Christiansen, Friedrich Christian.

Christiansen, Friedrich Christian, born on 12-12-1879 in Wyk, Föhr, into an old seafaring family, the son of the sea captain Peter Christian Christiansen (1846–1921), and his wife Brigitte Catharina, born Lorenzen (1852–1928). Friedrich had nine siblings, including the well-known blockade breaker of the First World War and Knight’s Cross of the Navy in World War II, frigate captain of the reserve z. V. and General Inspector of Shipping Carl Friedrich Christiansen (1884–1969). All of the brothers became experienced seafarers, whereby Kobis died in an accident on 27-01-1904 as a 16-year-old cabin boy.Peter Christiansen 1878–1921 (interned in Montevideo since the beginning of the war in 1914), Friedrich Christian Christiansen 1879–1972 (affectionately called “Fiedebruder” by Carl, while Friedrich called his brother “Carl brother”), Christine Helene Christiansen 1882–1951Heinrich “Haye” Christiansen 1886–1919 (returned seriously ill after the delivery trip of his submarine and died on May 1, 1919 in Nauheim), Kobis Justus Christiansen 1887–1904 Henriette Caroline “Linchen” Christiansen 1889–1959, Brigitte Catharina Christiansen 1891–1975, Catharina Christiansen 1893–1976 and Margaretha Christiansen 1896–1898. The generations-long seafaring tradition within his family charted an obvious course for his future. In 1895 he joined the merchant marine, serving for 7 years and volunteering in 1901 for MTBs. After one year, he returned to the merchant marine, serving several years aboard the 5-masted Preussen

  at the time, the largest sailing ship in the world, as Second Officer. In 1913 he decided to deviate from this career, and learned to fly. Having graduated and gaining licence No. 707, he became a flying instructor at a civilian flying school was a World War I German seaplane ace, who claimed shooting down twenty planes and an airship, thirteen of those victories were confirmed. Christiansen claimed his first air-to-air victory 15-05-1917 by shooting down a Sopwith Pup off Dover. On 06-07-1918 Christiansen strafed British submarine HMS C25 in the Thames estuate in southern England , United Kingdom, killing its captain and five crewmen. By 11-11-1918, he raised his personal tally to 13, as well as some shared victories, which cumulatively may have brought his total to 21. he was also awarded the Pour le Mérite (“Blue Max”) , the first of only three given to naval aviators and the only one to a seaplane pilot. He was promoted to Kapitänleutnant in 1918. Christiansen, American pilot Schildhauer, and others at an open window of a Do X flying boat before making a trans-Atlantic flight from Europe to North America, November 1930. Christiansen’s distinguished career led him eventually to being called to a post in the Reich aviation ministry from 1933 to 1937, and in 1936 he was promoted to Generalmajor. In 1937 he was appointed Korpsführer of the National Socialist Flyers Corps, or NSFK and was promoted to Generalleutnant. He joined the NSDAP, with nr.: 800 471. On 01-01-1939 he was named General der Flieger in Hermann Goering’s(did you know) Luftwaffe . From 29-05-1940 until 07-04-1945 Christiansen was Wehrmachtsbefehlshaber in den Niederlanden Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht in the Netherlands,(see About)

Christiansen’s bunkerhouse in Hilversum Holland. From 10-11-1944 until 28-01-1945 he was supreme commander of the 25^th Army. Christiansen’s brother Karl Friedrich, a Korvettenkapitän and who died, age 85 on 02-05-1969 in Wyk auf Föhr, was the Commander for Naval matters in Holland. Friedrich Christiansen here with his brother and Generalleutnant der Flieger, Commanding General of Support Staff of the Royal Hungarian Luftwaffe, Walter Schwabedissen

  and the Chief of Staff to the Wehrmacht Commander in Holland

   Christiansen, here next to Seyss Inquart,  inspected the Atlant Wall together with Marshall Erwin Rommel.  He joined the funeral of the emperor in asylum, Wilhelm II in Doorn, Netherlands, together with Reichscommisar, Arthur Seyss Inquart,  General Anton Mackensen,

and Admiral Wilhelm Canaris.

  General der Flieger, Kommandeur der 1^st Fallschirmjäger Regiment,  Kurt Student     captured Rotterdam after the bombing, and another General in Holland involved in the Netherland invasion, was Oberbefehlhaber Heeresgruppe Nord, Generalfeldmarschall der Infanterie Georg Küchler,

  commander of the Eighteenth Army. After the war Christiansen was arrested for war crimes. On 02-10-1944 he had ordered a raid on the village of Putten in Gelderland, the Netherlands,

    in retaliation, after one of his officers, Leutnant Otto Sommers, age 27, was killed on 22-10-1944 near Putten by the Dutch resistance. When he heard about the actions of the resistance near Putten, 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 was burned, and 661 of the males of the town were deported to labor camps, the vast majority of whom never returned.

Christiansen was arrested on 06-07-1945 in his hometown Innien near Neumunster and ended up in a civilian internment camp in Holstein. On 04-01-1946 Christiansen was extradited to the Dutch government and on 21 and 22 July and on 05-08-1948 he appeared before the Special Court of Justice in Amsterdam. Christiansen was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for his war crimes. However, Christiansen was released early for health reasons, in December 1951 from imprisonment.

   It was the occasion for his native town, Wyk auf Föhr, to renew Christiansen’s honorary citizenship and reinstate a street name in honor of him, which had been changed by the British military administration in 1945. These honors sparked controversies in Germany and the Netherlands and they were revoked in 1980 by the town counsel.? Christiansen as one of the few received the Golden Party Badge   and Adolf Hitler’s own Golden Party Badge had the number ‘1’. He awarded it to Magda Goebbels  on 27-04-1945, less than 48 hours before he committed suicide in his Führerbunker. She called it “The greatest honour any German could receive”. It was awarded to her for being “The Greatest Mother in the Reich”. The ‘1’ badge was stolen from a display in Russia in 2005. The guards thought that a cat had set off the alarms and this allowed the burglar to escape.

    Christiansen lived in Aukrug after his release and died at the old age of 92, on 03-12-1972 and is buried with his wife Awanda, born Ratjen, who died age 89, on 14-08-1971, on the small cemetery of Aukrug in a family grave.