http://www.lehmkuhl.no/
http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/ships/html/sh_087100_statsraadleh.htm

”Hun er Norges vakreste!

Størst, eldst, full av minner fra den gang…

Edeltre. Blankpusset messing.

Knirkende tauverk. Hengekøyer.

Tenk – deg selv til rors på en 258 fots bark anno 1914.

Skipets historie begynner i Bremerhaven-Geestemünde hvor hun i 1914 ble bygget som skoleskip for den tyske handelsflåten under navnet «Grossherzog Friedrich August».

Etter første verdenskrig ble skipet tatt som krigsbytte av engelskmennene. I 1921 ble hun brakt til Bergen av tidligere statsråd Kristofer D. Lehmkuhl, og brukt som skoleskip fra 1923 og frem til utbruddet av annen verdenskrig. Bortsett fra krigsårene 1940–1945, da tyskerne beslagla skipet og omdøpte det til «Westwärts», drev Bergens Skoleskib «Statsraad Lehmkuhl» uavbrutt til og med 1966. I 1967 reddet skipsreder Hilmar Reksten skipet fra å bli solgt til utlandet, og i 1978 skjenket han «Statsraad Lehmkuhl» til Stiftelsen Seilskipet Statsraad Lehmkuhl som siden den gang har eiet og drevet skipet.

I den videre driften av skipet ble økonomi og vedlikehold store utfordringer for Stiftelsen. Egen inntjening, støttebidrag fra det offentlige samt betydelig innsats fra Statsraad Lehmkuhls Venner og private bidragsytere, har imidlertid resultert i at Norges største seilskip i dag er fullstendig restaurert til fordums prakt!

Regarded by the naval architect and historian Harold Underhill as "the best-looking of all the three-posters of barque rig," Grossherzog Friedrich August was built for the German Sail Training Association, which already operated Prinzess Eitel Friedrich (later Dar Pomorza) and Grossherzogin Elisabeth. She made no training voyages before the start of World War I, and her career during the war is not known. Afterwards she was turned over to the British as part of reparations. There being no use for a sail-training ship in Britain at the time, she was sold to the Bergen Schoolship Association (Bergens Skoleskib) as a replacement for its training bark Alfen, built for the Norwegian Navy in 1853. Between 1923 and 1939, the renamed Statsraad Lehmkuhl made annual cruises lasting from April to September. Seized by German occupation forces in 1940, she spent the rest of World War II as a depot ship. Restored to sailing condition in 1946, from 1952 on the cost of sending her to sea was prohibitive, and so she has been kept at Bergen as a stationary schoolship.

http://www.warsailors.com/homefleet/shipss2.html#statsraadlemkuhl
Pre war history (found in "Krigsseileren", Issue No. 1 for 1981. She was laid up in Germany all through WW I, then seized by the British after the war. On the initiative of Kristofer Lemkuhl, the managing director of Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab she was purchased by Norwegian interests in 1923 and in honour of K. Lemkuhls work for the training ships in Norway, and his efforts in the 1905 government the ship was named for him. In the years 1923-1939 she was used as a training ship from Apr. until the fall, but was in port at Bergen during the winter months.

My Warsailor Stories section has the story of someone who sailed on this ship, text in Norwegian only.

WW II: Seized by the Germans in Apr.-1940 and used as depot vessel (Wästwards) together with Sørlandet (further down on this page) and Christian Radich.

POST WAR: All 3 training ships were restored after WW II, and Statsraad Lemkuhl resumed her old role. She was purchased by shipowner Hilmar Reksten in 1967 (to prevent her from going to foreign owners after Bergen Skoleskip could no longer afford her) and up until 1972 she was used as a training ship again with his economical support. Laid up at Vågen in Bergen from 1973 till 1978, still in use today.

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En opplevelse for livet!”