Nils Theinert explores the history of German Navy submarines - with a focus on the people who worked on them. In cramped, noisy and cold conditions, they perform outstandingly.

Living and working in a confined space, without daylight or fresh air: this is what everyday life is like for submariners. Add to that the cold, mould and noise, and it becomes exhausting. Historian Nils Theinert from the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven is researching the topic of submarines. In his recently completed doctoral thesis at the University of Bremen, he wanted to find out how the German Navy developed its submarines and to what extent it took the needs of the crews into consideration.

After the Second World War, Germany was banned from building submarines for ten years. Then