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Album: German Submarines
Image: 169 / 473
Date: 2010-04-15 15:27:46
Tags: Bremerhaven, Germany, Submarines, Type XXI, U 2540

Technology Museum U-Boat WILHELM BAUER

The U-Boat WILHELM BAUER is a memorial of international rank in the history of technology.

As the last remaining example of the U-Boat type XXI, it represents the world's first true submarine vehicle.
All older U-Boats were dive boats, which were only fast enough on the surface to get close to enemy ships.
U-Boat WILHELM BAUER contains a bunch of technological innovations that originating in Germany, revolutionized submarine construction all over the world.

1906, U 1, the first submarine of the German Navy was put into service.
1945, almost 40 years later, submarine WILHELM BAUER was launched as U 2540. This type was the most dangerous submarine weapon of the Second World War, which was finished before it could go into service.

1982/84, so another 40 years later, advances in submarine technology made the U-Boat WILHELM BAUER in turn obsolete and ready for the museum. The active submarines of today in the West and in the East are even more dangerous weapons.

The U-Boat WILHELM BAUER is not a harmless memorial of technology history. It does not invite to nostalgic delight of yesterday's technology, but to sober reflection about our handling of the technology of today. It is not the concealment of history but the clear description of history from which we can learn.

Technological advances does not only have useful but also dangerous impacts:
- boosts the output of machines
- boosts the force of weapons
- is the engine of the economy
- contaminates the environment
- creates new jobs
- lays off employees
- extends life expectancy (e.g. through advances in medicine)
- endangers life (e.g. through higher accident risks)

From the history of technology we can learn,
- that our economy can not be competitive without technological advances and would collapse.
- that because of that we can not abandon technological advances.
- that we have to use technological advances for the humanisation of work and containment of environmental damage, work place hazards and accidental hazards. This does not regulate itself, but has to be politically wanted and steered.
- that the technological advance can not be reverted once reached. It is overtaken by more advance.
- that the constant boost to the strength of weapons can not be contained through technical means.
- that because of this, even below the nuclear threshold, every armed conflict will be more awful and cruel than the previous.
- that the prevention of wars and the protection of peace is the most important duty of politicians and the voters who elect them.

The museum cannot offer the patent remedy to peace, but it unequivocally clarfies that:

There is no alternative to securing peace.