Karl Bartenbach

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Karl Bartenbach

Karl Bartenbach (born November 29, 1881 in Böckingen , † October 24, 1949 in Öhringen ) was a German vice admiral .

Life

Imperial Navy

Bartenbach joined the Imperial Navy on April 12, 1898 at the age of 17 . He went through the usual basic training on the sailing training ship Stosch until March 31, 1899. He was then transferred to the naval school, which he attended until September 30, 1900. On September 13, 1901 he was promoted to lieutenant at sea and then served from October 1, 1900, initially as an officer on the watch on the ironclad SMS Sachsen , from November 1, 1901 on the ship of the line SMS Kaiser Wilhelm der Große and finally from 21. November 1901 on the liner SMS Kaiser Friedrich III. Promoted to lieutenant at sea on March 28, 1903 , he was trained from October 1, 1904 on the torpedo school ship SMS Blücher and on the auxiliary ship SMS Otter for service on torpedo boats . He was then assigned to the 1st Sailor Division from January 13, 1905 and from April 1 of the same year as a company officer in the 1st Torpedo Division. During this time he was used as an officer on watch and as a commander on various torpedo boats.

From October 1, 1906, Karl Bartenbach was assigned to the torpedo inspection and the submarine weapon under construction . From November 3, 1906 to March 3, 1908, he was also in command of the torpedo division boat D 10 . Promoted to lieutenant captain, he was in command of the first German submarine U 1 from March 4, 1908 to March 31, 1910 . From April 1, 1910, Bartenbach was then chairman of the submarine acceptance commission and again in command of D 10 . He was then employed from February 20, 1912 to August 6, 1914 as a department head in the department for torpedo systems and radio telegraphy (BV) in the shipyard department of the Reichsmarinamt .

volcano

After the outbreak of World War I , Bartenbach was initially made available for the inspection of submarines until September. From September 3, 1914, as commander of the torpedo division boat D 5 , he organized and directed the training of the newly commissioned submarines. From November 5, 1914 he was in command of the dock ship Vulkan , which was used as a submarine training and security ship. In this role, Bartenbach was also head of submarine training. From March 13, 1915, he became leader of the submarines of the Marine Corps Flanders and in this capacity was promoted to corvette captain on September 18 . During this time, the Flemish submarine sank a total of 2,554 ships and aircraft. Their own loss was 80 submarines with their officers and men. From October 1, 1917 to October 31, 1918, Bartenbach was in charge of all submarines in Flanders. The Flemish flotilla was disbanded in October 1918 due to the war.

From November 1, 1918, Karl Bartenbach was transferred to the Reichsmarineamt , which was already being dissolved , where he was also responsible for the submarine fleet. From December 16, 1918 he headed the submarine department of the Reichsmarine . On March 26, 1919, the Reichsmarineamt was dissolved and replaced by the Admiralty. Bartenbach also initially headed the submarine department in this new authority and was then transferred to the naval office. Since Germany was not allowed to own submarines according to the Versailles Peace Treaty , his office was terminated after the last boats were surrendered, and he was retired on January 26, 1920 at the age of 39.

