Otto Eduard Weddigen (15 September 1882 – 18 March 1915) was an

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Kaise ...

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

commander during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He was awarded the

Pour le Mérite The ' (; , ) is an order of merit (german: Verdienstorden) established in 1740 by Frederick the Great, King Frederick II of Prussia. The was awarded as both a military and civil honour and ranked, along with the Order of the Black Eagle, the Or ...

, Germany's highest honour, for sinking four British warships.

Biography and career

He was born in

Herford Herford (; nds, Hiarwede) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest. It is the capital of the district of Herford. Geography Geographic locat ...

, in the Prussian Province of

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

and started his military career in the ''

Kaiserliche Marine {{italic title The adjective ''kaiserlich'' means "imperial" and was used in the German-speaking countries to refer to those institutions and establishments over which the ''Kaiser'' ("emperor") had immediate personal power of control. The term wa ...

'' in 1901. In 1910 he was given command of one of the first German submarines, . In the action of 22 September 1914, while patrolling in the region of the southern

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

known to the British as the " Broad Fourteens", ''U-9'' intercepted the three warships of the Seventh Cruiser Squadron. Weddigen fired off all six of his torpedoes, reloaded while submerged, and in less than an hour sank the three British armoured cruisers HMS ''Aboukir'', HMS ''Hogue'' and HMS ''Cressy''. Sixty two officers and 1,397 other men were killed, leaving 837 survivors. Weddigen was awarded the

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia est ...

, second and first class for this action. After sinking HMS ''Hawke'' and some merchant ships, Weddigen received

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

's highest military order, the

. He also received the highest military honours of the other kingdoms of the German Empire: The

Knight's Cross Knight's Cross (German language ''Ritterkreuz'') refers to a distinguishing grade or level of various orders that often denotes bravery and leadership on the battlefield. Most frequently the term Knight's Cross is used to refer to the Knight's Cr ...

of the

Military Order of Max Joseph The Military Order of Max Joseph (german: Militär-Max-Joseph-Orden) was the highest military order of the Kingdom of Bavaria. It was founded on 1 January 1806 by Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, the first king of Bavaria. The order came in th ...

of the

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

(making him one of only six non-Bavarians to receive this), the Knight's Cross of

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

's Military Order of St. Henry and the Knight's Cross of

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

's Military Merit Order. Weddigen died while commanding the submarine . On 18 March 1915 ''U-29'' was rammed by the British battleship HMS ''Dreadnought'' in the

Pentland Firth The Pentland Firth ( gd, An Caol Arcach, meaning the Orcadian Strait) is a strait which separates the Orkney Islands from Caithness in the north of Scotland. Despite the name, it is not a firth. Etymology The name is presumed to be a corrup ...

. ''U-29'' had broken the surface immediately ahead of ''Dreadnought'' after firing a torpedo at HMS ''Neptune'' and ''Dreadnought'' cut the submarine in two after a short chase. There were no survivors from the submarine. During the inter-war period, the resurgent Wehrmacht named a newly built barracks in

as Otto-Weddigen-Kaserne (renamed Harewood Barracks) in his honour due to the linkage with Weddigen's birthplace. Although the Wehrmacht unit housed inside the barracks was not naval - it was Panzer Abwehr Abteilung 6, an Army anti-tank unit - the occupants of the barracks nevertheless signified the naval connection to Weddigen by placing two large anchors at the base of a large

National Socialist Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

Reichsadler The ' ("Imperial Eagle") is the heraldic eagle, derived from the Roman eagle standard, used by the Holy Roman Emperors and in modern coats of arms of Germany, including those of the Second German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (191 ...

at the entrance to the barracks. Ironically, ever since 1945 the barracks has been occupied by British Army soldiers from the Royal Armoured Corps, various other Tank and Cavalry Units and finally Royal Corps of Signals. The barracks was scheduled to close with the withdrawal of

British Forces in Germany British Forces Germany (''BFG'') was the generic name for the three services of the British Armed Forces, made up of service personnel, UK Civil Servants, and dependents (family members), based in Germany. It was established following the Second ...

in 2020.

Bibliography

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weddigen, Otto 1882 births 1915 deaths German military personnel killed in World War I U-boat commanders (Imperial German Navy) People from the Province of Westphalia Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 1st class Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (military class) Knights of the Military Order of Max Joseph People from Herford People who died at sea Imperial German Navy personnel of World War I