Cargo Submarine U-Deutschland Artifacts and Model

[STBaltimore]

Not only did we have a descendant of perhaps one of the oldest members of the U-DEUTSCHLAND'S crew (the captain himself) at the recent Paul Koenig 80th anniversary memorial observance at the Port of Baltimore, and a grandson of the youngest member of its crew (Ludwig Schwarzchild), we also had someone attend the observance who informs us that her grandfather was given one of those 'un-official' tours on-board U-DEUTSCHLAND by Captain Koenig himself. It seems that her grandfather owned a Baltimore restaurant where the undersea freighter crew were honored. She brought copies of autographed photos of the DEUTSCHLAND and indicated that she has more.

We also have been in contact with a descendant of the Tug THOMAS F. TIMMINS captain, Zach Cullison and those of a former British sailor who, in July of 1916, was aboard a warship which entered Chesapeake Bay one night looking for the merchant submersible, and, many years later settled in Baltimore.

the Honorable Helen Delich Bentley, who will be celebrating her 90th birthday on November 17th 2013, interviewed both Samuel 'Owen' Coleman, the Chesapeake Bay pilot who both brought U-DEUTSCHLAND up and then back out of Chesapeake Bay, and James M. Fesmire, the skipper of the tiny motor launch EFCO, who first spotted DEUTSCHLAND entering the Capes while on watch aboard the Tug TIMMINS.

Incidentally, October 9th is annually observed in the United States as German-American Day.

[STBaltimore]

Sorry for the broken link in post'g 765. Let's try this again using three different URL strings...

[QUOTE=STBaltimore;997029]I don't know how many here may have seen the U-DEUTSCHLAND cutaway illustration below but here goes... up periscope.

http://www.british-gazette.co.uk/wp-...eutschland.jpg

http://www.british-gazette.co.uk/wp-...eutschland.jpg

The British Gazette » Merchant shipping

Are you pinging yet?

[rogge16]

Steve: I can't wait to see what it is! I'll try holding onto my socks!

Luke

[rogge16]

Walt: They work! Thank you.

Luke

[drmessimer]

As a collector of Deutschland artifacts, I like to know as much about each piece as I can. The large paperweight Iron Cross is probably the most interesting and misrepresented of the Deutschland ballast items. If you hunt for information about this item online, you will get at least three or four different stories about who had it made, the purpose for which it was made, and who actually made it. Some of those stories have at least a modicum of fact, but none of them are 100% historically correct. This is the correct information about this ballast item.

While the Deutschland was in Baltimore, Captain Paul König arranged to donate an unspecified amount of the boat’s cast iron ballast to two wartime Charity organizations, one of which was the Baltimore Chapter of the Verein für das Deutschtum im Ausland (VDA). The Baltimore VDA operated a registered wartime charity headquartered in New York called the American Relief Committee for Widows and Orphans of the War in Germany. The Baltimore VDA was part of a worldwide organization that was headquartered in Berlin. The VDA exists in Germany today as the Verein für Kulturbeziehung im Ausland with headquarters in Sankt Augustin.

The Baltimore sculptor, Hans Schuler, designed the cross for the American Relief Committee for Widows and Orphans of the War in Germany under the auspices of the Baltimore VDA, and the Baltimore ironworks known as G. Krug and Son cast the crosses. The crosses were used to solicit donations to the American Relief Committee for Widows and Orphans of the War in Germany either through direct sales or by giving the crosses as gifts to potential big pockets donors.

The Baltimore VDA retained possession of the entire stock of crosses in Baltimore and functioned as the sales agent and distribution authority in the name of the Committee for the Aid of Widows and Orphans of the War in Germany. It was a straight forward and legitimate fund raising arrangement. After the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, the Baltimore VDA, fearing wartime reprisals and confiscation of the organization’s assets, hid the crosses for the duration. At some time between the end of the war and 1932, Paul König returned to Baltimore and took possession of the entire lot of crosses and took them back to Germany where he turned them over to the VDA chapter in Bremen, which used the crosses as member awards until sometime in WWII.

Another interesting feature is that the maker of the crosses, G. Krug and Son is the oldest Iron works factory in the United States and has been doing business in the same location since 1810. Dwight

Sources:
Petra Messbacher, Geschäftsfüherin VDA e.V., Sankt Augustin email, 25 September 2013
Patrick Cutter, Museum Director, G. Krug and Son, Baltimore, email 24 September 2013
Records of the Department of State, RG59, M367, 763.7114/2670, List of Alien Charitable Organizations, 22 April 1917
Urkunde, VDA an Friedrich Tanger, März 1937, Claas Stöckmeyer, Bremen

[STBaltimore]

Good work on the paper weight trail Dwight. I've been to the Krug operation a number of times, They have, in recent years, been honored by the German Society of Maryland. You and others here might be interested in seeing who this year's honoree is>

http://www.germansociety-md.com/banquet13.pdf

Baltimore remembers.

If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to pass your findings on to the GSM.

Danke,

[drmessimer]

STBaltimore: I have already given Cutter the information I had when I contaced him last month. I'll avoid throwing rocks at a poor dog, but I would rather let the him do his own records research. Thanks. Dwight

[STBaltimore]

Dwight,

Sorry to have jumped into the middle of what appears to have become a rather delicate un-pleasantry but I was actually referring to the Hans Schuler connection with the link I provided above.

Thought it would be a somewhat pleasant surprise to have you open the link to the German Society's site and find that the family of the U-DEUTSCHLAND iron cross coin designer was being honored at their banquet next month in Baltimore.

I do hope you will be mentioning Baltimore's own Samuel Owen Coleman as the U-DEUTSCHLAND'S Bay Pilot who was aboard the merchant freighter up and then back out of the Chesapeake during the Summer of 1916 in your 'revised' tome.

[big ned]

There's one of the ashtrays from the first page of this thread up for auction on the 24th October here in the U.K., lot 448 estimated at £30-£40 if anyone's interested here's a link.

https://www.easyliveauction.com/auct...ory=6BFA3798A4

Regards, Ned.

[drmessimer]

STBaltimore: I did visit the web site you posted and I agree that's an interesting piece of news. And Coleman's name does appera in Chapter 6, "Baltimore I: 9-17 July." Ned: Thanks for posting the link to the ashtray. Maybe one of the guys who is reading this thread will be interested in it. It's a good piece to have and is one that was not produced in large numbers, and I appreciate you taking the time to post that. Dwight