Wilhelmshaven

Wilhelmshaven (Low German Willemshaven) is an independent city in northwestern Germany. It is located on the northwest coast of the Jade Bay, a large bay on the North Sea. With 76,201 inhabitants, it is the second largest medium-sized city in Lower Saxony and one of the major centers in the state. Since 2006, Wilhelmshaven has been part of the Bremen/Oldenburg metropolitan region, one of a total of eleven European metropolitan regions in Germany.

The city's history has been closely linked to the emergence and development of the German navy since its inauguration as „the first German war port on the Jade“ on June 17, 1869. Today, the city is the largest naval location, and since the implementation of the new Bundeswehr stationing concept in 2011, Wilhelmshaven has been by far the largest location of the Bundeswehr. 

Wilhelmshaven has the deep-water port with the greatest water depth in Germany and is the country„s largest port of transshipment. 72% of the raw materials handled by all German seaports and almost 27% of German raw materials imports are handled via Wilhelmshaven. From here, oil pipelines lead to refineries in the Rhine-Ruhr region and to Hamburg. The deep water of the Jade supports the economy and is the basis for the establishment of major companies in the petrochemical industry, the chemical industry, the power generation industry, the logistics industry and other maritime industries (repair yards, ship outfitting, etc.). With the JadeWeserPort, which opened in September 2012, Wilhelmshaven received a tide-independent container terminal that can handle even the largest container ships fully loaded. 

The North Sea city is home to the Jade University of Applied Sciences as well as scientific research institutions such as the Senckenberg Institute for Marine Geology and Biology, the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research, the Institute for Bird Research, the German Wind Energy Institute and the Terramare Marine Research Institute.