Friedrich Elchlepp

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Friedrich "Fritz" Elchlepp (born July 4, 1924 in Biederitz , district of Jerichower Land , † March 2, 2002 in Rostock ) was a German naval officer , most recently Rear Admiral of the People's Navy .

Life

Friedrich Elchlepp grew up as the son of Friedrich Wilhelm Elchlepp (* 1897 in Stendal, † November 6, 1956 in Erfurt) in a social-democratic family and, after graduating from high school , went voluntarily to the Navy in 1941 . Between 1941 and 1945 he served as an officer on watch in the submarine weapon. At the end of the war he was deployed to sea on the submarine U 3514 , Type XXI , in the rank of first lieutenant. This submarine took part in the rescue of refugees across the Baltic Sea to northern German ports. At times around 30 refugee women and children were on board. Previously, Elchlepp belonged to the crew of U 1206 - also known as U Hai - which was under the command of the same commander, Günther Fritze (OLt.zS). From May 17, 1945 a British prisoner of war for several months followed. He then cleared sea ​​mines in the North Sea with the German minesweeping service and at the end of 1945 returned to his parents in what is now the Soviet occupation zone , where his father initially headed the school department in the provincial government of Saxony-Anhalt based in Halle (Saale) and from December 1945 worked as a curator at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Looking back in 1992, Elchlepp described his mental attitude after returning from the Second World War as follows: “And my world had mentally collapsed. We had nothing to stand up for. "

In 1946 Elchlepp joined the SED after the merger of the SPD and KPD , after he had previously been admitted to the KPD . From 1946 to 1949 he studied law at the legal and Political Science Faculty of the University of Halle . One of his fellow students was the later professor for legal history and international private law at the Martin Luther University, Rolf Lieberwirth ( LDPD ), who was also a former officer in the Wehrmacht and for this reason did not get a traineeship place after the first legal exam. After passing the 1st state examination, Elchlepp became an employee of the FDGB state board of Saxony-Anhalt. From 1949 to 1950 he was promoted to head of the Brandenburg State Administration School in Königs Wusterhausen . His entry into the German People's Police took place on February 28, 1950. He was intended for the paramilitary Seepolizei / VP See due to his previous military knowledge as a former naval officer and his long-term SED membership. Order 2 of the German Administration of the Interior (DVdI) did not apply to the maritime police personnel planned in the GDR, according to which former prisoners from American, English and French prisoners of war were not to be recruited for service with the (people) police, only such Applicants who came from Soviet captivity. Elchlepp worked from 1950 to 1951 as inspector of the VP department head in the main administration of the Maritime Police . Then Elchlepp was head of the East Fleet Base in Wolgast , later Peenemünde, until 1953 . From 1953 to 1954 Elchlepp was head of the operational department of the staff of the People's Police See and then until 1956 "in charge of the management (of the staff) as a representative of Rear Admiral Heinz Neukirchen ."

From 1956 to 1957 he completed further training as a leadership cadre of the People's Navy at the Soviet Naval War Academy. After his return he was deputy commander for training until 1960 at the officers' college of the Volksmarine "Karl Liebknecht" in Stralsund . In 1960 he was appointed as the GDR's average commissioner in the command of the People's Navy. The function of "Average Commissioner at the Sea Chamber (Great Sea Chamber of the GDR)" was comparable to that of the Federal Commissioner at the Sea Offices (Oberseeamt) of the Federal Republic of Germany. Elchlepp held the position at the Sea Chamber of the GDR - with the military rank of “Captain at sea” in the People's Navy - until 1981. He was then from 1981 to 1984 sea commissioner of the GDR in the command of the People's Navy. In 1964 he received his doctorate as Dr. jur. with a thesis on the average procedure in the GDR, which he had completed a year earlier and submitted to the law faculty of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Halle (Saale). In 1975 Elchlepp published as a professional author journal articles on questions of maritime law, e.g. B. on the term ship in the legal sense, together with maritime law scholars from teaching and research. On November 30, 1984 Elchlepp resigned from active military service with simultaneous appointment as Rear Admiral (retired). He was interested in both maritime law and naval history .

