Museumsschiffe Baujahr 1999: Anmerkungen zum Wiederaufbau historischer See- und Binnenschiffe

Abstract

"Museum ships are undisputedly among the most attractive objects of maritime history. This is all the more true when the ships are not permanently moored in a museum harbour but still in operation. Moreover, active museum ships do not merely serve as material sources for maritime-historical information but also allow the preservation and study of the conditions of life and work on board. German efforts to preserve ships as active museums date back quite far into the past, but the first permanent success was not attained until 1970, with the paddlewheel Steamer KAISER WILHELM. A vessel originally registered on the Upper Weser, it has been in operation for Germany's first museum steamer service-operated on a purely volunteer basis-in Lauenburg/Elbe since 1970. Thanks to the inspiring effect of this example, numerous other ships were saved from scrapping and kept in service as museum ships instead. These vessels all had one thing in common: They were historical originals. With the construction of the Hanse Cog of Kiel, begun in 1986, the first large replica - the reconstruction of an archaeological find: the Bremen Cog- took its place alongside the originals. The aim of the project was to investigate the sailing characteristics of a cog, an undertaking which could not be carried out with the original. The construction was realised to a large extent with funding from the secondary employment market. Aside from the maritime-historical findings it facilitated, the project proved to be particularly suitable for the secondary job market, as it was sufficiently complex for vocational qualification but did not intervene in normal economic processes. Following the decline of the West German shipbuilding industry and the collapse of shipbuilding in the German Democratic Republic, there were large numbers of unemployed shipwrights, many of whom joined to form employment associations. These associations began building replicas after the example of the Cog of Kiel, but without possessing the necessary historical qualifications. As a result, nearly all of the constructions were nothing more than maritime-historical stage sets equipped with modern navigation technology. In addition, for economical reasons a number of authentic ships were thoroughly modernised, nevertheless keeping or receiving the status of historical monument. For the most part, these projects aimed to provide vocational training I employment on the one hand and a sightseeing attraction for tourists on the other; they advertised, however, on the basis of supposed historical value. The latter is a particularly critical aspect, since in the long run these modern ships could endanger the preservation of the authentic ships: The passenger is seldom able to distinguish between an original and a replica. A possible solution to this conflict of interests is the close cooperation between maritime-historical research and the secondary employment market. Such collaboration would be the only means of guaranteeing the quality of the reconstructions and honesty in the presentation of the intention, whether it is to build a historical ship or to build a tourist object in historical garb." (author's abstract)