Maximilian von Spee

Maximilian Johannes Maria Hubert Reichsgraf[1] von Spee (22 June 1861 –
Reichsgraf
8 December 1914) was a naval officer of the German Kaiserliche Marine
Maximilian von Spee
(Imperial Navy), who commanded the East Asia Squadron during World War I.
Spee entered the navy in 1878 and served in a variety of roles and locations,
including on a colonial gunboat in German West Africa in the 1880s, the East
Africa Squadron in the late 1890s, and as commander of several warships in the
main German fleet in the early 1900s. During his time in Germany in the late
1880s and early 1890s, he married his wife, Margareta, and had three children,
his sons Heinrich and Otto and his daughter Huberta. By 1912, he had returned
to the East Asia Squadron as its commander, and was promoted to the rank of
Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) the following year.

After the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, Spee led his squadron across the
Pacific to the coast of South America. Here on 1 November, he defeated the
British 4th Cruiser Squadron under Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock in the
Battle of Coronel, sinking two of Cradock's cruisers and forcing his other two
ships to retreat. A month later, Spee decided to attack the British naval base in
the Falkland Islands, but a superior British force surprised him. In the ensuing
Maximilian von Spee
Battle of the Falkland Islands, Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee's squadron, which
included two powerful battlecruisers, destroyed the East Asia Squadron. Spee Born 22 June 1861
and his two sons, who happened to be serving on two of his ships, were all Copenhagen,
killed, along with about 2,200 other men. Spee was hailed as a hero in Germany, Denmark
and several ships were named in his honor, including the heavy cruiser Admiral Died 8 December 1914
Graf Spee, which was built in the 1930s and was defeated in the Battle of the (aged 53)
River Plate during World War II. SMS Scharnhorst,
South Atlantic, off
the Falkland Islands

Contents Allegiance German

Empire
Early career
Service/ Imperial
East Asia Squadron
World War I
branch German Navy
Battle of Coronel Years of 1878–1914
Battle of the Falkland Islands service
Legacy Rank Vizeadmiral (Vice
Footnotes Admiral)
References Commands East Asia Squadron
External links held
Battles/wars Boxer Rebellion
World War I
Early career

Spee as a Kapitänleutnant
aboard the armored cruiser
SMS Deutschland in East
Asia in 1898
Spee was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Battle of
on 22 June 1861, though he was raised in Papeete
the Rhineland in Germany, where his Battle of
family had an estate. He joined the Coronel
Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in
Battle of the
1878 and initially served in the main
Falkland
German naval base at Kiel.[2][3] He was
Islands †
commissioned an officer at the rank of
Leutnant zur See (Lieutenant at Sea), and
was assigned to the gunboat SMS Möwe, which was sent to western Africa. During this
voyage, the Germans signed treaties with local rulers in Togo and Cameroon, creating the
colonies of Togoland and Kamerun, respectively.[4] In 1887, Spee was transferred to
Kamerun where he commanded the port at Duala. He contracted rheumatic fever while
there, and had to be sent back to Germany to recover, though he occasionally suffered
from rheumatism for the rest of his life.[2][3]

After returning to Germany in 1889, he married his wife, Margareta Baroness von der
Osten-Sacken.[5] With her he had two sons—Otto, born on 10 July 1890, Heinrich, born on 24 April 1893—and one daughter,
Huberta, born on 11 July 1894.[6] In December 1897, Spee was stationed in Germany's East Asia Squadron after it seized the
concession at Kiautschou Bay, with its port at Tsingtao. Here, he served on the staff of Vizeadmiral Otto von Diederichs.[4][5]
During the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, Spee saw action at Tsingtao and on the Yangtze.[3]

