Rolf Johannesson

Rolf Johannesson (* July 22, 1900 in Berlin-Lichterfelde ; † December 6, 1989 in Hamburg ) was a German naval officer , most recently as the commander of the fleet in the rank of rear admiral . After his retirement, he was Federal Commissioner at the Hamburg Maritime Administration .

Life

Promotions
July 1, 1918	Midshipman *
April 1, 1922	Ensign at sea
October 1, 1923	Senior ensign at sea
April 1, 1924	Lieutenant at sea
January 1, 1926	First lieutenant at sea
July 1, 1933	Lieutenant captain
April 1, 1937	Corvette Captain
August 1, 1940	Frigate captain
September 1, 1942	Sea captain
January 1, 1945	Rear admiral
* Entry into the Imperial Navy as a midshipman 0
Federal Navy
January 1, 1957	Flotilla admiral
December 22, 1958	Rear admiral

youth

Rolf Johannesson was the son of the director of studies Max Johannesson (1856–1930) who taught at the Prussian main cadet institute in Lichterfelde and his wife Amalie, née Auer. Like his brothers, he attended a public grammar school and passed his Abitur there in 1918.

Imperial Navy and the time after the First World War

On July 1, 1918, Rolf Johannesson joined the Imperial Navy as a midshipman in Crew 18 . After a short training at the Naval School Mürwik , he was transferred to the liner SMS Schlesien for an on-board internship in October 1918 and took part in its odyssey through the Baltic Sea during the turmoil of the revolution. On November 30, 1918, all sea cadets were dismissed by the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council. Johannesson returned home and began studying law and economics in Berlin at the beginning of December . That same month he volunteered for a regiment that was supposed to defend the German-speaking population in the Baltic States . For his work he was awarded the Iron Cross II. Class and the Baltic Cross on July 19, 1919 . In July 1919, he left the military and resumed his studies. At the same time, he completed a bank apprenticeship. After completing this additional training, he moved to the University of Tübingen in 1920 .

Imperial Navy

When the newly emerging Reichsmarine came under public criticism after the Kapp Putsch in March 1920 due to its unclear attitude towards the republic, it tried to make a new start with unencumbered alumni. Rolf Johannesson initially showed little interest, but decided to return to naval service during the course of the year. Together with about 20 other candidate officers, he was assigned to the newly formed crew of 20. From February 1921, still as a midshipman, he was deployed for an internship on board the minesweeper M 66 and took part in the clearing of the mines laid in the First World War on the Dutch coast. Another internship followed on the small cruiser Hamburg , which was also used to support mine clearance operations, this time in the White Sea . After passing the ensign examination, Johannesson was promoted to ensign at sea on April 1, 1922 and transferred to the Mürwik naval school for further training. In 1923 he passed the main naval officer examination with the grade "very good". This was followed by further training in weapon systems and practical officer training on the small cruiser Berlin .

Promoted to lieutenant at sea , Rolf Johannesson served three years as an officer on watch on torpedo boats in the Baltic Sea from 1924 . He then became an adjutant , initially at the artillery school and the III. Marine artillery department, from 1928 with the chief of the naval station of the Baltic Sea , Rear Admiral Gottfried Hansen . From 1930 to 1932 he was a watch officer and second artillery officer on the light cruiser Königsberg . In October 1932 he became the commander of the T 190 torpedo boat , later the G 8 torpedo boat . In October 1934 he was transferred to the Defense Department of the Reich Defense Ministry. At that time, the head of the defense department was Captain Conrad Patzig (1888–1975).

Navy

In the phase of further consolidation of the National Socialist state and conversion to the upcoming war goals, the Reichsmarine was renamed the Kriegsmarine in 1935, the defense department was newly staffed, and its content and structure were geared towards the future priorities of warfare. From the beginning of January 1935 Wilhelm Canaris (1887–1945) took over the management of the Abwehr and Rolf Johannesson stayed in his field of work. His responsibility included questions of counter-espionage, ensuring the protection of secrets and the security of the intelligence service of secret submarine projects and their camouflage. These secret projects were not only located in Germany, but also in Argentina, Japan, Turkey and Spain. Since covert military cooperation between Germany and Spain was also part of his department, in the summer of 1937 he moved to head the anti-sabotage and counter-espionage department of the Condor Legion , which was stationed in Salamanca . Here his task consisted primarily of providing intelligence support to the military transports organized from Germany, Morocco and Navarre with weapons technology, aircraft and emergency personnel to support the putschists under General Francisco Franco . "More important to him, he wrote himself, was" visiting the front. " Therefore he received the " Spain Cross " in silver donated by Hitler . Only those who were directly involved in combat got that. ”In November 1937, the“ Abwehr 88 ”group, headed by Herbert Fischer, took over the tasks of the intelligence service on Spanish territory, and after they had reached their deployment locations, Johannesson returned to Germany.

