Maritime journey through time: What you can experience at the German Maritime Museum
Ursula Meer
· 27.01.2024
What resisted the dredging shovels during harbour work in Bremen in 1962 turned out to be a sensational find that is still unique today: an oak cog that sank around 1380 and was almost completely preserved in the silt of the Weser.
The recovery of what is still considered to be the best-preserved ship of the European Middle Ages caused some difficulties and headaches, and more than once it was on the brink of collapse. Unprecedented until then, divers had to salvage the boat in pieces in a three-year operation and scientists had to find a way to save the old wood from decay.
It was to take a full 38 years, 18 of which were spent floating in artificial wax for conservation, before the 45-tonne cog, assembled from 2,000 individual parts, was presented to the public at the German Maritime Museum (DSM) in Bremerhaven in 2000.
High and dry, in her present form, which is nevertheless impressive despite its incompleteness: The starboard hull is almost completely planked between the imposing stern, which extends over a good two storeys of the hall, and an unexpectedly sleek stern with superstructure, while missing planks on the port side open up the view into the voluminous hull.
Labour in the Middle Ages
Visitors can see for themselves just how hard cog building must have been in the Middle Ages. Films and specially made parts show the path from rough wood to finely planed planks bent with steam, from the carvelled planks on the flat floor to the clinkered planks on the hull held in place by hand-forged nails, here and there caulked - touching is encouraged. With the lemon-yellow wall of a sea container hung with colourful workers' helmets right next to the dark oak planks, modernity literally collides visually with old Hanseatic tradition.
Behind it, an interactive shipyard in the "Steel and Bytes" section of the exhibition provides an insight into shipbuilding today. Old shipbuilding tools and display boards provide information about professions in the maritime industry.
"Last summer, we organised a so-called trainee regatta with companies from the maritime industry for the first time: Apprentices explained their jobs to schoolchildren and solved small tasks together - a kind of speed dating for young people who are also interested in maritime professions," says Thomas Joppig, Head of Communications at the museum. One of the activities that are part of the museum's identity. It doesn't just want to exhibit, but also fulfil social and scientific tasks and shed new light on old traditions.
The "visual artefacts" area right next door is dedicated to the inner workings of centuries-old exhibits such as a pocket sextant, medicine bottles or a delicate Chinese feng shui compass. What holds an old navigation device together inside becomes visible as floating 3D holograms on a screen and in a dark glass box with the help of X-ray technology.
Such technical refinements could probably have facilitated the salvage and reconstruction of the Bremen cog. Instead, as a large exhibition area shows, clumsy helmets were used to dive in the murky waters, sediment samples and wreckage were brought to the surface and chain calls were made and scientific points of view discussed with Bakelite telephones at every new impending crisis.
These efforts were later applied to the salvage and preservation of equally sensational ship finds such as the "Vasa" in Stockholm, of which people here are justifiably a little proud.
History you can touch at the German Maritime Museum
There is a reading corner where you can linger and browse through maritime books or Jutta Schümann's letters in bottles, which are stuck in a wooden box in the sand. She went to sea with her husband Hans for many years and regularly delivered glass-wrapped letters to the sea. They were found in Ireland, France, Alaska and the Caribbean. For Jutta Schümann, this resulted in worldwide pen friendships, and for science, insights into ocean currents.
On the upper floors, everything revolves around seafaring in the Middle Ages and early modern times in general and the cog in particular: Models used to research the flow and sailing characteristics of these medieval cargo ships are juxtaposed with detailed models of later galleons and frigates.
The seals of the Hanseatic cities, jewellery and Meissen porcelain, beer mugs and marzipan boxes in display cases all have one thing in common: they are all adorned with a Hanseatic cog. Today also the trademark of football clubs and breweries, images of merchant ships used to symbolise power and prosperity.
However, this was probably at the expense of her crew. Despite a speed of up to six knots on a space sheet course, the voyages were tough, especially on the rough North Sea: the sailors were housed in the damp hold, which was constantly bobbing with the barge, between 80 tonnes of cargo, consisting of barrels of beer from Bremen or red wine from France, ceramics from the Rhineland or wool from England, and were sparsely fed.
Visitors can try out for themselves what great skill it must have taken to load a ship without capsizing on a wobbly model with loose barrels in the exhibition hall and realise the dangers that slipping cargo in rough seas entailed. Nevertheless, seafarers sailed these heavy vessels all the way to Shetland, the Orkneys or the Faroe Islands, as the section of the exhibition entitled "Onwards and upwards" shows with regard to Hanseatic trade in the early modern period.
The higher nobility - merchants, craftsmen or pilgrims - stayed aft in cabins and had a toilet that was not a matter of course even on land at the time: the on-board toilet. Installed in the aft cabin as an outhouse open at the bottom, the world's oldest preserved example of its kind is now housed in the DSM.
Ships are exhibited at the start of the season in the Old Harbour and on land
Just in time for the start of the season, the museum's outdoor area opens in mid-March with impressive ships in the Old Harbour and on land. Sailors heading for Bremerhaven's Lloyd Marina in the New Harbour or Geestemünde can climb onto the harbour tugboat "Stier" after a 15-minute walk, which sits jacked up between the Weser dyke and the Old Harbour and allows a wide view over the dyke from the cockpit.
