Wolfram from Knorr

Arthur Friedrich Wolfram Knorr , von Knorr since 1896 (* July 7, 1880 in Wilhelmshaven ; † December 7, 1940 ) was a German naval officer and naval attaché in Tokyo .

Life

Wolfram was a son of the German admiral and chief of the admiralty staff Eduard von Knorr (1840-1920) and his wife Luise, née Zirzow (1846-1928). After attending school, he decided to pursue a professional career as a naval officer and joined the Imperial Navy in April 1897 . He went through basic nautical training on various training ships and graduated from the naval school in Mürwik. This was followed by board commands as a watch and deck officer, including on the Königsberg in 1908 , as well as other special courses until he was granted the captain's license. This was followed in 1913 by a brief period of orientation with the Admiralty's staff in preparation for his use as a naval attaché in Japan.

Japan

In the spring of 1913, Knorr began his journey to his future place of work and on June 25, 1913, he worked at the German legation in Tokyo. The then acting naval attaché Corvette Captain Paul Fischer (1872-1939) instructed him in his work area. Chargé d'affaires of the embassy and thus his immediate superior on site was Arthur Alexander Kaspar von Rex (1856–1926). The first few months, in an environment that was still unfamiliar to Knorr, were mainly used to familiarize oneself with the working conditions in Japan and to establish initial contacts. On October 14, 1913, he was appointed lieutenant captain to the naval attaché of the German legation in Tokyo. Although there was generally a pleasant open-mindedness in Japanese society towards Germany and the people who came from there, it was initially not so easy for him to come to terms with the unfamiliar customs and traditional reluctance to “arrive”. It was also clearly noticeable at the official receptions and meetings that were part of the attaché's activities that Japanese society was still in the process of upheaval since the beginning of the Taisho period. This process mainly led to the strengthening of the Japanese military system and the expansion of internal power mechanisms. Nevertheless, Knorr managed to build up a trusting circle of people that also included private contacts. It was particularly important for him to get a real picture of the military development of the Japanese army and navy. It was not uncommon for him to come across familiar things from home during his explorations and encounters. Especially in the field of the military and the existing legal system, German specialists had stood by the developing Japanese state as advisors for many years. Due to its ability to orientate itself quickly in Japanese society, it was planned for use in China, also as a naval attaché. But the foreign policy developments in 1914 lead in the summer of that year to a violent break in the hopefully begun development of Knorr as a naval attaché. On August 1, 1914, the First World War began on the European continent and on August 23, 1914 at 2:00 p.m. Japanese time, the German envoy from Rex was handed the diekuma Shigenobu government's declaration of war in Tokyo and the passports. This ended diplomatic relations between Germany and Japan for the time being and the embassy staff had to return to Germany.

First World War

Knorr also left Japan by ship in August 1914, but he had the order to report to the German stage in San Francisco for a suitable use. In the USA he was available to the Naval Attaché in Washington Karl Boy-Ed (1872–1930) until the summer of 1915 . This set the personnel of the ships that had been stuck in the USA since the beginning of the war mainly to observe the ship movements in the direction of Europe and to check whether they were loaded with military equipment. In the summer of 1915, Knorr received an offer to drive a new auxiliary cruiser that was still to be put into service . In the meantime promoted to corvette captain, he accepted the offer and named the ship Meteor in memory of his father's gunboat that had fierce sea battles off Havana on November 9, 1870, under his command. From Wilhelmshaven, the Meteor made its first voyage on May 29, 1915 in the direction of the northern sea route. The order was to lay mine belts on the ship route to Arkhangelsk . On the way back from the Arctic Ocean, Knorr gave the order to board the Swedish freighter Thorsten, which was cruising in their vicinity . The 200 Russian mail bags on board the freighter were taken to Germany as a prize. On July 17, 1915, the Meteor moored in Kiel. Here the existing on-board weapons were improved and the next order for the commanding officer and ship led again to mine-laying in the Scottish waters. The course area of ​​the British warships was in the region of destination. On August 8, 1915, the Meteor sank the English mine cruiser The Ramsay by two torpedo hits. In order not to be recognized, Knorr had instructed that his ship should pretend to be the Russian cargo ship Imperator Nikolai II . Eight officers and 90 crew members could be taken on board the Meteor from the sunken The Ramsay . But on August 9, 1915, they had already been located by a British search patrol. As the English ships were several times superior, Knorr gave the order to sink themselves.

