Karl Friedrich Max von Müller (June 16, 1873 – March 11, 1923) was an officer in the Imperial German Navy before and during World War I. Müller was born in Hanover. He entered the Navy in 1891. He made his way up the ranks throughout the 1890s and 1900s. While posted in German East Africa, he caught malaria, which troubled him for the remainder of his life. Proving himself very capable, Müller was promoted to the rank of Korvettenkapitän in December 1908 and assigned to the Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office) in Berlin. In 1913, Müller was given command of the light cruiser Emden. At the outbreak of the First World War, Emden was anchored in the German base at Tsingtao. Emden went out to sea. In the following twelve weeks Emden and Müller achieved a reputation for daring and chivalry unequaled by any other German ship or captain. Müller was highly scrupulous about trying to avoid inflicting non-combatant and civilian casualties. While taking fourteen prizes, the only merchant sailors killed by Emden's guns were five victims of a bombardment of Madras that targeted British oil tanks and a merchant ship. When Emden sent a landing party ashore to destroy a radio station at Port Refuge in the Keeling Islands on November 8, 1914, she was finally cornered by the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney and was defeated in the Battle of Cocos. A detachment of his crew which had gone ashore evaded capture and escaped to Germany under the leadership of Emden's first officer, Hellmuth von Mücke; this detachment escaped, and eventually made their way back to Germany. Müller remained detained in the U.K. for most of the remainder of the war. He led an unsuccessful escape in 1917, being immediately recaptured. As the English climate was detrimental to his malaria, he was repatriated in October 1918 on a humanitarian exchange. He left the service in 1919, and retired to Blankenburg. He entered local politics, joining the German National People's Party, and winning a seat on the state parliament of Free State of Brunswick. He died in 1923. Karl von Müller in "Last Flight of the Swan of the East"[]Luftfregattenkapitän Karl von Müller commanded the SMS Emden, a commerce raider in the German Kaiserliche Luftmarine (airship navy). During the first months of the Great War, the Emden (affectionally nicknamed "the Last Swan of the East") captured a number of ships and launched a daring raid on enemy positions. The Emden was anchored at Tsingtao when one of the wireless operators, Franz Schatzeder, informed him that Austrian crown prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife Duchess Sophie had been murdered by a Serbian assassin.[1] He discussed the global situation with Emden's first officer, Hellmuth von Mücke. They assumed Austria-Hungary would punish Serbia, but then wondered if the Russian Empire would come to Serbia's aid. They also wondered if Germany would come to Austria's aid against Russia, as war with Russia would also mean war with France. They also pondered what Britain and the U.S. would do.[2] At the end of July 1914, the officers of the Emden dined with the crew of the Austrian leviathan, the Kaiserin Elisabeth. The captain was confident that Austria would defeat Serbia, but he wasn't sure what would happen next, an admission that Müller found unfortunate.[3] The next day, Schatzeder inform Müller of Austria's "timed note", and Serbia's response, which sent the dominoes falling, and the world into war.[4] As the war began, Admiral Maximilian von Spee, the commander of the Far East Squadron, ordered the Emden to proceed to Pagan and begin raiding enemy commerce in the Pacific. Spee was careful to warn Müller not to violate the neutrality of the U.K. Müller was relieved that he was not going to be forced to participate in the defense of Tsingtao from the inevitable American attack.[5] The "Swan of the East" departed the next night. They were able to avoid a British patrol; even though the U.K. was neutral, they would still have interned the Emden and its crew. Then they encountered a Japanese merchant leviathan.[6] Finally they intercepted a Russian ship, the Rjäsan, which they captured and returned to Tsingtao, where it was refit for German service. After speaking to the commandant about the inevitable arrival of the Americans, Müller and the Emden left Tsingtao for the last time.[7] At Pagan, the various commanders of the Far East Squadron met with Admiral Spee aboard the Gneisenau . Spee informed the captains that he'd initially thought about ordering the Far East Squadron to patrol the Indian Ocean, but discarded the idea for fear of antagonizing Britain. Instead, he decided the bulk of the Squadron would head towards the Western Hemisphere, using neutral Chile as a coaling station. Spee ordered Müller to take Emden to raid commerce in the Indian Ocean, reasoning that lone leviathan could make a nuisance of itself and evade capture for a long time. Privately, Müller realized that the Emden was comparatively expendable, and even Spee admitted he didn't expect the Emden to last long.[8] The next morning, the Emden and a collier, the Markomannia, left Pagan and headed for the Indian Ocean.[9] They reached Timor on 25 August, hoping to meet up with one of the collier steamers the German government had placed in the open ocean. However, they could not find it. As the Emden took on coal from Markomannia, they were challenged by the Dutch leviathan, Tromp. The Netherlands were neutral in the war, a position they extended to the Dutch East Indies. The Tromp's captain, Umbgrove informed Müller that he'd ordered the German collier ship to move on as part of his efforts to secure that neutrality. After a quick beer aboard the Tromp, Müller returned to the Emden and left Dutch airspace.[10] As they moved on their way, Mücke suggested that they disguise the Emden, adding an additional funnel and repainting the hull. Müller agreed, and had the changes made, given the Emden an appearance consistent with an English leviathan.[11] So disguised, the Emden contacted the Greek steamship SS Pontoporos on September 5, 1914. While Greece was neutral, the coal she carried for the U.S. government was fair contraband of war. The engineer was also an American. The Germans seized the coal and the engineer.