February 14, 1939 At the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany Adolf Hitler watched as Dorothea von
Loewenfeld, granddaughter of the Iron Chancellor, broke a bottle of champagne christening the most powerful
weapon yet built, the battleship Bismarck. The Bismarck slid down the slip into the Elbe River and history was
made. A little known event took place as the Bismarck's hull accidentally hit the passenger liner Vaterland,
which was moored at an adjacent pier. The collision caused no damage but did bend Bismarck's flag pole.
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