The Language Collector

Kathrin Kunze herself would probably have least imagined that she would one day end up in IT. In 1991, the high school graduate joined HHLA to become an office administrator. Born in Hamburg, she had a family connection to the maritime world: her father used to go to sea and still works voluntarily on the "Cap San Diego". So HHLA was an obvious choice, but IT? It was her instructor Horst Wichern in the DC department at the time who discovered her talent for programming. "Obviously I wasn't completely stupid," says Kunze with a smile.

Today she manages a team of 11 staff members as "job manager" in Department "I" (Information Systems). In between, there have been years in which everything has developed: the programmes, the processes at HHLA Container Terminal Burchardkai (CTB) - and Kathrin Kunze. For example, she has helped to further improve the control of the van carriers. Often she had to work in several languages. Programming languages, of course. 

"I dug into it and got a lot of support," she says. Training courses provided the finishing touches. When a new warehouse control system with a graphic interface for the actors was launched at the end of the 1990s, she experienced her birthday at the computer. A question of responsibility: "If it doesn't work, the terminal stands," says Kunze.

Your team has mastered many challenges. For example, the "Berth 1" project, which was about better bundling information for the workplaces on the container gantry cranes. "That was the first application in Java at Burchardkai," says Kunze - and another new language. What fascinates her about software development? "You can make a difference." And that in the literal sense: "The container gantry crane moves because I programmed it," says the self-made IT expert. It is all the nicer when the users are also satisfied with the result. 

At the moment, Kunze is helping to maintain the interfaces to the ITS control system and has a lot to do with the preparations for the integration of a new planning system at CTB. She feels that she is still working in IT as a "happy destiny" - also because the team spirit in the department and the relationship of trust with her "customers" at the terminal are right.