History of the Inventor: On 29.8.1914, the Commander of the Naval Aviation Departments was appointed, who in 1916 became Commander of the Naval Aviation Departments, later Chief of Naval Aviation and to whom the commanders of the aircraft were subordinated. The naval flight chief was responsible for the provision of all flight personnel and for fulfilling the military requirements for seaplanes and ground organisation. The Naval Air Force consisted of seaplane and naval land flight departments, seaplane and naval land flight stations, training and special units as well as front units of the naval pilots. The seaplane stations also included floating seaplane stations, i.e. aircraft mother ships, and the land-based flight stations also included the fortress (land) flight stations and the Wainoden indoor protection station. (Cf. Hildebrand, Hans H.: Die organisatorische Entwicklung der Marine sowie Stellenbesetzung 1848 bis 1945. Volume 2, Osnabrück 2000, p. 8; Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (Ed.): Deutsche Militärgeschichte in sechs Voländen, Volume 5, Munich 1983, p. 300f.) During the First World War, seaplane stations were built on the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. Some of the stations were located in occupied Belgian territory (e.g. sea flight stations Flanders I and II) and Russian territory (e.g. sea flight station Kerch) or on the territory of allies, e.g. the Ottoman Empire (e.g. sea flight station Chanak). Among the North Sea's seaplane stations were: Borkum Flandern I (=Seeflugstation Zeebrügge) Flandern II (=Seeflugstation Ostend) Helgoland List/Sylt Norderney (See Köhler, Karl: Strukturungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, Manuskript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1866, S. 5. according to this, the command of the II Seaflieger-Abteilung included the front flight stations Borkum, Norderney, Helgoland and List as well as the air base Tönning. For the history of these sea flight stations see ibid. pp. 20-23 (Borkum), 24-26 (Norderney), 27-29 (Helgoland), 30f (List). For the history of the two naval flying stations in Flanders see Köhler, Karl: Strukturungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1867, pp. 5-7 (Flanders I), 8-10 (Flanders II). There is no record of the naval flying station Flanders III (naval airfield Nieuwmunster/Neumünster), see ibid., pp. 11-13. On the organisation of the air forces of the naval corps in Flanders see also Hildebrand, Hans H.: Die organisatorische Entwicklung der Marine sowie Stellenbesetzung 1848 bis 1945, Volume 3, Osnabrück 2000, pp. 60-62.) The sea flight stations at the Baltic Sea included: Angernsee (near Engure, west of Riga, Latvia) Apenrade Arensburg (Kuressaare, Ösel/Saaremaa Island, Estonia) Bug on Rügen Flensburg (see RM 113) Hadersleben (moved to Apenrade in March/April 1915), see RM 112/13) (Kiel-)Holtenau Köslin-Nest (Koszalin, Poland) Liebau (Liepâja, Latvia) Papenholm/Papensholm (west of Kihelkonna, island Ösel/Saaremaa, Estonia) Putzig (Puck, Poland (since 1919)) Reval (Tallinn, Estonia) Stralsund and Wiek on Rügen Warnemünde Wiek on Rügen (see Stralsund) Windau (Ventspils, Latvia) (On the history of these naval flying stations see Köhler, Karl: Gliederungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, Manuskript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1866, p. 46 (Hadersleben), 47 (Apenrade), 48-50 (Flensburg), 51-53 (Holtenau), 56 (Warnemünde), 57f (Bug on Rügen, Stralsund and Wiek on Rügen), 59f (Köslin-Nest), 61f (Putzig), - subsequent stations were built on occupied territory - 75f (Libau), 79-81 (Windau), 82f (Angernsee), 84 (Arensburg), 85 (Papensholm), 87 (Reval).) (Due to unfavourable geographical and meteorological conditions, the main operation of the station was relocated from Stralsund to Wiek on Rügen in 1916. In Stralsund, a partial operation was maintained. See also RM 112/170, Incidents 6 Nov. 1915 and Köhler, Karl: Gliederungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1866, p. 57.) Among the sea flight stations on the Mediterranean were: Agha Liman and Mersina (southern coast of Anatolia, north of the eastern tip of Cyprus) Chanak (on the southern shore of the Dardanelles near Canakkale) Xanthi (northern shore of the Aegean Sea, Greece (since 1920), see RM 110/22) (On the geographical location and history of the naval flight stations, see Köhler, Karl: Strukturungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1867, p. 64f, 70f (Chanak), 76f (Mersina). Only the stock RM 110 (RM 110/22) contains a record of the Xanthi sea flight station, for the Xanthi sea flight station see also ibid. p. 79f. For the organization of the seaplanes within the framework of the Sonderkommando Turkey see Hildebrand, Hans H.: Die organisatorische Entwicklung der Marine sowie Stellenbesetzung 1848 bis 1945, Volume 3, Osnabrück 2000, p. 63f.) The seapilot stations on the Black Sea were among the most important: Babadag (Romania) Duingi (near Constanta, Romania) Kawak/Kavak (eastern bank of the Bosporus) Kertsch (Crimea, Ukraine) Konstanza/Constanza (Constanta, Romania) Odessa (Ukraine) Sebastopol/Sewastopol (Crimea, Ukraine) Varna (Varna, Bulgaria) (For the geographical location and history of the sea flight stations see Köhler, Karl: Structure and Organisation History of the Naval Air Force, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1867, S. 64 and 78 (general), 73 (Kawak), 81f (Varna), 83 (Constanza), 84 (Sebastopol), 85 (Duingi), 86 (Babadag).) The floating seaplane stations included: S.M.H. Answald S.M.H. Glyndwr (see RM 99) S.M.H. Oswald (see also RM 99) S.M.H. Santa Elena S.M.S. Stuttgart (see RM 110/62) (On the history of the floating naval flight stations see Köhler, Karl: Strukturungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftstreitkräfte, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1866, p. 