The History of the German Navy

In the course of German rearmament, West Germany also began to form a navy again starting in 1956. The new Naval Staff in the Federal Ministry of Defence was headed up by the first Chief of the German Navy, Friedrich Ruge, until 1961. He had fought in two world wars and most recently risen to the rank of Vice Admiral in the Kriegsmarine.

In Wilhelmshaven, the former naval port of the Imperial Navy, the Bundeswehr initially set up a Navy demonstration company. The young West German navy’s first military personnel then included the veteran sailors from the maritime border guard.

Always in the Alliance

From the beginning, the Federal Republic of Germany’s naval forces have been closely integrated into NATO. To this day, the German Navy sees itself first and foremost as an Alliance navy. Its task during the confrontation with the Soviet Eastern Bloc was defending access to the Baltic Sea and the western Baltic Sea, as well as the sea routes in the North Sea, in cooperation with allied navies – first and foremost those of Denmark, Norway and the United Kingdom. This mission remained virtually unchanged until the end of the 1980s. Only the plans for landing operations on the Baltic coast, which the West German army was to have supported, were abandoned in the 1960s.

For that reason, the first shipbuilding plan approved by the German Bundestag called for not only twelve destroyers and six frigates, but most notably a fleet with many specialised vessels: 40 motor torpedo boats, 24 coastal minesweepers, 30 high-speed minesweepers, 36 landing craft, 10 coastal patrol boats and 12 submarines, as well as 11 tenders as supplying ships for all the others. Two large minelayers, a modern training ship, a sail training ship and various auxiliary craft, test vehicles and exercise vehicles were also to be acquired.

Building up with old equipment

Nevertheless, the new Navy was initially built around vessels from the former Kriegsmarine, which Germany’s former adversaries gave back, along with the vessels that Germany purchased from its new allies. That is why the West German fleet already had 65 ships and vessels, as well as 7,700 personnel, by December 1956. By the 1980s, it would grow to over 35,000 military personnel.

This federal navy’s most combat-effective ships were probably the three large Lütjens-class guided missile destroyers. They were built in the USUnited States  in the late 1960s, based on modified plans from ships that were also in use in the USUnited States Navy. Originally intended for convoy protection in the North Atlantic and the North Sea, the destroyers were ultimately stationed in Kiel – a clear message of deterrence for the potential adversary to the east.

After German reunification on 3 October 1990, parts of the East German  navy, which had been disbanded the day before, were integrated into the German Navy. Almost 2,000 temporary-career volunteers and career service members were absorbed into what had previously been the West German navy. However, with very few exceptions, the Bundeswehr scrapped or sold the East German fleet’s ships and vessels in 1991.

After a transition period with a partly separate Navy Headquarters in Rostock, the German Navy was reorganised in 1995. Units stationed in the former East Germany were now also assigned to NATO. At this point, the German Navy also abandoned its informal designation as the “federal navy”. In the spirit of the new national unity, it was now known as the German Navy.

New strategic parameters

Reunification in 1990 radically changed Germany’s geopolitical environment. The country on both sides of the former inner German border was no longer on the front line of the ideological confrontation between the two blocs. As a fully sovereign country, the Federal Republic of Germany became increasingly involved in international efforts to contain or even prevent crises and conflicts.

Nevertheless, this strategic turning point also signalled the beginning of considerable disarmament and downsizing of the German Navy. By 2014, it had been reduced to just under 16,000 military personnel and fewer than 50 ships and vessels.

Operation Südflanke (“southern flank”) was probably the German Navy’s first operation under the changed parameters. After the end of the Gulf War, German minesweepers removed Iraqi sea mines from the Persian Gulf from February through July 1991.

Sharp Guard and a landmark ruling in Karlsruhe

The German Navy subsequently participated in Operation Sharp Guard with NATO and the Western European Union from 1993 to 1996. A German destroyer or a German frigate was also with each of the two NATO naval forces employed. They enforced the international arms embargo, which the United Nations had imposed on the participants in the Yugoslav Wars, in the Adriatic Sea. However, the Germans had very limited options for action.

During this mission, the Federal Constitutional Court made its landmark ruling of 1994. From then on, the Bundeswehr’s operations abroad had to be approved by the German Bundestag. The German armed forces had become a parliamentary army. This new, clarified legal situation also gave members of the German Navy the ability to act with confidence. For example, it allowed them to board foreign ships. German naval ships were now also able to inspect potential embargo violations themselves during Operation Sharp Guard.

Operational realities demand flexibility

Since then, the German Navy has participated in many different international operations, including anti-piracy measures at the Horn of Africa, rescuing shipwrecked refugees from the Mediterranean Sea, and preventing arms smuggling into Lebanon. Even without a combat mission, the German Navy has been demonstrating since 1990 just how broad and flexible the naval forces’ task spectrum can be.

However, in 2014, the strategic parameters in Europe changed once again. Since the onset of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the members of NATO have increased their efforts in national and collective defence – a process that is still ongoing. Germany, safely in the middle of Europe, has been providing increasing support to its allies in Eastern Europe since then.

This meant that the German Navy had to make its presence felt more in the Baltic Sea and the North Atlantic, and to train its capabilities in cooperation with its NATO and EU partners more often and more extensively than it had done in these regions since 1990.