The overhaul of the "Gorch Fock" was originally scheduled to take four months, but ended up taking five years. 9.6 million euros became 135 million. In 2019, Elsflether Werft AG, which had been commissioned to restore the "Gorch Fock", went bankrupt. It was then bought by the Bremen-based Lürssen shipyard, which completed the general overhaul of the almost 90-metre-long naval training ship in 2021. The reasons for the cost explosion included fraud and corruption.
The "Gorch Fock" repair process
The trial against six of the defendants in the "Gorch Fock" scandal began today, Tuesday. The defendants are two former board members of Elsflether Werft AG, a former assistant to the board, a cost auditor of the navy, the former head of a subcontractor and a former employee of the subcontractor. The proceedings against another defendant, a 35-year-old man, were severed by the court because he was ill, said a spokeswoman for the Oldenburg regional court.
The two former board members and the two employees of the subcontractor are accused of joint fraud in a particularly serious case. They are alleged to have been responsible for false invoices, according to the investigators in an earlier report. This is why the costs for the repair of the "Gorch Fock" are said to have risen so exorbitantly. The four are also alleged to have been guilty of granting benefits. The former assistant to the board of directors is also suspected of embezzlement.
The Navy's cost auditor is also involved
The 67-year-old cost auditor of the navy is accused of taking advantage. The cost controller, who was supposed to oversee the repairs, is said to have received loans totalling 800,000 euros for a property purchase from the shipyard management, reported NDR.
The investigations do not only concern the project to refurbish the "Gorch Fock". According to a spokeswoman for the Oldenburg district court, the investigators are particularly concerned with contracts awarded by the Elsflether Werft AG shipyard to the navy.
General information about the navy's sail training ship
The "Gorch Fock" was built in 1958 at the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg and replaced the previously used sailing training ship "Pamir". She is the second ship to bear this name after the original "Gorch Fock" was lost in the Second World War. It has a length of 89.32 metres, a width of 12 metres and a draught of 5.50 metres and has a total of 23 sails with a sail area of 2,037 square metres. There is room on board for a maximum crew of 218 people. Over the years, the "Gorch Fock" has undergone numerous shipyard visits in order to adapt and modernise it to the current state of the art.