After arriving back in Germany, he was promoted to the rank of Korvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain) and assigned as the first
officer aboard the pre-dreadnought battleship Brandenburg.[5] Between 1900 and 1908, Spee held command of several ships,
including the aviso Hela, the minelayer Pelikan, and finally the pre-dreadnought Wittelsbach. During this period, he was
promoted to Fregattenkapitän (Frigate Captain) on 27 January 1904 and to Kapitän zur See (Captain at Sea) exactly a year later;
his command of Wittelsbach followed the latter promotion. In 1908, he was assigned as the chief of staff to the commander of the
North Sea Station, and in 1910 he was promoted to the rank of Konteradmiral (KAdm–Counter Admiral).[2][4][5] Spee was then
assigned as the deputy commander for the reconnaissance forces of the High Seas Fleet.[3]

East Asia Squadron

In late 1912, Spee was given command of the East Asia Squadron, replacing
KAdm Günther von Krosigk on 4 December. Spee raised his flag on the armored
cruiser Scharnhorst, and departed on a tour of the southwest Pacific along with
Scharnhorst's sister ship Gneisenau, during which Spee made visits to several
ports, including Singapore and Batavia.[7] Spee was promoted to Vizeadmiral the
following year.[3] Over the following year and a half, Spee met with the leaders
of several East Asian countries. From 1 April to 7 May 1913, Scharnhorst took
Spee to Japan to meet the Taishō Emperor.[7] Later in the year, Spee met with
Chulalongkorn, the King of Siam. In May 1914, Spee took Scharnhorst and the
Spee's flagship, the armored cruiser
torpedo boat S90 on a visit to Port Arthur and then to Tianjin; Spee continued on
SMS Scharnhorst
to Beijing, where he met with Yuan Shikai, the first President of the Republic of
China. He came back aboard Scharnhorst on 11 May and the ship returned to
Tsingtao.[8]
Spee thereafter began preparations for a cruise to German New Guinea; Scharnhorst departed on 20 June. The two armored
cruisers proceeded to Nagasaki, Japan, where they coaled in preparation for their tour. While en route to Truk in the Caroline
Islands, they received news of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary.[9] On 17
July, the East Asia Squadron arrived in Ponape in the Carolines, where the ships remained while tensions steadily rose in Europe.
In Ponape, Spee had access to the German radio network, and he learned of the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia on
28 July, followed shortly thereafter by the Russian mobilization—tantamount to a declaration of war—against Austria-Hungary
and possibly Germany. On 31 July, word came that the German ultimatum that Russia demobilize its armies was set to expire;
Spee ordered his ships' crews to prepare for war. On 2 August, Wilhelm II ordered German mobilization against Russia and its
ally, France.[10] Following Germany's violation of neutral Belgium during its invasion of France, Britain declared war on
Germany.[11]

World War I
The East Asia Squadron consisted of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau
and the light cruisers Emden, Nürnberg, and Leipzig.[12] At the
time, Nürnberg was returning from the west coast of the United
States, where Leipzig had just replaced her, and Emden was still
in Tsingtao.[13] Spee recalled his ships to consolidate his forces;
Nürnberg arrived on 6 August and the three cruisers plus their
colliers moved to Pagan Island in the Marianas, at that time a
German colony.[13] Emden and the liner Prinz Eitel Friedrich,
which had been converted into an auxiliary cruiser, joined the Map showing the route of the East Asia Squadron
squadron there on 12 August.[13] The four cruisers, accompanied
by Prinz Eitel Friedrich and several colliers, then departed the
central Pacific, bound for Chile. On 13 August, Commodore Karl von Müller, captain of the Emden, persuaded Spee to detach his
ship as a commerce raider. On 14 August, the East Asia Squadron departed Pagan for Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands.[14]
While en route across the Pacific, Spee relaxed formalities aboard his ships, integrating the messes for officers and non-
commissioned and engineering officers.[15]

