Interview 
8 
Hydrographische Nachrichten 
Published upto now: 
Horst Hecht (HN 82), 
Holger Klindt (HN 83), 
Joachim Behrens (HN 84), 
Bernd Jeuken (HN 85), 
Hans Werner Schenke (HN 86), 
Wilhelm Weinrebe (HN 87), 
William Heaps (HN 88), 
Christian Maushake (HN 89), 
Monika Breuch-Moritz (HN90), 
Dietmar Grünreich (HNg-1), 
Peter Gimpel (HN 92), 
Jörg Sch im ml er (HN 93), 
Delf Egge (HN 94), 
Günther Braun (HN95), 
Siegfried Fahrentholz (HN 96), 
Günther Braun, Delf Egge, Ingo 
Harre, Horst Hecht, Wolfram 
Kirchner und Hans-Friedrich 
Neu mann (HN 97), 
Werner und Andres Nicola 
(HN 98), 
Soren Themann (HN99), 
Peter Ehlers (HN 100), 
Robvan Ree (HN 101), 
DHyG-Beirat (HN 102), 
Walter Offenborn (H/V103), 
Jens Schneider von Deimling 
(HN-104) 
graphic Agency carries that title. How do you differ 
between nautical hydrography and hydrography? 
Jonas: The German name of our agency is »Bun 
desamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie«. 
»Seeschifffahrt« means maritime traffic or shipping, 
everyone has a vague idea of what this is. Howev 
er, the German term >Hydrographie< does not only 
stand for the department »Nautical Hydrography« 
but also for the department »Marine Sciences«, di 
rected by Dr. Bernd Brügge. Therefore, we call the 
combination of hydrographic surveying and nauti 
cal cartography »nautical hydrography«. 
HN: What are you responsible for as head of the 
department »Nautical Hydrography«? 
Jonas: There are four areas. One of it is the survey 
ing ships with special technology, which are also 
used in the marine sciences for monitoring the en 
vironment. Then, the entire field of hydrographic 
surveying including marine geodesy, Thomas 
Dehling is head ofthat department. Another one 
is cartography, which is information processing for 
obtaining a certain product. Finally, graphic tech 
nology with two big offset printing machines. All 
in all, 230 employees work in these four areas. In 
comparison to other departments in this building 
they are part of a common production. Collect 
ing data, processing and interpreting them and 
finally manufacturing the product. Only selling 
the charts, books and data sets is not our issue. My 
experience is that this special working process has 
a positive influence on the social and professiona 
cooperation. 
HN: How do you share the work with President 
Mrs Breuch-Moritz? 
Jonas: The entire responsibility remains with the 
President of course. She gave me the task to rep 
resent all guestion regarding hydrography. In the 
daily working routine we take decisions with the 
heads of all four departments. 
HN: Let's look back in time. At the end of the 1970s 
you began as merchant sea 
man. After the Service at the 
Armed Forces of the Ger 
man Democratic Republic 
you studied Nautical Engi 
neering. What attracted you 
to the sea in younger years? 
Jonas: I could answer that 
being born and raised in 
Rostock, a sea-related job is 
inevitable. I could also tel 
you about our family tradi 
tion. One of my ancestors, 
Olerich Gottfried Jonas, moved from the island of 
Usedom to the formerly Hanseatic city Anklam in 
order to become a fisherman. All other descend 
ants were fishermen too, except my grandfather 
and father, who were heating engineers. However, 
all these answers are not really true because as a 
child I surely didn't see it this way. I guess I was a 
romantic person who wanted to travel the world. 
That wasn't so easy in the former GDR. Seafaring 
»The Baltic Sea is regarded 
as laboratory for marine 
policy. It is a clearly defined 
geographic territory, which 
is prone to high user pressure 
with very differing national 
interests at the same time« 
was definitely the only possibility to leave the 
country legally and see the world. I chose the job 
according to my desire. 
HN: In the end you didn't spent too much time on 
board of ships. Instead you went to the Maritime 
Academy of Rostock-Warnemünde. 
Jonas: Counting all seafaring days together I spent 
guite a few years on merchant ships. For the Fed 
eral Maritime and Hydrographic Agency I was 
head of mission on the »Gauss« a couple of times. 
Spending your life on sea is a very special life plan. 
You must be the type of person for it and do with 
out social relations. I admit that this was very hard 
for me. 
HN: What did you do at the Universities of Rostock 
and Hamburg? 
Jonas: In Rostock I was scientific assistant and 
taught navigation at the radar simulator, but 
mainly I was involved in research projects. We in 
vented the first computer-based assistant system 
for ships, for example the advance calculation of 
man-over-board rescue manoeuvre. From today's 
point of view it sounds guite simple, but at that 
time it was new. We were really successful and the 
former company Krupp Atlas took over our prod 
uct - that was still before the German reunifica 
tion. On a specialist trade fair in Southampton we 
received an award. After the reunification Profes 
sor Jens Froese, who was head of SUSAN at that 
time, looked for young people, also in Rostock, 
with new ideas and ambition. That's how I came to 
ISSUS at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. 
There I continued to develop user interfaces for in 
tegrated navigation systems. 
HN: How did you come to the Federal Maritime 
and Hydrographic Agency? 
Jonas: In September 1993, on behalf of Profes 
sor Froese I took part in a presentation on a study 
about the feasibility of future integrated naviga 
tion systems. During the following discussion 
mentioned fervently our research on that topic at 
ISSUS. A few weeks later, at the beginning of 1994, 
was employed for electronic sea charts. Right at 
that time a Russian company wanted to offer an 
electronic sea chart on the German market. I was 
just in time with my computer knowledge and 
nautical background. Four weeks later, I went to 
London to participate in a working group on that 
topic. 
HN: So, you would say that it was a gradual ap 
proach to hydrography? 
Jonas: Yes, indeed. I was responsible for the lega 
type approval of electronic chart systems. For al 
most nine years I worked in this sector, which en 
compassed the technical check of electronic sea 
chart systems, satellite navigation receiver and 
integrated navigation systems. All that offered a 
good basis for switching to hydrography in 2004. 
HN: In a press release of the Federal Maritime and 
Hydrographic Agency it says that you are a pro 
fessional for »digital hydrography«. What does it 
mean?