# Ancient Web: Michael Emmerich Built an Index of German Warships Michael Emmerich's German Naval History site preserves a detailed online ship index, model references, photographs, and documentation on imperial and World War II German naval vessels. 2026-10-07 :: Switchboard Tech Services ![Ancient Web: Michael Emmerich Built an Index of German Warships](https://switchboardtechservices.com/static/images/defaults/articles.webp) Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). Some historical websites begin as a list of things an enthusiast wants to remember. German Naval History grew into an alphabetical map covering hundreds of ships, aircraft, and even projects that never reached the sea. [Visit German Naval History](https://www.german-navy.de/). The site identifies itself as **independent of the official German Navy** and credits Michael Emmerich. Its footer spans **1997–2023**, while visible news items from 2012 record individual updates to commanders, postcards, and small-scale ship models. It uses OpenCms yet keeps a remarkably older-web sense of navigation through huge linked inventories. ## A catalogue where unfinished projects count too The [Ship Map](https://www.german-navy.de/information/shipmap/index.html) is the essential entry point. Under each letter are references to battleships, cruisers, torpedo boats, auxiliaries, U-boats, mine warfare vessels, and naval aircraft. A visitor can move from **Bismarck** and **Tirpitz** to lesser-known escort craft, individual Schnellboot classes, the experimental **Flettner Fl 282** helicopter, and planned aircraft carriers or battleships. The latter entries are valuable precisely because a project cancelled on the drawing board is not the same thing as a ship that served. The [Bismarck section](https://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/battleships/bismarck/index.html) links technical data, pictures, history, and related modelling resources. The [auxiliary cruiser Orion](https://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/auxcruiser/orion/index.html) has a separate listing, avoiding the tendency to make a handful of famous capital ships stand for the entire fleet. Navigation separates the imperial **Hochseeflotte** from the World War II **Kriegsmarine** and includes sections for scale modelling, naval games, and computer raytracing. It is at once a history reference and a record of the practical interests of its maintainer. The website's ship data should be checked against specialist naval sources when precision matters; this is an independent enthusiast project, not an official maritime register. Wartime military technology is discussed as history, not as an endorsement of the regime that operated it. Some links and images have naturally aged, and the front page's 2012 headlines are not evidence of present activity. The point is that the archive still makes the researcher's classifications, sources, and decades of accumulated material visible. [Browse the alphabetical ship index and historical sections](https://www.german-navy.de/information/shipmap/index.html). Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). - Categories: [Ancient Web](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/categories/ancient-web/) - Tags: [#ancientweb](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/ancientweb/), [#navalhistory](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/navalhistory/), [#warships](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/warships/), [#referencearchives](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/referencearchives/), [#models](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/models/) [Articles RSS](https://switchboardtechservices.com/feeds/articles.xml "Subscribe using an RSS reader") --- Canonical URL: https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-michael-emmerich-built-an-index-of-german-warships/ Language: en-us Content type: article Author: Switchboard Tech Services Published: 2026-10-07T07:25:26+00:00 Modified: 2026-10-18T21:03:56.361260+00:00