To keep the German high command informed, on 8 September Spee detached Nürnberg to Honolulu to send word through neutral
countries. Nürnberg returned with news of the Allied capture of German Samoa, which had taken place on 29 August.
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sailed to Apia to investigate the situation.[16] Spee had hoped to catch a British or Australian warship
by surprise, but upon his arrival on 14 September, he found no warships in the harbor.[17] Spee decided against attacking the
Allied troops ashore, since doing so would risk killing Samoans and damaging German property.[18] On 22 September,
Scharnhorst and the rest of the East Asia Squadron arrived at the French colony of Papeete. The Germans attacked the colony,
and in the ensuing Battle of Papeete, they sank the French gunboat Zélée. The ships came under fire from French shore batteries
but were undamaged.[19] Fear of mines in the harbor prevented Spee from seizing the coal in the harbor.[20] Spee then continued
across the Pacific, passing through the Marquesas Islands, where his ships acquired supplies including fresh meat by barter,
purchase, or confiscation.[21] On 12 October, the squadron reached Easter Island, where it was reinforced by Leipzig, Dresden,
and four more colliers. Spee's ships were off the coast of Chile by 1 November, when he learned that the British cruiser Glasgow
was moored in Coronel, ostensibly alone; he decided to try to sink the ship.[22]

Battle of Coronel
Glasgow was assigned to the 4th Cruiser Squadron, under Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock; as it turned out, Glasgow was
joined by the armored cruisers Good Hope and Monmouth and the auxiliary cruiser Otranto. After discovering the entire
squadron off Coronel, Spee decided to engage the British ships, but he delayed the action using his ships' superior speed until
later in the day, when the setting sun would silhouette Cradock's ships. The German ships would meanwhile be obscured against
the Chilean coast, making the task of the British gunners more difficult.[23] At 18:07, Spee issued the order to open fire, with his
two armored cruisers battling Cradock's armored cruisers and his light cruisers engaging Glasgow and Otranto. Cradock quickly
detached Otranto, as she had no place in the line of battle. By 18:50, Gneisenau had disabled Monmouth and so shifted fire to
Good Hope; the combined firepower of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau neutralized Good Hope by 19:23. Spee then withdrew his
two armored cruisers and sent in his light cruisers to finish off Monmouth and Good Hope.[24] The British had lost both ships and
suffered more than 1,600 dead, including Cradock, though the German ships had expended around 40 percent of their
ammunition supply.[25] Spee had inflicted the first defeat on a Royal Navy squadron since the Napoleonic Wars a century
earlier.[26]

After the battle, Spee took his ships north to Valparaiso. Since Chile was neutral,
only three ships could enter the port at a time; Spee took Scharnhorst,
Gneisenau, and Nürnberg in first on the morning of 3 November, leaving
Dresden and Leipzig with the colliers at Mas a Fuera. There, Spee's ships could
take on coal while he conferred with the Admiralty Staff in Germany to
determine the strength of remaining British forces in the region.[27] In addition,
Spee sought to counter British press reports that attempted to minimize their
losses and exaggerate German casualties. A reception followed at the German The German squadron leaving
Club of Valparaiso, though Spee insisted that the event be restrained in tone.[28] Valparaíso on 3 November after the
He received a bouquet of flowers to celebrate the victory at Coronel; Spee battle
replied that they would do nicely for his grave.[29] He stated that,

You must not forget that I am quite homeless. I cannot reach Germany. We possess no other secure harbor. I must
fight my way through the seas of the world doing as much mischief as I can, until my ammunition is exhausted, or
a foe far superior in power succeeds in catching me. But it will cost the wretches dearly before they take me
down.[30]

While in port, Spee received the order from the Admiralty Staff to attempt to break through to Germany.[31] The ships remained
in the port for only 24 hours, in accordance with the neutrality restrictions, and arrived at Mas a Fuera on 6 November, where
they took on more coal from captured British and French steamers.[32] Dresden and Leipzig took their turn in Valparaiso, after
which the re-formed squadron continued south and rounded Cape Horn into the South Atlantic.[31] In the meantime, the Royal
Navy sent a pair of battlecruisers—Invincible and Inflexible—commanded by Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee to hunt down Spee's
squadron and avenge Cradock's defeat.[26]

