Ernst Lucht (Admiral)

Ernst Lucht (right) as President of the Navy Union in 1966 with Kiel's Lord Mayor Günther Bantzer

Ernst Lucht (born February 27, 1896 in Süderende , † November 2, 1975 in Neumünster ) was a German naval officer , most recently rear admiral in World War II .

Life

Imperial Navy and First World War

Lucht joined the Imperial Navy on August 6, 1915 as a war volunteer and officer candidate and completed his basic training on the great cruiser SMS Freya . This was followed by the use on the liner SMS Schlesien and his appointment there as ensign at sea on April 19, 1916. From October 1916 to May 1917 Lucht completed various courses, came to the liner SMS Deutschland until August 1917 and then to the liner SMS Thuringia . In the meantime he had been promoted to lieutenant on September 17, 1917 . From July to November 1918 he was a member of the torpedo school flotilla and was then in action on the liner SMS Posen until mid-November . He was then given leave until March 31, 1919.

Imperial Navy

Before he was reactivated on November 11, 1919, Lucht was active in a volunteer corps. After being taken over into the Reichsmarine , he served as an orderly officer in Coast Guard Division VI until March 31, 1924 and was promoted to first lieutenant on January 10, 1921 . From April 1, 1924 to January 5, 1925 he was a company officer of the I. Department of the ship master division of the Baltic Sea and was then transferred to the ship of the line Hessen as a watch officer . On September 26, 1927 Lucht was appointed commander of the minesweeper M 122 within the 1st minesweeping semi-flotilla in Kiel . As such, he was promoted to lieutenant captain on April 1, 1928 . After Lucht had given command of the boat, he was used from September 26, 1930 to October 4, 1932 as a company officer of the 2nd Division of the ship master's division of the Baltic Sea and from 1933 as a role officer on the ironclad Germany .

Navy and World War II

In October 1935 Lucht became head of the 2nd escort flotilla . In October 1937 he switched to the barrage inspection department. After the beginning of the Second World War , Lucht was from January 30th to August 5th, 1940 head of the technical development department in the blocked weapons office group in the naval weapons main office of the High Command of the Navy , from August 1940 he was head of the military technical department. After Lucht had become Rear Admiral on April 1, 1943, three days later he was appointed Commander of Securing the North Sea . He then acted from January 15, 1945 as commander of the security forces.

post war period

The Allies beließen Lucht after the unconditional surrender of the armed forces , first at his post. In June 1945 Lucht went into British captivity , from which he was released on June 23, 1947.

He then worked as a farmer on the small Langereihe farm near Wakendorf, now part of Preetz , in the Plön district . When in 1952 a considerable expansion of the maritime border protection , which was under construction , was planned, a new border protection command was to be set up in Kiel under the leadership of an admiral. Lucht was chosen for the task, and he was ready to do it. These plans were abandoned at the end of 1953. Due to his age, Lucht was no longer reactivated when the German Navy began to be built up in 1956.

From 1957 to 1966, Ernst Lucht was Deputy Federal Commissioner at the Flensburg and Lübeck Maritime Offices . From October 1958 to June 1968 he was also President of the German Navy Federation .

Awards

• Iron Cross (1914) 2nd class in 1915
• Silesian eagle II stage on October 10, 1919
• Merit badge of the 2nd Marine Brigade Ehrhardt on March 1st, 1920
• Cross of honor for fighters from the front on January 30, 1935
• Service award II., III. 1st and 4th class on October 2, 1936
• Service award 1st class on September 15, 1939
• War Merit Cross (1939) 2nd class with swords on January 3, 1941
• War badge for minesweeping, submarine hunting and security groups on December 6, 1941
• Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy on December 9, 1941
• Repeat clasp for the Iron Cross 2nd class on December 17, 1941
• War Merit Cross (1939) 1st Class on April 20, 1942
• Commander I class of the Order of the White Rose with swords on August 11, 1942
• Iron Cross (1939) 1st class on September 5, 1943
• German cross in gold on November 9, 1944
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on January 17, 1945
• Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in April 1967

literature

• Hans H. Hildebrand and Ernest Henriot: Germany's Admirals 1849-1945 Volume 2: HO (Habicht to Orth). Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1989, ISBN 3-7648-2481-6 .
• Clemens Range : The knight's cross bearers of the Navy. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-87943-355-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fritz Poske . The sea border protection 1951–1956. Reminder - report - documentation. Koblenz / Bonn 1982. ISBN 3-7637-5410-5
2. ↑ Ranking list of the German Reichsmarine , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1929, p. 40
3. ↑ ^{a b} Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 515.