Hermann Lüdke

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Hermann Otto Traugott Lüdke (born December 18, 1911 in Berlin , † October 8, 1968 in Immerath , Eifel ) was a German flotilla admiral . He died shortly after the initiation of preliminary investigations into espionage activities for unknown persons; according to official account by suicide .

career

Lüdke joined the Reichsmarine as a recruit on April 1, 1930 at the age of 18 . Until the end of June 1930 he was in the 2nd ship master division of the Baltic Sea in Stralsund .

On July 1, 1930, he began as a midshipman a course in management training at the Naval Academy Mürwik . He then took part in a training trip on the light cruiser Emden from November 1930 to early January 1932. This fourth training trip of the Emden led over the Mediterranean , Egypt , Aden , Ceylon to Thailand , the Philippines , the Republic of China , the Japanese Empire , Guam , Dutch East Indies , Mauritius , the Republic of South Africa , Portuguese West Africa , Nigeria , Sierra Leone , Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santander / Spain .

This was followed by further courses at the Kiel-Wik naval school and again at the Mürwik naval school until the beginning of January 1934 . From January to August 1934, the fleet was trained on the light cruiser Cologne , which carried out an exercise in the Atlantic during this time, including Funchal on Madeira and Lisbon . After passing the final exam at the Kiel Naval School and serving as a second administrative officer at the Mürwik Naval School, he was promoted to naval paymaster on March 1, 1935 and to lieutenant at sea on May 1, 1935 .

From August 1935 until the outbreak of war in September 1939, he served as administrative officer on the cruiser Köln , the destroyer Max Schultz and the sail training ship Horst Wessel used. During the Second World War he only had an on- board command on the Cologne for a short time in 1942 and was otherwise active in various administrative branches, such as a personnel officer in the naval personnel office and the like as well as an adjutant in the naval group command east . From May 12, 1944 until the surrender on May 8, 1945 he was, meanwhile promoted to corvette captain, union administration officer and quartermaster with the admiral of the small combat units . He let himself be used as the leader of a small submarine and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his successes . At the end of the war he was taken prisoner. Lüdke was released from internment on September 1, 1945.

In August 1952, Lüdke began working as a consultant for military budget issues in the Blank Office ( Amt Blank ) in Bonn. On November 1, 1955, he joined the Bundeswehr and was promoted to frigate captain at the same time . Until the end of May 1962 he worked as an Fü M advisor at the Federal Ministry of Defense . On January 31, 1958, he was promoted to captain at sea . From May 1962 to the end of August 1963 he was in command of the Kiel Naval Base Command.

After attending a course at the NATO Defense College in September 1963, he returned to the Ministry of Defense as Head of Division Fü BV 3 until the end of June 1966 .

Work at SHAPE

On July 1, 1966, Lüdke began his work as Deputy Head of DACOS at the German share at SHAPE / FR. With effect from April 1, 1967, he was promoted to Flotilla Admiral.

Service in that he had access to documents on the performance of the Atlantic and North Sea ports for supplies from overseas to Western Europe, the cargo space on ships, trains , aircraft and vehicle convoys, the system of convoys that in case of war from overseas to supply the European NATO Members should ensure the routing and performance of the European pipelines as well as the capacity of the defense industry of NATO members.

Retirement and death

From July 1 to September 30, 1968 Lüdke was available for special use at the armed forces office. On September 23, 1968, the laboratory assistant in a photo shop in Bonn noticed that nine pictures of a film that Lüdke owned did not show family photos , but documents that were marked secret with a NATO stamp . Thereupon the 14th (political) commissariat of the Bonn police headquarters was informed. It turned out that the documents apparently came from the NATO headquarters in Casteau / Belgium, from which Lüdke had just returned. The police did not notify the Federal Public Prosecutor at the Federal Court of Justice , but the Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD).

On 27 September 1968 Lüdke was after his farewell ceremony attended by the Chief of Navy , Vice Admiral Gert Jeschonnek and some MAD officials with the photos from the Minox - camera facing. At first Lüdke denied possession of the camera, but finally admitted it. However, he refused to admit that he had ever seen the photographed documents, although investigations in Casteau had shown that Lüdke had had them presented to him. The investigating MAD members were satisfied with this answer and Lüdke was neither arrested nor ordered a house search .

Hagen describes this in 1969 in his work The Secret War on German Soil since 1945 as a serious mistake, but also criticized the handover of the investigation to the MAD. The next day, Lüdke was questioned by the Bonn police , which had tried in vain to contact the federal prosecutor's office. After the interrogation, only the admiral's study in his private home was searched, for Hagen with the aim of protecting the family. When the Federal Prosecutor's Office was contacted two more days later, they decided to leave the investigation in the hands of the Bonn police, as too many mistakes had already been made. With timely knowledge, the Federal Prosecutor's Office would have entrusted the Bonn security group with the investigation, which was subordinate to the Federal Criminal Police Office and had highly qualified staff.

On Tuesday, October 8, 1968, around 4:30 p.m., Lüdke's body was found in a forest near the village of Immerath / Eifel by the farmer Alois Zenzen after villagers heard a shot around 3:00 p.m. Lüdke, a passionate and experienced hunter , had been on a hunting trip and had spoken to the head forester in charge a few hours earlier . The body was lying next to his open car . A hunting accident or suicide was assumed to be the cause of death . The doctor who first appeared on site considered suicide due to the gunshot wound and the gunshot channel to be ruled out. According to official reports, Lüdke committed suicide.

Since the deputy BND chief , Major General Horst Wendland , shot himself in his office a few hours before Lüdke's death , a connection was established in public that became known as the Lüdke affair . The speculations were u. a. was fueled by the fact that a total of four employees of federal authorities killed themselves from October 14 to 21, 1968 and on October 29, the Federal Prosecutor Ludwig Martin announced the arrest of six agents from the Warsaw Pact area who were suspected of having rocketed a German army stolen and transported to Moscow . Because of Lüdke's death, the investigation was discontinued.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erich Topp. Torches over the Atlantic . Herford 1990. ISBN 3-8132-0354-9 . P. 263
personal data
SURNAME Lüdke, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lüdke, Hermann Otto Traugott
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German flotilla admiral
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 1968
Place of death Immerath , Eifel