Remembering the Hamburg storm surge 60 years ago
In the night of 16 to 17 February 1962, a severe storm surge engulfed northern Germany. In Hamburg, numerous dikes broke and about a third of the city was flooded. The area of the Lower Elbe and in particular the Elbe island of Wilhelmsburg were hit especially hard - and so was RAEDER-VOGEL.
Hamburg's biggest disaster of the post-war period cost 315 people their lives, thousands became homeless and lost everything. The flood caught the city's inhabitants unprepared. People are used to high water levels, but no one anticipated dike breaches and there were no separate warnings or notices to the population. In the course of the night until early morning, almost all dikes were flooded and broke in 60 places. A large-scale rescue operation with 20,000 helpers and the involvement of the military tried to prevent the worst and save the inhabitants trapped by the water. Our site was also hit by the floods. Production came to a standstill.
Today, 60 years later, Hamburg is well positioned in terms of flood protection. And we too - as one of the largest employers on the Elbe island - are still at our old location in Wilhelmsburg and remain loyal to it.