Germany and Other European Navies
Kapitänleutnant is the third lowest officer's rank in the German Navy. The U.S. Navy's rank of lieutenant is equal to Kapitänleutnant in NATO's military hierarchy (classed as OF-2). Nevertheless, a Kapitänleutnant may command smaller ships (e.g. submarines class 206A) or serve as principal warfare officer on larger warships, giving the rank responsibilities more along those of a lieutenant commander in the U.S or Royal navies. The abbreviation of the title to "Kaleu" (contemporary usage) is used officially in verbal communication; the commander of the Type VIIC U-boat U96 in the film Das Boot was of this rank, and called "Herr Kaleu" (historical usage) by his crew.
Rank insignia includes two-and-a-half stripes on shoulder boards (or rings on sleeves).
The same rank is used in the navies of Finland (kapteeniluutnantti), Denmark (kaptajnløjtnant) and Norway (kapteinløytnant). The latest revision of the relevant NATO STANAG standardization agreement makes the longstanding courtesy practice of translating the rank into English as "lieutenant commander" for all German, Danish and Norwegian officers of that rank official. The Norwegian Navy goes a step further in ranking the kapteinløytnant as OF-3 when serving afloat, disregarding the Norwegian national tri-service ranking (which still equates the kapteinløytnant with the Army rank of kaptein).
In the Royal Netherlands Navy, a kapitein-luitenant ter zee is equivalent to a US Navy or Royal Navy commander (OF-4); while in the Portuguese Navy, a capitão-tenente is equivalent to a British or American lieutenant commander (OF-3).
Read more about this topic: Captain Lieutenant
Famous quotes containing the words germany and, germany and/or european:
“It took six weeks of debate in the Senate to get the Arms Embargo Law repealedand we face other delays during the present session because most of the Members of the Congress are thinking in terms of next Autumns election. However, that is one of the prices that we who live in democracies have to pay. It is, however, worth paying, if all of us can avoid the type of government under which the unfortunate population of Germany and Russia must exist.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (18821945)
“How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements! Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous. The dawn is my Assyria; the sun-set and moon-rise my Paphos, and unimaginable realms of faerie; broad noon shall be my England of the senses and the understanding; the night shall be my Germany of mystic philosophy and dreams.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“In verity ... we are the poor. This humanity we would claim for ourselves is the legacy, not only of the Enlightenment, but of the thousands and thousands of European peasants and poor townspeople who came here bringing their humanity and their sufferings with them. It is the absence of a stable upper class that is responsible for much of the vulgarity of the American scene. Should we blush before the visitor for this deficiency?”
—Mary McCarthy (19121989)