When he returned to Germany, the next order was waiting for him. Knorr took over as commander under Ottoman flag running Wroclaw . Originally part of the Imperial Navy, the ship was sold to the Ottoman Navy at the beginning of the First World War . Here it bore the ship's name Midilli , the German crew stayed on board, but wore the Turkish fez as headgear. At the time when Knorr took over command in September 1915, the small cruiser was still at the shipyard for repairs after a torpedo hit. From February 1916 the ship was operational again and was ordered to the Ottoman port of Trabzon . From here it was included in sea battles and coastal shelling against the Russian naval forces in the Black Sea . During this time, Knorr was under the authority of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman Navy Admiral Souchon . At the end of July 1917 Knorr handed over the command of the ship to Frigate Captain Georg von Hippel and returned to Germany. When he arrived here, he was briefly available to the North Sea Naval Command. From December 1917 he was used in the operational group for foreign wars. This department was primarily responsible for the military protection of Germany's remaining colonies and for the organization of so-called "revolutionary wars" in the overseas countries belonging to England, France and Russia. Here he also saw the end of the First World War and was discharged from the Navy in 1919 according to the terms of the Versailles Treaty .

Time of the Weimar Republic

The situation that arose as a result of Germany's defeat in World War I and the establishment of the Weimar Republic were not acceptable framework conditions for Knorr. In addition, there were the circumstances that, due to the events of the Kapp Putsch at the beginning of 1920, the forces from the former Admiralty and the Reichsmarineamt , who were familiar with him, were in a total sensory crisis. That is why a new perspective in his life and professional development was urgently required for Knorr. In addition, his father had died in February 1920. But a new approach and new development opportunities arose when a close confidante of his father, Admiral Paul Behncke (1866–1937) took over the post of head of the newly created naval command in Berlin on September 15, 1920 . This offered the opportunity to build up a meaningful position again using Knorr's experience, existing trustworthy networks in the Navy and by activating his international contacts.

