From her very first days on there have been very close ties between the STS DAR MŁODZIEŻY and Bremerhaven to such an extent that the town throughout those forty years has become kind of a second homeport.

It was particularly within the framework of the cooperation between the then Wyższa Szkoła Morska w Gdyni, today Universytet Morski, and Hochschule Bremerhaven that the ship during her respective visits reached so much attention in Bremerhaven.

However, also the idea of hosting special tall ships races and events in Bremerhaven developed by Hennig Goes, the late tourism manager of Bremerhaven, offered a very special maritime platform with the SAIL BREMERHAVEN from 1986 on and attracted the STS DAR MŁODZIEŻY to call at Bremerhaven as one of the most prominent regular participants.

Additionally the personal situation of the first commander of the STS Dar Młodzieży, Capt. Tadeusz Olechnowicz, who lived in the nearby Blexen and his care for the ship in the economically very difficult period in the 1990s by inducing the establishment of the ’Association of Friends of DAR MŁODZIEŻY Bremerhaven’ contributed to this special relation.

The City of Bremerhaven as partner

When the STS DAR MŁODZIEŻY started her service in 1982 not only as sail training vessel but also as the new ambassador of Poland at sea she obviously had to call first at the Polish Baltic port, Szczecin. Next on her maiden voyage came a visit to the neighbouring German Democratic Republic and her seaport Rostock/Warnemünde for at that time equally obvious political reasons. However the first and only port of call after winning the Tall Ships Races 1982 in her class as debutant on her return voyage home was Bremerhaven where she was enthusiastically welcomed and the donations of the City for the ship, the running rigging and the sail sewing machine, were formally presented. At the same time one call per year at Bremerhaven exempt of all expenses, dues, fees and costs was agreed, the beginning of the second homeport saga.

Thus with the exception of the Corona year 2020 DAR MŁODZIEŻY at least once a year moored at Bremerhaven throughout her 40 years and became a regular in Bremerhaven port.

Active role within the Universities’ Cooperation

In the seventies of last century Hochschule Bremerhaven had already welcomed her predecessor, the STS Dar Pomorza, in Bremerhaven as ambassador of Poland and the then Wyższa Szkoła Morska w Gdyni, when after three years of joint efforts the two partners finally were entering into their formal cooperation by signing the corresponding cooperation contract aboard on the occasion of her visit on the 12^th of June 1978 by their then Rektors, Prof. Daniel Duda and Prof. Hermann Solbrig.

Back in 1978 it was the then newly founded youngest German University of Applied Sciences, the Hochschule Bremerhaven, which was the fourth university of the Federal Republic of Germany to enter into formal relations with a Polish academic institution. This was possible only because in the early seventies, 25 years after the terror and disaster of the Second World War, the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Willy Brandt, had symbolically initiated a new phase between Poland and Germany with his historic knee-fall in Warsaw. In this way the two universities joined a future-oriented development which gained more and more momentum culminating on the 1^st of May 2004 when Poland became a full member of the European Union.

Already on the remarkable day of STS DAR MŁODZIEŻY being taken into service, forty years ago, on the 4^th of July 1982, which is America’s Independence Day !, the then Rektor of Hochschule Bremerhaven, Prof. Frerich van Dieken, in spite of all the restrictions and constraints of Martial Law reigning in Poland, found a way to be present when in Gdańsk shipyard the Polish flag on board the STS DAR MŁODZIEŻY was hoisted. So from her very beginning she was an integral and prominent partner for the cooperation. Already on her maiden voyage she called as first western port at Bremerhaven and from then on she provided stage and scene for many ceremonious events of Hochschule Bremerhaven and even served as polling station in June 2003 for the Polish citizens in the State of Bremen to cast their vote for Poland’s entry into the European Union.

Also within the scope of the exchange of teaching staff she plaid a very special role. Prof. Kapt. Manfred Hövener, father of the  STS Alexander von Humboldt, served on board under Capt. Tadeusz Olechnowicz to gain his personal sail training experience, whereas as visiting professor Prof. Hans Rummel was teaching Maritime Communication aboard for a number of shorter and two over eight months voyages, the ‘Colon ‘92’ and the ‘Osaka 1998’.

