Since the year 2000 I have been searching for relatives of fallen crew members and establishing contact with survivors in collaboration with Ward Carr and other assistants to present these men in portraits and biographical sketches. We wish to show what types of people the men were and present stories which are or were part of each of these names, what the men looked like, and what they had to live through. In short we wish to present the human side of the Bismarck which, up till now, has been merely described in its historical and technical context. The human aspect of the ship should then serve as an admonition against the madness of war. Participation in the portrait project offers each relative the opportunity to preserve the memory of the fallen and, thus, establish 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 are an example of the horrors of war which visited sailors, soldiers and civilians of every nationality.