Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg

Blinde Menschen bei einer Führung durch das Internationale Maritime Museum Hamburg.

Blinde Menschen bei einer Führung durch das Internationale Maritime Museum Hamburg.

Blinde Menschen bei einer Führung durch das Internationale Maritime Museum Hamburg.

Am 09.02. bieten wir von 11 – 12:30 Uhr das „ #Museum zum Anfassen“ an. Mit akustischen, taktilen und riechbaren Elementen können die Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer die Welt der #Seefahrt erleben.
Der Museumseintritt und Führung sind kostenlos. Anmeldung unter bildungundvermittlung@imm-hamburg.de

her 1:100 scale model, used for special effects in the German ZDF TV-Production "Die Gustloff" (2008), stands on deck 4 of the museum.

Sailing in deep waters with the torpedo boat Löwe as her single escort, a non-operational main radio system and by temperatures of -20°C that had frozen the mechanisms to lower the lifeboats. The exact number of persons who died most certainly exceeds 9.000.

On January the 30th 1945 the ship left her port as part of the last-minute evacuation of the area. In the chaos of the situation the ship, that was recognizable as a military vessel, took thousands of civilian refuge seekers aboard.

After Germany started World War II, the Gustloff served as a hospital ship until November 1940. She was then painted in naval grey and became floating barracks at the port of Gdyna, that had been renamed Gotenhafen by the German occupation.

As such, she was a propagandistic instrument for the dictatorship. She was a very interesting ship from a naval architecture perspective, as the solution met for her function made her structurally similar to modern cruise ships.

Built to be transformed into an hospital ship in wartime, she was originally a cruise ship owned by the German Labour Front (DAF), the organisation that had suppressed all trade unions in Nazi Germany. The ship made cruises for the Strength Through Joy (KdF), a sub-organisation of the DAF.

She was built between 1936 and 1937 at the Blohm+Voss B.V. & Co. KG shipyard in Hamburg. It was named after the founder of the Nazi Party branch in Switzerland, declared a martyr by the German propaganda after his murder in 1936.

This is by any means the largest loss of lives by the sinking of a single ship in history.

Beside military passengers, the ship was overcrowded with civilians seeking refuge from the advances of the Red Army. Only 1.239 passengers of an estimated number of over 10.000 survived the tragedy.

80 years ago to this day, on January the 30th 1945, the armed military transport of Nazi Germany Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13, 23 sea miles off the Harbour of Ustka in the Baltic Sea.

Scale model of a passenger ship painted as a warship.

Scale model of a passenger ship painted as a warship.

Old picture of a passenger ship.

Old picture of a passenger ship.

#todayinhistory , the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff.

#maritime #museum #hamburg

A thread:

When David Ben Gurion declared the independence of Israel on Mai 1948, most of the refugees form the “Exodus” had already made it to their destination.

This model of the exodus from our collection was built in a scale of 1:125 by Robert Mourat and is displayed on deck 6 of the museum.

But the international press had started reporting on the story and the drama turned into a media scandal. On October the 6th, the British authorities set the prisoners free.

The prisoners were then taken to the British Occupation Zone in Northern Germany. They arrived in September to Hamburg. There, the prisoners were taken out of the ships by force and interned in camps.

Upon arrival in Haifa, most of the migrants were moved to prison ships. Only pregnant women and the wounded were allowed to stay.

The prison ships were to take the migrants back to France but in Port-de-Bouc only a few accepted to leave the ships.

The Exodus sailed to Haifa then. But, during the next night, the British rammed and boarded the ship. The migrants posed a strong resistance. There were numerous wounded and five dead: four Jews and one British sailor.

On July the 11th 1947 the ship left the port of Sète in France. 4.515 Jewish DPs were on board, 650 of them were children. The Royal Navy followed them with HMS Ajax and five destroyers. On July the 17th, the ship was renamed “Exodus from Europe 1947” and a flag with the Star of David was risen.

For this reason, the Jewish underground organisation Haganah had been organising illegal migration to Palestine since the early 1930s.

The US-American steam ship President Warfield was purchased and modified for this purpose in 1946.

Palestine, under British control at the time, was one of the principal migration objectives for those DPs. But the UK had had a very restrictive immigration policy regarding Jews to Palestine for decades, and no intention to change it.

Many survivors became DPs (“Displaced Persons”) after the war. In Western Germany and other West European countries, this people were taken care of in “DP Camps”. In 1947 there were over 250.000 Jewish DPs in Germany and 40.000 in France.

For the survivors, the liberation of the camps meant an end to the systematic torture and mass murder, but not an end to suffering. Everything had been taken away from them. Only a few had a place they could return to and, even for those, the end of Nazism had not ended Antisemitism.

Scale model of a steam ship.

Today we commemorate the victims of the Holocaust on the 80th anniversary of the liberation concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. On the  #InternationalHolocaustRemembranceDay #weremember and state with determination  #NeverAgain .

A #rememberance #maritime #history thread:

Stats:

Length / width / draught: 29.90 m / 8.00 m / 1.6 m
Crew/ scientists: 2 (+1) / 12
Laboratory area/ working deck area: 47 m²/ 70 m²
Operating range: coastal cruising international 100 nautical miles
Speed: max. 12 knots
Engine power: 750 kW
Operating days/year: approx. 225

The model is now in our collection and will eventually become part of our oceanographic exhibition in deck 7.

One of these is a specially developed tank system in which hydrogen is stored in the form of metal hydrides. This makes it possible to test and establish hydrogen technologies for more environmentally friendly shipping. She can be used in rivers and the North and Baltic Seas.

All environmentally relevant research data collected during her journeys can be called up in real time or shared directly with other ships and shore stations.
Her propulsion system consists of electric traction motors that can access various power storage units.

She covers a unique interdisciplinary spectrum of coastal, materials, hydrogen and membrane research with a focus in digitalisation. The Coriolis analyses which nutrients and pollutants are transported from the rivers into the sea or how the expansion of offshore wind power affects the environment.

Scale model of a research ship.

Scale model of a research ship.

Scale model of a research ship.

Scale model of a research ship.

This week our director Peter Tamm got a visit from Marek and Kai Klimenko, the directors of the Hitzler Werft #shipyard, and they came bearing gifts! They donated the yard model go their brand new creation: the #research vessel Coriolis of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon.

#maritime #museum #hamburg

The history is the #submarine as a weapon for the #navy stretches over at least two centuries and a half.
#maritime #museum #maritimesmuseum #hamburg #navalhistory #scalemodel #militaryhistory