Felix Funke was born in the Prussian Silesian city of Hirschberg (now Jelenia Góra in Poland) on January 3, 1865. His father, Adolf Funke (originally from Magdeburg) was the president of the Alsatian Railway Company in Strassburg (now Strasbourg, France). His mother, Anna Stilke-Pilet, came from a Huguenot family which escaped from Castres after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
The young Felix lived his childhood in Strassburg… and soon entered the German Navy School in Kiel on April 18, 1882 at the age of seventeen. His training in the Kaiserliche Marine started on the sail ship Niobe. Funke’s career followed a normal path in eventually attaining the rank of admiral. He was well regarded by Kaiser Wilhelm II, with whom he often smoked a cigar in his ship’s cabin…
THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR
In 1902, Funke spent four years in Tsingtao (now Qingdao), a German colony in China at the time. He witnessed the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, a conflict in which Imperial Germany remained neutral.
On August 10th of that year, Funke witnessed the Battle of the Yellow Sea. As a safe haven, Tsingtao received the damaged Russian battleship Tsesarevich. Its bridge had been hit twice… and Admiral Wilhelm Witthöft (a.k.a. Wilgelm Vitgeft) had died along with several other high ranking Russian officers. The Tsesarevich was joined during the night by the cruiser Novik and destroyers Bezstrashny, Bezshumny, and Bezposchadny. The Novik loaded as much coal as possible and sailed immediately. But the three destroyers remained in Tsingtao… and were disarmed after three days.
On 15 August 1904, Vice-Admiral Dewa Shigetō sent the Japanese destroyer Ikazuchi to Tsingtao. There, he discussed details of the Russian fleet with Governor Oskar von Truppel and his chief of staff Korvettenkapitän Funke. The latter boarded the Ikazuchi and made notes of the impressive state of cleanliness and order of both the ship and crew. He assured Dewa’s envoy that any Russian ships remaining in Tsingtao would be disarmed.
The two highest remaining Russian commanding officers of the battlegroup were soon wounded: Counter Admiral Matusevich (chief of staff to the late Admiral Vitgeft) and Captain Ivanov (who commanded the Tsesarevitch). After having received a promise from the convalescent Russian officers not to flee, Funke did not hold them as prisoners. Instead, he invited them to his home!
Later on, Funke received the Order of St. Anna from Tsar Nicholas II of Russia after the former had allowed more Russian ships to take refuge and be interned at Tsingtao. This action was also approved by Admiral Togo at the fall of Port Arthur on January 2, 1905. Many of the Russian crews were ill… and in dire need of medical care.
THE GREAT WAR
On August 3, 1914 (two days after Imperial Germany declared war on Tsarist Russia), Prince Adalbert of Prussia and Princess Adelheid of Saxe-Meiningen were married in Wilhelmshaven. After the ceremony, the couple paid a visit to Funke on board his flagship, the SMS Prinzregent Luitpold.
By this time, Funke was rear admiral of the III Battle Squadron, which included the SMS Kaiser, SMS Kaiserin, SMS König Albert, and the flagship Prinzregent Luitpold. But on Christmas Eve 1914, he received the order to give command of III Squadron to Admiral Reinhard Scheer… while simultaneously taking command of the II Battle Squadron from Scheer.
Funke participated in several naval engagements against the Royal Navy during World War I, including the Battle of the Dogger Bank in January 1915 (a tactical victory for the British). He later disagreed with some views held by Grand Admiral Prince Heinrich of Prussia, specifically with regards to the employment of submarine warfare.
RETIREMENT AND DEATH
To his great surprise on September 18, 1915, Funke was asked to retire from the Imperial German Navy by the Kaiser himself. The former admiral suffered from depression… and later died in Berlin on July 22, 1932 at the age of sixty-seven.