Herwig Collmann

Herwig Collmann as captain z. S.

Herwig Max Karl Fritz Eduard Gerd Collmann (born September 1, 1915 in Posen , † February 6, 2005 in Hamburg ) was a German naval officer . During the Second World War he was used as a submarine commander in the Kriegsmarine . In the German Navy, he last held the rank of flotilla admiral .

Life

Navy

Collmann joined the Reichsmarine in Stralsund in 1935 . He was a seaman on the sailing training ship Gorch Fock and midshipman on the light cruiser Emden . In 1936 he was on a trip abroad. As an ensign at sea , he went to the Mürwik naval school . Collmann then worked in the Flensburg-Mürwik naval hospital and completed weapons courses at the Mürwik naval school. He completed training as a torpedo and submarine torpedo officer at the Mürwik torpedo school , as a submarine watch officer at the Neustadt submarine school and completed the submarine artillery officer course in Kiel. In 1938 he was promoted to lieutenant at sea .

From 1938 to 1940 he was used as the 1st watch officer on U 10 and U 56 . In 1939 he was promoted to lieutenant at sea . From July 8, 1940 to January 4, 1941 he was in command of U 17 and, after a stopover, from March 20, 1941 to September 3, 1941 on U 562 . Then he was training manager of the 24th U-Flotilla and was promoted to lieutenant captain in 1942 . From September 1944 to March 1945 he was in command of the 21st U-Flotilla . In March 1945 he was transferred to the staff of the commanding admiral of the submarines, where he remained until May 1945. From May 1945 to November 1947 he was a prisoner of war .

Education

In 1947/48 he studied economics at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel and was a working student at the Royal Navy in Kiel. In 1948/49 he was a student trainee at Reitemeier in Hameln. From 1949 to 1951 he worked as an alternative in the Burgdorf canning factory Warnecke in Burgdorf. From 1951 to 1953 he studied economics at the Georg-August University in Göttingen .

Federal Navy

In 1952 he worked in the Blank office. In 1955 he joined the German Navy . From 1955 to 1957 he was an assistant at the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn. 1957/58 he was head of department and deputy commander of the 5th ship master department in Bremerhaven. In 1958 he completed the Action Speed ​​Tactical Teacher Course in London. From 1958 he was in command of the school frigate Graf Spee . From 1960 to 1962 he was a teaching staff officer at the Bundeswehr school for internal leadership in Koblenz.

From 1962 to 1963 he attended the NATO Defense College in Paris. As a Captain he was from 1963 to 1965, the first commander of the training ship of the German Navy Germany . In 1965 he was transferred to the Mürwik Naval School in Flensburg as teaching group commander C. In 1966 he became a flotilla admiral and commander of the Bundeswehr School for Inner Guidance in Koblenz. From 1969 to 1973 he was naval inspector for education and training in the naval office in Wilhelmshaven. In 1973 he was retired.

Others

Collmann was a member of the SPD .

Awards

• 1939: Iron Cross 2nd class
• 1939: U-boat war badge (1939)
• 1940: Iron Cross 1st class
• 1971: Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class

literature

• Dermot Bradley , Heinz-Peter Würzenthal, Hansgeorg Model : The generals and admirals of the Bundeswehr 1955–1999. The military careers . Volume 1: Adam – Fuhr . Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1998, ISBN 978-3-7648-2492-1 , pp. 340–342.
• Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945 . Part 1: The German submarine commanders . Mittler, Hamburg a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 , p. 45.

Web links

Commons : Herwig Collmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Generals. Still in . In: Der Spiegel . No. 29 , 1970, pp. 32-33 ( online ).