Lifeboat with gravity davit
Modern system for launching free fall lifeboats
literature
Hamburg
- Wolfram Klövekorn: Who never ate his bread as Moses - from the Moses factory at sea . Books on Demand , Norderstedt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8370-2344-2 .
- Maria Möring: The history of the German seaman's school Hamburg . Ernst Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1992, ISBN 3-8225-0213-8 .
- Volker Plagemann (Ed.): Übersee - Seafaring and Maritime Power in the German Empire - Sailor Training. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-406-33305-2 .
- Jürgen Dobert: The seaman's school on the Elbe slope has to close . In: Hamburger Abendblatt , April 30, 1974.
- Hamburger Abendblatt. from 1./2. December 1962.
- Hamburger Morgenpost. dated November 30, 1962.
- North German news. dated November 30, 1962.
- Seemannsschule Hamburg-Blankenese, Falkensteiner Ufer, information sheet Rot.Ie/49 from 11.54 / 1000; Subject: Conditions of the seaman's school Hbg.-Blankenese. and leaflet about a career in German merchant shipping. from 1954.
- Subject: Young professionals for German merchant shipping . Hamburg employment office, advice center for shipping professions, leaflet -10-6419 from 1954
- All over the Blankenese health resort again. In: North German News. No .: 64, p. 3 of March 16, 1939.
- Cheap powers . In: Der Spiegel . No. 35 , 1958 ( online ).
Schleswig-Holstein
- Uwe Bremse, Horst Fuchs: Travemünde, Lübeck's modern seaside resort with tradition. Around the Priwall. Verlag Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck and others 1993, ISBN 3-7950-3207-5 .
Vocational training literature
- Ernst Wagner: Deck work. A manual for seafarers . 6th edition. Hammerich & Lesser Publishing House, Hamburg 1959, DNB 455339031 .
- Heinrich Schopper: Teaching and learning on deck - for apprenticeships and young grades to prepare for the sailor examination . 3. Edition. Seefahrt-Verlag, Hamburg 1964, OCLC 834422637 .
- Hans Pieper, Günther Rathenow: The sailor abc - A textbook for ship boy students at seaman schools . 4th edition. Courier publishing house, Stuttgart 1969, DNB 457810998 .
- Hans Wilhelm Hoffmann: sailors - ship mechanics - ship officers. Vocational training for seafarers in the 20th century . 1st edition. Publishing house Dr. Köster, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89574-587-1 .
Web links
Hamburg
Schleswig-Holstein
- SHS Travemünde portal
- Sail training ship Viermastbark Passat - maritime monument in Lübeck-Travemünde
- Monument test site on the Priwall
- 60 years sailor "made in Travemünde"
- THB daily port report 60 years of seaman's school, anniversary in Travemünde
- Official Journal No .: 5232 1952/55 Nautical ship officer career - see there under ship boy
- Labor Office Lübeck, GZ. Idl 1952/55 Equipment list for ship boys of the seaman's school Travemünde-Priwall
Individual evidence
- ^ Franklin Kopitzsch , Daniel Tilgner (ed.): Hamburg Lexikon. 4th, updated and expanded special edition. Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8319-0373-3 , p. 620.