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Updates
In 2001 we planned a website featuring the crew of the Bismarck. About the same time we started the portrait project, a platform to tell the stories of the Bismarck’s crew. In 2004 our website went online, and the project started to take shape with the first portraits. In the meantime we have over 600 stories of crewmembers, and the project has become a book. You can read more about our long road below.
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October 2022
Volume 1.3 ends our small series inside the book series on seaman personell. First of all, it should be said that this will not be the last book about the crew of the Bismarck. In addition to a special volume 4 on civil servants and volume 5 with additional portraits including many survivors, we have several other interesting projects in the planning stage and lots of ideas. Stay tuned!
In the new book, 320 pages await you with the stories of 85 other crew members with the surnames M to Z, such as the story of the young East Prussian Ernst Mareck, who fell in love with a girl from Danzig (Gdansk) during his training, or Heinz Ziegler from Lübeck, who lost his parents when he was a child and grew up with grandparents.
We hope you enjoy reading and look forward to your order!
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27. May 2020
Today, May 27, 2021, marks the 80th anniversary of the sinking of the battleship Bismarck. We took this special day as an opportunity to remember the crew and compiled the crew list of the Bismarck in a book.
The names and dates of the 2,261 crew members who were on board at the time of the "Rheinübung" operation can be found on 248 pages in an embossed linen cover. These included the survivors and a further seven crew members who died on board while on active duty.
We hope you enjoy reading and look forward to your order!
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27. May 2020
After long work finally our new book Battleship Bismarck – the true face of a warship Volume 1.2 (only available in German) is finished and can be ordered via our website on this historic day. Today marks the 79th anniversary of the sinking of the battleship Bismarck.
The new 400-pages book focuses on the ship's Seamen. We tell the stories of 134 crew members. Take a look at the book in the preview section.
We hope you enjoy the book and look forward to your order.
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November 2019
We relaunched our book Battleship Bismarck – the true face of a warship Volume 1.1 (only available in German). We have added 48 pages and the book now has a total of 416 pages with the interesting stories of 6 more crew members. Now available on our website!
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February 2019
This month we were able to enlarge our stories to 500 crewmembers in total. So the part 1.2 keeps growing and it will be followed by another part 1.3. We hope to get part 1.2 finished this year.
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27. May 2016
After long work finally our new book Battleship Bismarck – the true face of a warship Volume 1.1 (only available in German) is finished and can be ordered via our website on this historic day. Today marks the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the battleship Bismarck.
The new 368-pages book focuses on the ship's command and the officers and non-commissioned officers of the Seamen. We tell the stories of 68 crew members, like Boatswain's Mate Josef Würzinger, who married a few weeks before sailing and died after just 45 days of marriage or Boatswain's Mate Gerhard Oesper, who went to the navy to see the world and enjoyed his service time. Besides the exciting stories of the crew members we present their duty stations which includes the ship's artillery, anti aircraft guns and fire directory in a comprehensive chapter.
We hope you enjoy the book and look forward to your order.
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February 2016
We are still working on Volume One of our trilogy which has now grown to 362 pages. The volume contains the general introduction to the theme of the project as well as the introduction to the duty stations of the seamen like the ship's artillery. The volume concludes with the careers of the ship’s command as well as the officers and non-commissioned officers of the seaman section. This volume does not yet include stories of the lower listed ranks, so we have decided to divide Volume One into two books: Volumes 1.1 and 1.2.
Volume 1.1 deals with the ship’s command and the officers and non-commissioned officers of the seaman section. This volume is almost entirely finished, and it will appear on 27 May this year, 75 years after the ship went down.
To those of you who are waiting for Volume 1.2 - we are afraid we have to console you for a while longer and ask for your patience and understanding. (There is a lot of work involved and both authors unfortunately can only work part time on the project!)
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March 2014
For the 75th anniversary of Tirpitz launching on 1 April 2014 a new illustrated book will be published dealing with the largest German battleship. We would like to present and recommend this book to you.
The first of several planned volumes (including one or more about the Bismarck) covers the first period in Tirpitz life, starting with her being built at the shipyard in 1936 and going on till May 1941. The book, written by Robert Gehringer and Antonio Bonomi, shows several unpublished pictures, cards and illustrations. It gives a detailed view on processes, ship movements, fitting-out stages and camouflage schemes and it compares pictures of the past with the present locations and dates back pictures with an accuracy that had not been there so far.
The book contains English translations and is available under:
www.Bismarck-Tirpitz.com
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26. May 2013
After a long haul our new book "Battleship Bismarck – the true face of a warship Volume 2" (only available in German) is finally finished and can be ordered via our website.
On 340 pages we present the stories of 84 crew members of the specialist personnel. There are many fascinating stories like the one of the ship's surgeon who worked as a doctor in an American mission in Africa before joining the navy, or Bruno Köhler who exchanged his command with a friend to get aboard the Bismarck.
We hope you enjoy the book and look forward to your order.
