Otto von Schrader

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Otto von Schrader (5th from left) in Bergen, April 1944

Ernst Walter Otto von Schrader (born March 18, 1888 in Lyck ; † July 19, 1945 in Bergen , Norway ) was a German admiral in World War II .

Life

origin

Otto was a son of the Prussian Lieutenant Colonel and Knight of Honor of the Order of St. John Emil von Schrader (* 1852) and his wife Jeannette, née von Kotze (* 1855).

Military career

Schrader joined the Imperial Navy as a midshipman on April 1, 1906 , completed his ship training on the Stosch cruiser frigate and then attended the naval school. There he was appointed ensign at sea on April 6, 1907 , after completing his training transferred to the Zähringen liner and promoted to lieutenant at sea on September 30, 1909 . From the end of September 1910, Schrader served on board the large-scale ship Rhineland for a year before he was assigned to the II. Torpedo Division as a company officer. On September 19, 1912 he was promoted to lieutenant at sea . Afterwards he was an officer on watch on torpedo boats G 112 and G 107 .

On March 31, 1914, he was transferred to Constantinople as first officer on the special ship Loreley , and after the outbreak of World War I , Schrader briefly received command of the auxiliary ship Corcovado of the Mediterranean Division . After the ship was handed over to the Ottoman Navy, he was an Ottoman naval officer from September 4, 1914 to March 31, 1916 in command of the torpedo boat flotilla deployed on the Bosporus . He was then transferred back to Germany and completed a course at the submarine school. During his training, he was appointed commander of the UB 28 submarine on August 18, 1916 . After relinquishing this command on September 25, 1916, he was in the further course of the war in command of the U-Boats UB 35 , UC 31 , UB 64 and U 53 . On April 26, 1918 he was promoted to lieutenant captain. For his work during the war, Schrader received, in addition to both classes of the Iron Cross, the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords, the U-Boat War Badge , the Hanseatic Cross Hamburg and from the allies the Imtiaz Medal and the Liakat Medal in silver Sabers, the Iron Crescent and the Knight's Cross with the Crown of the Bulgarian Order of Military Merit .

After the end of the war, Schrader was taken over into the provisional Reichsmarine and belonged to the Loewenfeld naval brigade until it was dissolved . Although his service career certificate from July 1919 confirmed that he was “permanently unable to continue active naval service”, he was accepted into the Reichsmarine. He served briefly in the 1st minesweeping flotilla as the commander of the torpedo boat T 152 and was a company commander in Coast Defense Division V in Pillau from late October 1920 to mid-June 1921 . His commander, who later became Admiral General Rolf Carls , judged him to be "average talent, primarily suitable for front positions". After a command to the staff of the commander of the naval forces of the Baltic Sea, Schrade was transferred to the small cruiser Medusa on October 10, 1921 as a navigational officer. From April 14th to August 30th, 1923 he was assigned to the 6th Division / Wehrkreiskommando V in Münster . The division commander Lieutenant General Fritz von Loßberg judged Schrader: “Kapt.Lt. v. Scharder is assigned to Division Ia, where he has the best opportunity to gain an insight into the situation of the Army. His achievements were not enough. In the opinion of the division, he is not suitable for any other department. "

He was then available to the chief of the North Sea naval station until mid-September 1923 and served as an adjutant at the commandant's office in Cuxhaven until November 2, 1924 . He then briefly served as first officer on the light cruiser Thetis before joining the light cruiser Nymphe on November 30 in the same capacity . On May 18, 1925 he was assigned to the ship master division of the North Sea and on September 12 he was appointed commander of the I. Department. In this position he was promoted to Corvette Captain on April 1, 1926 . From April 24, 1928 to September 26, 1929, Schrader was the commander of the 2nd Marine Artillery Department in Wilhelmshaven . He was then transferred as first officer to the ship of the line Hessen and advanced to frigate captain in early February 1931 . On October 10, 1931, he was made available to the chief of the naval station of the Baltic Sea. From September 26, 1932 to September 23, 1934 he was in command of the light cruiser Königsberg . In this position he was promoted to captain at sea on April 1, 1933 . He then became the commander of the Wilhelmshaven fortification. As Rear Admiral (since April 1, 1937) he received on October 1, 1937, the appointment as II. Admiral of the North Station and was also entrusted with the business of the commander of the security of the North Sea. On April 1, 1938, he was appointed commander of securing the North Sea.

Schrader held this position beyond the beginning of World War II. He rose to Vice Admiral on November 1, 1939, and with the start of the Weser Exercise Company , which led to the occupation of Norway , was Admiral on the west coast of Norway on April 9, 1940, based in Bergen . In this capacity he received the German Cross in Gold on November 20, 1941 and was promoted to Admiral on March 1, 1942. From February 1, 1943, his office was given the new designation "Commanding Admiral of the Norwegian West Coast". As such, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on August 19, 1943 . He remained in service beyond the end of the war and was responsible for repatriating the German troops home.

Schrader was arrested on 17 July 1945 and committed suicide two days later in Norwegian captivity suicide .

War crimes

As the commanding admiral, Schrader ordered the shooting of a British / Norwegian MTB crew, which he had not recognized as combatants , in violation of international law . In application of the current Führer order , Agnar Bigset, Axel Martinus Andresen, Bernhard Kleppe, Hans Thorstein Hansen, Jens Johansen Klipper, Kjel Eustein Hals and Andrew Hull were shot on a shooting range on July 30, 1943.

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 Verlag, Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-1700-3 , pp. 259-260.
  • Michael Böcker: Admiral Otto von Schrader (1888-1945). Naval officer in the time of the world wars. Dissertation in the form of a biography, self-published by M. Böcker, Leverkusen 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-048402-5 (Dissertation University of Wuppertal 2015, 352 pages).

Web links

Commons : Otto von Schrader  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Briefadeligen houses. 1918. Twelfth year, Justus Perthes, Gotha 1917, p. 778.
  2. ^ Reichswehr Ministry (ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsmarine. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1929, p. 43.
  3. ↑ a b c Klaus Franken: From black-white-red to black-red-gold. The transition from naval officers of the Imperial Navy to the Navy of the Weimar Republic. Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-8305-3878-3 , p. 129.
  4. ↑ a b Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 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. 682.
  5. ↑ ARD documentation. on Youtube.
personal data
SURNAME Schrader, Otto von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schrader, Ernst Walter Otto von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German admiral in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Elk
DATE OF DEATH July 19, 1945
Place of death Bergen , Norway