Captain Andreas Jungblut, 59, had captained the luxury cruise ship - made famous as the setting for the long-running Traumschiff television soap opera – for 13 years. But after he wrote a letter to German President Joachim Gauck on behalf of his crew protesting plans by the German Deilmann shipping company to hoist the Maltese flag in place of the German one, he was told to leave by the owner, Bild newspaper reported. “Dear Mr President … you can’t change a flag like you would an undershirt,” wrote Jungblut, according to the paper.