North Sea and Baltic Sea: Government pledges millions for munitions recovery
Delius Klasing
· 10.07.2026
Text by Phillipp Steiner, 1 December 2024, updated on 10 July 2026 by Antonia v. Lamezan.
A look back: 1945 marks the end of the Second World War. In many parts of Germany, there were still considerable stockpiles of munitions. The Allies wanted to get rid of this dangerous legacy. Environmental awareness as we know it today did not exist. And so hundreds of thousands of tonnes of munitions were loaded onto ships and sunk in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
Ammunition had already ended up in the sea before that. Mines were deliberately laid, torpedoes were fired during battles and manoeuvres, and shells sank to the seabed when a warship was sunk before it could fire them.
There are so many tonnes of World War II munitions lying in German waters
Up to 1.6 million tonnes of munitions are believed to lie in German waters. This is according to a survey carried out by the federal government and the coastal states in 2011. Up to 1.3 million tonnes are thought to be in the North Sea, and around 300,000 tonnes in the Baltic Sea. The lion’s share consists of conventional munitions, supplemented by a relatively small quantity of chemical weapons.
The objects have been lying in the sea for decades. And over time, the explosives become more sensitive to friction and impact, explains Alexander Bach from the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of the Environment. “Ultimately, this means that even a lighter weight falling onto the explosives is enough to potentially set them off, in other words, to cause them to detonate.”
Although metal casings protected the explosives from external influences, according to Bach, who used to be a mine diver and watch officer in the German Navy. “But precisely when the casing has rusted through and the explosives are lying loose in the marine environment, that mechanical protection is no longer there.”
When might people come into contact with munitions from the World War?
According to Bach, people working at sea and on waterways may come into contact with munitions. For example, if artillery munitions end up in a fishing net or in a suction dredger during maintenance work on the Elbe. Munitions are also specifically sought for during surveys for offshore projects. Furthermore, divers could come across the munitions.
Water sports enthusiasts are not considered to be at particular risk. Whilst an explosion is conceivable whilst at anchor, the dangerous areas are marked as ‘contaminated’ on nautical charts, according to the head of the Water Hazard Management Unit at the Ministry of the Environment. Bach is not aware of any accidents in this country in recent years. The last major accident involving serious injuries that he can recall took place off the British coast after a fishing boat had picked up old munitions.
When ammunition ends up on land
Ammunition from the sea can also wash ashore of its own accord. Bach estimates that there are a handful of such incidents each year on the coast of Schleswig-Holstein. A typical example, he says, is small-arms ammunition being washed up on the beach because it is relatively light.
Incidents involving white phosphorus also occur time and again. This incendiary munition is occasionally mistaken for amber, which can lead to severe burns. If the phosphorus reacts with oxygen in the air and heats up – for example, in the trouser pocket of a beachgoer – it can ignite spontaneously.
Shortly after the war, people were still frequently falling victim to explosive remnants of war. The 2011 survey recorded 168 deaths in Germany. According to the survey, most of these incidents occurred in 1945 and 1946, specifically during the disposal of munitions.
A creeping threat to the environment
Since the early 2020s, attention has turned to another danger: the gradual release of hazardous substances from munitions into the water. As these munitions decay and rust, they pose a creeping but long-term threat to the environment.
A key component of conventional munitions is trinitrotoluene, or TNT for short. In 2023, the Kiel-based toxicologist Prof. Dr Edmund Maser and his colleagues published a review study. The study states that substances such as TNT are known for their toxicity and carcinogenic effects. Numerous studies have detected substances such as TNT and its metabolites in water, sediment and marine organisms. There is growing evidence that these substances could be harmful. They could also enter the food chain and, when seafood is consumed, could have an impact on human health. However, consumption can generally still be considered safe at present.
The 100-million emergency programme
Whilst researchers continue to examine the exact consequences of the munitions in detail, politicians have begun to take action. In 2023, the then Federal Minister for the Environment, Steffi Lemke, launched a €100 million emergency programme designed to initiate the systematic clearance of munitions from the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
The aim of the emergency programme was to further develop and coordinate the areas of exploration and recovery, as well as treatment and disposal, so that, for the first time, they would form an efficient chain of processes for systematic disposal at sea. Many of the technologies used, such as incinerators and blast furnaces, have already been tested on land. The task now is to adapt this technology to the specific conditions at sea.
It is true that munitions have been cleared from the sea before – but this has only happened on an ad hoc basis, for example prior to the laying of cables or the construction of wind farms. The munitions were then recovered and disposed of on land, or moved to another location at sea and detonated.
What the pilot project achieved
In an initial pilot project, which began in the summer of 2024 and was successfully completed in the autumn of 2025, existing technologies for the systematic and, in some cases, automated detection and recovery were tested in selected areas of the western Baltic Sea. Suitable sites were located off Haffkrug and Pelzerhaken in the Bay of Lübeck, as well as off Boltenhagen in the Bay of Mecklenburg. In these areas, unexploded ordnance often accumulates in veritable piles on the seabed.