Voluntary (social) activity

Fritz Elchlepp was particularly socially involved in sea sports. He advocated that the International Finn Association could invite the Finn sailors for 1969 again after 1961 to a European Championship in Rostock-Warnemünde, which took place from August 8th to 17th, 1969. Under his leadership, the GDR preparatory committee worked on a voluntary basis for this Finn European Championship off Warnemünde (Finn Dinghy European Championship) .

From the 1970s he volunteered in the Society for Maritime Law of the GDR and in the working group for shipping and naval history in Rostock and published, for example, in the context of the series of publications of the GDR Maritime Law Society together with international law professor Gerhard Reintanz about the international lawyer Hugo Grotius on the occasion of its 400 Birthday.

Elchlepp was one of the founding members of the Rostock Navy Officers' Fair , which was founded as an association on July 20, 1990 in the Rostock Ständehaus, and held the position of elder of the fair there. In 1992 he made himself available as a contemporary witness for the reconstruction of higher education after 1945 in the Soviet occupation zone at a scientific conference, in particular for the development of political events at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg . After reunification, Elchlepp gave a lecture on legal aspects of piracy at a symposium on shipping and naval history from 25 to 26 May 2000 in Hamburg, which was organized by the German Society for Shipping and Navy History. V. was organized. In addition, the second edition of his and other authors' work appeared in 2000: Volksmarine der DDR. German armed forces in the Cold War .

Especially after reunification in 1990, Elchlepp became interested in border security in GDR times and in January 1994, in his capacity as the former GDR accident commissioner, he took part in a hearing of senior former GDR military officials on issues of border security on the Baltic Sea before the Alternative Enquete Commission German Contemporary History (AEK) . After German reunification, Elchlepp became a member of the Friends of the Traditional Archive of Submarines (FTU e.V.) in Cuxhaven-Altenbruch. He visited the archive several times and made historical material available to him. In the Nautical Association of Cuxhaven, the rear admiral gave a lecture about his personal experiences as a sea officer. In an obituary, the Circle of Friends praised Elchlepp's active commitment to "reunification in people's minds".

Expert advice on maritime TV films

Friedrich Elchlepp occasionally took over the technical advice for television films after his active service as sea commissioner of the GDR. Shortly before the political change, the TV series “Vor dem Seeamt ” was brought to life by the Ostseestudio of the GDR television . Elchlepp advised the dramaturgy of the two episodes produced. The first episode was broadcast on October 16, 1989 and ran under the title The sinking of the Cimbria and the second under the title Dead on board . The latter was shown on television in the Federal Republic of Germany after German reunification in October 1990 . Elchlepp also acted as a consultant for the 1992 TV film The Last U-Boat , which was produced in the united Germany and directed by Frank Beyer .

Awards

Works (selection)

  • The concept of the warship in current international law. In: Military, Volume 26. (1982), No. 7, pp. 57-64.
  • The right to flag of seagoing vessels and their immunity. In: Military, Volume 26. (1982) No. 10, p. 26.
  • Friedrich Elchlepp u. a .: People's Navy of the GDR. German naval forces in the Cold War. Mittler Verlag, Hamburg 2000, 2nd revised edition, ISBN 3-81320715-3 .
  • with Manfred Kretzschmar: Disasters at sea. The marine casualties of civil GDR shipping. Rostock 2002, ISBN 978-3-935319-46-1 .
  • with Manfred Kretzschmar: On a collision course. The negotiations of the GDR Sea Chamber. Rostock 2009 (3rd edition), ISBN 978-3-938686-25-6 .

