Kurt Fricke

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Kurt Fricke (disambiguation) .

Kurt Fricke with Italian naval officers in May 1943.

Kurt Fricke (born November 8, 1889 in Berlin ; † May 2, 1945 there ) was a German naval officer , most recently an admiral in World War II .

Life

Fricke joined the Imperial Navy on April 1, 1910 as a midshipman ( crew 1910 ) , completed his basic training on the large cruiser SMS Hertha and then went to the Mürwik naval school . There he was appointed ensign at sea on April 15, 1911 and, after the successful visit, transferred to the large cruiser SMS Moltke . It was here that he was promoted to lieutenant at sea on September 27, 1913 . As such, he remained on board after the outbreak of World War I and took part in the battle on the Dogger Bank in January 1915 . After he had become lieutenant at sea on March 22, 1916 , Fricke came a year later to the torpedo boats G 103 and G 101 , where he was used as an officer on watch . From March 7, 1918 he was a flag lieutenant on the staff of the commander of the torpedo boat forces and remained in this position until December 23, 1918 after the end of the war.

He then worked in the Reichsmarineamt or in the naval management. He was used in the central department as adjutant to the chief of naval command and on January 1, 1921, he was promoted to lieutenant captain . From January 19, 1922 to September 26, 1924 he was transferred to the 1st Flotilla. There he was initially in command of the torpedo boat T 139 , then T 148 . At the same time he acted as flag lieutenant of the 1st Flotilla. From September 27, 1924, Fricke was a company officer in Coast Defense Division I for two years and then a naval adjutant to the Reichswehr Minister for three years . In the meantime he had been promoted to Corvette Captain on December 1, 1928 . After he had given up his post on September 25, 1929, he was appointed chief of the 2nd torpedo boat semi-flotilla. From September 16, 1931 to September 24, 1933 he was chief of the I. Torpedo Boat Flotilla and was finally appointed leader of the torpedo boats and promoted to frigate captain on April 1, 1934 . This was followed by his employment as chief of the staff of the inspection of torpedoes and mines and his promotion to captain at sea on October 1, 1935. As such, he was commanded from October 6, 1936 to September 30, 1937 at the Wehrmacht Academy. After his work there, Fricke was transferred to the naval high command , where he was appointed chief of the operations department of the naval war command. From April 30, 1939 he was also a liaison officer of the Navy to the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force .

In both positions Fricke was active beyond the beginning of the Second World War and was promoted to rear admiral on November 1, 1939 and vice admiral on June 1, 1941 . From June 13, 1941 to February 20, 1943, Fricke was then Chief of Staff of the Naval War Command in the Navy High Command. As an admiral (since April 1, 1942) he was finally appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Group Command South on March 21, 1943 . He led this office until it was closed on December 11, 1944. He was then transferred to the Führerreserve .

Fricke was killed on May 2, 1945 in the fighting for the Reich capital.

Awards

• Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st class
• Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with swords
• Hanseatic Cross Hamburg
• Friedrich-August-Kreuz II. And I. Class
• Clasp for the Iron Cross, 2nd and 1st class
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on October 1, 1942

literature

• Hans H. Hildebrand and Ernest Henriot: Germany's Admirals 1849-1945 Volume 1: AG , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1988, ISBN 3-7648-1499-3 , pp. 369-370
• Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German Warships: Biographies - A Mirror of Naval History from 1815 to the Present , Volume 5, Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft 1982, ISBN 978-3782202367 , p. 222.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Ranking list of the German Reichsmarine , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1929, p. 44
2. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 319.