Hans Hermann Ludwig von Reuter was born into a Prussian military family on February 19, 1869 in the town of Guben. His father, a colonel in the army, was killed in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
In 1885, the young Reuter, at the instigation of his mother, became a cadet in the Imperial German Navy. A midshipman at the age of seventeen, he was promoted to Unterleutnant zur See in 1888. By 1910, he was Kapitän zur See, commanding the armored cruiser SMS Yorck.
Two months after the outbreak of the First World War, Reuter was made captain of the battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger, which he also commanded during the Battle of Dogger Bank. In September 1915, he became Commodore and commanding officer of the Fourth Scouting Group of five light cruisers: SMS Stuttgart, SMS Hamburg, SMS München, SMS Stettin, and SMS Frauenlob. Reuter led this group in the Battle of Jutland in late May 1916.
Promoted to Konteradmiral in November of that year, Reuter was placed in command of the Second Reconnaissance Group, a fleet of six light cruisers including the flagship SMS Königsberg. He commanded the group during the mine sweeping operation that led to the Second Battle of the Heligoland Bight in November 1917. Faced with a surprise attack by a numerically superior force of British ships, Reuter successfully withdrew his group under fire to the protection of the battleships SMS Kaiser and SMS Kaiserin. In August 1918, he was appointed Commander of Reconnaissance Forces and First Scouting Group, succeeding Admiral Franz von Hipper.
After the November armistice that ended the fighting, Konteradmiral von Reuter was requested to take command of the fleet to be interned at Scapa Flow until its final disposition would be made at the Paris Peace Conference in Versailles. Von Hipper, the commander-in-chief of the High Seas Fleet, had refused to lead his ships into internment. He also protested against the seizing of the fleet by Great Britain and its relocation to a British war harbor instead of an initially-agreed neutral location.
As the deadline neared for the German delegation to sign the Treaty of Versailles, Reuter anticipated that his ships would be handed over to the victorious Allies. To prevent this, he ordered all seventy-four ships scuttled on June 21, 1919. In doing so, Reuter used a previously-agreed, but rather unusual flag signal. Unknown to the British, all the German ships had been prepared for this action long ago. Within five hours, ten battleships, five battlecruisers, five light cruisers, and thirty-two destroyers sank at Scapa Flow in the north of Scotland. The battleship SMS Baden, three light cruisers (SMS Emden, SMS Nürnberg, SMS Frankfurt). the SMS Bremse, and fourteen destroyers were beached when British watch personnel were able to intervene in time and tow these prizes to shallow waters. Only four destroyers remained afloat.
Nine Germans were killed in scuffles either aboard some of the ships (including Walter Schumann, captain of SMS Markgraf) or in some of their lifeboats. These casualties were the last deaths of the Great War suffered by a clearly defeated Germany.
Reuter was vilified in Britain and made a prisoner of war, along with the other 1,773 officers and men of the fleet’s remaining rump crews. In Germany, he was celebrated as a hero who had protected the honor of the Imperial Navy. While most of the imprisoned Germans soon returned home, Reuter was among several who remained imprisoned in Britain. In late January 1920, he was eventually released and returned to Germany.
Five months later, Reuter was requested to hand in his resignation from the navy. The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to drastically reduce the size of its navy… leaving Reuter (given his rank and age) without a suitable command.
Reuter eventually became a state councillor in Potsdam. He also wrote a book on the scuttling of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow entitled Grave of the German Fleet.
On August 29, 1939, Reuter was made a full admiral to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg. Sadly, he died in Potsdam of a heart attack on December 18, 1943 at the age of seventy-four.