Waldemar Vollerthun

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Waldemar Vollerthun (born April 14, 1869 in Fürstenau, Graudenz district , † November 2, 1929 in Munich ) was a German naval officer , most recently Rear Admiral of the Reichsmarine .

Life

Waldemar Vollerthun joined the Imperial Navy as a cadet on April 13, 1888 . After attending the Naval Academy and the successful here seafaring basic training he was then on April 9, 1889 midshipman in 1891 and the middle of May to the sub-lieutenant transported without patent. He received the patent for his rank on October 17, 1892. In 1893/1894 he was assigned to the tank corvette SMS Baden . On April 13, 1894, he was promoted to lieutenant at sea . In the period from 1894 to 1895 Vollerthun stayed as a watch officer with the small cruiser SMS Sperber at the West African station in Kamerunstadt. He was then from 1895 to 1896 adjutant of the I. Department of the I. Sailor Division at the I. Marine Inspection in Kiel . From 1898 to 1899 he again served on the Baden . From 1899 to July 23, 1900, he then graduated from the Naval Academy in Kiel-Wik. During this time he was promoted to lieutenant captain on June 18, 1900 . In 1900 Vollerthun then worked as an officer on watch on the coastal armored ship SMS Heimdahl . Further commands followed, including as a navigation officer .

On January 10, 1903, Vollerthun was assigned to the Reichsmarineamt in Berlin, where he was assigned to the news office . Vollerthun served in the news office for a total of three years. During this time Vollerthun was promoted to Korvettenkapitän on January 27, 1906 and returned to service as a ship's officer on April 28, 1906.

From April 1907 to March 1908 Waldemar Vollerthun was first officer on the liner SMS Wittelsbach and then until March 31, 1910 in the department for military questions of ship construction and weapons training (AV) of the Reichsmarinamt. On April 1, 1910, he took over the small cruiser SMS Emden as commander. With the Emden Vollerthun left on April 12, 1910 Germany with the aim of South America and then drive to Qingdao . In May 1910, Emden took part in the 100th anniversary of Argentina's independence and at the end of July 1910, after further stops, it joined the East Asia Squadron . Then Tsingtau was reached. Together with SMS Nürnberg , Emden was then involved in the suppression of the Sokehs uprising from January to March 1911 . This company, designed as a punitive action, was planned and directed by Vollerthun. This was followed by an overhaul in the Tsingtau shipyard . Vollerthun, since April 20, 1910, a frigate captain and since November 11, 1911, a sea captain , gave up his command of the Emden on November 22, 1911 and returned to Germany on March 31, 1912.

From April 1, 1912, Waldemar Vollerthun was then head of the central administration department for the Kiautschou protected area (department A III and from April 1914 E III) at the General Naval Department of the Reichsmarinamt. In this position he worked closely with the State Secretary of the Reich Naval Office, Alfred von Tirpitz . In early 1914 he was sent to Kiautschou. There, the outbreak of the First World War overtook him and his command to Tsingtau followed. He became head of the intelligence department at the headquarters of the Kiautschou Governorate, later Kiautschou Fortress. In his role as head of the intelligence department, Vollerthun also took part in the siege of Tsingtau and was taken prisoner by the Japanese after Tsingtau was conquered by Japanese forces in November 1914 . He was only released from Japanese captivity at the end of December 1919. He left Japan on December 27, 1919 and reached Germany on February 28, 1920.

By order of January 30, 1920, he was given seniority from November 29, 1919 the character of rear admiral. For a short time he was available to the Admiralty in the newly created Reichsmarine, but was then retired from active service on March 9, 1920. During this time his publication "The Battle for Tsingtau" appeared, which gives his impression of the fighting against the Japanese army.

For a short time from June 22, 1920 to August 20, 1920 Waldemar Vollerthun was a. D. officer called back for service and acted in the Admiralty as head of the office for the winding up of the Imperial Navy. Subsequently, he worked until March 31, 1921 as head of the Naval Management Office in the Reich Ministry of Finance .

After completing this task, he moved to Munich, where he was employed as editor of the anti-republic newspaper Münchner Latest Nachrichten . He came into contact with Rudolf Hess and other right-wing figures, especially with Tirpitz's friend Gustav von Kahr . In Alfred von Tirpitz he saw a future political greatness and so he tried to take advantage of his right-wing contacts. In September 1923 there was an unsuccessful meeting between Hitler and Tirpitz. Tirpitz did not like Hitler's anti-Semitic remarks. His politically oriented disputes culminated in Vollerthun's support for the influence of editor-in-chief Fritz Gerlich in the interests of German national interests through Hugenberg's confidante Johann Bernhard Mann in early 1924. In autumn 1924, during the election campaign, there was a dispute with another Tirpitz supporter because he saw by Fritz Kern locates the political orientation too far left. Vollerthun was suspected of having brokered money for Hitler at the Hitler trial in 1924.