99f (general), 102f (S.M.H. Santa Elena), 104f (S.M.H. Answald), 106 (S.M.H. Oswald), 107 (S.M.H. Glyndwr). The S.M.S. Stuttgart was a Small Cruiser converted into an aircraft mother ship (also known as an aircraft cruiser), see ibid., p. 101.) The naval land flight stations included: Barge Großenhain Hage Kiel Nordholz-Cuxhaven Schlüterhof-Tuckum Speckenbüttel-Geestemünde Tondern Wainoden (see also RM 116/193) Wilhelmshaven-Wangerooge (On the history of the land flight stations see Köhler, Karl: Strukturungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1866, p. 54f. (Fortress Land Flight Station Kiel); Köhler, Karl: Strukturungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1867, p. 98-101 (general), 102f (Nordholz), 104f (Barge), 106f (Hage), 108f (Tondern), 110 (Speckenbüttel), 138-140 (Wilhelmshaven). Processing note: The classification of the stock took place in a first step by differentiating between seaplane flight stations, aircraft mother ships (= floating seaplane flight stations) and naval land flight stations in order to show in particular the group of aircraft mother ships separately. The second - and central - classification level is represented by the individual stations or aircraft mother ships. In this way, the overdelivery for a station can be determined. In the case of the maritime stations Flanders I and Flanders II, a more detailed classification at third level was also necessary. In these cases, war diaries, reports and orders/instructions, technical documentation and, in the case of Flanders II, personnel matters, as well as various documents form subordinate classification points. The classification level 'Miscellaneous documents' had to be created because of the heterogeneity of some files. For war diaries in several volumes, corresponding volume sequences were created. The formation of series was dispensed with. In principle, the archival processing was based on the processing of the related stock RM 110 (Command Posts of the Naval Air Force). A provisional finding aid book was available for the inventory, but it did not contain any notes. In addition, titles had to be converted several times (see explanations below). The classification of the preliminary finding aid into seaplane stations and naval land stations was supplemented by the classification point of the floating seaplane stations (aircraft motherships) and deepened in the case of the stations Flanders I and Flanders II (see above). Due to the otherwise retained classification and sorting of the provisional finding aid book, the classification largely coincides with the (ascending) numbering of the files, since the files were sorted and signed on the basis of the stations in the course of the provisional recording. File titles such as "Ganz Geheim" were dissolved and archived titles were created instead. If due to the heterogeneous content only the possibility existed to form a title such as "Various affairs", more extensive content notes were written. In the title field of war diaries, additions such as "Ausfertigung für den Admiralstab der Marine" and "Entwurf" were added in brackets to make it possible to distinguish between the war diaries of the Admiral Staff and those of the respective stations. The latter were only partially identified as drafts by the file-maintaining bodies; an addition to the title of the record was only made in these cases. A further addition to the titles of the war diaries - which necessarily had to be included - was the excerpts. All war diaries were indexed uniformly, taking into account these additions in the title recording. The additions to the title also made it justifiable not to record the organizational unit in charge of the records, since the title specification makes it possible to distinguish between the war diaries of the Admiral Staff and those of the war stations. The (volume sequence) titles each contain the name of the corresponding station; the redundancy with the classification points was accepted in BASYS S for the purpose of searchability. The tape sequence numbers were created for archiving purposes, which can mean that they may differ from those on the file covers. If, for example, only volumes 3, 4 and 5 of a war diary have been preserved, these were recorded as volumes 1, 2 and 3. In the field "File number" in BASYS S only the "Lu", "Ef" and "MK I" file numbers and old signatures (see below) were noted. Other file numbers (e.g.: Ca VIII), some of which also existed, were not included, since they were only present in parts and the field file number in these cases was already assigned the MK I signature. However, the corresponding information can be reconstructed using the file covers. In the case of files in the former folder form, the lid was severed and placed on top in the folder. It is unclear to what extent the MK I numbers are actually file numbers and not rather old signatures. The following indications speak for the latter: - The MK I numbers have been applied in a different colour than the A or C file numbers, which were partly applied in the same colour - and presumably at the same time - with the title - Provided that MK I numbers were present, there was usually also a sticker "Archiv der Marine. War records." the MK I numbers could have been signatures of the Marine Archives. - MK I numbers are comparatively consistently available, as if it were a complete transmission, while large gaps can be observed in the area of A and C file numbers. The latter appears more plausible in view of the cassation decisions made during the (first) archiving in the Navy archives and due to war losses. - A deeper classification or structuring of the MK I signatures does not exist, rather more than 300 consecutive numbers are available, whereas A and C file numbers are partly more deeply structured (e.g. "Ca"). The latter seems more probable