Adolf von Trotha

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Adolf Lebrecht von Trotha (born March 1, 1868 in Koblenz , † October 11, 1940 in Berlin ) was a German admiral .

family

He was the third son of Karl von Trotha (1834-1870), who died in the Franco-Prussian War . Trotha attended the Royal Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Berlin. On June 4, 1902, at Destedt Castle , he married Anna von Veltheim (born January 15, 1877 on Gut Destedt; † August 8, 1964 in Braunschweig ), daughter of the Duke of Braunschweig's Lord Chamberlain and Chief Hunter Fritz von Veltheim, landowner on Destedt, and his wife Elisabeth, née von Krosigk .

Military background

50th anniversary of the torpedo weapon in Wilhelmshaven in 1937 - Admiral Werner Tillessen on the left , Trotha in the middle and Admiral Hermann Boehm on the right

Trotha joined the Imperial Navy as a midshipman on April 1, 1886, and was appointed lieutenant in the sea in 1891 . He served as the commander of the torpedo boat SMS D 3 and as a navigational officer on the small cruiser SMS Seeadler . Promoted to lieutenant captain in 1899 , he served as an admiral staff officer in the East Asia Squadron until 1901 and took part in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China .

From 1901 to 1906 Trotha was a staff officer in the Reichsmarineamt under Alfred Tirpitz . In this role he was promoted to Korvettenkapitän in 1904 . From 1906 to 1908 he was first officer on the liner SMS Elsass and then until 1909 with the staff of the deep sea fleet . Promoted to frigate captain in 1909 , he was appointed wing adjutant to the emperor and in the same year took command of the cruiser SMS Königsberg . Promoted to sea captain on May 7, 1910 , he was appointed head of the naval cabinet . On September 20, 1913, he took command of the large liner SMS Kaiser .

As Chief of Staff of the High Seas Fleet (since January 29, 1916), he took part in the Battle of the Skagerrak . On 17 December 1916 he was appointed Rear Admiral promoted, even Admiral à la suite of the Emperor , from 1918 to the Chief of Staff Office in Admiralty. Promoted to head of the naval cabinet shortly before the end of World War I , he was responsible for the naval order of October 24, 1918 : the high seas fleet was to advance against the Channel coast and the Thames estuary and seek the decisive battle against Great Britain; heavy losses of their own were accepted approvingly. The statements by Reinhard Scheer and Adolf von Trotha leave no doubt that it was primarily about the "honor" of the Imperial Navy. It was also intended to torpedo the peace efforts of the new Reich government, which was deliberately not informed of the plan. This “rebellion of the admirals” was followed by the “revolution of the sailors”, “logically consistent”. On the night of October 29th to 30th, some of the ship's crews refused to take orders, whereupon the naval command dropped its plan for the decisive battle. Nevertheless, the mutiny developed into the Kiel sailors' uprising , which initiated the November Revolution.

On March 26, 1919 Trotha became head of the new admiralty of the Reichsmarine , which had taken the place of the Reichsmarineamt. On October 31, 1919, he was promoted to Vice Admiral. During the Kapp Putsch in March 1920, Trotha declared that the navy was available to the government of the putschists. With this decision he justified persistent doubts about the constitutional loyalty of the Reichsmarine during the entire time of the Weimar Republic . After the coup was put down, it was passed on October 5, 1920. A case against him before the Reichsgericht was dropped.

Later activities

After retiring, Trotha took over the management of the German National Youth Association (also: Großdeutscher Bund ) in 1921 , which was dissolved in 1933; then he was honorary leader of the naval Hitler Youth . In 1928, together with Hans Schwarz and Bernd von Wedel, he founded the conservative-revolutionary bi-monthly publication The Middle East . In October 1931 he was one of the participants in the march of anti-democrats and right-wing nationalists called the Harzburg Front . After the National Socialists seized power , he was appointed to the Prussian State Council. In the summer of 1934 he was elected President of the German Fleet Association as the successor to Friedrich von Lindequist , which dissolved in September 1934. On April 20, 1934, under Trotha's chairmanship, the Reichsbund Deutscher Seegeltung , a propaganda instrument of the Nazi government, was founded. The German High Seas Sports Association HANSA was also a member of the Reichsbund, and Trotha was its founder and chairman until 1940.

Together with Hitler , whose admirer he was, he consecrated on May 30, 1936 the day before the 20th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland , the Laboe naval memorial one. On August 19, 1939 he was awarded the character of an admiral. In addition, since March 1, 1938, he was the holder of the NSDAP's Golden Decoration . Trotha received a state funeral , which Hitler also attended. His grave was in the cemetery of the Protestant parish of Glienicke / Nordbahn . His written estate is on deposit in the Bückeburg State Archives .

Works

  • The unity of Germanness and the ocean. Brochure. Armanen-Verlag , Leipzig 1934.
  • Sailing - world recognition. An admiral's thoughts. Berlin 1940.

Awards

literature

  • Genealogical manual of the nobility . Noble houses. A. Vol. 26. (Volume 126 of the complete series). CA Starke, Limburg (Lahn) 2001, p. 510 ISSN  0435-2408
  • Sebastian Diziol: "Germans, become members of the fatherland!" The German Naval Association 1898-1934. Solivagus Praeteritum, Kiel 2015, ISBN 978-39817079-0-8 .
  • Dermot Bradley (ed.): Germany's generals and admirals. Part 1: Hans H. Hildebrand, Ernest Henriot: Germany's Admirals 1849–1945. The military careers of naval, engineering, medical, weapons and administrative officers with admiral rank. Volume 3: P-Z. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-1499-3 , pp. 460-462.
  • Helmuth Schubert: Admiral Adolf von Trotha 1868–1940. An attempt at historical-psychological biography. Phil. Diss., Freiburg 1976.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich August Winkler , History of the West. The time of the world wars 1914 - 1945. S. 97f, CH Beck, Munich 2016 ISBN 978 3 406 592362
  2. ^ Michael Salewski: Sea War. In: Gerhard Hirschfeld, Gerd Krumeich, Irina Renz (eds.): Encyclopedia First World War. Paderborn 2009, ISBN 3-506-73913-1 , p. 831.
  3. ↑ Jürgen Mirow: The sea war 1914-1918 in outline. Göttingen 1976, ISBN 3-7881-1682-X , p. 104 f.
  4. ↑ Sebastian Diziol: "Germans, become members of the fatherland!" The German Fleet Association 1898-1934. Solivagus Praeteritum, Kiel 2015, SS 716–742. ISBN 978-39817079-0-8 .
  5. ↑ Hansa. German shipping magazine. 1934, p. 1355 online
  6. ↑ DHH brochure 1931 online
  7. ↑ The Flag 12, 1937
  8. ↑ Hansa. German shipping magazine. 1934, p. 1354 online
  9. ↑ Hansa. German shipping magazine. June 1934, p. 840 online
  10. ↑ Hansa. German shipping magazine. October 1940, p. 1021 online
  11. ↑ His formerly existing honorary citizenship has expired; the current municipality of Glienicke / Nordbahn is not the legal successor of the earlier existing municipalities and has not renewed its honorary citizenship.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Marinekabinett (ed.): Ranking list of the Imperial German Navy. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1918, p. 7.
personal data
SURNAME Trotha, Adolf von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Trotha, Adolf Lebrecht von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German admiral
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Koblenz
DATE OF DEATH October 11, 1940
Place of death Berlin