Battle of the Falkland Islands

On the morning of 6 December, Spee held a conference with the ship commanders aboard Scharnhorst to determine their next
course of action. The Germans had received numerous fragmentary and contradictory reports of British reinforcements in the
region; Spee and two other captains favored an attack on the Falkland Islands to destroy the British wireless station there, while
three other commanders argued that it would be better to bypass the islands and attack British shipping off Argentina. Spee's
opinion carried the day and the squadron departed for the Falkland Islands at 12:00 on 6 December. The ships arrived off the
Falkland Islands two days later; Gneisenau and Nürnberg were delegated for the attack. As they approached, observers aboard
Gneisenau spotted smoke rising from Port Stanley, but assumed it was the British burning their coal stocks to prevent the
Germans from seizing them.[33] As they closed on the harbor, 30.5 cm (12.0 in) shells from the elderly battleship Canopus, which
had been beached as a guard ship, began to fall around the German ships, which prompted Spee to break off the attack. As Spee
withdrew, Sturdee quickly got steam up in his ships and sortied to chase the Germans.[34]
By 13:20, the battlecruisers had caught up with Spee, who realized his armored
cruisers could not escape the much faster battlecruisers. He ordered the three
light cruisers to attempt to break away while he tried to hold off the British
squadron with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Sturdee instead ordered his cruisers
to chase down the fleeing German light cruisers while Invincible and Inflexible
dealt with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.[35] Spee deftly maneuvered his ships,
taking the leeward position; the wind kept his ships swept of smoke, which
Oil painting of Scharnhorst capsizing
improved visibility for his gunners. This forced Sturdee into the windward
during the battle
position and its corresponding worse visibility. Scharnhorst straddled Invincible
with her third salvo and quickly scored two hits on the British battlecruiser. The
German flagship was herself not hit during this phase of the battle.[36] Sturdee attempted to widen the distance by turning two
points to the north to prevent Spee from closing to within the range of his numerous secondary guns. Spee counteracted this
maneuver by turning rapidly to the south, which forced Sturdee to turn south as well to keep within range. This allowed
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau to turn back north and get close enough to engage with their secondary 15 cm guns. Their shooting
was so accurate that it forced the British to haul away a second time.[37]

The British gunfire became increasingly accurate, and by 16:00, Scharnhorst had begun to list badly, while fires raged aboard the
ship. Spee ordered Gneisenau to try to disengage while he turned Scharnhorst toward his attackers in an attempt to launch
torpedoes at them. At 16:17, Scharnhorst capsized and sank, taking her entire crew with her, including Spee. The British, still
focused on Gneisenau, made no effort to rescue survivors.[38] Gneisenau, Leipzig, and Nürnberg were also sunk. Only Dresden
managed to escape, but she was eventually tracked to the Juan Fernández Islands and sunk. The complete destruction of the
squadron killed about 2,200 German sailors and officers, including both of Spee's sons;[39] Heinrich died aboard Gneisenau, and
Otto was killed aboard Nürnberg.[40]

Legacy
Spee was hailed as a hero in Germany and the men of the East Asia Squadron were celebrated in the press, which emphasized
their bravery and refusal to surrender.[41] In September 1917, the second Mackensen-class battlecruiser was named Graf Spee,
and was christened by Spee's widow Margarete.[42] Construction of the ship had not been completed by the time of the Armistice
of 11 November 1918, and she was broken up for scrap by 1921.[43] In 1934 Germany named the new heavy cruiser Admiral
Graf Spee after him; as with the earlier vessel, a member of Spee's family christened the ship, this time his daughter.[44] In
December 1939, Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled by her crew after the Battle of the River Plate off the coast of Uruguay.[45]
Between 1959 and 1964 the Federal German Bundesmarine operated the training frigate Graf Spee.[46]

The wreck of Spee's flagship Scharnhorst was found off the Falklands on December 5, 2019, almost 105 years to the day after her
sinking. Wilhelm Graf von Spee, head of the Graf von Spee family, called the location of the wreck "bittersweet", remarking that
the family took comfort "from the knowledge that the final resting place of so many has been found, and can now be preserved,
whilst also being reminded of the huge waste of life. As a family, we lost a father and his two sons on one day. Like the thousands
of other families who suffered an unimaginable loss during the First World War, we remember them and must ensure that their
sacrifice was not in vain."[47]

