Förste, Erich.

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Förste, Erich, born 11-02-1892 in Magdeburg, Germany,  After attending the König-Albert-Gymnasium in Leipzig. Förste joined the Imperial Navy as a midshipman on 01-04-1910 and completed his basic training on the large cruiser Hertha. After attending the naval school, where he was appointed ensign on 15-04-1911, he was assigned to the battleship Friedrich der Große on 01-10-1912. There he was promoted to Leutnant sur See on 27-09-1913, and after the outbreak of the First World War, Förste was employed as a watch officer and adjutant on the ship. As a first lLeutnant at sea (since 22-03-1916), Förste completed submarine training at the submarine school from August 9 to December 31, 1916 and was then watch officer on U 86. At the beginning of March 1918, Förste took command of his first own boat, UB 34. From September 4 to November 9, 1918, he was commander of UB 99 and was subsequently involved in the operations of the 1st Submarine Flotilla until 28-02-1919. For his conduct during the war, Förste was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross,  the Knight’s Cross 2nd Class of the Order of St. Albrecht  with Swords,  the U-boat War Badge and the Naval Wound Badge.Reichsmarine,` Förste joined the III. Marine Brigade, a volunteer corps that played a key role in the Kapp Putsch. The Kapp Putsch  also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch was an attempted coup against the German national government in Berlin on 13-03-1920. Named after its leaders Lawyer Wolfgang Kapp and General Walther von Lüttwitz, its goal was to undo the German Revolution of 1918–1919, overthrow the Weimar Republic, and establish an autocratic government in its place. It was supported by parts of the Reichswehr, as well as nationalist and monarchist factions. In 1922, Kapp tried to clear his name and returned to Germany to provoke a trial. However, it did not come to that: on 12-06-1922, age 63, of that year, Kapp died in Leipzig of cancer. General Walther von Lüttwitz Lüttwitz died on 20-09-1942, age 83, in Breslau.

In October 1921, Eric was taken on by the Reichsmarine and assigned to the II. Division of the Baltic Sea Ship Division. There, Förste was promoted to Leutnant commander on 01-01-1921. From 01-07-1922 to 01-03-1925, Förste was commander of the torpedo boat T 143 and then commander of T 141. On 28-09-1925, he was appointed 2nd Admiral Staff Officer in the staff of the Baltic Sea Naval Station. From April 20 to October 5, 1927, he was made available and then completed the training as a commander’s assistant. During this time, he was promoted to corvette captain on  01-11-1928. After successfully completing his training, he received construction instruction on the light cruiser Königsberg from February 26 to March 14, 1929. He then served as the commander of the crew for a month and became first officer after the ship was commissioned on 17-04-1929. Förste disembarked on 25-09-1931 and was transferred to the naval command’s budget department on 01-10-1931 as a consultant. On 01-10-1933, he was promoted to Frigate Captain and on 25-09-1934, he was appointed head of the department.

On 01-09-1935, Förste was promoted to Sea Captain and on 29-0-9-1937, he was appointed commander of the light cruiser Karlsruhe. On May 21-05-1938, he became commander of the battleship Gneisenau.   The Gneisenau on 08 December 1936, was launched. General Werner von Fritsch makes the christening speech and then the ship is christened by Frau Maerker, the widow of Captain Julius Maerker, Commander of the armoured cruiser Gneisenau sunk in World War I.

Gneisenau remained unused in Gotenhafen until the end of the war. As the Red Army advanced on the city, the remaining crew took the ship out to the entrance of the harbor and sank the vessel as a blockship on 27-03-1945. In 1947, the Polish government ordered the ship be removed, and initial salvage operations began. The ship was sealed and refloated on 12-09-1951 then completely scrapped, though it is believed that some of her steel was used in the construction of Polish merchant vessels. She was the largest ship raised at the time. Norway offered to return the turret from Trondheim in 1979, though the offer was declined. The gun turret was instead preserved as a museum in Norway.

Staff officer Förste remained on board until the start of the Second World War, was promoted to Rear Admiral on 01-11-1939 and was relieved shortly afterwards on 25–11-1939. He arrived at the Wilhelmshaven Naval Shipyard on 06-12-1939, where he was head of the Central Department and then Chief of Staff until 03-0-2-1941. In this role, he became Vice Admiral on 01-09-1941.

After the occupation of Greece, Förste was appointed Admiral Aegean on 27-09-1941. This was subordinate to the Naval Group Command South, which had been set up a few months earlier from the Naval Commander Greece. Förste took over the post from Vice Admiral Hans Hubertus Stosch  and was the second commander in this position. The Naval Group Command coordinated the joint deployment of the German and Italian naval forces, with the input of the Italian staff officers being granted only the character of suggestions in the complex structure of responsibilities. In fact, the deployment of the naval forces of the Axis powers was commanded solely by the head of the Naval Group Command South, Karl Georg Schuster. Shortly before Förste’s appointment, the 23rd U-boat Flotilla had been set up on Salamis, under the command of the experienced U-boat commander Fritz Frauenheim. In this sea area, however, Admiral Aegean was nominally in command. Frauenheim’s command of the 23rd U-boat Flotilla, which meant that he was directly subordinate to the Marine Group Command South, effectively gave him command of the German (and thus also the Italian) U-boats east of the Strait of Messina. This led to a grotesque equality with the considerably more senior and higher-ranking Förste, which prompted Admiral Schuster to complain on 16 October. As a result, Schuster was stripped of command of the German U-boats and given entirely to the leader of the U-boats in the Mediterranean, Victor Oehrn,

which Schuster greatly regretted. When the port facilities of the naval base in Saint-Nazaire were damaged by a British commando operation in March 1942, the Naval Command considered appointing a “permanent representative of the Navy.

Death and burial ground of Vizeadmiral Erich Förste.

Vizeadmiral Erich Förste and Konteradmiral Werner Lange in Greece. Lange succeeded Förste as Commanding Admiral Aegean in February 1943.

Erich Förste, who was married to Gerta, born Emsmann Förste (1893–1983) survived the war and died 11-02-1963 (aged 70) in Kiel, West Germany and is buried at the Nordfriedhof in Kiel. Westring, 24118 Kiel, Germany.

 

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