literature

  • Klaus Froh, Rüdiger Wenzke : The generals and admirals of the NVA. A biographical manual. Christoph-Links Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-86153-209-3 , p. 90.
  • Douglas C. Peifer: The Three German Navies. Dissolution, Transition, and New Beginnings, 1945-1960. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 2002, ISBN 0-8130-2553-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Manfred Heinemann (Ed.): University officers and the reconstruction of the university system in Germany 1945-1949. The Soviet zone of occupation. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-05-002851-3 , p. 243.
  2. ^ List of authors with biographical information on Friedrich Elchlepp in: Volksmarine der DDR: German naval forces in the Cold War. / Friedrich Elchlepp. ua, Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2000, p. 360.
  3. ^ U-Boot-Archiv, U 3514 .
  4. ↑ U-boat archive crew of U 1206 .
  5. ^ Obituary by Friedrich Elchlepp with biographical information in: Das Archiv . Yearbook 2002. Published by FTU Freundeskreis Traditionsarchiv U-Boats e. V. Cuxhaven / Altenbruch, p. 106.
  6. ↑ Frank Hirschinger: Gestapo agents, Trotskyists, traitors. Göttingen 2005, ISBN 978-3-525-36903-6 , p. 303.
  7. ↑ He still kept his KPD membership card during GDR times, as he told Schudi 45 during a joint visit to an event organized by the GDR Society for Maritime Law in 1974.
  8. ^ Thomasianum, Universitätsplatz 10a; Hallisches Adressbuch 1946/47, p. 512 .
  9. ^ Albrecht Cordes : Interview with Prof. Dr. Rolf Lieberwirth on September 12, 2007 in Halle in: forum historiae iuris ; Accessed March 27, 2015.
  10. ^ Friedrich Elchlepp: Founding of the naval forces of the GDR. In: Schiff und Zeit / PANORAMA maritim, No. 42, publisher. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schiffahrts- und Marinegeschichte e. V. (1995), (45-57) p. 51; ISSN  1432-7880
  11. ↑ Short biography Elchlepp, Friedrich. In: Manfred Heinemann (Ed.) University officers and the reconstruction of the university system in Germany 1945–1949. The Soviet zone of occupation. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-05-002851-3 , p. 435f.
  12. ↑ F. Echlepp, G. Hepper, On ship concept in the legal sense. In: Seewirtschaft, Issue 1/1975, pp. 20–23.
  13. ^ Neue Zeit , September 12, 1968, p. 7.
  14. ^ New Germany , September 11, 1968, page 8
  15. ↑ Elchlepp / Reintanz / Schoepke (Editors: Elchlepp / Hauer / Kantner / Richter, R.): Hugo Grotius 1583 to 1645. Society for the Law of the Sea of ​​the GDR, Rostock 1983, DNB 830825886
  16. ↑ Ostseezeitung from August 8, 1990
  17. ↑ Manfred Heinemann (Ed.) University officers and the reconstruction of higher education in Germany 1945–1949. The Soviet zone of occupation. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-05-002851-3 , pp. 243f. (Contemporary witness: Elchlepp, a law student at the time.)
  18. ↑ Piracy - then and now: Lectures at the 2nd Hamburg Symposium on Shipping and Navy History from May 25-26, 2000. German Society for Shipping and Navy History e. V. Hartmut Klüver (Ed.). Organized by the German Society for Shipping and Marine History e. V. DNB 963089676
  19. ↑ People's Navy of the GDR. German naval forces in the Cold War. Friedrich Elchlepp et al., Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2000, DNB 958298335
  20. ↑ Peter Gerds: Alternative Enquetekommission Deutsche Zeitgeschichte initiated hearing of high-ranking former GDR military officers on questions of border security on the Baltic Sea. In: Neue Zeit , January 24, 1994, p. 21.
  21. ^ Obituary by Friedrich Elchlepp. In: The archive . Yearbook 2002. Published by the FTU Freundeskreis Traditionsarchiv U-Boats e. V. Cuxhaven / Altenbruch, p. 106f.
  22. ↑ Online encyclopedia of GDR television films, specialist advice on TV films, Vor dem Seeamt , accessed on October 11, 2014.
  23. ↑ Film portal Dr. Friedrich Elchlepp .
  24. ↑ Neues Deutschland , October 6, 1966, p. 5.
  25. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , March 7, 1980, p. 4.
personal data
SURNAME Elchlepp, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Elchlepp, Fritz (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer, most recently Rear Admiral of the People's Navy
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Biederitz , Jerichower Land district
DATE OF DEATH March 2, 2002
Place of death Rostock