Theodor Arps

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Theodor Arps (born February 2, 1884 in Neuenkirchen , † April 28, 1947 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ) was a German Vice Admiral in World War II , head of the naval intelligence service and judge at the Reich Court Martial from 1940 to 1945 .

Life

Arps joined on 1 April 1902 as a midshipman in the Imperial navy one, completed his primary and then ship training on the cruiser frigate stone and came from 1 April 1903 to 30 September 1904, the Naval Academy . After successful training, he was transferred to the Wettin liner , where he was promoted to lieutenant on September 29, 1905 . As a company officer, he switched to the II. Torpedo Division on October 1, 1906, and was there at the same time as officer on watch on various torpedo boats . On May 1, 1909, the first lieutenant was transferred to sea (since March 30, 1908) for one year as first officer on the station ship Loreley . He was then used again as an officer on watch until September 30, 1911 on the large- scale ship Posen . This was followed by commandments for training purposes in the ship artillery with subsequent transfer to the ship artillery school in Kiel-Wik as an instructor. On January 18, 1913, Arps was transferred as a watch officer to the small cruiser Stuttgart and promoted there on July 15, 1913 to lieutenant captain .

With the outbreak of the First World War , Arps came to work as an artillery officer on the passenger steamer Kaiser Wilhelm the Great , which had been converted into an auxiliary cruiser and was waging a trade war off the West African coast . It came on August 26, 1914 to a battle with the British cruiser HMS Highflyer , in the course of which his ship sank off Río de Oro . Arps and most of the crew were able to save themselves on land and were interned by the Spanish authorities there until October 13, 1914. After the German marines were handed over to the French, he was held in French captivity until July 12, 1918, and then again in a Swiss internment camp until August 12, 1919 . After his return to Germany he was put up for disposition and on April 27, 1920 he was retired from the Navy with the character of a corvette captain .

During the Weimar Republic, Arps pursued various occupations. Among other things, he published in 1928 in the magazine "Nauticus" - a paper for those interested in the sea - a treatise "The navy of the world".

Arps was reactivated in his old rank on October 1, 1933 and came to the naval management as head of the group of the newly formed Foreign Marines Department . This step corresponded to the logical implementation of the Service Ordinance MD, No. 13, which had been drawn up by Gustav Kleikamp (1896–1952) and aimed at rebuilding the naval intelligence service. In addition to activating the structures that were integrated into the "Abwehr" in 1927, one of the primary tasks was to organize the naval attachés at German embassies and legations abroad, which had been re-admitted since 1933. At the same time as he was promoted to captain at sea on October 1, 1934, Arp was appointed chief of the naval intelligence service in the high command of the navy on September 30, 1934 . The newly created department was divided into three work areas, the "Foreign Marines" section, the "Marine Intelligence Service" section and the "Radio Reconnaissance" section. Since his responsibilities also included the realignment of public relations work for the forced development of the navy, he participated in the joint publication “Small Defense Geography of the World Ocean” in 1938 with the article “The sea in popular representation”. Other authors of the font published by Mittler Verlag were Hellmuth Heye (1895–1970), Oskar Ritter von Niedermayer (1885–1948) and Reinhold Gadow (1882–1946). Arps held the position of department head from the beginning of World War II until December 31, 1939. His successor was Ludwig Stummel (1898–1983).

At the beginning of the new year he was promoted to rear admiral and as such a judge at the Reich Court Martial in Berlin . In this function he was involved in the death sentence against Joachim Kuhn . On April 1, 1942, he was promoted to Vice Admiral. With the German capitulation Arps came on 8 May 1945 at Torgau in American captivity, he died in the April 28, 1947 in a camp near Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Nauticus, magazine for people interested in the sea and world economy, year 1928, p. 189 ff.
  2. Manfred Kehring: The re-establishment of the German military attaché service after the 1st World War (1919–1933). Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1966.
  3. Hans Hildebrand: Formation history and staffing of the German armed forces. 1915-1990. Volume 1: Marine. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 2000, p. 103 ff.