Kaufmann, Karl.

Kaufmann, Karl, born 24-08-1893 in beautiful Kauben, am Rhein, entered the Naval as a Marine engineer with the II Shipyard Division. He came on board of the Cruiser “Thüringen”  and ended the war as Chief engineer of the submarine. With the beginning he was Department Chief in the Naval Personnel Office, OKM-until 23-11-1939. Successively he was the Commander of Naval School, Wesermünd, to 26-08-1942 and of the Naval School, Kiel , until 25-04-1945. Kaufmann here with Heinrich Himmler

  , last command was as Arsenal Commandant of the Kriegsmarine Arsenal Kiel and in Allied captivity on 11-08-1945,  In the five and a half years of the war, German shipyards built 1.156 U-boats, of which 784 were lost from enemy action or other causes. Their toll of enemy shipping was 2.603 merchant ships of over 13½ million tons, and 175 naval vessels of all types. In terms of human lives, 28.000 German U-boat crew of the total 40.900 men recruited into the service lost their lives and 5.000 were taken prisoners of war. Some 30.000 men of the allied merchant service died, in addition to an unknown number of Allied naval personnel. When the war ended, 156 U-boats surrendered, 221 were scuttled by their own crews and two escaped to Argentina.

Released on 26-02-1948, Kaufmann retired in Göttingen where he at the old age of  died, on 04-10-1975 and is buried with his wife Anne Lies, born Schmidt, who died age 83 on 25-10-1989 and his daughter Karin who died young age 20 on 21-10-1957, on the Nordfriedhof of Kiel and nearby the grave of the Admiral, Erich Raeder,

  General Admiral, Commander of Kriegsarsenal Kiel, Hermann Boehm, Chief of the Navy, General Admiral Walter Warzecha, Kapitän zur See, Chief of the 2^nd Räumbootflottille, Gerhard Kamptz.

 

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