Skip to main content

Thank You 500,000 readers

Cruises - Deilmann Sisters Receive Prison Sentence

June 17, 2016 the Deilmann sisters, Gisa and Hedda, recieved aprison sentence of two years and nine months without parole, according to the court PR.
This sentence can reportedly be appealed.
by Earl of Cruise
The DEUTSCHLAND was the last ocean going, international passenger vessel flying the German flag.
DEUTSCHLAND in Travemünde,Oct, 10th 2006 - © Gerd Wüsthoff
The sentence was given for attempted tax evasion of € 430tsd and false statements they and their mother made during the bankruptcy proceedings of PETER DEILMANN REEDEREI cruise company. Their mother got a sentence of one year and nine month with parole.
Just month prior to the bancrupcy, € 23mio in cash got "lost" according to the accounting papers I have seen from the liquidating manager, installed by the court. He tryed finding an investor for the company PETER DEILMANN REEDEREI and the DEUTSCHLAND as a package.
DEUTSCHLAND in Salaverry Peru - © Deilmann
The family-owned German cruise line, which the Deilmann sisters took over after their father passed in 2003, declared bankruptcy in 2010.
Prior to that the sisters tried to get a new second vessel, the project RUBIN, which their father once developed, into the water. When in discussion with potential partners, the sisters refused a joint venture, where they would have to accept a 51% new co-owner, with not only a second ship, but with the prospect of a growing fleet.
The company was back then still well regarded amoung their passengers and was known as the location of the ZDF TV feature `Das Traumschiff´. Which was Deilmann´s biggest marketing tool. And a number of passengers booked especially tours onboard the DEUTSCHLAND when the film production crew and the TV stars had been on borad fiming.
During a visit back in 2006 I heard the voice of an angry crewmember, while entering via the the passengers gate: "This company never ever again!" Later that day I knew why. The crew quarters have been a mess of pourly maintained "stables". Above it was all the 1920ties glitter and glamour, but behind the cutains - dust and rust.
The DEUTSCHLAND was "loaded" with a loan of € 65mio from the DEUTSCHE SCHIFFAHRTS BANK, a subsidiary of DEUTSCHE BANK.
The new owner which stepped in, has been the German fonds company AURELIUS. They generated within 24h a placement of shares of about € 70mio. They bought the ship and the company. During the following restructuring, employees in Neustadt have been sacked, most those who knew how to sell the cruises ... And within a fourtnigth they put in their costs and some other numbers which rose the depts to a new hight of € 45mio. These went into the account of AURELIUS.
The Deilmann sisters still hold some 5% of shares during these days.
AURELIUS resigned and did look for another investor to get rid of its mess they created. We all remember the reflagging discussion during the OLYMPIC games in London. This was a last blow.
A ship named DEUTSCHLAND flying a foreign flag of convinience and serving the German market? A marketing blow. Negativ press reactions. Further resigments of employees, amoung them managers. Passengers numbers declined rappidly.
Now AURELIUS sold the entity to CALLISTA. This new established fonds company had placed only one deal in the industry. A knowledge of tourism - definitely a now, as with AURELIUS. Andthey made the same deal as the previous fonds company. Creating a new fonds of € 60mio, which was sold "to stupid German money" ... Those investors now bought again the dream to be owner of the TRAUMSCHIFF ...
How lucky they have been. I have heard some of their voices: "The best investment than ever!"
CALLISTA came up with a rebuilding idea. The DEUTSCHLAND registered for 575 passengers, sailing with only 520 passengers maximum, as only feasable, and without balconies, in desperate need of maintenance, upgrading and refurbishing, should be boosted to 620 passengers. New cabins should be added and french balconies should installed.
The indoor pool still rusted away, because of a failed ventilation system there. The neccessary classification was somehow behind their horizon.
CALLISTA was not able to pay the rebuilding, as they went in the deal on the same track as AURELIUS. They paid the previous owner and put their new depts into the company and ship - now the depts rose to a mere of € 70mio. As security the vessel. But the vessel was only a mere of € 15mio at this time. I have the evidence from an inspector of a potential investor, who looked for buying the vessel and company.
The new owners sacked again employees and engaged people who had no idea of what they had to do, but got bigger salaries as even the Deilmann sisters, who now had no longer shares in the company.
Passenger numbers declined further and even the televison deal with ZDF was on peril. Arrogantly behaving they raced into a financial catastrophy.
When loans and wages could no longer be payed, as maintenance costs, and a former docking, the vessel was seized during a cruise.
Within hours CALLISTA declared bancrupcy for Reederei Deilmann. A court put installed a lawyer as new CEO and liquidator which begann again looking for an investor.
During this process CALLISTA went around as if they had it all in their hands, and approached different financing parties, consulters, investment companies and cruise industry members and offered the company and ship for sale on their behalf. Luckily they could be stoped, but caused great turbulences with their acting and price idea. And to top it all, they wanted still to be part of the mess they created at least.
My interested investment partners steped back as of the price asked for the vessel and the company, even when they wished to restablish the once bright company and the product DEUTSCHLAND. They wanted further adding a second vessel, second hand, and had been keen for a newbuilding.
The liquidator found a new investor in the USA who bought the vessel and chartered it out to UNIVERSITY AT SEA who named her WORLD ODYSSEY. He paid reported $ 21mio for a vessel worth only € 8mio back then. He had to make huge investments making her SOLAS compliant again. The company Reederei Deilmann was liquidated.
WORLD ODYSSEY, ex DEUTSCHLAND in Kiel, Lindenau Werft - source: Wikipedia
The problem with the SEMESTER AT SEA charter is, the vessel is not needed the whole year round. So the new owner was looking for a second charter party which is covering up his revenue for the vessel. He found the German tour operator PHOENIX REISEN. They will send ms DEUTSCHLAND for PHOENIX REISEN in the summer over the seas.
To me, I am not a nationalistic ... it is a joke that as vessel named DEUTSCHLAND is homeported in Nassau, Bahamas, a state far away from Germany, and flying a flag of convinience.
DEUTSCHLAND, with the new installed French Balconies in Tallinn Bay - source: Wikipedia
A big question is if the fonds companies will see the cort. As they both gave each a false paper to the securing and in their respective money deals engaged banks which declared a worth of € 100mio of the DEUTSCHLAND. The inspector who "produced" the paper for AURELIUS in first place may get his own trial ... As this paper is one of the reasons why the investors did their investments. A number of these AURELIUS and CALLISTA fonds investors have made their claims at courts in Germany.

