Friedrich Lützow

Friedrich Johannes Martin Lützow (born August 31, 1881 in Neuendorf near Potsdam , † November 1, 1964 in Celle ) was a German naval officer , most recently Vice Admiral of the Navy , and a military writer .

Life

origin

Friedrich, called Fritz, was the third child of Friedrich Herrmann Gottlieb Lützow and his wife Luise Johanna Elisabeth (called Elise), née Knauß. She was the daughter of the piano maker Heinrich Knauß from Koblenz . Lützow grew up in Neuendorf, Falkenhagen and Beetz . From 1893 to 1896 he attended a grammar school in Frankfurt (Oder) and then until 1899 a grammar school in Berlin. He found accommodation in the Paulinum in Berlin-Dahlem, a boarding school for boys who went to school in Berlin.

Military career

Impressed by the splendor of the midshipman's uniform of his brother Hermann Lützow (later first officer on SMS Nassau and frigate captain in the Reichsmarineamt Berlin and author of the work Die Seeoffizier-Laufbahn ), he joined the Imperial Navy on April 10, 1899 . After years of training on school ships , including on the SMS Charlotte , he was promoted to lieutenant at sea on September 27, 1902 . It was followed by commands on torpedo and submarines. He was early in 1909 Commander of the submarine U 2 . During this time, the later legendary submarine commander Otto Weddigen was a watch officer under his command . From July 1, 1909 to March 18, 1910, Lützow was commissioning commander of U 4 . From 1911 to 1913 he received training as an admiral staff officer at the naval academy in Kiel . Since July 1, 1913, Lützow was a navigation officer on the large cruiser SMS Victoria Louise, which was used as a cadet training ship .

First World War

After the outbreak of war, the ship's task was to prevent enemy submarines from penetrating the Belt into the Baltic Sea . During this task Lützow was able to avoid several torpedoes of the British submarine E 1 by skillful maneuvers and received the Iron Cross 2nd class for this. From October 1914 he was a first admiral staff officer with the rank of captain lieutenant of the leader of the submarines , Lieutenant Commander Hermann Bauer , allocated. The staff was alternately stationed in Wilhelmshaven and on board the small cruiser SMS Hamburg . On this ship he took part in the Battle of the Skagerrak on May 31, 1916 , where it received several hits. A grenade exploded above him, leaving behind a hearing loss. The commander of the Hamburg was wounded, so that Lützow led the ship back to Wilhelmshaven as commander from the reserve driver's position. For this he received the Iron Cross First Class and the highest praise from the Emperor .

In 1917 Lützow was transferred to the U-Flotilla Mediterranean in Pola , which was under the command of Commodore Theodor Püllen . From December 29, 1917 to October 1918, the 1st U-Flotilla was in command there as Corvette Captain . The later Pastor Martin Niemöller also went under his command as submarine commander.

Weimar Republic and Third Reich

After the end of the war, Lützow came back to the staff of the commander of the submarines and was there responsible for handling the business of the commander of the Mediterranean submarines. He was then commanded from February to April 1919 to the staff of the chief of the North Sea naval station . Then followed his takeover in the Reichsmarine with assignments as head of the protection and defense group as well as department head in the war science department of the naval archive . In 1924 he was appointed commander of the small cruiser Hamburg , which was scheduled for the first international cruiser voyage. But Lützow declared himself unsuitable for health reasons and resigned. Thereupon he became commander of the ship master division of the North Sea. From September 28, 1927 to March 31, 1929 Lützow acted as head of the training course for assistant driver training and was then transferred to naval management . On March 31, 1929, he retired with the character as a Rear Admiral in the Imperial Navy of, however, was still connected as head of the leader assistant training for naval tactics and naval history of the Navy.

From October 1936, a similar task at the Turkish Naval Academy in Istanbul followed for three years under a private contract .