Young skippers can sail from aboard the whaler "Rau IX" in the harbour basin with model boats to a miniature version of the "Red Sand" lighthouse, while older skippers can trace the history of the ship, which still has a martial harpoon cannon on its bow. While the "Rau IX" was once considered an ambassador for whaling, today it serves more as a memorial against the exploitation of the seas.
The proudest ship in the external fleet is the "Seefalke", which took up quarters in the Old Harbour even before the museum opened. "We once had a captain visit us here who was still travelling the world's oceans with the ocean-going salvage tug. He told us that salvaging was a very profitable business," says Thomas Joppig. Today, however, the museum is struggling to maintain the boats. The "Seefalke" has only just been refurbished. This was achieved in co-operation with an employment initiative for the long-term unemployed.
The "Seute Deern"
Not all ships could be given such extensive care; to this day, sea and seafaring enthusiasts sorely miss the "Seute Deern". Even before the Second World War, the Bremerhaven city fathers had endeavoured to acquire a ship that could represent the city's shipping and maritime history while lying in the Old Harbour. They finally found what they were looking for in the "Seute Deern". The masts of the beauty, which was built as a four-masted schooner in the USA in 1919 and later converted into a barque by a Hamburg shipowner, served as landmarks visible from afar when approaching the museum until 2020.
However, it had to be scrapped after a fire. "The accident was a difficult and very painful process. Not only for us, but also for the whole city," reports Joppig. "We all learnt that it is not enough to leave such an exhibit to a museum if the money for maintenance is not there. And perhaps also that no ship built for a limited period of time lasts forever. It's a big challenge to maintain the boats that are out here."
What remains of the once proud ship are candlesticks, bottle openers and key rings, which are made from its wood and sold in the museum shop.
Further exhibits await their appearance
For some time to come, containers will block the view of the extensive museum building and construction workers will be pushing heavy equipment over ramps. This is because the large halls have been undergoing renovation work since 2017, and popular exhibits from the world of pleasure boating, such as the Finn dinghy "Darling" donated by Willi Kuhweide for the opening, with which he became a two-time world champion, or models of the successful Admiral's-Cupper " Saudade ", "Carina" and " Ruby " had to move temporarily to a research depot in the fishing harbour in the south of the city - together with around 380,000 archival documents and 60,000 museum objects.
Visitors can only occasionally view the museum's treasures at events in the depot, from the uniform collection to ship models and paintings, until they move back into the museum - depending on the concept. We report on the plans to reopen a large part of the German Maritime Museum in July Thomas Joppig in the interview below.
Until then, seafaring enthusiasts can also browse through the museum's extensive digital offerings. Those who are particularly fond of detail are recommended to visit an internet archive with more than 20,000 technical drawings, which has been made available in the joint project Digipeer.de of four research museums of the Leibniz Association: general plans with side views, longitudinal sections and rigging plans of ships such as the "Pamir", "Gorch Fock" or "Passat", but also small-scale drawings such as drawings of steam-thruster winches and nippers, deck cleats, pitch battens and awning supports.
Brief interview with the Head of Communications at the German Maritime Museum
Thomas Joppig, 45, is Head of Communications at the German Maritime Museum. Since his first day at work five years ago, his work has been characterised by construction sites on the buildings from the 1970s, which are in need of renovation. He tells YACHT about the opportunities for change and his plans for the future.
Your museum is undergoing change. Where is the journey going?
The German Maritime Museum was founded as a national museum, a Germany-wide institution that visualises maritime history in exhibitions. This was primarily done with a strong focus on the history of technology. Our visitors were able to learn a great deal of specialised knowledge about forms of propulsion, ship engines and navigation technology in the 20th century. This particularly appeals to people who have a connection to seafaring themselves. Today, we want to appeal to a broader audience and focus more on social, ecological and socio-economic issues.
What will this look like in the near future?
In mid-March, we will reopen our outdoor area, the boats in the museum harbour, to the public. On 17 July, following successful renovation work, we will then reopen the extension building with the new permanent exhibition "Ship Worlds - The Ocean and Us", which focuses on the changing relationship between man and the sea using shipping as an example - with different facets such as ship and environment, ship and physics or research shipping. But the change will not end there.
What do you mean?
In terms of a museum, change is always a permanent process. Our director Ruth Schilling has coined the apt term "semi-permanence" to describe this. We have five exhibition zones in the extension. They are deliberately set up so that we can always present something new alongside the fixed exhibition concept, which includes a large research vessel installation, for example. In this way, we are also able to do justice to current research and topics in our capacity as a Leibniz Research Museum. We also need the opportunity to try out new communication formats, and this is best done in the exhibition, which offers the necessary flexibility.
You would have a lot of space available for the exhibits in the Scharoun Building. What will become of the building?
The state government is committed to the refurbishment project and has announced in the coalition agreement that it will provide state funding and acquire federal funding. We are also endeavouring to obtain funding. The rough concept for the new exhibition areas has already been finalised. The main topics will include the role of ships in war, migration and passenger shipping, the cruise boom, shipping accidents and sea rescue as well as the topic of navigation.
