Introduction - a short history of the DSR

Every country that is also dependent on the export or import of raw materials and (semi-)finished products needs transport services by sea, because 90% of all internationally traded goods are generally transported by sea. If a country has no fleet of its own, this transport has to be purchased from abroad, so in economic terms, it has a negative service balance. This is particularly problematic for countries that have a chronic foreign exchange problem, because as a rule foreign carriers demand payment in freely convertible currency. And although the GDR's economic relations with the other countries of the socialist Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) were more intensive, trade with the West also played a major role, and here the shortage of foreign currency suggested transport on the GDR's own ships. For an industrial country with few raw materials like the GDR, trade was of crucial importance for development.

With 7.7 million dead and a destroyed infrastructure, Germany was devastated after losing the Second World War. Worldwide, the death toll was as high as over 60 million. Urgent and immediate needs of the German population initially had to be met from their own sources. Issues such as food production, housing, water and electricity generation had priority. Foreign trade by sea was not a priority for the time being. In addition, on Allied instructions, all larger and more modern ships had to be surrendered as reparations. The German shipowners were left with only old steamships in a size up to 1,500 GRT. But in the territory of the Soviet occupation zone or the GDR (since 1949), there were hardly any shipowners with pre-war fleets that would have had to be rebuilt. Even at the beginning of the Second World War, shipping companies did not play a significant role on the Baltic Sea. In 1939, 29 ships with a cargo capacity of 66,735 tons were registered, whereas West Germany was home to 1,122 ships.2 All the major transcontinental shipping companies were based there - "HAPAG", "Norddeutscher Lloyd", "Hamburg-Süd", DDG "Hansa", "Deutsche Afrika-Linien" and many more. After the war, the starting position for the East Zone remained bad. For while it was soon possible in the West Zone to build newbuildings of low capacity and speed at the shipyards for German account - the so-called Potsdam ships, of which about 50 were put into service - the shipyards in the East were fully occupied with reparation duties, conversions and repairs for the Soviet Union, and this situation was exacerbated by persistent material shortages.

The changed strategy of the USA, to support the reconstruction of Europe and thus also Germany with the help of the Marshall Plan triggered an economic upswing in the West, which was then followed by about 30 years of economic and social progress. Although this was initially also offered to the countries of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union refused to participate in this programme, fearing that it would become a victim of "American imperialism". In the East, it was assumed that a centrally planned economy in "people's ownership" would be superior to the Western way of doing business anyway and that development backlogs would be made up relatively quickly.

In the West, shipbuilding restrictions were largely eased by 1951 and the Federal Republic quickly regained its full economic and soon also political sovereignty. The West German shipowners aimed to restore their fleets to their former size and to become partners on an equal footing again in the internationally interlinked shipping industry. They were soon granted access to the shipping conferences (the international liner shipping cartels). Low-interest loans, favourable repayment terms, depreciation facilities, state guarantees and a good situation on the freight market (Korean crisis) helped here. In 1952, the merchant fleet of the Federal Republic of Germany again comprised 1,522 ships with 1,397,604 GRT - two-thirds of which were motor ships, the majority newbuildings from West German shipyards.3

And in the Soviet-occupied zone/GDR? There was no significant shipyard industry in the territory of the later GDR either. Larger companies were located in Stettin and Danzig, which belonged to Poland after the Second World War. Apart from the "Neptun" shipyard, which had existed since 1850, there were only smaller shipbuilding companies in Roßlau, Boizenburg - i.e. inland - and Wismar. In Stralsund, the "Kröger" shipyard was expropriated - it then continued shipbuilding in West Germany. An efficient industry had to be developed first, especially since existing plants were also dismantled and taken to the USSR as part of the reparations to the Soviet Union in the early years. In addition to these technical prerequisites, there was also a lack of skilled workers, many of whom went to the West. The Soviet occupation authorities banned shipbuilding for Germany in general, different from the West. Nevertheless, shipbuilding was pushed ahead rapidly in the next few years, but it was focused exclusively on Soviet interests.

