Albert Pagels

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The gravestone for Albert Pagels (on the right in the picture) next to the memorial stone for those who fell in the Battle of the Falklands in the cemetery in Punta Arenas.

Albert Pagels (born July 6, 1878 in Klein-Kubitz ( Ummanz ) on Rügen , † July 20, 1966 in Punta Arenas ) was a German seaman . He became known in connection with the flight of the German cruiser Dresden from British ships at the beginning of the First World War .

Life

Albert Pagels became a cabin boy after leaving school. He eventually reached the rank of boatswain on a large ship. As a marine, Pagels contracted malaria in China . In 1903 he had to serve in South America because of a severe malaria attack. On medical advice, he settled down in Punta Arenas in the south of Chile, which is climatically cooler, and started a family. He used the former (motorized) lifeboat of a merchant steamer to fish, hunt fur animals and make excursions for visitors to Tierra del Fuego .

After the Battle of the Falklands , he successfully advised the ship's command of the German small cruiser Dresden on the escape from the English fleet and was awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class for this. During this time the daughter Anna Irene († 2009) was born, over whom the crew of the Dresden took over the sponsorship and who therefore received the name of the ship as the third first name.

Albert Pagels advised Gunther Plüschow on his expeditions with his detailed local knowledge.

At the beginning of 1939 the director brought Arnold Fanck Pagels to Germany as a consultant for the film Ein Robinson - The Diary of a Sailor . After the outbreak of war , Pagels initially had no opportunity to return to Chile. The writer Friedrich Freksa contacted him and persuaded him to publish his memoir, which appeared in 1940 under the title Mein Leben in Deutschland.

It was not until 1951 that Albert Pagels was able to return to his family in Chile. Here he was friends with the writer Francisco Coloane, among others . He spent the last years of his life in poverty.

Today a small lake and a glacier in Tierra del Fuego bear the name Pagels. On July 30, 2010, a memorial stone for Captain Albert Pagels was unveiled in the old port of Klein-Kubitz.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ s. a. Liebig-Bilder painting from Tierra del Fuego , No. 4
  2. ↑ Catálogo - Señales del Dresden, Martín Pérez Ibarra .
personal data
SURNAME Pagels, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German seaman
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Klein-Kubitz on Ummanz
DATE OF DEATH July 20, 1966
Place of death Punta Arenas