Heinrich Gebhardt (officer)

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Heinrich Gebhardt as frigate captain, 1930.
Heinrich Gebhardt (left) salutes Reich President Hindenburg when the ironclad Germany is launched , May 19, 1931

Heinrich Gebhardt (born April 17, 1885 in Grünstadt , † July 22, 1939 in Berlin-Lichterfelde ) was a German naval officer , most recently rear admiral .

family

Heinrich Gebhardt was the son of the doctor, who was resident in the Palatinate-Bavarian town of Grünstadt at the time of his birth. med. Heinrich Ferdinand Paul Gebhardt (1853–1937) and his wife Elisabeth Friederike geb. Jörg. The father came from Brandenburg, but the mother from nearby Bensheim an der Bergstrasse. The family later moved to Lauban in Lower Silesia, where they were registered in 1914.

Life

Heinrich Gebhardt - called in the Heiner family - attended the Latin school in Grünstadt , joined the Imperial Navy as a midshipman on April 6, 1904 , completed his basic training on the cruiser frigate SMS Stosch and then attended the naval school. There he was appointed ensign at sea on April 11, 1905 . From October 1, 1906 to September 30, 1908, Gebhardt was on duty on the liner SMS Braunschweig , meanwhile on September 28, 1907, he became a lieutenant at sea and adjutant on the large cruiser SMS Gneisenau . As Oberleutnant zur See (since August 6, 1909), he was a company officer in the II Torpedo Division for one year from September 9, 1910 and at times a watch officer on the torpedo boats V 183 and S 115 . Gebhardt was then transferred from October 1, 1911 to September 30, 1912 as a company officer to the IV. Sailor Artillery Department and then in the same function to the mining department.

With the outbreak of the First World War he was appointed commander of the torpedo division boat D 3 in the I. Minesweeping Division . On May 10, 1915 he took over the torpedo boat T 103 within the division and was promoted to lieutenant captain on October 17, 1915 . A year later Gebhardt was appointed head of the 1st minesweeping semi-flotilla; he was to keep this command until May 30, 1920 until the end of the war.

He then came to the staff of the Commander of the Naval Forces North Sea as 2nd Admiral Staff Officer. From April 1, 1921, he served as chief of the 7th Semi-Flotilla for five months, before he was employed as a teacher at the blocking test and training command in Kiel . There, on November 1, 1923, he was promoted to corvette captain . From April 3 to September 23, 1927, Gebhardt was subsequently a navigation officer on the ships of the line Alsace , Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein . He was then transferred to naval management as a consultant in the naval training department and promoted to frigate captain on April 1, 1929 . As such, he was in command of the liner Hannover from September 30, 1930 to September 25, 1931 . At the same time as he was promoted to sea captain on October 1, 1931, Gebhardt became chairman of the testing committee for new ships.

Grave of Heinrich Gebhardt in the south west cemetery in Stahnsdorf

When the ironclad Germany was launched on May 19, 1931, Heinrich Gebhardt commanded the company of honor and was photographed as he saluted President Paul von Hindenburg .

On September 30, 1934 he was retired from active service while being promoted to rear admiral.

Gebhardt was made available to the Navy on March 22, 1939 , but was not used for active military service.

From 1935 until his death in 1939 Heinrich Gebhardt acted as President of the German Amateur Broadcasting and Receiving Service (DASD).

Heinrich Gebhardt died surprisingly of sepsis . His grave is in the south-west cemetery Stahnsdorf .

Gebhardt was married to Else, geb. Lampert, from Frankfurt am Main . Both had a son born in Berlin named Hans Wolfgang Heinrich Gebhardt (1936–2003). During the Second World War, Else Gebhardt was close to resistance groups, worked on the “Weisse Blätter” and repeatedly gave shelter to people under pressure in her Berlin house. She was also a good friend of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and has often visited him in prison. a. to bring him fresh laundry until this was forbidden by the Gestapo. From 1946 the widow lived in Frankfurt again.

Martin Gebhardt 1914 (younger brother of Rear Admiral Heinrich Gebhardt)

Awards

Brothers

The younger brother of the rear admiral, Karl Martin Ludwig Gebhardt (born June 3, 1888 in Grünstadt, † July 10, 1970 in Hamburg), was also a naval officer. He joined the Imperial Navy in 1908 and was promoted to corvette captain in 1914, and from May 1918 he was in command of the T 189 torpedo boat .

He left the navy in 1919, but was reactivated when the Second World War broke out in 1939. He served as a staff officer at the Baltic Sea Station Command, and from December 15, 1943 until the end of the war on the staff of the Drontheim Sea Command . Here he was promoted to frigate captain of the reserve on September 1, 1944 .

literature

  • Hans H. Hildebrand and Ernest Henriot: Germany's Admirals 1849-1945 Volume 1: AG (Ackermann to Gygas) , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1988, ISBN 3-7648-2480-8 .

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Gebhardt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d Ranking list of the German Reichsmarine , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1929, p. 42
  2. Genealogical memorial page on Karl Martin Ludwig Gebhardt - Brother of the Admiral (with further sources)