Submarine Wilhelm Bauer

The Wilhelm Bauer submarine, originally designated U-2540, is a Type XXI U-boat completed shortly before the end of World War II on 24 February 1945 and was sunk on 4 May without any patrol. It is the only floating example of U-Boot's Type XXI.

In 1957, after remaining more than 10 years on the floor of the Baltic Sea, near Flensburg, she was refloated and later overhauled at Howaldtswerke, Kiel, because Germany's commitments to NATO required small submarines to patrol the coasts. These submarines had to be heavily armed, difficult to detect, and have a high survivability. Many whole new subsystems had to be developed and tested on ships, a colossal task for the Cold War era.
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In such a way it was known that a platform was needed to test these systems to reach a good solution, especially to save costs. Thus, the U-2540 was refloated along with two other Type XXIII submarines and were put into service as research ships with different configurations, in the Bundesmarine, the German navy. It was at this time that he was called Wilhelm Bauer, the name of the designer of the first U-Boat Brandtaucher built by August Howaldt in 1850 in Kiel.

New systems such as engines, snorkels, compressors, mines, anchors, rescue devices, torpedoes, acoustic detection devices, decoys and much more were tested aboard the old U-2540, resulting in the new submarine types 205, 206 and 209 subsequently put into operation. Testing and research on board the Wilhelm Bauer significantly reduced development and troubleshooting time.

In 1970 the "Wilhelm Bauer" became a civilian spacecraft as a test bed and also participating in maneuvers as a target. Eventually the cell's fatigue and damage from several collisions made him unsafe and it was decided to end his career in 1982.

The "Wilhelm Bauer" was very popular with the crews. A group of enthusiasts saved the ship from scrapping and the non-profit association Technikmuseum Wilhelm Bauer was founded to preserve it.

In 1983 it was restored to its original World War II configuration and converted into a museum ship as part of the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, Germany.

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