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Corvette squadron in Rostock-Warnemünde
Photo: Bernd Wüstneck / picture alliance / dpa
In every bankruptcy lies an opportunity.
At least that's how Vice Admiral Carsten Stawitzki, the influential head of the armaments department in the Berlin Ministry of Defense, sees it.
Last week, the naval officer sent a confidential letter to “dear colleagues” at the ministry.
The letter is available to SPIEGEL.
The bankruptcy of the MV shipyards offered the Bundeswehr a "unique opportunity," he wrote, "to take over parts of the existing shipyard infrastructure" and thus "to cover the future repair needs of the Navy."
He had bolded the two words 'unique opportunity'.
Why is?
In January, the MV shipyards filed for bankruptcy.
The company belonging to the Asian tourism group Genting Hong Kong operated three shipyards in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: in Stralsund, Wismar and Rostock.
Stralsund has now been sold, and the approximately 2,000 employees at the other two locations have been transferred to transfer companies.
The Kiel shipyard Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), which specializes primarily in the construction of submarines and can hardly meet international demand, is interested in the Wismar site.
Navy suffers
The Bundeswehr has now registered an interest in the Rostock MV shipyard.
The Navy has been suffering from a shortage of repair capacities for years.
After the global financial crisis, the then CDU Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière halved the staff of the two naval arsenals in Wilhelmshaven and Kiel in 2011, where the warships are regularly overhauled.
With the war in the Ukraine, the "consequent increase in the material operational readiness of the Bundeswehr" has now "gained more importance than ever," Stawitzki said in his letter.
The capacities of the naval arsenal are of "essential importance".
more on the subject
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Insolvent shipbuilders: Genting is out of the sale of the Bremerhaven Lloyd shipyard
Shipyard crisis: Chinese owner of MV Werften is preparing its own bankruptcy
The ministry, the naval command and the Koblenz procurement office of the Bundeswehr, which is responsible for the naval arsenals, have already examined the purchase of the Rostock shipyard "with a consistently positive result", including the profitability.
And Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht also approved further investigations in a “table discussion” at the beginning of April in order to “consolidate the necessary decision in a reliable manner”.
The insolvency administrator has now allowed the Bundeswehr to extend the deadline for submitting an offer to the beginning of May.
If the ministerials have their way, the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks should buy the Rostock shipyard and then rent it out to the ministry.
According to current considerations, about 500 of the 800 employees of the Rostock rescue company could then be taken on by the Kiel naval arsenal as civil servants or employees in the long term.
At the same time, the Bundeswehr would create a number of training positions there.
According to the Bundeswehr, the SPD prime minister in Schwerin, Manuela Schwesig, is very impressed by the plans.
If the deal goes through, the five corvettes from the neighboring Warnemünde naval base in Rostock could be serviced.
The warships have to be completely overhauled about every three years.
Cost point: around 20 million euros each.