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Hellmuth von Mücke | |
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| Born | 21 June 1881 Zwickau,Kingdom of Saxony,German Empire |
| Died | 30 July 1957 (age 76) Ahrensburg,Schleswig-Holstein,West Germany |
| Allegiance |  German Empire |
| Service |  Imperial German Navy |
| Years of service | 1900–1919 |
| Rank | Corvette Captain |
| Battles / wars | World War I |
| Awards | Iron Cross 1st class |
Hellmuth von Mücke (21 June 1881 – 30 July 1957) was an Officer of theImperial German Navy in the early 20th century andWorld War I.[1]
Mücke was born on 21 June 1881 inZwickau,Saxony. He was a son of an Army Captain who later joined the Imperial Civil Service. At the age of 18, Mücke became a naval cadet and served on the schoolshipCharlotte and later thebattleshipKaiser Friedrich III. He became Leutnant zur See in September 1903 and was posted to the light cruiserNymphe. In 1907, he became first officer of the 3rd Torpedo Boat Reserve Half-Flotilla and a year later a flag lieutenant to the Commander of Scouting Forces. He received command of the torpedo boat S.149 in 1910, while simultaneously acting as flag lieutenant for the First Torpedo Boat Flotilla.
Mücke was the Executive Officer and First Lieutenant of the German Light CruiserSMSEmden of the Imperial German Navy during his successful career as acommerce raider in the autumn of 1914.[1]
TheEmden was a vessel in theEast Asia Squadron based atQingdao. The squadron's commander,Maximilian von Spee, detached it to raid commerce in theIndian Ocean, notably near bothMadras andPenang, while he attempted to bring the rest of the squadron back to Germany aroundCape Horn.[2]
TheEmden intercepted dozens of merchant ships as well as British, French, and Russian military vessels in thePacific Ocean andIndian Ocean over the next four months.[1] But finally, on 9 November 1914, she encountered and was severely damaged by the larger, faster, and more heavily armed Australian light cruiser, HMASSydney in theBattle of Cocos.Emden ran aground to avoid sinking. It was theAyesha, a wooden topsail schooner owned by Clunies-Ross of Cocos Keeling Islands which Mücke and his men commandeered to escape being taken as prisoners of war, in November 1914, after their ship was destroyed in a battle with the Australian light cruiserHMAS Sydney.
Karl von Müller, theEmden's captain, dispatched Mücke to lead a 53-man landing party onto Direction Island, one of theCocos (Keeling) Islands northwest of Australia in the Indian Ocean. Mücke's task was to destroy the wireless station and the shore facilities of the importantintercontinental communications cable.[1]
Prior to theEmden's arrival, the British wireless operators spotted his smoke on the horizon and sent a wireless message stating an unknown ship was approaching.HMAS Sydney heard the alert and proceeded to Cocos, where he encountered and disabled theEmden.
Mücke and his landing party witnessed the destruction of theEmden from just 17 miles (27 km) away, and realized they had no hope of relief. They seized a derelict, 97-ton, three-mastedschooner, theAyesha, quickly made her seaworthy, and escaped when theSydney sailed away to capture theEmden'scollier, theBuresk. In addition to small arms and 29 rifles, the landing party was equipped with four heavy machine guns.[3] Over the next six months, Mücke led his small command on one of the longest escapes recorded – over 11,000 kilometres (6,800 mi) by sea and land – losing only one man to disease and three to enemy action, a remarkable achievement for the times.
In November 1914, after their ship was destroyed in a battle with the Australian light cruiserHMASSydney, Mücke commandeered a topsail wooden schooner; Ayesha, to escape being taken as prisoners of war. The Ayesha was owned by Clunies-Ross of Cocos Keeling Islands. The party set sail from Direction Island.