Footnotes
1. Regarding personal names: Reichsgraf is a title, 3. Tucker & Roberts, p. 1108
usually translated Count, not a first or middle name. 4. Callo & Wilson, p. 290
The female form is Reichsgräfin. Titles using the
5. McNally, p. 32
prefix Reichs- were not created after the fall of the
Holy Roman Empire. 6. Kirchhoff, p. 8

2. Stewart, p. 283 7. Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz Vol.7, p. 109

 8. Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz Vol.7, p. 110 29. Gray, p. 185
9. Hough, pp. 11–12 30. Sondhaus, p. 77
10. Hough, p. 17–18 31. Sondhaus, p. 78
11. Sondaus, p. 98 32. Staff, p. 59
12. Halpern, p. 66 33. Staff, pp. 61–62
13. Staff, p. 29 34. Strachan, p. 47
14. Hough, p. 23 35. Bennett, p. 117
15. Sondhaus, p. 70 36. Staff, p. 66
16. Strachan, p. 471 37. Bennett, p. 118
17. Staff, pp. 29–30 38. Staff, pp. 68–69
18. Sondhaus, pp. 70–71 39. Herwig, p. 158
19. Staff, p. 30 40. Sondhaus, p. 82
20. Halpern, p. 89 41. Jones, pp. 184, 193–194
21. Sondhaus, p. 72 42. Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz Vol.3, p. 238
22. Staff, pp. 30–31 43. Gröner, p. 58
23. Staff, p. 32 44. Williamson, p. 39
24. Staff, pp. 33–36 45. Bidlingmaier, p. 93
25. Halpern, p. 93 46. Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz Vol.3, pp. 239–240
26. Sondhaus, p. 79 47. "German WWI wreck Scharnhorst discovered off
27. Staff, pp. 58–59 Falklands" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-a
merica-50670743). BBC News. 5 December 2019.
28. Sondhaus, pp. 76 77
Retrieved 5 December 2019.

References
Bidlingmaier, Gerhard (1971). "KM Admiral Graf Spee". Warship Profile 4. Windsor: Profile Publications. pp. 73–
96. OCLC 20229321 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/20229321).
Gray, J.A.C. (1960). Amerika Samoa, A History of American Samoa and its United States Naval Administration.
Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. OCLC 498821 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/498821).
Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe (Band 3) [The
German Warships (Volume 3)]. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 3-78220-211-2.
Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe (Band 7) [The
German Warships (Volume 7)]. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. OCLC 310653560 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/3106
53560).
Hough, Richard (1980). Falklands 1914: The Pursuit of Admiral Von Spee. Penzance: Periscope Publishing.
ISBN 978-1-904381-12-9.
Jones, Mark (2013). "Graf von Spee's Untergang and the Corporate Identity of the Imperial German Navy". In
Redford, Duncan (ed.). Maritime History and Identity: The Sea and Culture in the Modern World. London:
I.B.Tauris. ISBN 9781780763293.
Kirchhoff, Hermann (1915). Maximilian, graf von Spee, der Sieger von Coronel: das Lebensbild und die
Erinnerungen eines deutsches Seemanns (in German). Berlin: Marinedank-Verlag. OCLC 11653122 (https://ww
w.worldcat.org/oclc/11653122).
McNally, Michael (2012). Coronel and Falklands 1914: Duel in the South Atlantic. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.
ISBN 9781782002987.
Sondhaus, Lawrence (2014). The Great War at Sea: A Naval History of the First World War. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Stewart, William (2009). Admirals of the World: A Biographical Dictionary, 1500 to the Present. Jefferson:
McFarland & Co. ISBN 9780786438099.
Tucker, Spencer & Roberts, Priscilla (2005). World War I: A Student Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
ISBN 1-85109-879-8.
 van der Vat, Dan (1984). Gentlemen of War, The Amazing Story of Captain Karl von Müller and the SMS Emden
(https://archive.org/details/gentlemenofwaram00vand). New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. ISBN 0-
688-03115-3.

External links
Newspaper clippings about Maximilian von Spee (http://purl.org/pressemappe20/folder/pe/016837) in the 20th
Century Press Archives of the ZBW

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