https://www.schiffe-und-kreuzfahrten.de/deilmann/deilmann-zwillinge-muessen-ins-gefaengnis-ohne-bewaehrung/93889/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ships of State - BREMEN the shocking modern German Greyhound

When BREMEN , the first of the two, the world shocking last German Greyhounds , and ` Ships of State ´, was introduced in 1929 - BREMEN had provoking radical new streamlined lines and broke with any traditions. When asking todays public: what is a typical liner, BREMEN is named among the first five. Only ten years after the Versailles Peace Treaty , with 20,000,000,000,000.00 Goldmark anual reparations for the next 58 years, an occupation of the Ruhrgebiet , a raging inflation till 1923 (then introduction of the Rentenmark ), the resurging Germany and NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD back at the top again. And BREMEN and EUROPA had been financed private! Bank loans from German and US American banks, plus the liberation of frozen LLOYD capital from pre WWI. by Earl of Cruise BREMEN, in her first years with the squat funnels - courtesy coloured by Daryl LeBlanc The difference to EUROPA are the paired windows in the front of the promenade deck and the big ventilators, the last remains o...

Ocean Liners in Movies or Films at Sea (updated Nov 2017)

For liners and the shipping companies movies and films had been a top marketing tool Movies or Films and liners at sea, had been intriguing me since I have read about in my youth in LUXUSLINER - BILDER EINER GROSSEN ZEIT by Lee Server ( THE GOLDEN AGE OF OCEAN LINERS ). But earlier, mot only since my first crossing, I was keen watching movies with liners in it, and disapointed, which was an understatement, when I realized the films have been made in a set ashore in some movie "factory". That was after my first crossing.   by Earl of Cruise an essay in progress `Sabrina´, Humphrey Bogart in the office, while LIBERTÉ is sailing out of New York harbor - screenshot Ocean liners, especially those of the luxury category, had been the location of dramas, love stories, thrillers, suspense and catastrophies sinde film was born, or nearly. In this list, the most descriptions are taken from Wikipedia, as I guess no one can expect having seen all these films ... otherwise I w...