In August 1950, the GDR's People's Parliament decided to build its own merchant fleet, and in October the first ship, the JOHANN AHRENS, later renamed VORWÄRTS, was put into service. This was a small steamer built in 1903, which was initially transferred to the "Deutsche Schiffahrts- und Umschlagsbetriebszentrale (DSU)" in Berlin. This company was primarily involved in inland shipping. The only seagoing vessel now operated in the Baltic Sea mostly with trade goods from the USSR and usually sailed between the East German seaports and the Soviet Union. With the founding of the "Deutsche Seereederei Rostock (DSR)" on 1st July 1952, merchant shipping was then consolidated under this company. But even now, service vessels such as tugs and lighters were initially taken over. And after the decommissioning of the VORWÄRTS in spring 1954, which technically could no longer be used as a merchant ship, the DSR was left without a seagoing vessel. It was not until 1954 that the first seagoing vessels were integrated into the fleet - the ROSTOCK and the WISMAR. They were part of a series of 19 steamships built at the "Neptun shipyard" according to Soviet design, which were transferred from the USSR to the GDR. They sailed the Mediterranean, mainly to "befriended" Egypt and Albania.

In 1954, the "Mathias-Thesen-Werft" in Wismar delivered the STRALSUND, the first of its own seagoing vessel developments. Nine of this "Type I" were ordered by the DSR, construction began on four ships and a total of twelve were planned. With the exception of the STRALSUND, these projects were not realised. On the other hand, the ships of the "Type 500" (because of the carrying capacity of 500 tons) were realised. Of these, 18 were built, 16 of which went to the DSR. They were coasters for the Baltic Sea.

A further development of the "Kolomna" type was the THÄLMANN PIONIER, which was taken over in 1957 and one of whose sister ships went to Bulgaria. She also operated in the Mediterranean Sea. The name of the ship refers to the children's and schoolchildren's organisation of the GDR, the "Thälmann Pioneers", whose donations and gathering of recycling material ("secondary raw materials" in GDR jargon) made the construction possible in the first place. But the DSR was getting closer to its goal of serving the GDR's overseas trading interests.

The breakthrough into intercontinental maritime shipping was then achieved with the twelve "Type IV" liners. Two more ships were delivered to the People's Republic of China and one to Cuba. These ships also mostly sailed to "socialist" foreign countries. In order to enable the further development of the DSR into an international shipping company, additional ships had to be acquired from Western countries. However, these could only be procured in freely convertible foreign currency or if mutual commodity relations with capitalist foreign countries permitted offsetting. Foreign currency, however, was chronically scarce under real existing socialism. 73% of the foreign currency received by the GDR at that time came from other socialist states. Only 15% was denominated in D-marks or other freely exchangeable and accepted currencies. In order to improve the position of the GDR economy here, the "VEB Steckenpferd", a cosmetics company, undertook to overfulfil its export plan by 100,000 USD. This movement was initially very much encouraged by the state party (the SED) and more than a thousand companies joined it. However, this concentration on exporting goods to Western countries had the consequence that the GDR population lacked important consumer goods - for example, baby nappies. As a result, this movement was banned again by the party as early as 1960. Nevertheless, seven seagoing ships could be purchased in this way.

Large numbers of other ships were acquired from other sources of foreign currency. The first of these was the THOMAS MÜNTZER, a ship built in Great Britain before the war, followed by the sisters HEINRICH HEINE and THEODOR KÖRNER, which, as formerly combined cargo and passenger ships, also took over the training of DSR seafaring personnel.

By 1970, 68 ships had been purchased from the West in exchange for foreign currency; 23 more followed by 1986. 144 ships had been handed over to the DSR from GDR shipyards by 1975. In 1961 and 1972 there were 14 units each.

By the end of the 1970s, the establishing of the...