Friedrich Ferdinand Heinrich Kruse

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Commodore Kruse (left) visits his colleague Ziegenbein on the Bremen

Friedrich Ferdinand Heinrich Kruse , or Fritz Kruse for short (born June 4, 1874 in Stettin , † April 28, 1945 ) was a German captain and naval officer. Kruse was of outstanding importance through his position as commodore of the shipping company Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft and as the skipper of a number of the most famous German passenger ships of the time.

details

After attending the general education schools, Kruse began to go to sea, completed the helmsman's examination in 1897 and the skipper's examination ( captain's patent ) only four years later . After serving in the Imperial Navy , Kruse began on December 5, 1899 as a fourth officer at Hapag . Very soon afterwards he was promoted to third officer on March 2, 1900, and to second officer on July 25 of the same year. After visiting the shipping school in Stettin again, Kruse became first officer in 1903 and finally received his first command as captain of the steamer Suevia on January 9, 1913 . Soon after, Kruse led his first passenger ship, the Cleveland .

During the First World War, Kruse served, among other things, as a commander of barrier breakers and was released on December 15, 1918 as a lieutenant captain of the reserve. On July 19, 1921, he received the charge as Corvette Captain of the Reserve. In the build-up phase after the World War, travel times on various Hapag ships followed, and on July 1, 1933, his shipping company appointed him a commodore . As such, he led the New York , with which he led the rescue of the Norwegian steamer Sisto , which got into distress in a storm in the North Atlantic, on the night of December 18 to 19, 1934 , which earned him international reputation with its crew. As a result, Adolf Hitler greeted Kruse, his crew and the 16 rescued Norwegian seamen on their return home and then gave a speech on the promenade deck of the ship. In addition to the New York in the North Atlantic liner service, Kruse also led the Reliance and the Resolute on several world trips in the 1930s . In 1938 Kruse retired. He died shortly before the end of World War II on April 28, 1945.

literature

  • Hans Jürgen Witthöft: Commodore Fritz Kruse . In: Köhler's fleet calendar . 1983, p. 236-237 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "New York": Rescue of the "Sisto" sailors , in: Illustrierte Zeitung , Volume 184, 1935, p. 42.
  2. ^ Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping , Volume 5, Kabel-Verlag, 1990, pp. 37-38.
  3. ↑ Schmidt, Fred (Ed.): Captains report ...: A book v. Men u. Schiffen , Verlag von Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1936, pp. 29–41.
  4. ^ Max Domarus: Reden und Proklamationen, 1932–1945 by Adolf Hitler , Volume 1, Verlag Löwit, 1973, p. 464.
personal data
SURNAME Kruse, Friedrich Ferdinand Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kruse, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German captain
DATE OF BIRTH June 4, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1945