Initially Mücke sailed his small command (numbering five officers, one surgeon, and 47 petty officers and men) to the Dutch port ofPadang on the west coast ofSumatra. There he arranged a rendezvous with a German freighter in port, theChoising, which transported them to theOttoman Empire's port city ofHodeida,Yemen. Once on theArabian Peninsula, Mücke and his men experienced months of delay securing the financial assistance of local Turkish officials to return to Germany. At last he decided to lead his men on an over-water voyage up the east coast of theRed Sea toJeddah, and thence toMedina, then the southern terminus of theHejaz Railway. A retired Ottoman official and his young wife travelled with them, as that was part of the deal. However, one of his smalldhows sunk on thecoral reefs near theFarasan Islands, and they commenced a dangerous overland journey along the Red Sea. ApproachingJeddah they were beset by hundreds of armedBedouin tribesmen in a three-day battle that claimed one officer and had two enlisted men killed. They were eventually relieved by theEmir ofMecca. Mücke believed the hostile Bedouins had been hired by the British, based on weapons captured from killed Bedouin tribesmen.[4] While guests of theEmir of Mecca atJeddah, Mücke grew uneasy and feared being held as a hostage for political bartering. He sent one of hisArabic speaking enlisted soldiers to the Jeddah harbour in order to arrange for aDhow. Under cover of night Mücke and his sailors sneaked away and made it byDhow to the northernHijaz fishing town ofAl Wajh. From there they marched further inland until they reached theHejaz Railway. Finally, in May 1915, Mücke and 48 other survivors boarded a train atAl-'Ula Oasis, and eventually reachedConstantinople, the capital of Germany's ally, Turkey, from which they returned to Germany.[5]
The arrival of Mücke and his men back in Germany, after their successful commerce raiding cruise, and long and arduous return voyage, was greeted with widespread acclaim.[1] In 1915, Mücke wrote two books about his adventures –The Emden[6] andThe Ayesha[7] both of which were translated into English for the American market.
In 1915, he married an American orphan, Carla, who had been adopted by a German mercantile family inBaltimore, Maryland, and who was then living in Germany. Her biological parents, of Norwegian descent, were Torbjorn Hammeraas and Carolina Vestnes-Hameraas. Between 1918 and 1938 the couple had three daughters and three sons. In 1922, he traveled to the United States to promote his books and was well received by American audiences.[8][9]
The effects of World War I and theVersailles Treaty on his homeland jaded him considerably. Like many of his fellow officers, he joined conservative political movements after the war. In 1918, he joined theGerman National People's Party, but moved to theGerman Workers' Party (DAP) in 1919. The DAP became theNational Socialist German Workers Party in 1920, and Mücke was elected as a Nazi member of theSaxonyLandtag in 1926. However, by 1929 he had become disenchanted with thepersonality cult associated withAdolf Hitler's leadership of the party.[10] Turning against Hitler, he reconsidered his position regarding re-armament, left the Nazi Party, embraced pacifism, and lectured and wrote extensively on the subject.
Following the appointment of Hitler asChancellor of Germany in 1933, Mücke became a much more vocal opponent of the regime. The Party banned his writings as subversive, and in 1936 he was briefly imprisoned for political dissent inKonzentrationslagerKiel as a warning to cease his opposition. Although he volunteered to rejoin the German Navy as World War II approached, he was considered politically unreliable, and was ordered back to the camps for the duration of the war by Hitler himself in 1939. Afterwards, he was imprisoned inKonzentrationslagerFuhlsbüttel inHamburg. However, theReichsstatthalter of Hamburg,Karl Kaufmann, considered Mücke a national hero for his service in World War I, ignored Hitler's directive, and released Mücke after several months, citing that he was too ill for imprisonment. The family was moved from their home on the island ofFöhr during this unstable period, and was finally settled inland, inAhrensburg,Schleswig-Holstein, where Mücke lived from 1940 until his death.
Mücke's oldest son and name-sake was killed on theRussian Front in 1943.
After the war, Mücke continued peace activism, opposing rearmament in 1950sWest Germany. He died of a heart attack on 30 July 1957.
EMden.
Ayesha.
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