Model of an air traffic boat FLB 519

• Kröger brothers yacht and motor boat yard in Rostock-Warnemünde 1941/42
• scale: 1:40
• length: 55 cm
• model builder: Adolf Sahlmann, Hamburg

In 1928 the brothers Hans and Karl Kröger founded the Kröger brothers’ shipyard in Warnemünde during the time of the global economic crisis. During the early years it produced small boats and sailing boats. After winning a construction competition arranged by the German Sailing Association with the design of a sharpie dinghy in 1931, the shipyard achieved international recognition and received commissions for sports yachts, lifeboats and police boats. Following the forced armaments policy imposed by the National Socialists after they came to power in 1933, the shipyard was awarded commissions from the Reich Ministry of Aviation to build air traffic boats (“FLB boats”) from 1937 onwards.

The rapid set-up of the air force required multi-motored air traffic boats (“FLB boats”) for the purposes of flight safety and for rescuing air crews from aircraft that had crashed over the sea.

The Kröger shipyard developed different types of boats for the “Ship and boat commando” of the German air force in Kiel. When war broke out the construction of civil boots completely made way for the production of military assets and the Kröger shipyard became a pure arms factory. As the war progressed most experts were called up to the military. The shortage of personnel also led to the deployment of foreign forced labourers, concentration camp detainees and Soviet prisoners of war in the Kröger shipyard from 1943. The opportunities to extend production in Warnemünde were soon exhausted. In order to be able to fulfil the commissions licences to build FLB boats were awarded to Denmark, Holland and France. The owners set up a subsidiary in Stralsund. A total of around 1,000 civil and military aeroplanes had been built by the end of the war.