Joachim Plath
Joachim Plath (born June 3, 1893 in Liederstädt , † June 28, 1971 in Stade ) was a German admiral .
Life
Plath grew up in Berlin-Biesdorf , where his father, Superintendent Georg Plath , had been transferred. He passed his Abitur at the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster Berlin. In 1913 he joined the Imperial Navy (Crew 13) and was 1914-1918 navigational ensign on the SMS Victoria Louise . This was followed by positions as platoon leader, as battalion adjutant in the 5th Sailor Regiment Flanders, adjutant in the 2nd Marine Division in Ostend and the position as officer on watch on the destroyer flotilla Flanders.
In 1919 Plath was an eyewitness to Scapa Flow and was taken prisoner by the English; A bundle of letters from this time has been in the Peter Tamm International Maritime Museum Hamburg since December 2018 . Operations in the 1st torpedo flotilla and the 3rd minesweeping flotilla followed in 1919/20. Plath was then commander on the artillery school boat Hay of the ship artillery school Kiel. On January 11, 1921, Plath married Käthe Wilke (born March 17, 1900 in Berlin). In 1922 the daughter Lieselotte was born.
In 1923, Plath was promoted to company commander of the ship's trunk division in Kiel, and in 1924 he worked as an officer on watch on the liner Hannover. His son Klaus Christian Karl was born on March 28, 1924.
From 1926 Plath was a teacher at the ship artillery school in Kiel. His son Götz Christian Karl was born on May 12, 1927, and Richard Christian Karl was born on September 17, 1930.
In 1931 Plath became an artillery officer on the cruiser Leipzig and in 1933 a consultant at the Wilhelmshaven artillery inspection. In 1936/37 he served as chief officer on the ironclad Germany (Schiff, 1931) , from 1937 he was an admiral staff officer at the commander of the ironclad. In 1939 he was appointed head of department in the High Command of the Navy (organizational department) in Berlin.
From November 1941 to February 1943, Plath succeeded Heinrich Bramesfeld , commander of the 1st Security Division in Holland. This division was responsible for guarding the coast, minesweeping and escorting between Holland and the German Bight. In September 1942 he had already been promoted to Rear Admiral. From March 1943 to December 1944 he held the position as the last coastal commander in the middle Baltic Sea in Gotenhafen. The task was to secure the coast of West and East Prussia. On January 19, 1944, the submarine U 641, on which Plath's son Klaus was a lieutenant, was sunk southwest of Ireland.
After the surrender, until July 1945, Plath was in his last assignment commander of division group 317 in the Emden area, then a prisoner of war in Camp 2224, 2226 and Munsterlager. On December 2, 1946, he was released to Gut Rethwisch in Holstein. There Plath was initially a farm worker and from March 15 to August 12, 1947 a gardener. In September 1947, Plath became managing director of Evangelisches Hilfswerk Sprengel Stade, and in 1958 he retired.
literature
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Ernest Henriot: Joachim Plath . In: Germany's Admirals, 1849–1945: the military careers of naval, engineering, medical, weapons and administrative officers with the rank of admiral . Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1988, ISBN 3-7648-1499-3 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
Individual evidence
- ^ The archive: reference work for politics, economy, culture . O. Stollberg., 1942, p. 516 ( google.de [accessed October 7, 2019]).
- ↑ Heinz Schön: Königsberg fateful years: the fall of the capital of East Prussia 1944-1948 . Arndt, 2012, ISBN 978-3-88741-053-7 , pp. 46 ( google.de [accessed October 7, 2019]).
- ^ U 641: The crew. In: ubootarchiv.de/ubootwiki. January 27, 2020, accessed February 15, 2020 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Plath, Joachim |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German admiral |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 3, 1893 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Song city |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 28, 1971 |
| Place of death | Stade |