Here Rolf Johannesson was promoted to Korvettenkapitän head of the joint training department of the 3rd and 5th destroyer flotilla. On June 8, he put the destroyer Erich Steinbrinck into service as commander . After the beginning of the Second World War , he was used with this ship in the Baltic and North Sea, including for mine-laying operations off the English coast. In June 1940 Erich Steinbrinck took part in the Juno company in the North Sea in support of the occupation of Norway . Operations in the English Channel and on the French Atlantic coast followed. In February 1942 Johannesson gave up command of the Erich Steinbrinck and was awarded the German Cross in Gold that same month . Even before that, from autumn 1941 he had been acting as 1st Admiral Staff Officer at the Admiral Aegean. On March 21, 1942, under his command, the captured Greek destroyer Vasilefs Geogios I was put into service as ZG 3 , later ZG 3 Hermes . It was the largest German warship in the Mediterranean. For the use of this ship in various operations, Johannesson received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on December 7, 1942 .

In April 1943 Johannesson became chief of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla with seven new destroyers of the type 1936 A (Mob) ( Z 31 to Z 34 and Z 37 to Z 39 ), which was relocated to Northern Norway after training in the Baltic Sea and there together with the Battleships Scharnhorst and Tirpitz operated. After the sinking of the Scharnhorst and the death of the commander of the combat group , he was temporarily entrusted with its leadership from February to June 1944.

During this time, there were open differences of opinion between Johannesson and the naval leadership, also because of his critical stance on leadership decisions and National Socialism in general. Nevertheless, he was transferred to an admiral's post in December. After there was resistance to further use in Norway, he became the commandant of the Elbe-Weser naval defense , where he was promoted to rear admiral on January 30th. On April 21, 1945, as the next higher judge , he confirmed five death sentences against a Heligoland resistance group . He never spoke about it publicly after the war and did not mention the judgment in his autobiography. To this he put the Pericles word “The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom, however, is courage. "

post war period

After the surrender of the Wehrmacht , the British occupation forces initially left Johannesson's office in place in order to maintain a German military administration to deal with the parts of the Wehrmacht in their area . It was not until January 1946 that Johannesson was taken prisoner of war, which he spent in a British general and admiral camp in Belgium. He was released in November 1946.

In 1947 Johannesson found a job with the Protestant Church through the mediation of the pastor and former naval officer Martin Niemöller . He served as an office manager and financial officer in the church external office.

Federal Navy

In 1955 Johannesson applied for employment in the German Navy, which is currently being planned . After review by the Personnel Appraisal Committee , he was accepted as one of six former admirals in the Navy. On January 1, 1957, he was accepted into the service as a flotilla admiral . After a three-month internship with the 6th US fleet in the Mediterranean, he was appointed first commander of the naval forces on April 1 . This post was later renamed Commander of the Fleet and finally Commander of the Fleet .

During his time as commander, Johannesson tried above all to improve the integration into the NATO command structure , which was inexpedient for the German Navy . In this structure, the fleet command had no operational leadership function in the event of war. The commanders of the naval forces in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea responsible for operational management were subordinate to the fleet command, but were subordinate to two different NATO commanders. The next joint NATO superior was the Supreme Allied Commander Europe . Although Johannesson found support for his change requests, they were only implemented under his successor.

Johannesson also focused on the political and historical education of naval officers. He admitted, albeit with individual restrictions, to the guiding principle of the Inner Leadership and defended its protagonist Baudissin against the attacks of older officers in particular, which were frequent at the time. He founded the Historic-Tactical Conference of the Fleet (HiTaTa), which is held regularly until today, in order to promote the understanding of military-historical events.

On December 22, 1958, Johannesson was promoted to Rear Admiral. In this capacity, he received the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on June 12, 1961 , before being retired on August 31, 1961.

