Karl Topp

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Friedrich Karl Topp (born September 29, 1895 in Voerde ; † April 24, 1981 in Jever ) was a German naval officer , most recently vice admiral in World War II .

Life

Topp joined the Imperial Navy on April 1, 1914 as a midshipman . When the First World War broke out , he was on board the liner SMS Thuringia with which he took part in the Skargerrak Battle. On July 13, 1916, he was promoted to lieutenant at sea . From September 10 to November 14, 1917 he completed a submarine training and was then assigned to the 1st Mediterranean submarine flotilla . As first officer he last sailed on the submarine SM UC 67, of which Martin Niemöller was in command .

After the end of the war he was taken over by the Reichsmarine . Here he held various staff positions and was a. a. from the end of September 1925 to the end of September 1927 commander of the torpedo boat V 6 in the 3rd torpedo boat semi-flotilla in Wilhelmshaven . Further orders to the ship master division of the North Sea followed. He then served under Karl Dönitz as a navigational officer , and later also as first officer , on the light cruiser Emden .

From 1936 to 1939 he was general adviser for military questions in shipbuilding, then head of the military department in the warship construction department of the OKM , although he had no technical training, and from 1941 to 1943 as sea ​​captain and rear admiral, first in command of the battleship Tirpitz .

Then he was again head of the military department. Until the end of the war he was the chairman of the shipbuilding commission of the Reich Minister for Armaments and War Production , most recently as Vice Admiral and at the instigation of Karl Dönitz , which reported directly to Albert Speer .

The British occupying forces then used him for a few months to wind up the shipyards. From October 15, 1945 Topp was in British captivity , from which he was released on December 2, 1946.

Awards

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 3: P-Z. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1990. ISBN 3-7648-1700-3 . Pp. 454-455.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Niemöller: From the submarine to the pulpit. Third edition. Warneck. Berlin 1937.
  2. ^ Patrick Bishop: The Hunt for Hitler's Warship . Simon and Schuster, 2013, ISBN 978-1-62157-069-1 ( google.de [accessed October 10, 2019]).
  3. ^ A b Niklas Zetterling, Michael Tamelander: Tirpitz: The Life and Death of Germany's Last Super Battleship . Casemate Publishers, 2009, ISBN 978-1-935149-18-7 , pp. 22 ( google.de [accessed on October 10, 2019]).
  4. ^ Jochen Brennecke: Battleship Tirpitz. Fifth edition. Publishing house Koehler. Herford 1995. ISBN 3-7822-0629-0 .
  5. ^ Bernhard R. Kroener, Rolf-Dieter Müller, Hans Umbreit: Germany and the Second World War . Clarendon Press, 1990, ISBN 978-0-19-820873-0 , pp. 405 ( google.de [accessed October 10, 2019]).
  6. ↑ a b c d Ranking list of the German Imperial Navy. Ed .: Reichswehr Ministry . Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1929. p. 46.
personal data
SURNAME Great, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Topp, Friedrich Karl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer, most recently vice admiral in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Voerde
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1981
Place of death Jever