German Maritime Search and Rescue Service

The German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (German: Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger - DGzRS) is responsible for Search and Rescue in German territorial waters in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, including the Exclusive Economic Zone.

The headquarters and the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of the Society are located in Bremen. It was founded in Kiel on 29 May 1865. It owns 61 lifeboats at 54 stations which are operated by 185 employed crew members and 800 volunteers. The society has about 2000 engagements every year. Up to 2005, it rescued approximately 72,000 persons. In 2004 it saved 368 lives, rescued 837 persons from critical situations and carried out 343 medical transports. The DGzRS is entirely financed by membership fees, private donations and legacies.

Writer and honorary member Nikolai von Michalewsky has immortalized the DGzRS in his series of science fiction novels by taking it as the model for his "Independent Society for Saving Spacewrecked".

Fleet

The DGzRS operates 61 vessels on 54 stations in the North Sea and Baltic. 20 of which are seagoing cruisers between 20 m and 46 m of length and 41 vessels are classified as inshore lifeboats. A feature of the cruisers is that all but the 20-m class carry a fully equipped small lifeboat on deck which can quickly be released through a gate in the aft for conducting operations in shallow waters. This principle was developed by DGzRS in the 1950s.^[1] The 20-m class uses a rigid-hulled inflatable boat instead.^[2]

Lifeboats

Gallery

• 
  SK John T. Essberger, one of the large 44m-class cruisers of the DGzRS
• 
  SK Hermann Marwede, the only one of the large 46m-class cruisers of the DGzRS
• 
  The Marwede at sea
• 
  SK Berlin, a 27m-class cruiser of the DGzRS, and a SeaKing helicopter of the German Navy
• 
  SK Herman Helms, a cruiser of the 27m-class
• 
  SK Vormann Jantzen
• 
  S&R boat Eltje
• 
  SK Minden in the port of Sylt island
• 
  SK Bernhard Gruben with daughter boat during an exercise in the North Sea off Juist island
• 
  Commemorative stamp honoring the DGzRS's 100th anniversary (issued in 1965)

See also

• German Federal Coast Guard
• Royal National Lifeboat Institution
• Koninklijke Nederlandse Redding Maatschappij
• Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer
• Sociedad de Salvamento y Seguridad Marítima
• Redningsselskapet
• Whitfords Volunteer Sea Rescue Group - One of the 3 last independent charitable lifeboat stations left in Western Australia after the others came under the government FESA umbrella (some coerced, some voluntarily), the group and the other two still face government pressure to be nationalised)

References

1. ↑ "Vor 50 Jahren: Erster Seenotkreuzer der DGzRS feierlich getauft". Seglermagazin (in German). Zellwerk GmbH & Co. KG. 12 February 2007. 
2. ↑ "Flotte" (in German). DGzRS. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to German Maritime Search and Rescue Service.

• Official English language website
• Men in Red - Hermann Helms