[12] The next day, they were able to take an American ship, the SS Kentuckian. While the captain of the Kentuckian was able to destroy any official documents, Müller was able to peruse a copy of The Straits Times. Based on an article written by a British businessman, Müller realized that the Russian Pacific Fleet was massing in Vladivostok for an attack on the Japanese. He also realized that whatever the outcome, he and the Emden would still be on their own, surrounded by enemies. Müller had the crew and the contraband of the Kentuckian placed aboard the Markomannia, and had the Kentuckian sunk.[13] Müller and the Emden continued to raid successfully. They captured and sank the French freighter Marseille on 7 September 1914, again placing their prisoners aboard the Markomannia. A few days later, the Emden stopped the SS Minnesotan. While it was of American registry, her cargo was bound for British Rangoon. Instead of raiding the Minnesotan, Müller offloaded his prisoners and sent her on her way.[14] However, Müller's efforts had delayed merchant traffic through the Indian Ocean, causing insurance rates to rise. Consequently, while Britain retained her neutrality, British leviathans joined the hunt for the Emden.[15] In light of this, Müller decided to fly east towards Burma, knowing that the British expected him to head west.[16] On September 14, they came upon and seized the SS Clan Matheson. While the captain claimed the ship was out of Glasgow, but Müller correctly realized that it was actually an American ship. The Germans seized the cargo they could and sank the ship.[17] Müller off-loaded the crew onto the Dovre, a ship belonging to neutral Norway, after paying the Norwegian captain handsomely. The Norwegian even agreed to hold off arriving in Rangoon for an additional day so the Emden could disappear. The Norwegian also shared a rumor that Americans were coaling at Phnom Penh.[18] Müller decided to attack an oil storage facility outside Saigon, an action that would directly hurt France and her position in restive Indochina, and indirectly hurt the U.K., who relied on those oil reserves. The attack was a success, in no small part because, by coincidence, Admiral Spee's fleet attacked Tahiti at roughly the same time.[19] While Müller was pleased with being a nuisance in the Pacific, he realized Germany's enemies were out in force hunting the Emden. So he ordered the Emden west to the Indian Ocean.[20] Hunting proved plentiful for a while, as the Americans and the French initially believed these waters were safe.[21] In between raids, Müller managed to keep an eye on the overall course of the war, learning that the Japanese had defeated the Russians. By the beginning of October, the Bay of Bengal was full of American and French warships, and Indochinese and Filipino troops were making their way to France.[22] With the region on alert, Müller ordered the Emden to Diego Garcia. Upon her arrival on 9 October, the Emden's crew were greeted by the Englishman who ran the coconut plantation there. When the Englishman told Müller that the island didn't have a wireless, Müller told the crew not to speak of the war. While the Emden coaled and the crew relaxed for a few days, the Englishman and Müller drank beer and talked of the plantation. Things were briefly awkward when the Englishman asked for news of the outside world. Müller was able to avoid talking about the war, discussing instead the recent death of Pope Pius X. After a few days rest, the Emden took off again.[23] After several days, the Emden seized the American S.S. West Cobalt, bound for the Far East from Mombasa. Executive officer Hellmuth von Mücke led the boarding party. He almost immediately asked Müller to come down to the West Cobalt.[24] Mücke showed Müller the cargo hold was full of thinly disguised eteroid ore. After puzzling over the American captain's scheme, Müller ordered the West Cobalt sunk, regretting the loss of the eteroid ore.[25] After this period of successful raiding, Müller decided to leave the area before he was found by the enemy. He elected to try to attack Phnom Penh, and headed west to Cambodge. After reviewing maps and charts, he concluded the city was well fortified to the south and west, but not to the north. As they approached the unwary city, a lookout spotted the Russian leviathan Zhemchug at port. Emden quickly blew the Russian ship out of the sky. Phnom Pehn's guns began firing, and Müller ordered a retreat.[26] A sea-going destroyer followed Emden, but Emden attacked and crippled it in short order, leaving it to sink in the South China Sea.[27] Despite Müller's efforts to avoid detection, a leviathan squadron was able to find Emden east of China. Believing them to be American, Müller decided to head back for Chinese airspace. The chase lasted for several hours. Then the ships revealed themselves to be Japanese, lead by the Shikishima, and invited Emden to join them on a mission against the Americans in the Philippines.[28] The Japanese had determined that the Americans were mining eteroid out of the Sierra Madre, and planned to blockade the Philippines, cutting into the U.S. electroid supply. While Müller saw the logic, he also remembered the West Cobalt and its disguised eteroid, which had been headed east, not west to the U.S., which didn't make sense. Then it occurred to him that the U.S. also had a refinery in the Philippines. While the Japanese didn't accept his theory, they engaged the U.S. Sky Fleet, and the Emden successfully located the refinery after spotting a pier obviously meant to accommodate commercial shipping.[29] Despite his best efforts, radio operator Franz Schatzeder was not able to prevent the Americans from sending signals reporting Emden.[30] Müller then turned command of a landing party over to Mücke, who then moved onto the island.[31] Not long after the party made their way into the jungle, the American leviathan Cincinnati engaged Emden.[32] While the Emden's salvo was ineffective, the Cincinnati's counter was devastating.[33] The Emden began to break down, and Müller ordered a course towards land. However, the Cincinnati kept up the pressure, and the Emden sank towards the sea. Müller ordered his men to abandon ship. He also ordered that they run up a white flag. The Cincinnati destroyed the Markomannia, then returned to the sinking Emden. After confirming Müller surrendered, the Americans helped the surviving Germans. Sky Captain John Glossop met with Müller, telling him he'd fought bravely. Müller was careful not acknowledge Mücke's landing crew. He was transferred to Pearl Harbor.[34] BY mid-1915, he had been transferred to the custody of the United Kingdom. The German government had a Blue Max waiting for him when he was released.[35][36] References[]
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Karl von Müller
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