EARLY YEARS
Friedrich Christiansen was born into an old seafaring family on December 12, 1879 in Wyk auf Föhr, located in Schleswig-Holstein. At sixteen, he joined the merchant marine and served for seven years. But in 1901, young Friedrich volunteered for MTBs.
A year later, Christiansen returned to the merchant marine, serving several years as a second officer aboard the five-masted Preussen (the largest sailing ship in the world at that time). In 1913, he decided to deviate from the sea… and learned to fly. Having graduated and gaining license number 707, Christiansen became a flying instructor at a civilian flying school.
THE GREAT WAR
In August 1914, Christiansen was called up and posted to Zeebrugge as naval aviator. He flew Hansa-Brandenburg W.12 seaplanes over the North Sea, the English Channel, and Great Britain. For his bombing missions on Dover and Ramsgate, he was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class.
From 1915 to 1916, Christiansen went on numerous reconnaissance and bombing missions, helping to make his unit at Zeebrugge one of the most successful in the German Naval Air Service. On April 27, 1916, as Leutnant der Matrosen Artillerie (Lieutenant of Naval Artillery), Christiansen was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class and the Knights Cross with Swords of the House Order of Hohenzollern.
On May 15, 1917, Christiansen claimed his first air-to-air victory by shooting down a Sopwith Pup off Dover. Less than four months later, he took command of Naval Air Station at Zeebrugge. Now promoted to Oberleutnant zur See, Christiansen shot down a Porte FB2 Baby off Felixstowe the same day (September 1st). On December 11th, he shot down the non-rigid coastal class airship C-27 (Commander . Flight Lieutenant John Francis Dixon, DSC) near the Belgian coast.
Christiansen continued to carry out reconnaissance, rescue, and bombing missions. By the end of 1917, he had completed 440 missions. At the same time, Christiansen was awarded the Pour le Mérite (the “Blue Max”), the first of only three given to naval aviators and the only one to a seaplane pilot. He was soon promoted to Kapitänleutnant.
On February 15, 1918. Christiansen shot down a Curtiss H12B flying boat off Felixstowe, followed by two more victories on April 24th and 25th. In June, he claimed three more Felixstowe F2As. On July 6th, Christiansen surprised and damaged the British submarine HMS C25 in the Thames estuary, killing its captain and five crewmen. However, the crippled submarine returned to harbor.
By war’s end, Christiansen raised his personal tally to thirteen. Along with some shared victories, his total might have reached twenty-one.
THE INTERWAR YEARS
Following the German Revolution in the autumn of 1918, Christiansen was a member of the Third Marinebrigade commanded by Wilfried von Loewenfeld. In 1922, he was active again in the merchant marine as a captain.
But in 1929, Christiansen was employed as a pilot by the Claude Dornier Company. One year later, he flew what was at the time the largest seaplane in the world, the Dornier Do X on its maiden Atlantic flight to New York.
Christiansen’s distinguished career led him eventually to being called to a post in the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM/Reich Aviation Ministry) from 1933 to 1937. He was promoted to Generalmajor in 1936.
On April 15, 1937, Christiansen was appointed Korpsführer of the National Socialist Flyers Corps, or NSFK and promoted to Generalleutnant. On New Year’s Day 1939, he was named General der Flieger.
DISGRACE AND DEATH
Friedrich Christiansen was nearly sixty years old when the Second World War began in September 1939. From May 29, 1940 until April 7, 1945, he was Wehrmachtbefehlshaber in den Niederlanden (Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht in the Netherlands). Christiansen remained Korpsführer of the NSFK until June 26, 1943. In addition, from November 10, 1944 until January 28, 1945, he was the supreme commander of the German 25th Army.
But Christiansen also was responsible for the food embargo in the winter of 1944. It caused a famine in western Holland resulting in the death of 22,000 civilian men, women and children!
After the war, Christiansen was arrested for war crimes. On October 2, 1944, he had ordered a raid on the village of Putten in Gelderland. It was in retaliation for the death of one of his officers, a Leutnant Sommers, who was killed near Putten by the Dutch resistance. Upon hearing of Sommers’ death, Christiansen is reported to have said:
“Das ganze Nest muss angesteckt werden und die ganze Bande an die Wand gestellt!”
(“Put them all against the wall and burn the place down!”)
In compliance with this retributive sentiment, several members of the civilian population were shot, the village of Putten was burned, and 661 of the male townspeople were deported to labor camps. The vast majority of the deportees never returned home!
In 1948, Christiansen was found guilty and sentenced to twelve years imprisonment. He was sent to prison in Arnhem… but was subsequently released in December 1951. On December 3, 1972, Friedrich Christiansen died in Aukrug at the age of ninety-three.
His release from prison was an occasion for his native town, Wyk auf Föhr, to renew Christiansen’s honorary citizenship and reinstate a street name in his honor, previously changed by the British military administration in 1945. These honors sparked controversies in both Germany and the Netherlands… and they were revoked in 1980 by the town council.
DECORATIONS AND AWARDS
– Pour le Mérite (December 11, 1917)
– German Cross in Silver (June 1, 1943)
– Prussian Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, Knight’s Cross with Swords (April 27, 1916)
– Prussian Iron Cross of 1914, First Class (April 27, 1916) and Second Class (March 1915)
– Prussian Lifesaving Medal (August 20, 1917)
– Hanseatic Cross of Hamburg (World War I decoration)
– German Navy Seaplane Pilot’s Badge (World War I decoration)
– Golden Party Badge of the NSDAP (January 30, 1939)
– War Merit Cross, First Class with Swords and Second Class with Swords (April 30, 1941)
– The Honor Cross of the World War 1914/1918
– Combined Pilot/Observer Badge in Gold with Diamonds
– Wehrmacht Long Service Award