Seafaring has always been a little bit of wanderlust and a desire to get to know foreign countries and people. Working outdoors under the special conditions at sea and the ship itself still make up the charm of maritime shipping, at least for me.

My desire to work at sea already solidified during young years as a member of the navy youth at my place of birth Wilhelmshaven. This is where I learned my first sailor knot, cutter rowing and gained my first experienced on the water in an “optimist”. Ride-alongs on navy ships, a school internship on a buoy tender and handling the legendary “Mc-Stemm” wooden hatches during a vacation internship of the German Shipowners’ Association on a coaster on North and Baltic Sea voyages turned my wish to work at seas into a passion and a proper career planning. My professional path of maritime navigation began to run its course after 10^th grade with my vocational training as maritime rating…

It might sound a bit corny but seafaring is not a profession but a calling. Working on board a ship stands in opposition to the usual change between work time and past time. It is not a nine-to-five-job like a lot of jobs at land but requires a large amount of passion. Those who feel the passion for maritime navigation will always have a chance to make their way seafaring.

Even if it was a while back already, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to serve on German-flagged ships for quite some time during my service on board. I always had the feeling that if possible issues occurred in critical ports, support by the German flag was at hand. With the strong network of embassies and representations, there is hardly a port where one was or would be left alone in borderline cases. I always associate the German flag with legal certainty and quality.

The German flag offers legal certainty because of its, often badmouthed, administration. A legal certainty that, as such at least, I was not privileged to experience with other flags. Another strength is the support by the different departments of federal and states’ ministries. Here, the state represents the interests of the flag in international and national committees without having any commercial interests of its own.

Since the German flag stands in direct competition to commercial representatives and providers of other flags, its advantages have to be “sold” in a better way and made more public. If this gets advocated by all of those involved and is supported correspondingly, the German flag has a real chance and a future!