Wilhelm von Lans

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Wilhelm Andreas Jacob Emil Lans , von Lans since 1913 , (born March 5, 1861 at Gut Loosen ; † March 21, 1947 in Berlin-Charlottenburg ) was a German naval officer , most recently an admiral .

Life

Lans was the third of eight children of the married couple Herbert and Berta Lans. Raised in the cadet houses of Bensberg and Berlin from 1870 to 1878, he joined the Imperial Navy as a cadet on April 23, 1878 . Service on various ironclad ships and torpedo boats took him to South America, the West Indies and Africa. In the meantime promoted to lieutenant at sea , he brought the torpedo boat SMS V 6 to Berlin at Easter 1891 at the suggestion of the emperor . In 1894 Lans became second officer on the liner SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm . In 1895 he was assigned to the Admiralty Staff of the Navy and stayed here until 1898.

Promoted to corvette captain, on February 6, 1899, he embarked on a journey to East Asia with the new gunboat SMS Iltis , where in May he reached Kiautschou , which China had leased to the German Reich in 1898 under massive pressure. In the battle of the Taku forts during the Boxer Rebellion , the ships of the European colonial powers defeated the attacking Chinese troops on June 17, 1900. Lans was seriously wounded by the "smashing of the left lower leg" and had to be treated in the naval hospital in Yokohama until December 1900 . The emperor congratulated the occupation and on June 25, 1900 awarded Lans the order Pour le Mérite . The boat itself was the only German ship to receive the Pour le Mérite for its services.

In January 1901 Lans returned to Germany and in August was appointed to the naval admiralty in Kiel, of which he was a member until 1904. He then became the commandant of the fleet flagship SMS Kaiser Wilhelm II , which he led until 1906. In 1906 he was promoted to Rear Admiral.

He was the torpedo inspector from 1909 to 1912 and during this time he had considerable influence on the construction policy for torpedo boats . Lans pushed through a downsizing of the boats (series V 1 to S 24 ) against considerable resistance in the fleet . Because of their poor sea properties, they were called Lans cripples ; they were only interesting from a cost perspective, as they were cheaper than their predecessors. From October 1, 1912 to February 14, 1915, Lans was Vice Admiral Chief of the First Squadron of the High Seas Fleet. He was replaced at the instigation of the State Secretary in the Reichsmarineamt Tirpitz , whose displeasure he had drawn to himself: With Lans' approval and under his name, his first staff officer, Corvette Captain Wolfgang Wegener , wrote a letter criticizing the pre-war fleet armament and strategy as well as naval warfare. The letter called on those responsible (i.e. Tirpitz) to see the North Sea as a peripheral scene and instead to recognize the focus on the Baltic Sea as a strategic hinterland and feed route for Swedish iron ore. This memorandum circulated within the Navy and was indirectly directed against Tirpitz as the main German responsible person. Until September Lans was still chief of the North Sea naval station . It was on September 18, 1915, presentation of the character as Admiral to disposition while à la suite made of Seeoffizierkorps.

Lans retired in Berlin-Charlottenburg. In 1903 he married Anna von Cölln in Hanover. The marriage remained childless. During the Second World War his apartment in Berlin was bombed out, whereupon he moved to Adamsdorf in the Neumark. His wife died there in 1944 after a brief illness. In July 1945 he was made Adamsdorf / Sulimierz expelled and went back to Berlin. He died here very old in 1947 in a hospital and was then buried in Hamminkeln.

Honors

Lans was raised to hereditary nobility on June 16, 1913 by Wilhelm II . One street each in Cologne-Neuehrenfeld and Berlin-Dahlem were named after him. For his services in peace and war he had also received the following medals and decorations :

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 1: A-G. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1988. ISBN 3-7648-1499-3 . Pp. 364-366.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Admiral's Staff of the Navy (ed.): The Imperial Navy during the turmoil in China 1900-1901. , Berlin, EM Mittler 1903 p. 266
  2. ↑ H. Merleker: Ships also have nicknames in The Sea Chest. No. 2. 1951, pp. 82-83
  3. ^ Alfred von Tirpitz : Political documents. German powerlessness policy in the world war. Hanseatic publishing house. Hamburg 1926. pp. 209-213.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h Ranking list of the Imperial German Navy. (Ed.): Navy Cabinet . ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1918. p. 5.

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Lans, Wilhelm von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lans, Wilhelm Andreas Jacob Emil von (full name); Lans, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer, admiral in the Imperial Navy
DATE OF BIRTH March 5, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Good Loosen
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 1947
Place of death Berlin-Charlottenburg