Idea / Project

Since the year 2000 with the help of Ward Carr and numerous others I have been searching for relatives of fallen Bismarck crew members and trying to establish contact with survivors so that we can introduce the men in portraits.

We wish to present the personalities and stories which were or are behind the individual names, what the men looked like and what they experienced. By doing so we wish to show the human aspect of the Bismarck which, up till now, has been mainly described in its historical and technical context. This human aspect of the ship then should serve as an admonition against the madness of war.

Participating in the portrait project offers relatives and friends the opportunity to preserve the memory of the fallen, thus establishing a memorial for the entire crew of the Bismarck.

The portrait project offers the reader an interesting spectrum of diverse experiences and individual fates that are inexplicably intertwined with the Bismarck. It demonstrates what deep wounds this war has left in the lives of these men and their families. As such, the crew of the Bismarck is an example of the horrors of war which visited on all the sailors, soldiers and civilians of every nationality.