Change of management at the Federal Maritime Control Centre

With the appointment of Rainer Siemers as the new head, the management of the Federal Maritime Coordination Centre will now lie with the Federal Police until 2025. It will alternate between the Federal Police and customs every three years.

The Federal Maritime Coordination Centre is part of the Joint Maritime Situation Centre in the Maritime Safety Centre, which is based in Cuxhaven. The federal police, customs, the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food, the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration, the German Navy, the waterway police of the five coastal states and the Central Command for Maritime Emergencies work together in this joint institution of the federal government and the five coastal states (Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein). They pool their operational expertise and coordinate maritime operations in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. The information required for maritime security is collated here and used to initiate operational measures. The management of both day-to-day operations and special situations is the responsibility of the respective local and competent authority.

The main tasks of the Maritime Safety Centre services include maritime surveillance in the North and Baltic Seas. This is carried out by the emergency vehicles of the respective authorities or departments at sea and from the air, reports from shipping (e.g. from pilots) and from the traffic centres as central contact points for shipping (radar, AIS, radio).

First Chief Superintendent of Police Rainer Siemers succeeds Government Director Ina Lüssenhop, who is now taking over as Head of the Personnel, Budget and Organisation Department of the Hamburg Main Customs Office. The new head worked at the Federal Police Sea Directorate in Neustadt in Holstein until the end of 2021 and has held various positions at the Federal Police Headquarters and the Bad Bramstedt Federal Police Directorate during his time of service. Most recently, as Head of the Maritime Operations Staff Unit at the Federal Police Sea Directorate, he was responsible for the deployment of the Federal Police in the maritime sector.