Activity after the First World War

However, under the new Reichswehr Minister Gustav Noske , contrary to the provisions of the Versailles Treaty, which came into force on January 10, 1920, the secret rearmament of Germany began. This applied to both the air fleet and the navy and especially the future submarine fleet. In the newly formed Ministry of Defense, Admiral Paul Behncke became head of the admiralty and, from September 15, 1920, head of the naval command . From 1920 onwards, he was responsible for the maritime transport department, whose head was Captain Walter Lohmann . The secret procurement of armaments products for the Reichsmarine and the camouflaged construction of submarines were located here. For this area of ​​responsibility, Karl Bartenbach worked as a naval advisor from 1920 to 1934, primarily in Finland and Argentina . On behalf of the Reichswehr Ministry, he oversaw the transfer of engineering knowledge, the deployment of German technicians and naval officers, the procurement and provision of technical know-how and components for the secret submarine construction in both countries. For this purpose, the cover organization of the German naval command, the Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw in the legal form Naamloze Vennootschap (NV), was founded in The Hague on Kneuterdijk in July 1922 . The company was financed by the German Navy and was a joint venture between AG Vulcan Stettin with shipyards in Hamburg and Stettin, Germania shipyard in Kiel and AG Weser with the shipyard in Bremen. Bartenbach ensured through his connections to the foreign government representatives, to the admiral staff of the federal states as well as to the directors of the shipyards on site that the German knowledge of submarine construction was maintained, further developed and deepened according to the international technical level. Here, according to the construction plans of German engineers, submarines were built for Germany outside the country. The orders to the foreign shipyards and suppliers were placed, checked and covered via the “engineering canteen”. In this way, for example, the prototype of the German submarine class IIA was built and equipped from 1926 at the Finnish Crichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku. The secret contracts were concluded in November 1923 with the director of the shipyard Allan Staffan (1880-1946) for the construction of submarines with German technology. This entire process was kept under the strictest secrecy and was secured and monitored by the naval intelligence service . For this reason, for example, Wilhelm Canaris stayed for six weeks from May 1928 on a “recreational trip” covered by the public in Argentina to find out about the status of the implementation of submarine construction for Germany and to ensure the safety of the project on site convince. As part of the Lohmann affair , triggered by publications by the business journalist Kurd Wenkel from the Berliner Tageblatt, numerous of these secret armaments projects came to light in 1927/1928. Including the project to develop a modern German submarine with bubble-free torpedoes, which, among other actors, was to be brought on its way by Karl Bartenbach with his activities abroad. In order not to increase the damage caused by the public scandal and not to endanger other ongoing projects, Walter Lohmann was relieved of his office and his superior, the head of the naval office, Admiral Hans Zenker , was dismissed on September 30, 1928. In the period from 1927 to 1933, five German submarines were built and put into service in Finland.

In March 1934, Karl Bartenbach was reactivated by the Reichsmarine and promoted to captain at sea ( E ) in June . From June 1, 1934 to October 31, 1934 he was at the disposal of the chief of the naval command. He then headed the anti-submarine defense department in the Navy High Command (OKM) until September 23, 1935. He then worked as head of the department for submarine affairs on the reconstruction of the submarine weapon. After that he was head of the statistical department from October 18, 1935. In February 1938 he was with the simultaneous presentation of the character as a rear admiral retires. On February 15, 1939, he was made available to the Navy and on August 19, 1939 he was given the status of Vice Admiral. On May 31, 1943, his mobilization provision was lifted.

Karl Bartenbach died on October 24, 1949 in Öhringen.

Awards

Remarks

  1. ↑ At the beginning of the 20th century "torpedo divisions" were formed from which the crews of the torpedo boats were recruited. Because the expression "Torpedodivision" led to confusion with "Torpedo boots division", the latter have since been referred to as "Torpedobootshalbflotillen". See: Eberhard von Mantey : That was the old Navy. Berlin: Frundsberg 1935. p. 107.
  2. ↑ According to Article 190 “Germany was forbidden to build or acquire any warships, except to replace the units in service”, this included a total ban on submarines and according to Article 181, German naval forces in service were no longer allowed than 6 battleships of the Deutschland or Lorraine class, 6 small cruisers, 12 destroyers, 12 torpedo boats or an equal number of ships built to replace them.

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (eds.), Hans H. Hildebrand, Ernest Henriot: Germany's Admirals 1849-1945. The military careers of naval, engineering, medical, weapons and administrative officers with admiral rank. Volume 1: A-G. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1988, ISBN 3-7648-1499-3 , pp. 57-58.
  • Hans Möller: History of the knight of the order Pour le Mérite in the world war. Volume 1: A-L. Bernard & Graefe publishing house, Berlin 1935, pp. 39–40.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eberhard Rössler: The German U-Boats and their shipyards. Volume 1. Bernhard and Graefe Verlag. Munich. 1979. Pages 74 ff
  2. ^ Karl Heinz Abshagen: The German secret service. Union Publishing House. Stuttgart. 1959. Pages 83ff.
  3. ↑ Bernd Remmele: The secret maritime armor under Captain Lohmann. Published in: Military history communications. Year 1997. Issue 56. Pages 313ff.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Ranking list of the Imperial German Navy. Marinekabinett (Ed.) ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1918. p. 22.
personal data
SURNAME Bartenbach, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Vice Admiral
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Boeckingen
DATE OF DEATH October 24, 1949
Place of death Öhringen