German Maritime Museum
Maritime museum in Bremerhaven
The German Maritime Museum (German: Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum (DSM)) is a museum in Bremerhaven, Germany. It is part of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community since 1980. The main museum building was opened on 5 September 1975 by then-president of Germany Walter Scheel, though scientific work had already started in 1971.
The museum consists of the building planned by Hans Scharoun as well as several museum ships in the Old Harbour of Bremerhaven, including the Seute Deern windjammer. The building and the 8 ships of the museum fleet, located between the Old Harbor and the Weser dike, as an ensemble, were placed under Bremen Cultural heritage management in 2005.
In 2000, at the 25th anniversary of the museum, the Hansekogge, a ship constructed around 1380 that was found in the Weser river in 1962, was presented to the public after having undergone a lengthy process of conservation in a large preservative-filled basin.
History
The German Maritime Museum (DSM) was founded in Bremerhaven in 1971 to replace the Museum of Marine Science in Berlin, which had been destroyed during World War II. Its task is to collect, record, research, and present documents and artefacts about German maritime history. For this purpose, the DSM is equipped with laboratories and technical facilities for the examination, conservation and restoration of different types of water craft as well as other objects. It also houses a wide range of artefact collections and a dedicated archive and specialist library with an adjacent reading room. The DSM is the publisher of two periodicals as well as four scientific monograph series.
“German Maritime Museum” enters the record as maritime museum in Bremerhaven. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what German, Maritime and Museum can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“German Maritime Museum” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, German, Maritime and Museum provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q455354. VIAF identifies the subject as 128715457. The Library of Congress control number is n50065866. Authority coordinates are 53.540, 8.577. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980, 1975, 1971 and 2005.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “German Maritime Museum”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow German Maritime Museum primary sources, German Maritime Museum archive and German research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “German Maritime Museum” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.