German Maritime Search and Rescue Service

Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger

File:DGzRS Logo.svg DGzRS logo
Formation	29 May 1865
Legal status	Charity
Purpose	Saving lives at sea
Headquarters	Bremen
Region served	North Sea Baltic Sea
Staff	185
Volunteers	800
Website	dgzrs.de

The German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (German language: 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, 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. The 20-m class uses a rigid-hulled inflatable boat instead.

Lifeboats

Name	Station	Remarks
46-m class
Hermann Marwede	Heligoland
44-m class
Wilhelm Kaisen		decommissioned
36-m class
Harro Koebke	Sassnitz
27.5-m class
Berlin	Laboe
Hermann Helms	Cuxhaven
Alfried Krupp	Borkum
Vormann Steffens	Hooksiel
Arkona	Warnemünde
Bremen	Großenbrode
23.3-m class
Minden	List (Sylt)
Vormann Leiss	Amrum
Nis Randers	Maasholm
Vormann Jantzen		Reserve (Baltic Sea)
Hannes Glogner		Reserve (North Sea)
23.1-m class
Hermann Rudolf Meyer	Bremerhaven
Hans Hackmack	Grömitz
Theo Fischer	Darßer Ort
Bernhard Gruben	Norderney
20-m class
Eiswette	Nordstrand
Eugen	Greifswalder Oie
Theodor Storm	Büsum

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

DBP 1965 478 Dt Ges zur Rettung Schiffbruechiger.jpg

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)

External links

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