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Walter Lohmann

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For the German cyclist, see Walter Lohmann (cyclist).

Walter Lohmann (born 30 December 1878 in Bremen; died 29 April 1930 in Rome) was a German Reichsmarine officer with the rank of captain.[1] From 1920 to 1927 as commander of the Naval Transportion Division, Lohmann ran a secret rearmament and research program on behalf of the Ministry of the Reichswehr in an attempt to circumvent the Versailles restrictions. When his work was discovered in 1927, the scandal became known as the Lohmann affair in Germany and led to the resignation of Reichswehr Minister Otto Gessler in January 1928[2] and director of naval command Admiral Hans Zenker.[3]

Life[edit]

Lohmann was the youngest son of Johann Georg Lohmann (1830–1892), who was a director of the German shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd[4] and Clarissa Lohmann, née Frost (1838–1920), an English woman.[5] His older brother was Alfred Lohmann (born 1870), who was president of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce.[4]

Career[edit]

After attending school, Lohmann joined the Imperial Navy as a naval cadet on 7 April 1897. After his officer training, he was deployed to the Far East: first in 1903 to the gunboat SMS Tiger, and then from 1910 as company commander in the German colony of Tsingtau. With the outbreak of World War I, he was appointed to the rank of Korvettenkapitän I artillery officer aboard the dreadnought Prinzregent Luitpold where he worked as a non-combat logistics specialist.[6] In March 1918, he was transferred to the Imperial Naval Office (Reichsmarineamt), where he worked in the Navy Transport Division from December 1918.[5]

As a representative of the Sea Transport Department in the General Naval Office, Lohmann took part in the maritime armistice negotiations in 1919 in England.[7] He was still in England when the Kapp Putsch occurred on 13 March 1920, so his career was not compromised. When he returned, he was appointed commander of the Naval Transport Division (BS) on 28 October 1920.

He was also on very good terms with Chief of Naval Headquarters, Admiral Paul Behncke and this further consolidated his position, receiving significant promotion of himself and the field of work.[7] At the time, Behncke required an overview of the merchant marine as he believed it still had a role even under the Treaty of Versailles.[8] Behncke Lohmann Lohnmann to the Ministry for Reconstruction on 21 December 1920 with a request that he attend all meetings where commercial shipping was discussed.[7] In May 1921, Lohmann managed to secure some shipping that had been seized by the British and used for prisoner of war transports that were returned to their former owners, which raised his reputation amongst his colleagues considerably and set a precedent for future purchases.[9] In late 1921, he visited Leningrad to reach an agreement for the release of German shipping that were still considered seaworthy.[10][6] A further visit followed in May 1922, with a delegation to complete negotiations with the Russian Admiralty[6] with Leon Trotsky and foreign minister Georgy Chicherin.[11] While there, he met the German ambassador Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau.[11] During his visits, he became aquainted with Else Ektimov, a Russian women of German descent and arranged for her to return to Germany.[10]

Lohmanns rearmament concept[edit]

At the time there were two prevailing views in German Naval Command. The official strategy developed and advanced by the Chief of the Fleet Department Wilfried von Loewenfeld [de] and supported by Admiral Hans Zenker was to build Deutschland-class cruisers, unofficially known as "pocket battleships" by the British and officially called armoured ships in Naval Command, that were officially in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Versailles treaty.[12] These diesel driven ships were lightly armoured but heavily armed with six 11-inch guns and were to be fast with a range that exceeded any other cruiser or capital ship.[12] In this way, Loewenfeld and Zenker hoped to tie up French navy in support of their merchant fleet in the Atlantic, while keeping the sea lanes clear in the north of Scotland to ensure it wouldn't be subject to any further naval blockades.[12] It also had the added benefit of what was known as "Bündnisfähigkeit" (alliance capability), i.e. should there be an alliance, the vessels would make a strong contribution to that alliance.[12] By technically staying inside terms of the treaty, they hoped to persuade the signatories of the treaty, Great Britain and the USA, France, Italy and Japan, accept Germany into the group of countries with a navy and thus abolish it.[11] Lohmann along with Rear Admiral Arno Spindler [de], Director of submarines advocated for a rapprochement with the Soviet Union as they believed it could provide prohibited war materials and at the same time, improve economic ties with Germany.[11] However Lohmann's views were rejected by Naval Command.[11] Although his views were not welcome, he had a remarkably free hand as the officer responsible for relations with Moscow.

