Under the leadership of Captain Arthur H. Graubart, Chief of Naval Intelligence in Germany, the NHT first met on 9 April 1949 in Bremerhaven.
[1] The staff included Generaladmiral a. D. Otto Schniewind,[Note 1] Vizeadmiral a. D. Friedrich Ruge, Vizeadmiral a. D. Hellmuth Heye, Konteradmiral a. D. Gerhard Wagner and Oberst a. D. Gaul.
Temporarily it was further augmented by Konteradmiral a. D. Eberhard Godt, Kapitän zur See a. D. Hans-Rudolf Rösing and Fregattenkapitän a. D. Karl-Adolf Zenker.
[1] The group considered itself an incubator of a future West German Navy, an aspiration culminating in Ruge's appointment as the first inspector of the Bundesmarine, with Wagner as his deputy, in 1957.
The findings of the NHT significantly influenced the conception of the new Bundesmarine formed in 1956.