Activities after retirement

After his retirement, Johannesson initially worked briefly as a consultant for Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft and then as an authorized signatory for Greiff-Werke in Bamberg , a manufacturer of workwear. In May 1965 he ended this activity and took over as the successor to Vice Admiral a. D. Kurt Caesar Hoffmann took on the role of Federal Commissioner at the Hamburg Maritime Administration . He held this position until 1983 and then finally retired from professional life at the age of 83.

Autobiography

In 1984 Johannesson began to write down his memories. With the support of the Military History Research Office of the German Armed Forces, his autobiography Officer in Critical Time was published in 1989 , during which he dealt, among other things, with his role during the Nazi era. He describes himself as critical, but not always consistent enough, and documents some of his conflicts with superiors and representatives of the regime. His activity after joining the German Navy was aimed at preparing officers better than his generation during the Weimar Republic for the role of soldier in the state.

Honors

In the assembly hall of the Mürwik Naval School there is a bust of Admiral Rolf Johannesson. An attached plaque also indicates the conflicting aspects of his biography. At the Naval School Mürwik, the best course participant in the officer training course in troop service receives the Admiral Johannesson Prize every year. There have been protests against the location of the bust and the naming of the award since 2017.

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 2, Biblio Verlag Osnabrück 1989, pp. 184f.
• Hans Hildebrand, The organizational development of the navy together with staffing 1848–1945, Volume 1, Biblio Verlag Osnabrück, 2000
• Rolf Johannesson: Officer in a critical time. Published by the German Marine Institute with the support of the Military History Research Office . ES Mittler & Sohn, Herford and Bonn 1989, ISBN 3-8132-0301-8 . 2nd edition, edited by Heinrich Walle, Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg 2016 (autobiography)
• Johannes Berthold Sander-Nagashima: The Federal Navy 1955 to 1972. Concept and construction. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-486-57972-7 .

Web links

• Rainer Blasius : Rolf Johannesson - The model admiral. In: FAZ.net. August 22, 2016. Retrieved August 22, 2016 . 
• Dieter Hartwig : A 'model admiral' on the test bench - a detailed answer to a short question. In: Portal military history. Military History Working Group V., August 14, 2017, accessed on July 13, 2018 . 
• Victoria Kietzmann: Rear Admiral Johannesson - A broken biography between duty and self-knowledge . Lecture at the 58th Historical Tactical Conference (HiTaTa) of the Navy, 9. – 11. January 2018. ( deutsches-maritimes-institut.de [PDF; 531 kB ; accessed on July 13, 2018]).
• Literature by and about Rolf Johannesson in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Curriculum vitae ( memento from November 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) at deutsche-marinesoldaten.de
2. ↑ Dermot Bradley (ed.), Hans H. Hildebrand, Ernest Henriot: Deutschlands Admirale 1849-1945. The military careers of naval, engineering, medical, weapons and administrative officers with admiral rank. Volume 2, Biblio Verlag Osnabrück 1989, pp. 184f.
3. ↑ René Heilig: The indispensable Admiral Johanneson. Nazi or not? The dispute over the first chief of the German Navy continues. nd DER TAG, August 3, 2020, p. 4.
4. ^ Walter Waiss, Legion Condor, reports, documents, photos, facts, Helios Verlag Aachen 2013
5. ↑ ^{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. 422.
6. ↑ Commander of the armored ships. WLB Stuttgart, accessed on October 13, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Rainer Blasius: pattern admiral and naval tradition - A bust of Rolf Johannesson in Mürwik - despite his controversial role as a court of Mr. 1945 . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . No. 10 , January 12, 2017, p. 8 ( bv-opfer-ns-militaerjustiz.de [PDF; 23 kB ; accessed on July 13, 2018]).
8. ↑ Astrid Friederichs: We wanted to save Heligoland - on the trail of the resistance group from 1945 . Ed .: Förderverein Museum Helgoland. Helgoland 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-030405-7 .
9. ↑ Flensburger Tageblatt : Marine in Flensburg: Do not hide death sentences , from: May 25, 2018; accessed on: January 20, 2019; see also article by René Heilig: The indispensable Admiral Johanneson. Nazi or not? The dispute over the first chief of the German Navy continues. nd DER TAG, August 3, 2020, p. 4.

Remarks

1. ↑ Flotilla Admiral Max-Eckart Wolff had previously been entrusted with running the business , but was not in charge of the post.

predecessor	Office	successor
Max-Eckhardt Wolff	Commander of the fleet 1957–1961	Karl E. Smidt