Carl von Coerper

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Carl Wilhelm Heinrich Coerper , von Coerper since 1913 , (born May 18, 1854 in Meisenheim , † April 20, 1942 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German admiral , squadron commander and naval attaché .

Admiral Carl von Coerper

Life

Carl Coerper was the son of the businessman Johann Baptist Coerper (1823-1893) and his first wife Mathilde, née Bonnet (1828-1856). After her death, his father married Susanne Albert. From this marriage, Carl had a half-sister and three half-brothers.

Military career

After attending school, Coerper joined the Imperial Navy as a cadet on May 31, 1871 . He completed his basic nautical training by 1876 by attending the naval school and several on-board missions. It followed from 1886 a command to the Naval Academy. His first overseas voyage took him to Zanzibar in 1895 . After returning to Germany in June 1897, he was assigned to the military department of the Reichsmarineamt . Since the activities in the individual embassies for the coordination of the deployment of the naval attaché converged here, he prepared himself in this area for his use as an attaché. This took him to London on October 1, 1898 . Chargé d'affaires of the German legation in London was Paul von Hatzfeld (1831–1901) at this time . At the same time, the military attaché Arthur von Lüttwitz (1865–1925) was notified, with whom there was close coordination. On site, the post was then handed over to him as a naval attaché by his predecessor Lieutenant Captain Ernst Gülich (1853-1920).

At the beginning of his service there was still an atmosphere of relatively open exploration by England towards Germany. There were several similarities in the foreign policy positions, most of which arose from colonial policy. In some individual questions, the English had even signaled a joint approach, which, however , was rejected in a very disparaging form by Kaiser Wilhelm II as an offer of support. But the naval policy that began in Germany, especially the armament of the navy, increasingly disrupted the commonalities that still existed. In the years to come, during Coerper's tenure, significant changes began here. In 1900 alone he wrote about 600 reports to Berlin about his observations and assessments of developments and events relating to the Navy. Already in the following year there were increasing indications in his reporting of the increase in anti-German moods in various English sections of the population. Because the British did not hide the massive naval armament in Germany. The State Secretary of the Reich Naval Office, Alfred von Tirpitz , even publicly warned the German "failures in the fleet program". Which, in turn, reported the naval attaché, further fueled the anti-German mood on the island. It was a time of mutual rocking, for which the German Fleet Club was to blame. Although Coerper also made individual attempts in his field of activity to reduce mutual tensions, at the end of the year he had to report the first signals of the reorientation or reorientation of the English naval policy. This mainly concerned the first steps towards the strategic orientation of the English Navy towards the North Sea and considerations to develop an own port in the North Sea direction. Furthermore, he announced in a report dated February 13, 1902 that Chile had ordered several ironclad ships from English shipyards. In the summer of the same year there was a somewhat difficult decision-making situation for him when an Englishman offered him secret documents with an original signal book. The acceptance would have been a violation of the applicable attaché instructions, item 4. After consulting the State Secretary in the Reichsmarineamt von Tirpitz, he informed the British Admiralty of the matter. In 1902 alone, Coeper had produced 840 reports. Overall, his work and reporting were assessed as factual and balanced for the period of his assignment. As soon as the mandatory replacement date became known, the Chargé d'affaires of the German Legation Metternich, who had been in office since 1902, informed the Reich Chancellor in a letter of April 3, 1903 that he regretted the replacement of Coerper, because he had "performed his duties well". On September 29, 1903, his successor in the office of naval attaché Hugo von Cotzhausen (1863–1945) took over the business in London. He had already been in London for the handover since June and received a detailed final report on the handover date.

On December 7, 1903, Coerper received from the head of the Admiralty's staff in Berlin Wilhelm Büchsel (1848–1920) instructions for Great Britain to set up a secret naval intelligence organization without the Foreign Office being allowed to know. Above all, this concerned the establishment of a network of secret informants at all important English sea places and shipyard areas to obtain and collect covert technical and logistical information relating to the English Navy. This was the first act in the development of the German naval attachés that such a step, which was actually prohibited by the attaché instructions of 1900, was now consciously taken outside of an acute war situation in 1903. But since Coerper not exercised at that time the Office of the naval attaché in London, it was merely a caesura that Germany was now gone over to one of the Section III b of the General Staff building independent Naval Intelligence. His acting partner on site was Gustav Steinhauer (* 1870, † around 1930) , who was appointed to the Admiral's staff for the operation area England . However, since Hugo von Cotzhausen, who was appointed as the successor in the office of naval attaché in London, did not meet the expectations placed on him, especially by Kaiser Wilhelm II and the State Secretary in the Reichsmarineamt von Tirpitz, shortly after the Emperor's visit to London in autumn 1904 operated his recall. Coerper was sent to the Reichsmarineamt and the Admiral's staff for information from October to December 1904 and was preparing for his renewed use as an attaché.

