Schulschiff Deutschland

History
Germany
Name:	Schulschiff Deutschland
Namesake:	Country of Germany
Builder:	Joh. C. Tecklenborg, Geestemünde
Launched:	14 June 1927
Commissioned:	Delivered: late 1927
Fate:	Moored in Vegesack, as a museum ship
Status:	Museum Ship in Vegesack, Bremen, Germany
General characteristics
Class & type:	Sail training ship
Length:	86m/282ft
Beam:	12m/39ft
Draft:	5.18m/17ft
Propulsion:	Steam, propeller, ship's sailing rig
Complement:	158: 8 officers, 110 petty officers, 140 enlisted and merchant marine cadets

The Schulschiff Deutschland ("School Ship Germany") was employed as a school ship ship for the merchant marine beginning in 1927. This last German full-rigged ship is maintained as a historical monument and museum ship, located at Vegesack, in the Federal State of Bremen, Germany. Since the name Deutschland was at the time of its construction already assigned to an unbuilt naval warship (a pocket battleship, later renamed the Lützow), its official name is Schulschiff Deutschland.

The ship carries 25 sails with a total sail area of 1950 square meters.

The top speed on engine is 12 knots, and on sail 18.2 knots.

History

The Schulschiff Deutschland was launched on 14 June 1927 at the Joh. C. Tecklenborg shipyard in Geestemünde (today Bremerhaven) for the Deutscher Schulschiff-Verein (German Training Ship Association) as its fourth merchant marine training ship.

From 1927 to 1939 she undertook training trips overseas and in the North and Baltic Seas.

During World War II cruises were limited and these trips were only held in the Baltic Sea. Her brief brief stint as a hospital ship in the final months of World War II saved her from having to be delivered to the Allies as war reparation.

Between 1949 and 1952, she served three years as a hostel before she was subsequently used in Bremen as a stationary training ship for seamen students.

In 1994 she was protected by law as a floating monument and renovated in 1995/1996 in Bremen-Vegesack.

Until July 2001 ship mechanic students lived on board, taking their classroom training in a school center in Bremen. With the cessation of such training in Bremen, this aspect of the ships's Nautical School was closed.

Today, the Schulschiff Deutschland is located in Bremen-Vegesack where it can be viewed as a maritime memorial or used as overnight accommodation. It can also be booked for celebrations, seminars and exhibitions for events. Once a month (all year), civil weddings are performed and participants can stay overnight in 30 double cabins and in the master's suite.

Voyages

For training in maritime practice up until the Second World War the ship made regular ocean voyages. In the winter destinations would have been overseas (mostly in German colonial Africa and in South America), while in the summer ports in the North and Baltic Sea would be destinations. From 1927 to 1939, twelve overseas trips were made. From 1928 to 1944 seventeen North Sea and Baltic Seas tours were made.

Between trips Elsfleth was the ship's base as owing to the draft of the ship its registered home port of Oldenburg could not be used.

For Sail Bremerhaven 2005, the Schulschiff Deutschland was re-entered on the ship list.

Captains

• Reinhold Walker (1927–1933)
• Walter von Zatorski (1933–1936)
• Ernst Sieck (1936–1938)
• Otto Bauer (1938–1945)
• O. Hattendorf (1945–1953)
• K. Köppl (1953–1961)
• O. Hattendorf (1961)

Sister ships

The three sister ships of Schulschiff Deutschland also survive:

• Dar Pomorza (originally Prinzess Eitel Friedrich)
• Duchesse Anne (originally Großherzogin Elisabeth)
• Statsraad Lehmkuhl (originally Großherzog Friedrich August)

Further reading

• Hans-Georg Prager: Schulschiff Deutschland - Weißer Schwan der Unterweser. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft: Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-7822-0706-8
• Gerhard Eckardt: Vollschiff Schulschiff Deutschland. Hauschild Verlag: Bremen 1969, ASIN B0000BQS96

External links

• http://www.schulschiff-deutschland.de/