HISTORY - The CUNARD - WHITE STAR Liner rms QUEEN ELIZABETH (1938-1972)

Over years, in my early youth, the QUEEN ELIZABETH was shaping my mind for the perfect ocean liner, despite having made my first experiences with a liner onboard the HANSEATIC (1), ex EMPRESS OF SCOTLAND, ex EMPRESS OF JAPAN. When leaning at the rail of HANSEATIC entering the port, my eyes where every where and I wished to by a camera, I took all in. And when seeing the QUEEN ELIZABETH with my own eyes, the nice behaving young boy turned into a tomboy, that my grandmére was no longer able to tame ... I did draw quite a lot of looks, back then. I found, while on research, this article and thought it interesting publishing in my blog: written and published by John Sheperd at liverpoolships.org editing and comments by Earl of Cruise I ( John Shepard ) joined the CUNARD LINE in March 1962 as an Assistant Purser and sailed the QUEEN ELIZABETH throughout that year, before transferring to the Liverpool-based CARINTHIA in November, where I remained as Crew Purser for the next five...

ss NORMANDIE 1935 - 1942 IX

s s / te NORMANDIE starting from cold Owners: COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE BUILDERS: PENH Ö ET, St. Nazaire, France   by Stephen Carey © , editing by Earl of Cruise   This document is almost exclusively about the engineering aspects of NORMANDIE , mainly on how to start her up from cold. If you are looking for photos of the passenger spaces, there is a plethora of them on the web, in Facebook groups - Admirers of the ss Normandie , ss Normandie photographic file , The French Ocean Liners / Les Paquebots Fran ç ais , ss Normandie , GREAT LINERS OF THE PAST & PRESENT , and others, Pinterest and in articles about NORMANDIE here in the blog, please see at the end of the article. Using "ss" for NORMANDIE is quite incorrect, as NORMANDIE was a Turbo Electric vessel and not a steamship, therefore NORMANDIE should be adressed as "te".   by Earl of Cruise te / ss NORMANDIE berthed in Le Havre, Gare Maritime May 29th, 1935 - colouring courtesy ...

HISTORY - ts / ss BREMEN and ts / ss EUROPA

Germany’s two luxury liners, BREMEN and EUROPA , have not only played an important part in their country’s mercantile revival, but have added also an immortal chapter to the history of transatlantic travel. Copy from Shipping Wonders of the World   From part 6 , published 17 March 1936 editing by Earl of Cruise ss / ts BREMEN in her early years - Source: Shipping Wonders of the World/Bundespresse Archiv The PRIDE OF A NATION - the NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD quadruple-screw turbine express liner BREMEN . The keel of this ship was laid in June 1927. Her launch took place in August, 1928. In less than a year later, the Bremen made her first voyage to America, when she crossed the Atlantic from Cherbourg to New York in four days seventeen hours forty-two minutes, thus setting up a new record and gaining the coveted “Blue Riband”. During the passage the Bremen attained an average speed of 27.83 knots. ss / ts BREMEN in her early years - Source: W ikipedia For the pop...

HISTORY - AUSTRO AMERICANA the Austro-Hungary shipping line into the new world

Not many know about the Austro-Hungary shipping line, AUSTRO AMERICANA , which sailed out of Trieste to the Americas. Austro-Hungary and shipping? You may ask ... you may have heard about Vienna Walz, coffe house culture, Hotel Sacher and its famous chocolate cake, the Prater, chateau Schönbrunn, the Fiakers - the famous horse carriages and such things. But passenger shipping lines? There has been AUSTRO AMERICANA and ÖSTERREICHISCHER LLOYD , renamed in LLOYD TRIESTINO after 1918 and after purchased by EVERGREEN renamed in Italia Marittima. The actual company ÖSTERREICHISCHER LLOYD is a new formed management company situated in Austria.   by Earl of Cruise KAISER FRANZ JOSEH I. the biggest liner of AUSTRO AMERICANA - own collextion Parts of my family lived for a long time in the Austro-Hungary empire, which can be qualified as a "United Nations of the Balkan". Having traces into Austria-Hungay, the realm of Hungary in special, it is a pleasure for me making thes...

