PEEBLES PROFILES
EPISODE XXXII
Hugo von Pohl
Hugo von Pohl was born in Breslau (in Prussian Silesia) on August 25, 1855. He entered the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) as a cadet in April 1872. At the age of twenty-four, Pohl was promoted and given command of the sailing corvette SMS Carola.
In the 1880s, Pohl served with then-Korvettenkapitän Alfred von Tirpitz in his so-called “Torpedo Gang”, which advocated a greater emphasis on torpedo boats in the German fleet. In 1882, Pohl took command of the spar torpedo vessel SMS Ulan, an early, experimental torpedo boat. Two years later (late September 1884), he was involved in an experiment with new torpedo boat designs from Schichau, Thornycroft, AG Vulcan, and AG Weser. Of them, Pohl commanded one of the Schichau boats. During exercises, his boat collided with another commanded by August von Heeringen. The former’s boat sprung a leak, while the latter’s rudder was damaged. Thankfully, both returned safely to port.
By the 1890s, Pohl had been transferred to the Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office), where he would again work with Tirpitz after the latter was appointed as the State Secretary of the Navy. In 1900, Pohl was assigned to the fleet that was sent to China to help suppress the Boxer Rebellion. While in China, he commanded the protected cruiser SMS Hansa, which bombarded the Taku forts.
In May of that year, Pohl was promoted to Korvettenkapitän. Five years later, he was Kapitän zur See (Captain at Sea) and commander of the SMS Elsaß, which was part of II Squadron.
In 1906, Pohl was promoted to the rank of Konteradmiral. Thereafter, he served as the commander of the reconnaissance forces of the German fleet.
Pohl was promoted again (to Vizeadmiral) in January 1913. That same year, he was elevated to nobility… and in April, von Pohl became the Chief of the Admiralty Staff, a position he would hold for two years.
Von Pohl was involved in the German deliberations during the July Crisis in the aftermath of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian terrorists. He, along with Helmuth von Moltke (Chief of the German General Staff) and Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, met the Kaiser after the monarch returned from a cruise of the Norwegian fjords with the bulk of the High Seas Fleet. Von Pohl and the others were present at several meetings with Wilhelm II, which ultimately produced the “blank check” the Kaiser extended to Austria-Hungary. This decision ultimately helped to push most of Europe into the Great War by month’s end.
Hugo von Pohl, along with Georg von Müller (Chief of the Imperial Naval Cabinet) and Friedrich von Ingenohl (commander of the High Seas Fleet), believed that since the conflict would be quick, the fleet should be preserved intact. Together, they agreed that German ships should be restrained to provide local defense of the coast rather than to seek a decisive battle against the numerically superior British Grand Fleet. Von Pohl argued that U-boats should be used to attack British merchant shipping.
In late 1914, von Pohl pushed for fewer restrictions on the conduct of the commerce war. He further advocated abandoning the cruiser rules that handicapped the German effort in favor of unrestricted submarine warfare. Thus, von Pohl presented his first plans for an unlimited commerce war in November 1914. However, they were rejected by both the Kaiser and Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg for fear of antagonizing neutral nations… in particular the United States.
After the Battle of Dogger Bank, Hugo von Pohl replaced von Ingenohl as commander of the High Seas Fleet on February 2, 1915. Throughout his tenure, von Pohl adopted a very cautious strategy in order to preserve the strength of the fleet. He was a controversial choice to replace von Ingenohl, in large part because of his cautious employment of the surface fleet.
Two days after taking command, von Pohl gave the order to use unrestricted submarine warfare against the Allies. He had managed to convince Bethmann-Hollweg by falsely promising that U-boat commanders could distinguish between enemy and neutral steamers, thus eliminating the fear of the United States entering the conflict.
This policy, however, would be short-lived!On May 7, 1915, the U-boat U-20 torpedoed and sank the passenger liner RMS Lusitania, claiming nearly 1,200 souls (including 128 Americans). The incident caused a major diplomatic crisis with the United States.
In an effort to prevent American entry into the war, Germany promptly reinstated restrictions on the U-boat fleet. This reversal of policy eventually led to the so-called “Sussex Pledge” in May 1916.
Aboard his flagship, SMS Friedrich der Grosse, von Pohl conducted a series of short operations in the southern part of the North Sea throughtout the remainder of 1915. However, the fleet never encountered any British forces.
In addition, von Pohl became seriously ill from liver cancer on January 8, 1916. He was first taken to a hospital ship, then moved to Berlin for surgery. As a result, von Pohl was relieved of command and replaced by Reinhard Scheer on January 23, 1916.
Exactly one month later, Hugo von Pohl died at the age of sixty.
Shortly before his death, von Pohl was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle with oak leaves and swords for his command of the fleet. In 1920, Pohl’s widow Ella published some of his papers in an effort to defend his reputation from postwar criticisms.