First ship christening for Rheinmetall

On Wednesday, 29 April 2026, the last of the German Navy's five new Class 130 corvettes (second batch) was christened Lübeck by Huong Nguyen, partner of Lübeck City President Henning Schumann, at Rheinmetall's Blohm+Voss site in Hamburg.

On behalf of the K130 consortium (Naval Systems, Thyssen-Krupp Marine Systems and German Naval Yards Kiel), the management of Rheinmetall's Naval Systems division organised the naming ceremony in Hamburg.

The naming ceremony took place in the presence of Vice Admiral Axel Deertz, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations and Commander of the Fleet and Support Forces, and Mr Jürgen Giefer, Director of the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support. Mr Jan Lindenau, Mayor of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, and Mr Armin Papperger, Chairman of the Executive Board of Rheinmetall AG, and Mr Tim Wagner, CEO of Rheinmetall's Naval Systems division, were of course also present. The latter two gentlemen emphasised the good cooperation within the K130 consortium and the importance of such shipbuilding projects for the defence capability of our country and our NATO partners. „We at Rheinmetall are ready for battle,“ emphasised the CEO.

In his speech, Vice Admiral Deertz reminded the audience with all due politeness of the delays in the project and emphasised that ships in dock are not a deterrent.

After all, the bottle smashed on the bow of the ship at Rheinmetall's first christening without any problems on the first attempt.

The fifth new corvette Lübeck (side number F 269) is also the fifth warship with this name in the 178-year history of German fleets. The frigate „Lübeck“ (side number F 214) was the last representative of the Bremen class (F122) to be decommissioned on 15 December 2022. The frigate known as „Lucky Lübeck“ travelled a total of 863,449 nautical miles during her 32 years of service.

Its predecessor ship from the days of the German Navy had been commissioned in 1963 as „Geleitboot 55“, and in 1966 all six units of this class were redesignated as „Frigate F120“. From then on, the Lübeck (side number F 224) belonged to the Köln class. The ship was decommissioned in 1988 and sold to Turkey as a spare parts store.

There was also a Lübeck in the Imperial Navy, which was commissioned as a small cruiser in 1905. She had a chequered history, taking part in naval battles in the Baltic Sea during the First World War, where she was both a hard hitter and a hard loser, but always remained a happy Lübeck. In 1920, she was delivered to Great Britain under the Treaty of Versailles and then scrapped in Germany in 2022 - 2023.

The first Lübeck was built in 1844 with two steam-driven side wheels and sails as a cargo ship in Leith. In 1848, she was sold to Hamburg, got four cannons on board and was incorporated into the newly founded First Imperial Fleet as the wheeled corvette Lübeck. She took part in the naval battle near Heligoland on 4 June 1849 and fired „a good 17 shots of grenades and bullets“ (quote from Admiral Brommy's battle report) on her Danish opponent, incidentally without damage to friend or foe. After the fleet was disbanded, she was sold back to England in December 1852 and scrapped in 1858.

The name Lübeck seems to guarantee happy service times „with a planned end“. The festive and very successful christening ceremony suggests another „Lucky Lübeck“.

Text/Photos: Uhl