Devil or Humanitarian ?

COUNT FELIX GRAF VON LUCKNER

(1881-1966)

"THE SEA DEVIL"

WW 1 IMPERIAL GERMAN NAVAL OFFICER

Count Felix von Luckner known as the Sea Devil, captained Seeadler, a sailing vessel carrying an auxiliary engine, and fitted out as an Armed Merchant Raider in World War 1. He was a dashing character with a great imagination, who fought his enemy both with flair and fairness. He claimed never to have harmed anyone purposely.

Swashbuckling, flamboyant German hero of WW1 known as the "Sea Devil." As captain of a marauding schooner named "Seeadler," (Sea Eagle) he sank fourteen ships with a loss to the Allies of over twenty five million dollars, though he made certain that no lives were lost. Captured in December, 1917 in New Zealand, he spent the remainder of the war in various prison camps until he was repatriated to Germany in 1919. During WW11, Von Luckner, a long time resident of Halle, was considered a self-styled Nazi hater. In April 1945, with the American's ready to capture and possibly destroy the City of Halle, Germany, Count Von Luckner, acting as an emissary, attempted to negotiate the surrender of the German garrison led by the City of Halle military commanders, Major General Fritz De Witt and Lt. General Radtke of the German 12th Army to Major General Terry Allen's U.S. 104th Infantry Division. (Timberwolf Division) The great industrial city, which was full of Allied and Axis wounded in many hospitals, was not destroyed.

In 1945, Halle was the tenth largest city in Germany, and the birth place of the famous composer George Frideric Handel. (1685-1759) When Hitler came to power in 1933, Halle became a center of Nazi organization. Even after the 500th bombing mission the city was mostly undamaged by allied bombing. Because of Count Von Luckner's intervention, the German Army withdrew to the southern portion of the city and surrendered a few days later after a few battle skirmishes, there-by saving many lives and important German monuments and buildings.