Tall Ships’ events in Bremerhaven

It was already in 1956 when the first Tall Ships' race was held. It was a race of 20 of the world's remaining large sailing ships intended to be a last farewell to the era of the great sailing ships.  But as the public interest proved to be really very intense the Sail Training International Association to direct the planning of future events was created. Since then every year the Tall Ships' Races have been organized in various parts of the world. The STS Dar Pomorza and from 1982 on the STS DAR MŁODZIEŻY were taking active, proud and successful part in most of them as the most prominent representative of maritime Poland.

In the eighties of last century then Hennig Goes, at that time the first developer of tourism for Bremerhaven, had the idea of organizing a kind of maritime festival directly after the Tall Ships’ Races with a final ‘Get Together’ of all the participating ships in one of the major ports as tourist attraction to promote the concept of sail training among the general public.

So in 1986 he invited the whole tall ships’ fleet to come to Bremerhaven for such a festival, named it ‘SAIL BREMERHAVEN 1986’ and made the STS DAR MŁODZIEŻY its prominent trademark symbol.  This event proved to be in all respects an overwhelming success and henceforth was copied by other maritime fairs like the ‘Hansesail Rostock’ or the ‘Sail Amsterdam’. Until now all in all nine such SAIL BREMERHAVEN events have been organized, always seeing the STS DAR MŁODZIEŻY taking the centre stage. Since by now the SAIL BREMERHAVEN has been organized every fifth year only some other smaller meetings for traditional ships have been organized in Bremerhaven like the ‘Lütte Sail’ and the ‘Maritime Days’ in the years in between and also here the STS DAR MŁODZIEŻY has always participated becoming the admired main focus and attractive centre point.

The Association of Friends of DAR MŁODZIEŻY Bremerhaven

When in 1992 the STS DAR MŁODZIEŻY under the command of Capt. Tadeusz Olechnowicz returned from her 7 months expensive voyage to America celebrating the 500 years of Columbus’ discovery by taking part in the regatta ‘COLON 92’, it was clear that the ship in order to continue her mission and to be kept properly underway needed an additional extra financial budget, revenue that at that time could only be made in offering places aboard for paying trainees. To this effect and other matters of the ship’s exploitation an organization based in the West was deemed to be necessary.

So on 21^st of March 1993, after long discussions and negotiations, thirteen citizens of Bremerhaven founded the ’Association of Friends of DAR MŁODZIEŻY‘ which thereafter served very successfully as some kind of promoting agency under its then president Heino Abrams - until after the SAIL 1995, when this president quitted his employment in Bremerhaven and unnoticedly slipped away from the association leaving it without any activities for nearly two years.

To avoid the dissolution of the association Capt. Tadeusz Olechnowicz and his wife again took initiative to give it a new start under the presidency of Prof. Hans Rummel in 1997, this time, however no longer offering traineeships, etc., which by then the Tourist Board of Bremerhaven had taken over, but instead concentrating on the assistance for the ship and her crew whenever need arose.

So over the past 25 years members of the association engaged during the annual calls of the STS DAR MŁODZIEŻY at Bremerhaven in taking cadets and crew members alike under their wings. Through donations and smaller equipment acquisitions like the first ARPA-radar on board, bicycles for the ship’s crew in port, a turning lathe for the ship’s carpenter, a satellite television receiving equipment, washing machines, tumblers and many other, the friends of DAR MŁODZIEŻY at Bremerhaven tried to fill the gap where the normal university budget failed.

This jubilee year, e.g., they will sponsor the refurbishment of the lounge room of the permanent crew, a major 10 000 € investment.

Members of the Association meet regularly either on board the STS DAR MŁODZIEŻY when she calls at Bremerhaven, or in their meeting place, the Yacht Club of Nordenham, the city to the other side of the Weser where their late honorary member Capt. Tadeusz Olechnowicz lived and has found his final resting place in the churchyard of Blexen.

Hans Rummel

Bremerhaven, 20^th November 2021