Richard von Geissler

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Rear Admiral Richard von Geissler
Heinrich Hellhoff - Portrait of Admiral Geissler, 1903

Richard von Geissler , also written Geissler , (born June 20, 1848 in Ahlen , † September 28, 1922 ) was a royal Prussian naval officer and German admiral.

Life

The son of a district court councilor joined the Prussian Navy as a cadet at the age of 17 (1865) and graduated from the naval school in Kiel . In 1869 he was promoted to lieutenant and in 1871 to first lieutenant at sea . In 1873 he became the commandant of the Salamander steam gunboat . A few years later he made his first trip to East Asia as an officer on watch on board the Vineta . Back home, he attended the Imperial Naval Academy in Kiel and was briefly employed in the Second  Sailors' Division and in the Admiralty . In 1876 he was promoted to lieutenant captain. In 1883 he began another trip to East Asia with the rank of corvette captain , this time as first officer of the frigate Prince Adalbert . Temporarily active as an artillery officer from the square in Friedrichsort , he was accepted into the Admiralty, from which he transferred to the Reichsmarineamt . Appointed captain at sea in 1890 , he was given command of the armored ship Bavaria in 1891 , which he soon relinquished to become chief of staff at the Baltic Sea naval station in Kiel. In 1895 he was given command of the Brandenburg liner for a year . Then, as chief of staff in the maneuvering squadron , he organized the exercises of the 1st squadron. From 1897 he led the naval artillery inspection stationed in Wilhelmshaven . In March 1899 he was promoted to Rear Admiral.

After the assassination of the German envoy Freiherr Clemens von Ketteler on June 20, 1900 in Beijing during the so-called Chinese " Boxer Rebellion ", the German Reich got involved - as part of a cooperation between eight states (consisting of the German Reich, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Austria-Hungary, Russia and the USA) - in its suppression. In the summer of 1900, the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm was sent to East Asia as the flagship of Rear Admiral Richard von Geißler together with her sister ships Brandenburg , Weißenburg and Wörth of the Brandenburg class of the 1st Division of the First Liner Squadron and the small cruiser Hela . From Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, the association left for Gibraltar on July 9th and 11th respectively , passed the Suez Canal and reached Singapore on August 19th and Hong Kong on August 28th . He then participated in the blockade of the Chinese navy near Shanghai . On February 15, 1902 Vice Admiral Felix von Bendemann handed over the leadership of the imperial East Asia squadron in Singapore to Geissler . His representative was Friedrich von Baudissin , commander of the cruiser Hansa . From April 28, 1902, Geissler sailed the Yangtze River via Nanking to Hankau on board the small cruiser Thetis , “to fly the flag”. The Thetis Tsingtau called on May 15 and then returned to Singapore. On September 1, 1902, he started with the flagship Fürst Bismarck and a cruiser Chemulpo in Korea. In 1903 Geissler visited the Japanese Emperor Mutsuhito and in August the Russian Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok . On November 15, 1903, Rear Admiral (from 1904: Vice Admiral) Curt von Prittwitz and Gaffron took command of the squadron.

In 1904 Geissler was awarded the Star Order to the Red Eagle Order 2nd Class with Oak Leaves and the Royal Crown .

Archival material

  • Memory album of Rear Admiral Richard von Geißler (1848–1922) about his deployment in East Asia, July 1900 - August 1901. With ribbon buckle with China commemorative coin and centenary medal, 12 months. Photographs, some telegrams, letters and postcards as well as numerous mounted newspaper clippings. 16 sheets ( https://de.zisska.de/section/handschriften-buecher/page/126 ).

literature

  • Deutscher Hausschatz, Volume 26, 1899/1900, No. 44, pp. 827–828. With portrait photography.
  • Address book of the German Kiautschou area, Tsingtau 1902. Otto Rose, Tsingtau, p. 18: Kreuzergeschwader. Flagship: SMS “Fürst Bismarck”. Vice-Admiral Geissler; P. 19: Commander: Captain Friedrich (with a list of all officers); P. 20: SMS "Thetis". Commander: Frigate Captain von Semmern.
  • Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present, Volume 5. Mundus Verlag, Ratingen 1993.
  • Markus A. Denzel (Ed.): Yearbook for European Overseas History 9. Harrassowitz-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 153, note 90 ( https://www.uni-bamberg.de  ›Jahrbuch-fuer-europaeische-ueberseegeschichte)
  • Jürgen Prommersberger: Naval battles of the 1st World War 1914–1918: The battle for the Baltic Sea. Regenstauf 2016.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.deutsches-marinearchiv.de/Archiv/1871-1919/Personen/admirale-fh.htm
  2. ↑ Crew: 91 officers including doctors, engineers, paymasters; 1522 sailors, 789 stokers, in: J. Seibert: The War in China 1900-1901. A. Schröder, Berlin 1903
  3. ↑ Horace N. Allen: A Chronological Index. Some of the Chief Events in the Foreign Intercourse of Korea, Supplement to Chronical Index. Seoul, Korea, Press of Methodist publishing house 1901, p. 12 (online)
  4. ^ Military weekly paper, 39th year, Volume 1, No. 9. Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin 1904, p. 21
personal data
SURNAME Geissler, Richard von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German admiral
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Awls
DATE OF DEATH September 28, 1922