Blog

EARLY YEARS

Walther Forstmann was born in Essen-Werden on March 9, 1883. At the age of seventeen, young Walther was made Seekadett upon entering the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). One year later, he was named Fähnrich zur See (ensign at sea). Then in September 1903, Forstmann became Leutnant zur See (lieutenant at sea).

Forstmann was further promoted in the spring of 1906, this time to Oberleutnant zur See. Two years later, he received the Rettungsmedaille (life-saving medal). Then in April 1911, Forstmann attained the rank of Kapitänleutnant (lieutenant commander). He was also named commanding officer of U-boat U-11.

In 1913, Forstmann was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle. He also received Tsarist Russia’s Order of St. Stanislaus.

THE GREAT WAR

With the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Forstmann was named commander of U-boat U-12. He led this ship on several missions in the North Sea in the early months of the conflict. Most notably on November 11, 1914, Forstmann sank the British gunboat HMS Niger.

As the war progressed, Forstmann would earn decorations for his services. He received both classes of the 1914 Iron Cross… as well as the Hanseatic Cross.

Then in February 1915, Forstmann was given command of U-boat U-39. He would achieve his greatest successes with this ship in the waters of the Mediterranean, sinking 261.070 gross register tons (GRT) of Allied warships and merchant ships.

In May 1916, Forstmann was awarded the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern. Later that year on August 12th, he received Imperial Germany’s highest military honor, the Pour le Mérite, “for outstanding naval planning and operations”.

The first and second of October 1917 would witness Forstmann at his naval peak. He sank five valuable steamers in the Straits of Gibraltar in that two-day period. The vessels included the SS Normanton (3,862 gross register tons), the SS Mersario (3,847 GRT), the SS Almora (4,385 GRT), the SS Nuceria (4,702 GRT), and the Japanese steamer SS Hikosan Maru (3,555 GRT). These ships carried a heavy load of coal, with most of it meant for Italy in the upcoming winter.

The five sinkings would be the last of the Great War for Walther Forstmann. On October 14, 1917, he left U-39 to become chief of the Third U-Flotilla. A month later, he received the Order of Leopold.

In his time as commander of U-12 and U-39 in World War I, Forstmann conducted forty-seven patrols and succeeded in sinking 148 ships for a total 390,797 gross register tons! As such, he is the second most successful submarine commander ever (via tonnage sunk) after Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière.

INTERWAR YEARS

On March 16, 1919, Walther Forstmann left the naval service, soon to be abolished by the Treaty of Versailles. A little over five months later, he was given the character rank of Korvettenkapitän (lieutenant commander).

Forstmann soon wrote his memoirs in the book Hunting in the Mediterranean (Auf Jagd im Mittelmeer). In 1921, he qualified as an attorney… and in 1924, he became social departmental head and director with the August Thyssen coal company in Duisburg. From 1929 to 1933, Forstmann was a Duisburg delegate and parliamentary group leader of the German People’s Party.

Then in 1933, Forstmann became a member of the board of four large housing cooperatives of the Ruhr steel plants. He would remain in that capacity for seventeen years… before becoming a member of the supervisory board from 1951 to 1953.

WORLD WAR II

In the Second World War, Forstmann served as chief of different commands in Osnabrück and Copenhagen. He became a true Korvettenkapitän in April 1940 and Fregattenkapitän a year later.

While in Copenhagen, Forstmann was the commander of the Wehrwirtschaftsstab Denmark, Germany’s chief industrial purchasing entity in occupied Denmark. He was promoted again to Kapitän zur See (captain at sea) on July 1, 1942 before retiring from the navy in 1945.

FINAL YEARS

In the early 1950s, Forstmann became one of the advisors of Rheini Dwellings A.G. in Duisburg. It was responsible for the movement of several villages to enable development of open cast coal mining. In 1954, he became a member of the company’s supervisory board.

Walther Forstmann died in Essen on November 2, 1973 at the age of ninety.