On December 5, 1904, Coerper again took over the post of naval attaché at the German Embassy in London. Right at the beginning of his second term in office, he noticed significant changes. This primarily concerned the turning point in Anglo-German relations after King Edward VIII's visit to the navy in July 1904. But their own working conditions had also deteriorated considerably. Tensions during encounters with the English, reticence, information blockages, the familiarity known from earlier in his own circle of people had given way to a frosty climate. In addition, since the summer of 1905 new secrecy regulations had been issued in Great Britain. In it every English officer was obliged to exercise extreme restraint in discussions about official facts. The subcontractors for the technical equipment of the navy had to maintain strict silence about the internal details of their work. In particular, technical details were not allowed to be communicated outside of the company's own official channels. Carl von Coerper tried to improve this situation for his activity-related reports by regularly coordinating with the Austrian attaché. In addition, this sparse information forced him to concentrate more on evaluating the English press. In his reports he clearly signaled this change in mood. But he also described the more positive opinions towards Germany in his reports to the Reichsmarineamt. Above all, he tried to state that the fears of the English about the massive German naval armaments had to be taken seriously. He pushed for realism in German politics. Although he was on the same wavelength as Ambassador Wolf von Metternich, his warnings, even by the Foreign Office, were not taken seriously. From July 1905 he reported clear indications of concrete steps towards rapprochement between the British and Russia. Bypassing the Foreign Office, Wilhelm II in 1906 even commissioned him to direct leading British personalities: “If England once more dared to threaten him with war, he would immediately would attack France… ”As a precaution, Coerper informed Alfred von Tirpitz and the Admiral Chief of Staff Büchsel, who urged him to ignore, before carrying out the imperial order. At the end of 1906 there was again an offer from an Englishman to the naval attaché to procure secret documents and a "secret book" from English naval circles. However, since the person was assessed as doubtful, he passed this offer on to the English admiral staff. As the date of his mandatory dismissal approached, he advocated the occupation of the attaché post by Wilhelm Widenmann (1871–1955). In his final report of March 14, 1907, as the outgoing naval attaché, he then assessed that German-English relations were at a low point. This culminated in the finding that Germany had now become the number one enemy for Great Britain. The reason, he found, was the massive naval construction of the Imperial Navy that was not declining. The high reputation that Coerper had acquired in London for his dexterous forms and his good knowledge of human nature and connections between politics and the navy is documented, among other things, in the fact that the British King Edward VII gave him the Grand Commander of the Royal at his farewell audience Victorian Orders awarded. As proposed, his successor at the attaché post was Wilhelm Widenmann (1871–1955)

After his replacement in London Coerper was assigned to the East Asia Squadron and was initially charged with the provisional leadership of the cruiser squadron. In this post he undertook a reconnaissance trip up the Yangtze River from Shanghai in June 1907 as a rear admiral . This voyage, in which the ships Tiger , Leipzig and the torpedo boat S 90 take part, primarily served the purpose of exploration out of economic interest. On January 27, 1909, he was appointed chief of the East Asia Squadron. From early summer on, Coerper was placed at the disposal of the chief of the naval station of the Baltic Sea on May 18, 1909 , assigned to the inspection of the naval education system and, with effect from November 9, 1909, appointed chief of the naval education system inspection. With his simultaneous promotion to admiral on May 6, 1912, he was appointed chief of the naval station of the Baltic Sea a day later, which he was to command until July 22, 1914. In this position Coerper was raised to the hereditary Prussian nobility on June 16, 1913 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II . From July 23, 1914, Coerper was made available to the Almighty, on September 17, 1914 to the disposition and at the same time à la suite of the naval officer corps.

family

Coerper had married Ellen Siebert-Charters (1865-1904) on August 30, 1890 in Düsseldorf . The marriage resulted in the son Hans-Albrecht (* 1891) and a daughter (* 1918).

Carl Coerper died on April 20, 1942 in Frankfurt am Main.

Awards

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (eds.), 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 1: A-G. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1988, ISBN 3-7648-1499-3 , pp. 216-217.
  • Klaus Volker Giessler: The institution of the naval attachés in the German Empire. Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1976, p. 77.
  • Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Briefadeligen houses. 1919. Thirteenth year, Justus Perthes , Gotha 1918, p. 162.
  • Naval attache. Books lLC, Wiki Series, Memphis USA. 2011,
  • Wilhelm Widenmann: Navy attaché at the Imperial German Embassy in London. 1907-1912. 1952.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Klaus Volker Giessler: The institution of the naval attaché in the empire. Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1976, p. 134 ff.
  2. ↑ General instructions of the Reich Chancellor for the military and naval attachés of December 11, 1890 and the amended version of February 2, 1900, BA / MA Fasz. 5056-I. 1-17, 1st volume. In: Heinrich Otto Meisner: Military attachés and military representatives in Prussia and in the German Empire. Rütten & Loening Verlag, Berlin 1957, p. 73 ff.
  3. ^ Letter from Metternich to Bernhard von Bülow from April 3, 1903. In: Klaus Volker Giessler: The institution of the naval attachés in the Kaiserreich. Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1976, p. 103.
  4. ↑ confirmed by the Reichsmarineamt on December 17, 1903. In: Klaus Volker Giessler: The institution of the naval attachés in the Kaiserreich. Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1976, pp. 135f.
  5. ↑ Gustav Steinhauer: I was the emperor's spy. Paperback publisher 2009
  6. ↑ Report of July 20, 1905 in: Klaus Volker Giessler, The Institution of Marine Attachés in the Kaiserreich, Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1976, pp. 149f.
  7. ↑ Klaus Volker Giessler, The Institution of Naval Attachés in the Empire, Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1976, p. 77.
  8. ↑ top secret letter Coerpers from 6 December 1906
  9. ^ Klaus Volker Giessler: The institution of the naval attachés in the empire. Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1976, p. 283.
  10. ^ Wilhelm Widenmann: Naval attaché at the Imperial German Embassy in London. 1907-1912. 1952, p. 60.
  11. ^ Military weekly paper . No. 81 of June 19, 1913, p. 1866.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Marine-Kabinett (ed.): Ranking list of the Imperial German Navy. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1914, p. 107.
personal data
SURNAME Coerper, Carl von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coerper, Carl Wilhelm Heinrich von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German admiral
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Meisenheim
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1942
Place of death Frankfurt am Main