Berlin. It has been official since the end of September: a month ago, Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) officially promised the coastal location of Bremerhaven 1.35 billion euros in order to use the money to build a central logistics hub for the Western defense alliance NATO on the North Sea by 2031.
By the end of the year, 160 million euros are expected to flow into the project dubbed the “Deployment Hub” for construction work, as Matthias Magnor, CEO of the Bremen port operator BLG, announced to the Handelsblatt - the increasing threat from Russia due to the Ukraine war that has been going on for years will not tolerate any delay.
Germany's second largest port would thus play a central role in the event of defense. From there, 800,000 soldiers would have to be channeled “towards NATO’s eastern flank,” said General Jochen Deuer, commander of the Bundeswehr’s Logistics Command, as he explained the investment order to the Bundesvereinigung Logistik (BVL) industry association in Berlin.
According to Deuer, an additional 150 to 250 containers of military equipment would have to be processed via the hub per day. At the same time, it is important to provide for the population, he emphasized. “Resilience begins before the crisis,” is how the general described the billion-dollar project for Bremerhaven.
But the ambitious plan of NATO and the Bundeswehr is threatened by a state-owned company: Deutsche Bahn (DB). A few days ago, its subsidiary DB InfraGo, which is responsible for the rail network and train stations, announced that it would not be renewing the 74 kilometers between Bremen and Bremerhaven in need of renovation next year. The Deutsche Bahn subsidiary is now planning to start the so-called corridor renovation in 2032, i.e. exactly the year after the planned commissioning of the “deployment hub”.
NATO and the Bundeswehr can hardly be happy with this, because without a well-functioning rail network it will be difficult to fully utilize the planned hub. “The surrounding area needs a sustainable infrastructure,” says the Bundeswehr. “In addition, connections to railway lines and airports must work.”
This is exactly what the Bremen port operator BLG, which has repeatedly presented to the Ministry of Defense since December 2023, scored points in its application. “We have 1,500 double-decker wagons, 200 flat wagons and seven inland terminals,” says BLG boss Magnor, listing his transport options. He also highlights a BLG marshalling yard south of Berlin.
In the near future, however, Deutsche Bahn, as the operator of the track network, which is trying to secure the Bundeswehr's transport orders through its freight railway subsidiary DB Cargo, is likely to deprive its competitor BLG of these advantages, at least temporarily. Not only will the railway line between Bremen and Bremerhaven remain vulnerable to failure for another six years. In addition, disruptions are to be expected on the port's only rail connection during the subsequent planned construction period. All of this can also have an impact on NATO's operational readiness.
When asked, a spokeswoman for InfraGo tried to appease: “Where repairs to the route are urgently needed, we carry them out earlier,” she says. During the subsequent complete renovation, it is planned to keep the route open at least on one track.
But before the logistics hub can function, there are still numerous other challenges that need to be overcome. A total of 42 measures are planned in Bremerhaven to upgrade the logistics hub for the military, says Magnor. These include a new crane known as a “heavy-duty bridge”, a connecting canal including a swing bridge, a new fire station and the expansion of roads and rail connections.
In addition, there are deepenings of harbor basins and the Weser that have been discussed for some time. And although, according to the BLG boss, the free port will not be enlarged, several quays are to be built and additionally fortified - partly under the leadership of the Hanseatic city infrastructure company Bremenports. However, it is not the BLG that decides how these investments are distributed, but rather the state of Bremen.
The deepening of the Outer Weser, the sea-side access to the port, which has been planned since 2012, remains uncertain. Large container ships have so far been barred from using it at low tide, but environmental groups are campaigning against the deepening of the channel. Magnor, however, insists: “She has to come.”
Important users of the waterway share his view: The Danish shipping company Maersk has already announced that, together with its joint venture partner Eurogate, it will soon invest one billion euros in its own terminal in the free port in order to handle an additional one million containers per year on the quay edge. However, Maersk says that the prerequisite is deepening.
In Copenhagen and Bremerhaven, such connections to the armed forces are only talked about behind closed doors: in the German city, they have been working for the US military since the end of the Second World War and even employ 70 certified tank drivers in the port. However, “people don’t talk about it,” says Magnor.
It also remains uncertain what the military adaptation of Bremen Airport will look like, which is part of the billion-dollar investment program announced by Pistorius. After the temporary withdrawal of Lufthansa and the withdrawal of Ryanair announced for 2027, the airport is plagued by severe financial worries.
The people of Bremerhaven would also have liked to receive another contract from the military: for a second North Sea naval port in Wilhelmshaven. “We would have had space,” says Magnor, referring to the “Blexer Bogen”, an area on the Weser south of the city where the Luneplate nature reserve is located.
However, BLG had previously failed to build an offshore terminal for wind farm installations there. A smaller version of the project, the “Energy Port”, is already threatened with lawsuits from environmental associations.
Much to the dismay of the people of Bremerhaven, the military port is now being built in Emden, where Defense Minister Pistorius announced investments of one billion euros at the beginning of October. Bremen will therefore have to forego the 2,000 new jobs that will be created by stationing seven frigates, ten minesweepers and ten tugboats.
Since then there have been rumors in the Hanseatic city: There is belief in an agreement between Pistorius, who has his constituency in Hanover, and Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Olaf Lies.
The BLG competition in Emden, on the other hand, is happy about the contract. The local logistics company Dirks has secured 90,000 square meters of hall capacity for the “Frisia” industrial park located directly at the port, which recently had a vacancy rate of 80 percent. “We have been doing business with the Bundeswehr for a long time when it comes to maintenance,” says managing director Klaus Lübbers. “Now we have to scale storage capacity.”
