125 Jahre Dienste für Seeschiffahrt und Meer: von der Norddeutschen Seewarte bis zum Bundesamt für Seeschiffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH)

Abstract

This article is concerned with the history of the Bundesamt für Seeschiffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH) (Federal Office for Ocean Shipping and Hydrography), founded in 1868 by Wilhelm von Freeden as the Norddeutsche Seewarte (Northern German Hydrographie Office). With private capital and the support of twenty-eight shipowners of Hamburg and Bremen, Freeden opened this institute for maritime meteorology as a one-man operation in a former sailors' home. Through the analysis of nautical, oceanographic and meteorological Observations he aimed to make ocean routes shorter and safer. His evaluations found expression in individual sailing directions which considerably reduced travelling times. When Freeden received state aid in the early 1870s, the institute was newly designated as the Deutsche Seewarte (German Hydrographie Office). ln 1875 it was sold to the empire and expanded by the addition of the Departments of Meteorology, Nautical Instruments and Chronometrie lnspections. (The Department of Oceanography was added in 1911.) Georg von Neumayer, Hydrographer of the Admiralty, became the director of the new state institution , and both he and the Deutsche Seewarte had considerable influence on the exploration of polar regions. Further noted members of the office's staff included Alfred Wegener, Arnold Schumacher, Heinrich Rauschenbach, Carl Christian Koldewey and Kurt Kalle. On December 12, 1945, according to a resolution of the AlIied Control Council, the Deutsche Seewarte was replaced by the Deutsches Hydrographisches Institut (DHI) and its meteorological functions were eliminated. As an institution of the Bundesministerium für Verkehr (Federal Ministry of Transport), the DHI played a significant role in the rehabilitation of Germany's mercantile fleet. From the 1970s on, it also assumed tasks in the protection of the marine environment. ln 1990 the DHI and the Bundesamt für Schiffsvermessung (Federal Office for Ship Tonnage Measurement) were combined to form the Bundesamt für Seeschiffahrt und Hydrographie, a centralized federal maritime authority with the wide sphere of responsibility. Today the BSH presides over a staff of 1,000 employees, seven wreck search vessels and research ships, and offices in Hamburg and Rostock.