ss NORMANDIE 1935-1942 XII - The Most Beautiful Ocean Liner Ever Built

For many, or should I say for "a great many" Ocean Liner Lovers, NORMANDIE is the most beautiful liner ever built. Me, I am among those aficionados.   NORMANDIE was technically decades ahead of time. The vessel got implemented technologies that would have been copied by others, who then claimed to be the first to have. Alternative facts are not a modern days invention of a certain chrétien and his backward oriented entourage ... NORMANDIE´s interior was the peak of ART DECO in France, and was, still is, the peak of chic. Never again any liner, or passenger vessel, except NIEUW AMSTERDAM had been designed exterior and interior that strict in the "guide lines" of the ART DECO (Link in German) movement - as ART DECO is "only" a movement and not a school like BAUHAUS . Therefore the style was in a permanent "move" and development. NORMANDIE, the perfect ocean liner, Le Vaisseau de Lumière, Le Deesse de la Mer - courtsey coloured by Dary...

Starting rms MAURETANIA from cold

rms MAURETANIA, 1907, Cold Starting CUNARD LINE Ltd., Builders: SWAN, HUNTER & WIGHAM RICHARDSON. Newcastle on Tyne by Stephen Carey, engineer, editing by Earl of Cruise rm s M AURETANIA © Stephen Carey 1 Overview of machinery spaces 1.1 Boiler rooms MAURETANIA is (or was) a quadruple screw Cunard liner fitted with 2 single-ended and 23 double-ended boilers, operating at 195lb/in2.   These boilers are arranged six in 3 boiler rooms (4,3   & 2; note that Cunard numbers forward to aft compared to White Star which numbers aft to forward), and five in No1 Boiler Room (the foremost one) where the fine lines of the ship only allow 2 abreast at the forward end of this boiler room. No1 Boiler Room also houses the two single ended boilers used for hotel services and auxiliary supplies in port.   The double-ended boilers are fired for transatlantic passages up to full speed and primarily used for main propulsion. Combustion air for the boilers is pr...

HISTORY - RHEINGOLD the German luxury day express train

Between May 1928 and August 1939 the luxury day express train RHEINGOLD operated between Hoek van Holland and Basel as a FFD Pullman train of DEUTSCHE REICHSBAHN GESELLSCHAFT (DRG) and MITROPA. The name was mystic and elitarian. by Earl of Cruise   RHEINGOLD, the name of the most luxurious train ever of Germany - detail, own photo On May 15th, 1928 the luxury express train RHEINGOLD started for the first time, connecting Hoek von Holland, Netherlands, and Amsterdamn with Basel, Suisse. Name giving was the legendary treasure of the Nibelungen. This special service for most international travelers was an immidiate success. Advertisment for the RHEINGOLD created by Frank Newbould - collection Earl of Cruise For the most travelers in the RHEINGOLD meant the voyage in the luxury train more than being transported in high comfort. From their soft armchairs they could watch the pitoresque Rhine landscape, with wine villages, vine-growing slopes, forteresses and castles, and th...

HISTORY - the ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY sailing the South Atlantic

While on research for an article published in print in Jan/Feb 2017 eventually, about the CAP Express steamers of HAMBURG-SÜD (Wikipedia) HAMBURG SÜDAMERIKANISCHEDAMPFSCHIFFFAHRTSGESELLSCHAFT I had to look into the competitors and took advantage of creating seperate articles about. by Earl of Cruises ROYAL MAIL LINE cruise broshure of 1959 - own collection The first of these South America or Rio de la Plata route related articles is about the ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY which was a British shipping company founded in London in 1839 by the Scottisch business entrepreneur James MacQueen. The line's motto was ` Per Mare Ubique´ (everywhere by sea) - nobody ever should argue about the motto of Albert Ballin `Mein Feld ist die Welt´, both mottos are not ostentatious they express the same: I don´t want to be hindered by frontiers and my limit is the other shore or the sky. After good and bad times ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY became the largest shipping group in...