Waldemar Vollerthun died on November 2, 1929 in Munich.

Awards

Fonts

  • The battle for Tsingtau. An episode from World War 1914/1918 from diary sheets. S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1920, ( digitized version ).
  • Kiautschou: A memorial sheet of German colonization in East Asia. Deutscher Kolonialkrieger-Bund , Berlin, Kolonialwarte, 1924

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (ed.): Germany's generals and admirals. Part 1: 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 3-7648-1499-3 , pp. 492-493.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guido von Frobel: Military weekly paper . ES Mittler, 1889, p. 100 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  2. ^ Military weekly paper . ES Mittler., 1891, p. 1107 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  3. ↑ Germany Kriegsmarine High Command: Ranking list of the German Reichsmarine . ES Mittler., 1895, p. 22 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  4. ^ Germany naval leadership: Ranking list of the German Reichsmarine . ES Mittler., 1896, p. 78 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  5. ^ Germany naval leadership: Ranking list of the German Reichsmarine . ES Mittler., 1900, p. 43 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  6. ^ Military weekly paper . ES Mittler., 1900, p. 57 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  7. ^ Germany naval leadership: Ranking list of the German Reichsmarine . ES Mittler., 1909, p. 8 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  8. ↑ Peter J. Hempenstall: Pacific Islanders Under German Rule: A Study in the Meaning of Colonial Resistance . ANU Press, 2016, ISBN 978-1-921934-32-2 , pp. 105 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  9. ^ Roman Loimeier: Epidemics in the history of Africa . LIT Verlag Münster, 2011, ISBN 978-3-643-10860-9 , pp. 219 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  10. ↑ Marine Rundschau: magazine for sea creatures . ES Mittler., 1987, p. 161 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  11. ^ Military weekly paper . ES Mittler., 1910, p. 1247 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  12. ↑ AM Nauheimer: SMS "Emden": using all currently available material from diaries, letters and reports on the best of the invalids of "Emden" . Xenien-Verlag, 1915, p. 25 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  13. ↑ Klaus Oldenhage, Hermann Schreyer, Wolfram Werner: Archive and history: Festschrift for Friedrich P. Kahlenberg . Droste, 2000, ISBN 978-3-7700-1611-2 , pp. 553 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  14. ^ Berthold J. Sander-Nagashima: The German-Japanese naval relations 1919 to 1942 . University of Hamburg, 1998, p. 70 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  15. ↑ Klaus Oldenhage, Hermann Schreyer, Wolfram Werner: Archive and history: Festschrift for Friedrich P. Kahlenberg . Droste, 2000, ISBN 978-3-7700-1611-2 , pp. 554 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  16. ↑ Werner Rahn (Ed.): German Marines in Transition. From the symbol of national unity to the instrument of international security (= contributions to military history. Vol. 63). Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-48657674-7 , p. 425.
  17. ↑ Waldemar Krah: Honorary Ranking List of the Imperial German Navy, 1914-18 . Navy Officer Association, 1930, p. 126 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  18. ^ Berthold J. Sander-Nagashima: The German-Japanese naval relations 1919 to 1942 . University of Hamburg, 1998, p. 71 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  19. ↑ Patrick J. Kelly: Tirpitz: And the Imperial German Navy . Indiana University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-253-00175-7 , pp. 431 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  20. ↑ Jost Dülffer, Jürgen Rohwer: Weimar, Hitler and the Navy: Reich Policy and Fleet Construction, 1920-1939 . Droste, 1973, ISBN 978-3-7700-0320-4 , pp. 44 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  21. ↑ Patrick J. Kelly: Tirpitz: And the Imperial German Navy . Indiana University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-253-00175-7 , pp. 433 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  22. ^ A b Sebastian Rojek: Sunken Hopes: The German Navy in Dealing with Expectations and Disappointments 1871-1930 . Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-053254-8 , p. 307 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  23. ^ Raffael Scheck: Alfred Von Tirpitz and German Right-wing Politics: 1914 - 1930 . BRILL, 1998, ISBN 978-0-391-04043-4 , pp. 96 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  24. ↑ Rudolf Morsey: Fritz Gerlich (1883-1934): An early opponent of Hitler and National Socialism . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2017, ISBN 978-3-657-78398-4 , p. 125 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
  25. ↑ Adolf Hitler: The Hitler Trial 1924: Wording of the main hearing before the Munich People's Court I. 5th - 11th day of the hearing. 2 . Saur, 1998, ISBN 978-3-598-11355-0 , pp. 1658 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Vollerthun, Waldemar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rear admiral
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Fürstenau, district of Graudenz
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1929
Place of death Munich