The German Navy is the navy of Germany and part of the unified Bundeswehr, the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the Bundesmarine from 1956 to 1995, when Deutsche Marine became the official name with respect to the 1990 incorporation of the East German Volksmarine. It is deeply integrated into the NATO alliance. Its primary mission is protection of Germany's territorial waters and maritime infrastructure as well as sea lines of communication. Apart from this, the German Navy participates in peacekeeping operations, and renders humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. It also participates in anti-piracy operations.
The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war Reichsmarine (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches, along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe, of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945.
The Reichsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Weimar Republic and first two years of Nazi Germany. It was the naval branch of the Reichswehr, existing from 1919 to 1935. In 1935, it became known as the Kriegsmarine, a branch of the Wehrmacht; a change implemented by Adolf Hitler. Many of the administrative and organizational tenets of the Reichsmarine were then carried over into the organization of the Kriegsmarine.
The Volksmarine was the naval force of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1956 to 1990. The Volksmarine was one of the service branches of the National People's Army and primarily performed a coastal defence role along the GDR's Baltic Sea coastline and territorial waters.
A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping.
The Finnish Navy is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. The navy employs 2,300 people and about 4,300 conscripts are trained each year. Finnish Navy vessels are given the ship prefix "FNS", short for "Finnish Navy ship", but this is not used in Finnish-language contexts. The Finnish Navy also includes coastal forces and coastal artillery.
The Baltic Sea campaigns were conducted by Axis and Allied naval forces in the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the connected lakes Ladoga and Onega on the Eastern Front of World War II. After early fighting between Polish and German forces, the main combatants were the Kriegsmarine and the Soviet Navy, with Finland supporting the Germans until 1944 and the Soviets thereafter. The Swedish Navy and merchant fleet played important roles, and the British Royal Navy planned Operation Catherine for control of the Baltic Sea and its exit choke point into the North Sea.
HNoMS Rauma was an Otra-class minesweeper built in 1939 for the Royal Norwegian Navy. Captured by the Germans during the 1940 invasion of Norway and renamed Kamerun, she was returned to the Norwegians after the end of the Second World War and recommissioned in 1947. Rauma remained in service until being sold for scrapping in 1963.
Vorpostenboot, also referred to as VP-Boats, flakships or outpost boats, were German patrol boats which served during both World Wars. They were used around coastal areas and in coastal operations, and were tasked with – among other things – coastal patrol, ship escort, and naval combat.
Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes; they were widely used during the First and Second World Wars. Some—known in the Royal Navy as "Admiralty trawlers"— were purpose-built to naval specifications, others adapted from civilian use. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust vessels designed to work heavy trawls in all types of weather, and had large clear working decks. A minesweeper could be created by replacing the trawl with a mine sweep. Adding depth charge racks on the deck, ASDIC sonar below, and a 3-inch (76 mm) or 4-inch (102 mm) gun in the bow equipped the trawler for anti-submarine duties.
The R boats were a group of small naval vessels built as minesweepers for the Kriegsmarine before and during the Second World War. They were used for several purposes during the war, and were also used post-war by the German Mine Sweeping Administration for clearing naval mines.
The M class were the standard minesweeper of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The vessels were the primary force in Germany's harbor defense command and were organized administratively into minesweeper flotillas.
Friedrich Oskar Ruge was an officer in the German Navy and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. He served as the first commander of the post-war German Navy.
Friedrich Elchlepp was an Oberleutnant zur See in Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, a lawyer and a Konteradmiral in East Germany's (Volksmarine).
The Minesweeper War Badge or Minesweepers, Sub-Chasers and Escort-Vessel War Badge was a World War II German military decoration awarded to Kriegsmarine members for service on minesweepers vessels. The award was instituted on 31 August 1940 by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder. It was first awarded on 28 November 1940.
The Main Administration Sea Police was an East German maritime organization established with support of the Soviet Navy on June 16, 1950. It was an armed organization of the East German Ministry of the Interior designed to protect the German Democratic Republic’s (GDR) maritime border and coastal areas. The HVS was established to organize, train and operate naval forces during a period in which East Germany officially had no military. The Sea Police initially were responsible for protection of fisheries and for anti-smuggling activities. At the same time it was intended from the beginning to use the force as the core of a future East German navy. One of the first tasks of the Sea Police was the clearance of mines in the coastal waters of the GDR.
The Naval Historical Team (NHT) was established by the US Navy in 1949. It was a group of German naval officers under American orders to reappraise the naval war history of World War II from the German perspective. The group was under control of the Office of Naval Intelligence. At the end of 1952, the NHT was disbanded but it was re-established in Karlsruhe in 1954.
The Fugas class were a group of minesweepers built for the Soviet Navy in the 1930s and 1940s. The Soviet designations were Project 3, Project 53, Project 53-U and Project 58.
Surface flotillas of the Kriegsmarine were organizational groupings of German naval vessels during World War II based on class of vessel and geographical location. Surface flotillas were not operationally deployed units, but functioned through the administrative command chain of the Kriegsmarine.
Minesweeper flotillas of the Kriegsmarine were administrative units which grouped German minesweepers together. There were three types of minesweeper flotillas: standard minesweepers, auxiliary minesweepers, and "mine barrage" vessels. Flotilla commanders operated from a shore office, and were usually commanded by an officer ranked as a Korvettenkapitän. All minesweeper flotillas were under the command of the Führer der Minensuchboote which, by 1940, had been divided into three separate offices for activities in the North Sea, Baltic Sea, and off the coast of France.
Allied-occupied Germany