"... Herr Lohmann has made some interesting communications in his speech with regard to the history of the origin of the German Ocean Shipping Federation, and I should like to add a few words about the workshop from which the 'Deutschland' and 'Bremen' sprang. We had been forced to admit for some time past, that owing to the continued duration of the war the need of certain building materials was becoming increasingly urgent. "From the conversational remarks 'it might be possible,' and 'we really ought to,' arose the decision to consider seriously the possibility of a new kind of trading vessel. "The decision was no easy one, not merely because we feared the difficulty of construction, but because we hardly dared to place a fresh load on our building yards, which were already heavily overburdened with war orders. But necessity teaches how to beg,--and also how to construct! We next tried to work on the foundations of our war boats, in the hope that by this means we should lessen the constructional work. We found, however, that on these lines reliable tonnage capacity and carefully measured space were not to be attained. "Our leading constructors advised me, therefore, to go radically to work, and not to try and make a trader out of a warship, but to create a new type of trading boat altogether. The shape of this was to be made full and rounded, and exact calculations gave us a better tonnage, much to our surprise and pleasure, than we had anticipated at the commencement of our project. With wild enthusiasm our constructors completed their plans, and soon we stood face to face with a picture whose transformation into reality would express our every wish. "... Herr Krupp von Bohlen and the Directors seized on our proposal with the greatest energy ... and declared that a boat of this type must most certainly be produced, and in the shortest possible space of time, that moreover the Germania Docks would begin directly on the construction of the boat on their own responsibility. "... Everything went like clockwork.... There remains only one thing more for me to say. That we succeeded in completing the first boat in so short a space of time is due in a great measure to our principal firm and to our contractors, who delivered all our building materials and necessary fittings in spite of the other great demands that were made upon them, with astonishing rapidity. "I wish particularly to express my appreciation that all the dealings with the German Ocean Shipping Federation, and later with the staff of the boat, were completed in the most friendly of spirits. Both Shipping Federation and command staff have met all our proposals with the greatest confidence. "It is owing to this intelligent and broad-minded preference that the rapidity of the construction was made possible, and that the trial voyages went so smoothly. With the greatest confidence, therefore, we saw the ship undertake her first voyage.