Eugen Kalau from the court

Family coat of arms

Eugen Fabian Alexander Kalau vom Hofe (born June 1, 1856 in Berlin , † October 11, 1935 in Mannheim ) was a German rear admiral in the Imperial Navy .

Life

Origin and family

The family came from the Kalau vom Hofe family, who originally came from Lusatia and later became the Brandenburg-Prussian noble family . Eugen was the son of the postal director Friedrich Kalau vom Hofe (1820–1875) from Lengwethen in East Prussia and his wife Sophie, née Gartz (* 1838). Kalau vom Hofe married Marcella Krahnstöver (* 1873), the daughter of Wilhelm Krahnstöver and Bertha Sommier , on September 26, 1896 in Baden-Baden . The couple had three daughters and their son Heinrich (1903–1988), who was the owner of the Grünstadt stoneware factory from 1934 to 1969 .

Military career

Kalau vom Hofe was baptized on July 19, 1856 in the Elisabeth Church in Berlin. He attended school in Dirschau and entered the Imperial Navy as a cadet on April 8, 1873 . After completing his basic training, he graduated from the Kiel Naval School . In 1877 he was promoted to lieutenant and in 1881 to lieutenant . In between, various on-board commands alternated as watch officer and campaign officer. From October 7, 1888, he graduated from the 1st Coetus at the Naval Academy and was promoted to lieutenant captain in mid-December 1888 . After several months as first officer on the Aviso Blitz , the II. Coetus followed from September 22, 1889 to April 22, 1890.

Subsequently, Kalau vom Hofe worked as a flag lieutenant with the staff of the training squadron, before he was assigned to the Reichsmarineamt from October 1 to December 31, 1891 . On January 1, 1892, he was appointed naval attaché for the Nordic Empires ( Russia , Denmark and Sweden ) with his seat in Saint Petersburg . In this capacity he was responsible for maintaining the German Reich's marine political relations with these countries. This was connected with maintaining contact with the leading representatives of the naval forces, participating in maneuvers, fleet parades or ship christening. Above all, however, regular reports on certain maritime or military highlights, as well as events, were expected from the attachés. At that time, these were evaluated by the admiral staff of the Imperial Navy in Berlin before they were submitted in selected form to Kaiser Wilhelm II . His direct superior was the German ambassador Bernhard von Werder (1823-1907). Military attaché was Karl von Villaume (1840–1900) from 1887. On April 8, 1895, Kalau was promoted from court to corvette captain. In the same year the ambassador also changed, the new charge d'affaires was Hugo Fürst von Radolin (1841–1917). During this tenure, Kalau vom Hofe was temporarily used as commander of the ironclad Siegfried in 1896 and took part in the annual autumn maneuvers of the Imperial Navy. In the same year there was an unjustified disadvantage of his person by the Russian authorities, for which the ambassador Radolin regarded the extraordinary abilities of Kalau vom court as the cause. On September 20, 1898 he was replaced by Corvette Captain Malte von Schimmelmann (1859–1916), who had already been in Saint Petersburg from March 21, 1898 to hand over the business.

After Kalau's return from court to Germany, he was in command of the ironclad Friethjof for a year . Then he was transferred to the Reichsmarineamt with his appointment to the board of the central department. Since 1898, the news office was subordinated to this department as Bureau (N). Since it was founded in 1898 , August von Heeringen (1855–1927) had headed the news office . The news office was responsible for gathering, evaluating and disseminating information relating to the Navy. This is where the reports of the naval attachés, the messages of the commanders of the overseas ships who are obliged to report and the regional news offices at the sea border crossings and the foreign ports flowed together. In addition, a press reading service was maintained, which had to evaluate about 60 newspapers and magazines at regular intervals for information of importance to the Navy. These messages, processed according to certain criteria, were then passed on to newspaper editors, press agencies or journalists for publication. On April 9, 1900, Kalau was promoted from court to frigate captain and on March 21, 1901 to commander of the Baden Corvette . After he was promoted to sea captain on May 28, 1901 , Kalau received from the court on September 30, 1901, command of the ship of the line Brandenburg for one year . This was followed by two years as commander of the 1st Sailor Division and from 1904 as chief of staff at the North Sea naval station . From October 1, 1906 to September 6, 1907 Kalau vom Hofe was entrusted with the management of the business of the 2nd Admiral of the reconnaissance ships. With promotion to rear admiral, he was then appointed 2nd admiral of the reconnaissance ships. For a short time he was at the disposal of the chief of the naval station of the Baltic Sea from September 23 to October 13, 1908 , in order to then be appointed inspector of the I. Marine Inspection. On 12 July 1909 he was at his request, with the statutory board for disposition made. In the same year he received the Order of St. Stanislaus, First Class.

During the First World War , from 1915 Kalau vom Hofe mainly worked as a naval writer on behalf of the intelligence office in the Reichsmarineamt and later the war press office. He published several books with the aim of naval propaganda in the sense of the naval policy of the state secretary in the Reichsmarineamt Alfred von Tirpitz (1849-1930). These included the publications Our Fleet in World War 1914/15: owed to the German people , our first battles at sea , battle and sinking of the cruiser squadron and others. The climax was the book The Submarine Trade War, published in 1919 and glorifying the illegal war against merchant ships in other countries .

Kalau vom Hofe died on October 11, 1935 in Mannheim. He was buried in the main cemetery in Baden-Baden.

Fonts

• Our first battles at sea. Verlag der Kameradschaften, Berlin 1915.
• Battle and demise of the cruiser squadron. Verlag der Kameradschaften, Berlin 1915.
• Our fleet in the World War 1914/15. Described to the German people. Mittler Verlag, Berlin 1915.
• War campaign of the cruiser Emden and his heroes continue their journey. Verlag der Kameradschaften, Berlin 1916.
• The battle of the navy in the world war: List of all warships of the warring states with details of the injured enemy ships: as of the end of July 1916. Elsner Verlag, Berlin 1916.
• The sea battle in front of the Skagerrak on May 31, 1916. Verlag der Kameradschaften, Berlin 1917.
• Our fleet in the world war. The events at sea in 1914/16. Mittler Verlag, Berlin 1917.
• The submarine and the war. Verlag der Kameradschaft Berlin 1918.
• The submarine trade war. Verlag der Kameradschaften, Berlin 1919.

See also

• List of naval attachés of the German Reich

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 2: HO. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1989. ISBN 3-7648-1499-3 . P. 201f.
• Genealogical manual of the nobility . Noble houses B. Volume V, p. 150, Volume 26 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1961.
• Curt Kalau vom Hofe: History and genealogy of the Kalaw, Kalau, Calow, Calov and Calo family and the Kalau vom Hofe family , Volume 2, 1890, p. 247; (Digital scan)

Web links

• Literature by and about Eugen Kalau vom Hofe in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website about the grave, with an enlargeable photo of the grave stone

Individual evidence

1. ^ Altertumsverein Grünstadt : Grünstadt stoneware factory. Publications, No. 2, 1985.
2. ^ Heinrich Otto Meißner: Militäraatachés and military representatives in Prussia and in the German Empire history of military diplomacy. Rütter & Loening Verlag, Berlin 1957, p. 18ff.
3. ^ Letter from Radolin to Senden-Bibran dated April 7, 1896. In: Klaus-Volker Giessler: The Institution of the Naval Attaché in the Empire. Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1976, p. 104.
4. ↑ Marcus König: Agitation-Censorship-Propaganda. The submarine war and the German public in the First World War. ibidem Verlag, Stuttgart 2014, p. 31 ff.