Hugo Zeye

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Hugo Zeye as Vice Admiral

Hugo Zeye (born March 21, 1852 in Beeskow , † December 11, 1909 in Kiel ) was a German naval officer, most recently Vice Admiral of the Imperial Navy .

Military career

Years of training

After finishing school, Zeye joined the Prussian Navy on April 11, 1869 as a 17-year-old cadet ( crew 69 ) . He was promoted to midshipman on June 6, 1870 . On December 21, 1873 he was promoted to lieutenant at sea ; he received the patent for this on December 14, 1875 with seniority of December 21, 1873. In the "Rank and Quarters List of the Imperial Navy for the year 1874" he is listed as a sub-lieutenant at sea on the covered corvette Gazelle . Where he took her nearly two-year expedition of 21 June 1874 to the April 28, 1876 around the Cape of Good Hope , to observe the transit of Venus on the Kerguelen , after Mauritius , through the South Pacific , through the Strait of Magellan and the Azores back to Kiel. He was promoted to lieutenant at sea on December 16, 1876, and to lieutenant captain on May 15, 1883.

First commands

On May 23, 1890, Zeye was promoted to Korvettenkapitän , and as such he was initially in command of the Saxony tank corvette from October 1892 to November 1892 , but was then in December 1892 in command of the torpedo training ship Blücher . This was a groundbreaking step in his career, as he then served mainly in the torpedo sector until the end of his life . For five months, until April 1893, he remained in command of the Blücher . Then he was assigned to the inspection of torpedo systems in Kiel, where he was also a teacher at the local naval school and from August 1893 to September 1895 he was also the commander of the I. Torpedo Boat Department. During the annual autumn maneuvers, he was also the head of the torpedo boat flotilla formed from the department's torpedo boats.

East Asia Squadron

From September 1895 to February 1896, Zeye, meanwhile promoted to frigate captain, was in command of cruiser III. Class Gefion . On April 13, 1896, he was promoted to captain at sea and in May 1896 appointed commander of the armored ship Kaiser II , which had served as the flagship of the East Asian cruiser division since 1895 . Zeye commanded the Kaiser , who was reclassified as a Great Cruiser on January 25, 1897 , until January 1898. From April 12, 1897, when the previous division chief, Rear Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz , who had been appointed Secretary of State in the Reichsmarineamt , left until June 11, 1897 When Rear Admiral Otto von Diederichs arrived as the new division chief, Zeye was entrusted with the management of the chief of the cruiser division. From November 14, 1897 to January 26, 1898, when army troops arrived from Germany to relieve them, Zeye was commander of the landing corps of the cruiser division during the occupation and occupation of the leased area of ​​Kiautschou by the German Reich .

Torpedo beings

After his return from East Asia, Zeye became President of the Torpedo Trial Command (TVK) in Kiel in May 1898 . At the same time, he was in command of the torpedo test ship Friedrich Carl (until September 1900) or, from its commissioning on September 20, 1900, of the nymph . The nymph served under his command for two weeks at the end of January / beginning of February as an escort cruiser for the imperial yacht Hohenzollern to accompany Kaiser Wilhelm II to the funeral ceremonies for his grandmother, Queen Victoria , in England.

In April 1901, Zeye became head of the military department in the Reichsmarineamt . In September 1903 he was appointed torpedo inspector, a position he held until his death in 1909. On January 27, 1904 he was promoted to Rear Admiral, on April 27, 1907 to Vice Admiral. From 1905 to 1909, Zeye was also the commander of the association of training and test ships that was formed for a few weeks each spring. He was also chief of the III during the autumn maneuvers of the fleet in 1907 and 1908. (Maneuver) squadron and in 1909 commander of the reserve fleet formed from all ships in reserve.

Death; Honors

Zeye died in Kiel on December 11, 1909. So far there is no information about his grave, which could have been located in Kiel on today's Nordfriedhof or on the St. Jürgen cemetery that was leveled in 1955 .

The Navy named its torpedo training ship Hugo Zeye after him.

The Zeye-Straße in Kiel-Wik is named after him.

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ Hydrographic Office of the Reich Marine Office (ed.): The research trip SMS "Gazelle" in the years 1874 to 1876 ..., First part: The travel report. Mittler and Son, Berlin, 1889, p. 11
  2. ↑ On the inspection of torpedoes see Georg Wislicenus: Deutschlands Seemacht: otherwise and now. Grunow, Leipzig, 1896; Pp. 175-176.
  3. ↑ The Gefion began its career in 1891 as a cruiser corvette and later became the cruiser III. Class and reclassified as a small cruiser in 1899 .
  4. ↑ It was not until May 1898 that the East Asian Cruiser Squadron was formed from it.
  5. ^ Konst Ferber: Organization and operations of the Imperial German Navy. 5th edition, Mittler und Sohn, Berlin, 1905, p. 89.
  6. ↑ May 1905, April-May 1906, April-May 1907, March-April 1908 and March-April 1909.

literature

  • Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present. Volume 5. Mundus Verlag, Ratingen.
  • Marine Ordinance Sheet 1909, Issue 27, p. 385 (obituary)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Zeye, Hugo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Vice Admiral
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Beeskow
DATE OF DEATH December 11, 1909
Place of death Kiel