for the registry of the Commander of the Naval Corps Fliers (Kofl. M.K.) than a purely sequential numbering. The attempt to reconstruct the file plan on the basis of the preserved file covers appears very difficult, if not impossible, due to large gaps. The F numbers (for files or subject) and any existing PG numbers were entered in separate old signature fields in the Old signature field. It should be noted that an F number usually includes several files; F numbers can therefore occur several times. The old signatures of RM 112/49-56 from the RM 110 inventory were also included (formerly RM 110/612-619). An index of objects, places and persons was not compiled. Description of the holdings: After the end of the First World War, the documents of the disbanded naval stations, including the various commanders of the naval pilots, were collected in the War History Department of the Admiral Staff of the Navy, which had already been established on 15 February 1916, for the purpose of establishing a new naval archive. From 1919 the name of the naval archive was changed to "Head of the Institute for Naval History and Chairman of the Naval Archive". A second renaming took place on 22 January 1936 in "Kriegswissenschaftliche Abteilung der Marine". However, this did not belong to the Reichsarchiv, but was subject until 31 March 1934 to the Inspectorate of Naval Education, then to the Chief of Naval Management, and later as a subordinate authority to the Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine. During the Second World War, naval records were moved to Tambach Castle near Coburg on 22 November 1943. After the end of the war, the archives were confiscated by US troops and taken to London. There the files were filmed on a large scale, combined into bundles, provided with consecutive F-numbers ("Faszikel", "File" or "Fach") and partly with a seven-digit number with the prefixed letters PG ("Pinched from the Germans"). The archives were then handed over to the British Admiralty. In the 1960s, the marine files were returned to the Federal Republic of Germany as part of the file return process and were transferred to the Document Centre of the Military History Research Office (MGFA) in Freiburg. On the basis of an interministerial agreement between the Federal Minister of Defence and the Federal Minister of the Interior from 1968, the files were transferred from the Document Centre to the Federal Archives. They were finally transferred to the Federal Archives Military Archives, which had been moved from Koblenz to Freiburg. (See the inventory description for RM 110; Author: Michael Weins) The inventory comprises 234 storage units from various sea and land flight stations of the Imperial Navy. With two exceptions (RM 112/44, 137), the duration of the files does not extend beyond the period between 1914 and 1918, i.e. the First World War and the immediate post-war period. Most of the war diaries of the individual stations - both the (draft) copies kept at the stations and the copies for the admiral's staff - have survived; only war diaries of several stations are available. An exception to this is the tradition of the maritime flight stations Flanders I and Flanders II, which also contain reports and documents on personnel and technology. The tradition of the Flanders II seafaring station thus forms the largest portion in RM 112 (53 files). Of the sea flight stations (Kerch, Odessa and Sevastopol) which were not put into operation until 1918 as a result of the occupations in the Ukraine, as well as the stations in Turkey (Agha Liman/Mersina, Chanak and Kawak), Bulgaria (Varna) and Romania (Babadag, Duingi and Constanza), only one or two war diaries are available. Content characterization: War diaries, orders of the day, weekly reports and daily reports are available from various sea flight stations. In addition, collections of orders and activity reports, as well as files on weapons technology and questions of deployment and personnel matters have been handed down from the Flemish Flanders II seaport station. The naval land flight stations are represented with war diary documents. A large part of the documents may have been transferred to the Luftarchiv at that time and destroyed in 1945. The war diaries, reports and commands available from several sea flight stations in the eastern Baltic Sea region (Angernsee, Arensburg, Liebau, Papenholm, Windau and floating sea flight stations S.M.H. Answald and S.M.H. Santa Elena) offer partly illustrated information on the preparation and execution of the "Enterprise Albion". In 1916 and 1917 reconnaissance flights and partly also bombing raids took place especially from the Angernsee seaport station on Riga Bay, which were partly documented photographically. The Russian warships off Arensburg were photographed several times (RM 112/2-5), as well as the destruction of the Russian radio station on Runö (RM 112/4). Since the "Company Albion" is to be regarded as the first joint operation of the German armed forces, i.e. a combined army, navy and partly also air force operation, the relevant documents in inventory RM 112 form an important supplement for research, as they document the role of the air forces (operating under supreme command of the Navy). The files on personnel and technical matters received from the Flanders II naval flying station describe - despite the existing gaps in transmission - several aspects of the everyday operation and profile of a naval flying station and can be used as examples for other naval flying stations. However, it must be pointed out that the equipment and operational profile of the maritime flight stations in Flanders differed from those behind the front due to their proximity to the western front. State of development: Online-Findbuch Scope, Explanation: Stock without increase 5.4 lfm 234 AE Citation method: BArch, RM 112/...