Shortly after the Versailles Treaty came into force in Germany, there were only extremely limited opportunities for a revival of the German navy, let alone for questions relating to the development of new ships, especially submarines, nautical weapons technology and maritime equipment, in 1920 Knorr joined a group of former members of the Imperial Navy. Her goal was to market her maritime know-how outside of Germany. These included the naval officer and shipbuilding engineer Bruno Gluer (1880–1952), the admiral a. D. and former naval attaché Paul von Hintze (1864–1941), Friedrich Hack (1887–1949), who came from Japanese captivity, the naval officer Johann Mann (1880–1945) and the Japanese honorary consul Albert Schinzinger (1856–1926). For this purpose they decided to establish appropriate partnerships with Japan. They realized very early on that these were primarily projects for the manufacture and development of war technology that were to be kept top secret and that were forbidden for Germany under the Versailles Treaty. In order to have an official legitimation and his own camouflage for this, Knorr became a correspondent for the Berliner Lokalanzeiger and in 1920 traveled to Japan for the first activations and explorations. Here he was able to renew his earlier contacts very quickly and to find corporate and government circles in Japan who also saw development opportunities in these businesses. These were above all leaders of the imperial army and navy , the armaments industry , shipbuilding and aircraft construction who were interested in German know-how, as well as political actors who saw the goal of strengthening their country primarily through military components. After the first preliminary discussions on possible needs in Japan, the areas of the navy, especially submarine construction, the air force, weapons technology, radio technology, the optics required for weapons technology, electronics and also chemistry, in the form of war gases, emerged. As potential business partners in Germany, after appropriate agreements, the companies Krupp , Heinkel , Siemens , MAN Augsburg , German shipyards, Zeppelin AG and others were available as partners. It was about the transfer of German documents to Japan for the construction of new war technology, the possibilities of continuing German armaments research and engineering in Japan in order not to be left behind by the development and it was also about the construction of weapons technology for Germany, the was prohibited under the provisions of the Versailles Treaty. For Knorr this was primarily the secret organization of the construction of warships and submarines in Japan as well as the trade in the necessary marine equipment. After the first positive developments, common interests and contractual agreements for this type of secret projects became apparent, the German ambassador to Japan Wilhelm Solf (1920-1928) and the head of the maritime transport department in the Reichswehr Ministry were Captain Walter Lohmann (1878-1930) in included the secret armaments projects. This made it easier to officially camouflage the activities under the heading of a program of scientific cooperation between the two countries. Thanks to the Knorr relationship, the shipyard in Osaka could be won over to Germany for the first steps in converting ships and building submarines. For this purpose shipbuilding experts and engineers with experience in the construction of weapons technology were flown in from Germany. The companies Illies, Schenzinger and later Schenzinger & Hack were included in the project processes for the procurement, purchase and sale of the required equipment, including on-board weapons. Construction of the first submarine for Germany began in 1922 at the Osaka shipyard. To check the status of the joint armaments projects and to agree further armaments deals between Germany and Japan, Wilhelm Canaris (1887–1945) stayed in Japan for several weeks from May 1924, disguised as a "professional experience trip", as the representative of the chief of the naval command, Admiral Paul Behncke . Several interlocutors, including leading politicians, ministerial officials and the military, a visit to industrial and military sites and an inspection of the shipyard in Osaka were planned in the prepared visit program. Wilhelm Canaris set out on his journey home in June 1924 with obvious satisfaction with the “state of affairs” as they had developed in Japan and grateful words to the local actors, including von Knorr.

The exact time of Knorr's return to Germany is currently not known.

family

Wolfram von Knorr married the photographer Jula Wedekind (* 1883) on August 8, 1906 in Berlin. On June 24, 1907, their son Wolf (1907–1928) was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg. He died at the age of 21 as a result of a motorcycle accident.

literature

• Rolf Bensel: The German Fleet Policy 1933-1939. Mittler Verlag, Berlin 1958.
• Klaus-Volker Giessler: The institution of the naval attaché in the German Empire. Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1976, ISBN 3-7646-1626-1 , pp. 289 ff., 311, (Military Research. Department of Military History Studies), Volume 21.
• Michael Müller: Canaris: Hitler's chief of defense. Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 2006.
• Sebstijan Rojek: Sunken hopes. The German Navy in Dealing with Expectations and Disappointments 1871–1930. De Gruyter Verlag 2017.
• Berthold J.Sander-Nagashima: The German-Japanese naval relations 1919 to 1942. (Dissertation) University of Hamburg 1998.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Hildebrand: formation history and staffing of the imperial navy. Volume 2, Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 2000, p. 26.
2. ↑ Hans Jürgen Hayr, Manfred Pohl (Ed.): Country Report Japan. Scientific book club, Darmstadt 1995, p. 60ff.
3. ↑ Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present. 7 volumes in one volume, Ratingen o. J. (1983), Vol. 6, pp. 102f.
4. ↑ Bernd Langensiepen, Dirk Nottelmann, Jochen Krüsmann: Half moon and imperial eagle. Breslau and Goeben on the Bosporus 1914–1918. Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0588-6
5. ↑ Berthold J. Sander-Nagashima: The German-Japanese naval relations 1919 to 1942. (Dissertation), University of Hamburg, 1998, p. 72 ff.
6. ^ André Brissaud: Canaris legend and reality. Bechtermünz Verlag Augsburg 1996, p. 63 ff., P. 577.
7. ↑ Michael Müller: Canaris: Hitler's Abwehrchef. Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 2006, p. 16 ff.