Within the GMES-related project DeMarine Environment, the operational circulation model of the German Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) is extended into a data assimilation system. The aim of the data assimilation is to improve the forecast of sea surface height, temperatura, currents and salinity in the North and Baltic Seas. For the data assimilation component, the Parallel Data Assimilation Framework (PDAF, http://pdaf.awi.de) is coupled to the operational circulation model. PDAF provides the assimilation environment as well as fully implemented and optimized filter algorithms. We discuss technical aspects of the data assimilation system used with the BSH operational circulation model.