Otto Hormel

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Otto Hormel (born September 13, 1886 in Kassel , † April 22, 1971 in Reinbek ) was a German naval officer , most recently in the rank of admiral in the Navy .

Career

Imperial Navy and First World War

Hormel was born as the son of Professor Hermann Hormel in Kassel, where he attended the Lyzeum Fridericianum. He came from an old Hessian lay judge family . On April 3, 1907, he joined the Imperial Navy as a midshipman . After basic training and basic training on the training ship SMS Stein , Hormel came to the Naval School in Kiel for further training on April 1, 1908 . On August 21, 1908, he was then appointed ensign at sea . From October 1, 1909 to September 30, 1912 he served on the liner SMS Braunschweig , in the meantime he had been promoted to lieutenant on September 28, 1910 . He was then assigned to the Reichsmarineamt until March 31, 1913 and then served as an officer on watch on the gunboat SMS Hyäne . On September 27, 1913, he was promoted to first lieutenant at sea and switched to the 1st sailor division as a company officer .

This was followed by a command as an officer on watch on the survey ship Planet on the Australian station in the South Seas from May 30, 1914 and subsequently a position as commander of Peilboot III from June 15 to August 9, 1914. When the First World War broke out , it stopped Hormel in Tsingtau . From there he managed to emigrate to the USA in August 1914 , as Hormel had been appointed naval attaché there. He held the post in Washington until January 1915 and then traveled back to Germany . Here he took over the coastal torpedo boat SMS A 16 on June 19, 1915 . In June 1917 he switched to the S 63 torpedo boat as commander . At the same time he commanded the III. Torpedo boat flotilla . In this function he was promoted to lieutenant captain on March 17, 1918 and experienced the end of the war.

Imperial Navy

After the end of World War I, Hormel went through a multitude of uses, each lasting only a few months. In March 1919 he was first assigned to the torpedo inspection department and then to the branch of the ship inspection commission in Kiel. From June 1919, Hormel was a staff officer at the command of the minesweeping units of the Baltic Sea and then from March 10, 1920 served as a company officer for the Coastal Defense Battalion III. Then Hormel was given a short leave of absence and returned on May 30, 1920 as a company officer to Coast Defense Battalion IV. From October 1, 1922 to April 30, 1923, Hormel was a personnel officer at the Baltic Sea Naval Station , during which time he also took part in a course for surveyors on the former gunboat Panther , which was used to train the new survey ship Meteor . This was followed by a use in the cadet division of the Baltic Sea Naval Station and, from June 25, 1923, a position as a lecturer at the Mürwik Naval School . From September 26, 1923 to June 1, 1925, Hormel served again as a surveying officer on the Panther and then from April 7, 1926 as a navigation officer on the liner Hannover . During this time, on October 1, 1926, Hormel's promotion to Corvette Captain took place . This was followed by a position as an advisor to the fleet department of the naval command from January 31, 1927 to October 1, 1930 and then as a first officer on the ship of the line Schleswig-Holstein . On October 1, 1932, he was promoted to frigate captain. On October 6, 1932, Hormel was briefly made available to the commander of the Baltic Sea naval station and then from November 21, 1932 to October 1, 1933, he was appointed head of the Reichsmarinedienststelle Hamburg . On September 25, 1933, Hormel took over as commander of the light cruiser Leipzig , which he mainly led on training trips until September 29, 1935.

Navy

From September 30, 1935, Hormel was appointed head of the central department of the Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven , and from November 30, 1937 he was in command of the Kiel Naval Arsenal. On April 1, 1938, he was promoted to rear admiral . From April 1, 1939 to May 5, 1943, Hormel was then Managing Director of the Kiel Navy Shipyard . During this time, officers from the Soviet Union visited the shipyard on December 13, 1939 to inspect warships as part of the German-Soviet cooperation on armaments. Hormel was promoted to Vice Admiral on January 1, 1940 and Admiral on April 1, 1942. From May 6, 1943, he was at the command of the Navy (OKM) and was briefly retired on August 31, 1943 . From June 12, 1944, Hormel was reactivated and was again at the disposal of the OKM. However, he was no longer actively used and released from service on March 3, 1945. After the war, Hormel lived in Hamburg and Gifhorn . He died in Reinbek in 1971.

Awards

During the First World War:

During service in the Navy:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Koop, Klaus-Peter Schmolke: German Light Cruisers of World War II: Warships of the Kriegsmarine. Seaforth Publishing. 2014. Page 158. ISBN 978-1-84832-194-6
  2. ↑ Hans H. Hildebrand: Formation history and staffing of the German armed forces 1815–1991 / The organizational development of the navy and staffing 1848 to 1945. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück. 2000. ISBN 978-3-7648-2541-6
  3. ^ Tobias R. Philbin: The Lure of Neptune: German-Soviet Naval Collaboration and Ambitions, 1919–1941. Univ. of South Carolina Press. 1994. Page 55. ISBN 0-87249-992-8
personal data
SURNAME Hormel, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer, most recently in the rank of admiral in the navy
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH kassel
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1971
Place of death Reinbek