Karl E. Smidt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karl E. Smidt (born August 30, 1903 in Neuenhaus in the county of Bentheim , † January 11, 1984 in Flensburg ) was a German naval officer , most recently Rear Admiral of the Federal Navy and NATO commander of the German fleet ( fleet chief ).

Life

After graduating from the Schiller-Gymnasium in Hameln in 1922, Smidt was accepted as a sea ​​cadet by the newly founded Imperial Navy . After several training stations (first trip abroad in 1923) he became a watch officer in Wilhelmshaven in 1926 (1927 artillery trainer on Wangerooge ) and in 1931 trainer in Kiel . 1933–1934 and 1934–1935 voyages around the world with the light cruiser Karlsruhe , 1934 promoted to captainleutnant . 1936 to 1937 deployment on the Spanish coasts in the Spanish civil war , commander of the torpedo boat Jaguar , later deployed on the ironclad Germany (1937 bombing of the ironclad off Ibiza by republican troops, "Ibiza incident"), 1938 corvette captain .

During the Second World War , Smidt was in command of several ships (1939–1940 destroyer Erich Giese , survived the sinking off Narvik ; 1941–1942 Z 27 ). In 1942 he became a frigate captain . He was an important witness to the British alleged violations of martial law in the naval battle off Narvik . 1940–1941 he was admiral staff officer in Paris , then in 1942 until the end of the war he was head of the officer personnel department of the Naval High Command North in Wilhelmshaven. He was promoted to sea captain in 1943 .

In 1935 he joined the church resistance against National Socialism and became a member of the Confessing Church in Holthusen, Weener district , East Frisia . In his function as naval personnel manager in Wilhelmshaven, he successfully tried to reduce the influence of Nazi greats in the navy and protected opponents of the regime that had become known, including the later ZEIT editor Ewald Schmidt di Simoni .

1945–1946 he was in the administration of the German mine clearance service in Buxtehude , then unemployed. He then prepared his career as a pastor, but was hired in 1947 as the shipyard manager in Sankt Goar am Rhein by the French occupation authorities within the Section de navigation du Rhin. In 1952 he became an official in the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Transport .

In 1956 he joined the newly founded German Navy , which he helped to set up as head of a personnel department. Since 1957 he worked in the Federal Ministry of Defense, Bonn. In 1959 he was appointed flotilla admiral . On April 1, 1961 Smidt became the NATO - Commander of the Naval Forces of the Baltic Sea (location Meierwik in Flensburg - Mürwik ), from 1 September 1961 NATO commander of the German fleet command of the North and Baltic (Fleet Commander, site of the fleet command in Glücksburg -Meierwik). At the time, the fleet chief became part of the NATO command structure as Flag Officer Germany (FOG) of NATO (transfer of the “full command”, his office became NATO headquarters). On October 31, 1961, he was promoted to Rear Admiral by Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss . His activities included numerous official trips abroad, commissioning of ships, co-organization of conferences and several German and NATO maneuvers (NATO autumn maneuver 1961 with the Danes, May 1962 Franco-German maneuver in the North Sea, national autumn maneuver 1962 "Doorkeeper" , with the result that there were violent protests in the GDR against the “preparation of an offensive”, September 1963 NATO autumn maneuver “Keystone” with the Danes). In June 1962 he initiated “Fleet Day” at all ports with the possibility for the population to visit the ships. He retired on September 30, 1963, the farewell took place with the Great Zapfenstreich with a parade of 104 ships in the Bay of Kiel .

On April 1, 1964, Smidt became Federal Commissioner at the Flensburg and Lübeck Maritime Offices ( honorary officer ) and held office until 1975.

He died while attending the historical-tactical conference in Flensburg, the day before he was to give a speech as the conference elder.

Party and honorary offices

Smidt rejected the participation of active soldiers in party life, which is why he only joined a party after his retirement. He became a member of the CDU in 1970 . From 1965 to 1970 he was chairman of the Society for Military Studies, local group Rendsburg , and a member of several other societies.

family

Admiral Smidt came from an East Frisian pastor family. He was married and had three children. The eldest daughter Antje, an interpreter, was married to captain z. S. Peter Lawrence, former site commander of Hamburg . The son Wolbert K. Smidt was BND director and first class counselor in Paris . The youngest daughter Hilke Stamatiadis-Smidt is a publicist (see article Cancer (Medicine) , German Cancer Research Center ).

Awards

literature

  • Alfred de Zayas : Smidt, Karl Ernst ; in: Martin Tielke (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland , Volume 4: Aurich 2007; ISBN 3-932206-62-2 ; Pp. 394-397.
  • Johannes Berthold Sander-Nagashima: The Federal Navy 1950 to 1972, conception and construction ; Munich 2006; Pp. 90-96
  • Alfred de Zayas : The Wehrmacht Investigation Center, unpublished files on allied violations of international law in World War II ; Munich: Universitas / Langen-Müller, 1980; Pp. 369 ff., 384, 391, 444.
  • Article by Karl Smidt, fr. Admiral ; in: Munzinger, Internationales Biographisches Archiv 38/1968 of September 9, 1968.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Since this reform "basically lasted for almost four decades, it can be assumed that it was a great organizational success that was able to guarantee the effective deployment of German naval forces well beyond the times of the Cold War." (50 years of the Fleet Command , Schleswig-Holstein State Newspaper, June 15, 2006)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Manfred Dörr: The knight's cross bearers of the surface armed forces of the Navy , Volume 2: LZ, Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1996, ISBN 3-7648-2498-0 , pp. 261-262
personal data
SURNAME Smidt, Karl E.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smidt, Karl Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer, most recently admiral
DATE OF BIRTH August 30, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuenhaus in the county of Bentheim
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1984
Place of death Flensburg