Second World War

After the beginning of the Second World War , he was reactivated on December 24, 1939 and served as head of the propaganda department of the Reichsmarineministerium in Berlin. In this capacity he was the spokesman for the High Command of the Navy (OKM) and also gave regular radio lectures on Wednesday evenings under the title “Naval Warfare and Maritime Power”, in which he explained and commented on the current events of the naval war. On February 1, 1941 Lützow received the patent for his rank and on February 1, 1943 he was promoted to Vice Admiral.

At the end of the war, on the orders of the High Command of the Navy, he went from Pinnow near Berlin to Plön to the assembly point for refugees from the east in the Navy NCO School. From there he went to Dornhöhe near Schleswig , where his daughter-in-law Rosemarie lived with her children. There he also met his two daughters Charlotte and Hildegard, who had retired there.

On May 8, 1945, he went into British captivity .

Post-war period and Federal Republic

After being captured by the English, Lützow was interned in Belgium , where he also underwent a serious operation. He was then transferred to Germany on a hospital train on May 26, 1946 , and taken to a reserve hospital in Eickelborn near Lippstadt . On October 15, 1946 he was transferred to the Munster prison camp , where he stayed until his release on June 25, 1947. After his release he returned to Dornhöhe near Schleswig and developed a lively lecture activity in northern Germany as well as teaching activities in Latin and spelling. In August 1948 he suffered a stroke , which he cured in Flensburg and Plön. In 1949 he was awarded a pension that allowed him to write on his memoirs. In 1951 the family moved to Bad Salzuflen and later to Hermannsburg near Celle, where he spent the last years of his life.

Writing activity

Writing also had an important place in life. This resulted in several works on naval warfare in World War I (including England's hospital ship abuse during World War I. Berlin 1921, Naval Warfare and Maritime Power. Berlin 1941, Today's Naval Warfare. With several topics, Berlin 1941/42). Throughout his life he also endeavored to provide a correct and truthful historical representation of the submarine war in World War I, as a continuation of the work of Admiral Hermann Bauer , who had already dealt with the historians of the war science department, who in their work The trade war with U- Booten had made a criticism of the submarine command and its historical representation of the submarine war, which was unacceptable for the fleet management at the time.

family

On April 29, 1908 he married Hildegard Kinzel, daughter of the director of studies, privy councilor Prof. Dr. Karl Kinzel in Berlin-Friedenau. This wedding was preceded by seven years of engagement, because according to the regulations of the Imperial Navy it was only possible to get married if either the rank of lieutenant captain was reached or a deposit was paid. The latter could not be considered due to the size of the amount. The couple had five children:

• Werner (* May 24, 1909; † November 24, 1943), corvette captain in the Second World War, who fell on Schnellboot S 88 in a sea battle off the Thames estuary as the flotilla chief of the 4th Schnellbootflotille
• Elisabeth Charlotte (7 March 1911 - 29 May 1988)
• Günther Friedrich (1912–1945), highly decorated fighter pilot and colonel in World War II
• Hildegard (born October 17, 1916; † April 24, 2003)
• Joachim (October 10, 1917 - October 28, 2001), lieutenant commander in World War II; including as commander of the minesweeper M 4 of the 5th minesweeping flotilla

Awards

• Red Eagle Order IV class
• Knight's Cross 2nd class of the Albrecht Order
• Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with swords
• Hanseatic Cross Hamburg
• Friedrich-August-Kreuz 1st class

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 , pp. 411-412.
• Arne Gustavs: Herman and Elise Lützow. Gustavs Verlag. Zepernick 2004, ISBN 3-929833-02-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Navy-History.com, author list of K-L" . Retrieved December 11, 2013.
2. ^ "4th Schnellbootflottille" in Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945 (Württembergische Landesbibliothek) . Retrieved December 11, 2013.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Marine-Kabinett (ed.): Ranking list of the Imperial German Navy for the year 1918. Mittler & Sohn Verlag , Berlin 1918, p. 25.