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March 2013
The German version of Volume # 2 of Battleship Bismarck, the True Face of a Warship is almost finished. All sections have been written and formatted. A bit more fine-tuning and into print it goes! To all those who have reserved Volume # 2 – we will let you know as soon as the book is available. For more details, check our website.
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March 2012
With the medical sector the first part of our new book, "Battleship Bismarck – the true face of a warship Volume 2" is finished. It contains 38 pages and tells the stories of the doctors and corpsmen like Marinestabsarzt Dr. Hans-Joachim Krüger who had worked as an doctor in an american mission in Liberia, where he almost lost his life, before joining the Navy.
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4. December 2011
The website is updated and given a new format to fit the image of the book.
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October 2011
After final corrections Volume 3 finally goes to print. Work starts on Volume 2 which covers the following personnel: administrative, medical, pyrotechnical, navigational specialists as well as the intelligence section and the ship’s band.
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27. May 2011
The 70th anniversary of the Bismarck’s final battle, and many guests attend the ceremonies in Hamburg and Friedrichsruh. Unfortunately only one Bismarck survivor was there – Berhard Heuer from Essen.
Although the first work copy of the book was already in print, it was not delivered before the ceremonies.
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December 2010
The ever-increasing portrait project is almost finished. Over 95 % of our portrait texts are complete. Unfortunately, this is not the case with our introductory and background texts for the different divisions. Only those covering the engineering section are finished. Therefore, we decide to publish this section first, and Malte starts the layout and formatting work.
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November 2009
The German TV station ZDF broadcasts a documentary in its History Series about the battleship Bismarck. They show several pictures of crew members which we provide.
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20. January 2008
We now have 313 Portraits of crew members of the Bismarck. 3/4 of the portrait texts are complete.
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10. June 2007
The book "Mein wunderbares Leben - Ein Zeitzeuge berichtet" by Herbert Ludwig goes on sale. Ludwig recounts his experiences in the RAD in Poland in 1939, his time as a Tirpitz (“Tony Paula”) plank owner, his capture and POW time in South France and his hair-raising escape from East Germany on New Year’s Eve 1956. Ward interviewed Herbert; and Malte did the second-echelon editing and layout work for this exciting book which contains many interesting anecdotes about the Kriegsmarine. The book contains several photos and sketches not published before. The English-language version is in progress.
To order the book, click here
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24. April 2007
Cooperation with the Interpress Verlag in publishing portraits in the issues about the Bismarck model.
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12. November 2006
New examples from the book on our website.
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13. August 2006
Ward‘s interview with Bismarck survivor Machinist’s Mate Heinrich Kuhnt is published in the August issue of the US Naval Institute Magazine. Advance copies are delivered in July to the Digital Ranch filming in London and are distributed to the team and the veterans.
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July 2006
We now have over 260 portraits of the Bismarck crew.
The beginning of July, Heinrich Kuhnt (Machinist’s Mate Bismarck), Otto Schlenzka (Lieutenant Prinz Eugen), Dieter Heitmann (Secretary Bismarck Association), Malte and Ward fly to London for a filming session with Digital Ranch Productions for the History Channel series “Dogfights.”
The "Dogfights" series features an episode called about the “The Hunt for the Bismarck.” It features the Battle of Denmark Straits in which the Bismarck, accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, sank the battle cruiser HMS Hood and damaged the battleship HMS Prince of Wales. During the engagement Heinrich Kuhnt was at battle stations in Bismarck’s portside turbine room. At the same time Otto Schlenzka was commanding the portside 105 mm heavy flak and had an unobstructed view of the engagement and the tragic sinking of the HMS Hood.
At the hotel, we met Cynthia Harrison and Brooks Wachtel, the producer and author of the episode. At dinner, we met the Royal Navy veterans Ted Briggs, the last living survivor of the HMS Hood and the HMS King George V crewman Doug Turtle who served in the gunnery command post during the Bismarck’s final battle. Doug promised to come to the next Bismarck ceremony, health permitting. We hope for the best.
Ward brought several bottles of original Prinz Eugen wine. Otto, as Prinz Eugen representative, presented a bottle each to Ted, Doug, Cynthia and Brooks. Two bottles were reserved for the two Royal Navy Aviation participants who unfortunately were not able to come until after we had left. One of them was Swordfish veteran John “Jock” Moffat who appeared in the film.
All in all we had an exciting time in London.
Picture Gallery – Interview in London
Click on image to enlarge.
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16. June 2005
The homepage translation into English is finished.
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22. June 2004
The homepage - "Battleship Bismarck: The True Face of a Warship“ – goes online. It provides an initial insight into the project and its book format. ( Originally the project was planned as a homepage only.)
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January 2002
Malte and Ward meet in Hamburg and decide to start and publish our portrait project to tell the stories of the all of the Bismarck crew possible. Prior to our meeting we had already communicated by email and found we had the same interest in the crew of the ship.
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27. May 2001
Malte visits the ceremonies commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Bismarck’s last battle and establishes contact with many of the veterans. It is the beginning of the project. Later that year Ward visits Malte in Hamburg and they brainstorm about the project.
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