The Occupation of the Ruhr beginning in 11 January 1923, failed to dent Lohmann's career.[9] The Reichsbank provided 100 million gold deutsche marks to the Reichswehr for the possible escalation of hostilities, which never occurred. At the end of the occupation, the monies were never returned, instead what remained was shared amongst the services. By that point Behncke trusted Lohmann completely and in early 1923, assigned the Reichsmarine's share of what constituted black funds, amounting to 10 million Reichsmarks for Lohmann to administer.[9] Other monies were collected by the Reichsmarine during that period by the sale of warships and submarines that were scrapped.[6] This raised the black funds to 25million marks.[10]

Black funds[edit]

When he received the funds, Lohmann began to gradually develop a plan under the title "Principle of Reconstruction", to both finance and secure prohibited war materials, believing he could count on receiving further funding totaling 40-50million marks in the future. Until that time, Lohmann planned to finance the plan by seeking private business loans which he would use to create businesses whose income would fund the expansion.[13] The businesses would be structured in such in a manner to build trust abroad, populate the supply chain correctly and at the same time, provide intelligence of the capabilities of foreign industry. The plan was split into two categories; surface vessels that were required and subsurface vessels i.e U-boats required.[13] For each individual type of craft, code words and sentences were used in identifying the vessel types, to hide their existence, e.g. U-boats were classed as "auxiliary vehicles under the water".[14]

Secrecy[edit]

To maintain the strictest secrecy in financing, when a particular project was started, only the defence minister and the finance minister were informed verbally of the details and nature of the loan. No paper trail was created. Then the department head would be informed and they would be responsible for signing the loan agreement and ensuring any legal details were correctly dealt with.[14] Once the loan was secured, the repayment details were hidden in the naval budget, under a category in a manner that couldn't easily monitored or audited.[15]


Lohmann's position involved executing procedures for the repatriation of German warships and the repatriation of German prisoners of war. His access to naval offices in Königsberg, Lübeck, Stettin, Hamburg, and Bremen gave him access to very specialized information and financial resources. He used this knowledge in his work in a way that was far beyond his authority and technical competence. Favoured by the interests of Behncke, it led to uncontrolled scope for legal violations, criminal activity and high-handed action by individuals developed within the Maritime Transport Department, over the next three years.[citation needed]

Death[edit]

During a business trip to Italy, Lohmann died of a heart attack in Rome on 29 April 1930, at the age of 52.[16]

Archives[edit]

  • "Newspaper articles about Walter Lohmann". Hamburg World Economic Archive (in German). Hamburg: Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft (ZBW). Retrieved 18 September 2023.

Citations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Otto Geßler 1875-1955" (in German). Deutsches Historisches Museum. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  2. ^ Bird 1977, p. 180.
  3. ^ Remmele 1997, p. 314.
  4. ^ a b Remmele 1997, p. 315.
  5. ^ a b Stoelzel 1930, p. 166.
  6. ^ a b c d Belote 1993, p. A32.
  7. ^ a b c Remmele 1997, p. 316.
  8. ^ Hillman 2013, p. 138.
  9. ^ a b c Remmele 1997, p. 317.
  10. ^ a b c Johnson 2021, p. 102.
  11. ^ a b c d e Remmele 1997, p. 323.
  12. ^ a b c d Ruge 1955, p. 642.
  13. ^ a b Remmele 1997, p. 324.
  14. ^ a b Remmele 1997, p. 325.
  15. ^ Remmele 1997, p. 326.
  16. ^ "Kapitän Lohmann gestorben : Der Stinnes des Reichswehrministeriums" (in German). Berlin: Social Democratic Party of Germany. Vorwärts. 2 May 1930. Retrieved 20 October 2023.

Bibliography[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Budraß, Lutz (1998). Flugzeugindustrie und Luftrüstung in Deutschland 1918 - 1945 [Aircraft Industry and Air Armament in Germany 1918 - 194]. Schriften des Bundesarchivs (in German). Vol. 50. Düsseldorf: Droste. ISBN 9783770016044.
  • Remmele, Bernd (1997). Die Lohmann Affäre. Geheime Rüstungsmaßnahmen der Reichsmarine in den Zwanziger Jahren [The Lohmann Affair. Secret Armament Measures of the Reichsmarine in the Twenties] (MA thesis) (in German). Freiburg: University of Freiburg.
  • Stöckel, Kurt (1954). Die Entwicklung der Reichsmarine nach dem ersten Weltkriege <1919-1935> Äußerer Aufbau u. innere Struktur [The Development of the Reichsmarine after the First World War (1919-1935) - External Structure and Internal Structure] (Phd thesis) (in German). Gottigen: University of Göttingen.
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