The pilot project has shown that the technology used is, in principle, ready for deployment, but requires more sensitive grippers and better lighting. It also became clear that old munitions lie on the seabed in a wide variety of ways. Off Boltenhagen, for example, the recovery team came across remnants of munitions that had become virtually cemented to the seabed due to corrosion or had penetrated metres deep into the mud. Whilst some casings were still intact, others had deteriorated significantly and were releasing increasing amounts of compounds typical of explosives. In the pilot test areas, completely exposed explosives were also found, their casings having already corroded away entirely.
As part of the pilot project, the finds were identified and classified on site and secured underwater in lockable steel containers, known as ‘wet storage’ units. The threat to the marine environment posed by the unexploded ordnance there has already been significantly reduced, at least for the items that have been recovered. In future, this initial sorting in wet storage units is intended to ensure a continuous supply of suitable items as soon as the permanent disposal platform is ready.
In order to record the recovered munitions in detail, a data management system was also trialled. This ensures that the journey of each piece of munitions can be traced seamlessly from recovery through to disposal. According to the federal government, the accompanying environmental monitoring did not detect any elevated levels of toxic explosive residues in the vicinity of the works. Handling the munitions therefore did not release any more pollutants than would have resulted from natural decay.
Long-term federal funding: 50 million euros a year
The emergency programme is now to be followed by the next step. In July 2026, the federal government pledged long-term support and will provide 50 million euros annually for the next six years, amounting to a total of 300 million euros. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania stands to benefit particularly from this: Rostock will be home to the new Federal Centre of Excellence for Marine Munitions Recovery, which will coordinate the clearance operations and prepare for the deployment of a future disposal platform.
Manuela Schwesig (SPD), Minister-President of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, emphasised the urgency of the situation: “We’ve run out of time. That stuff is rusting away in the Baltic Sea and is genuinely toxic. And that’s why we’re starting now.”
Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider (SPD) stated that the promised 50 million euros per year would be made available to cover the subsequent recovery and maintenance costs. The federal government would initially cover the costs up front and then discuss the next steps with the federal states. At the same time, he made it clear that the clearance work would take time. Only once operations are underway will it become clear how much ammunition can actually be cleared each year.
Development and construction of the waste disposal platform by 2028
The federal funding is primarily intended to finance the construction and operation of a mobile, floating industrial facility for the disposal of historical munitions at sea. The tendering process for the construction of the platform is currently underway. The federal government intends to award the contract in September 2026, and the facility is due to come into operation in 2028. It will recover World War II munitions, decontaminate them directly at sea and destroy them thermally.
As no mobile facility for the industrial-scale disposal of contaminated sites containing munitions has ever been built at sea anywhere in the world, a partner is being sought as part of an innovation partnership to develop the facility on the basis of the pilot project results.
How businesses are getting involved in the clearance operation
Various large corporations have already put forward specific proposals:
ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (tkMS): The Kiel-based group intends to offer a completely newly developed platform and build it at its site in Wismar. The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sea Cat is to be used for reconnaissance prior to the salvage operation. A crane-operated recovery tool is to lift the munitions onto the platform. Product manager Dr Martin Rütten explains the scale of the operation: “Our platform design will be capable of disposing of approximately 600 tonnes per year. Assuming that half of the 300,000 tonnes of wartime munitions in the German Baltic Sea are accessible and safe to transport, it would take ten platforms 25 years to recover everything.” The company intends to rely heavily on German SMEs as suppliers for the construction.
Rheinmetall and WilNor Governmental Services: The Düsseldorf-based company has joined forces with the Norwegian Wilhelmsen Group. Their concept is called EMMA (Ammunition and Contaminated Sites Disposal Module). Unlike tkMS, Rheinmetall is not relying on a new development, but intends to purchase a second-hand platform – for example, from the oil and gas industry – and install tried-and-tested, commercially available disposal systems on it. “The use of tried-and-tested, commercially available systems allows the project to start immediately and avoids risky new developments,” explains Dr Deniz Akitürk, Managing Director of Rheinmetall Project Solutions. “At the moment, there is talk of so-called innovation partnerships for disposal,” says Akitürk. “We could start disposal immediately.” Rheinmetall would later take charge of clearance and disposal, whilst the Norwegian partner would handle the maritime logistics.
Findings of the on-site recovery teams
As part of the recently completed pilot project, the companies SeaTerra (Haffkrug and Pelzerhaken West) and a consortium comprising Eggers Kampfmittelbergung and Hansataucher (Pelzerhaken North) were deployed in Lübeck Bay.
Jann Sichermann, head of Seascape, the service provider involved, reports on valuable logistical insights for upcoming major projects. The seabed off Pelzerhaken North proved to be significantly muddier than anticipated; furthermore, magnetometer surveys revealed an extremely high number of anomalies. This made it difficult to find safe installation sites for the recovery platforms, as these must be free of munitions in order to provide stable support for the stilts. For future clearance operations from 2028 onwards, dynamic positioning systems that do not require firm ground contact are therefore also a possibility.
In some cases, two munitions, each two metres long, were found stuck vertically one on top of the other in the mud. “This is a valuable insight in that it now allows us to get a picture of how they are stored there,” said Sichermann. Despite all the challenges, the companies had been on site with an “enthusiastic crew” – after all, they were part of a “new era of explosive ordnance clearance”.
Pilot project in Lübeck Bay
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