After World War I, Bohrdt made a living drawing maritime postcards, book illustrations, magazines, and supplied images for newspaper articles.

Together they had three children who would later leave and live in separate places around the world, the oldest stayed in Hamburg and the son moved out to Buenos Aires.

[4] While many smaller nations could point to a tradition of marine painting stretching back over a period of several hundred years, Germany can only be said to have become seriously engaged in this genre after the country became united in 1871.

For the art schools of the inland cities of Karlsruhe, Dresden and Berlin, landscape painting provided the backbone of their curriculum.

There, he soon tired of drawing from plaster copies of more or less classical subjects, finding this way of learning to be more of a hindrance than a help within his chosen field.

[5] He often used tempera for his illustrations, as this medium is particularly suited for reproduction as a print, and he was able to hold his ground for a surprisingly long time against the remorseless advance of photography and the camera.

His art had by now become a part of the propaganda apparatus in a Germany resolved on becoming a world power, and in which the Navy was but one of the essential elements.

[5]("to sail is necessary, to live is not")[a] Apart from promoting the interests of the Navy and the major shipping lines, his work was established and appreciated amongst a wide circle of affluent buyers.

Until the outbreak of the war, artists had been given the opportunity to accompany the Fleet on its worldwide cruises and when security restrictions no longer allowed this, Bohrdt felt that he had lost his connection with the sea.

In addition to those of Bohrdt's paintings, posters, prints and reproductions that it holds in its own collection, the Museum gathered a number of works from both public and private sources.

The technical virtuosity of this artist who so dearly loved ships and the sea is revealed in all its forms, and considerable attention is given to his skill as an illustrator.