41 Facts About Ernst Lindemann

Otto Ernst Lindemann was a German Kapitan zur See.

Ernst Lindemann was the only commander of the battleship Bismarck during its eight months of service in World War II.

Ernst Lindemann was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, at the time the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany.

Otto Ernst Lindemann was born on 28 March 1894 in Altenkirchen in the Westerwald, Rhine Province.

Ernst Lindemann was the first of three children of Dr jur.

Otto Ernst Lindemann was baptised into the Protestant Church on 26 April 1894.

At a family reunion in Hamelin, Ernst Lindemann talked with his uncle and heard of his seafaring adventures in the Far East.

Ernst Lindemann graduated from the Bismarck-Gymnasium in Berlin-Wilmersdorf with his Abitur late in 1912 with an average-to-good overall rating.

Ernst Lindemann met Charlotte Weil, a Berlin singer, in the spring of 1920.

Ernst Lindemann was engaged again on 20 July 1933 to his youngest brother's sister-in-law, Hildegard Burchard.

On 26 March 1913, Ernst Lindemann traveled with his parents to Flensburg for his medical examination at the Naval Academy at Murwik.

Ernst Lindemann was officially enlisted in the Imperial Navy as a on 1 April 1913.

Ernst Lindemann was assigned to Hertha with 71 of his comrades.

Ernst Lindemann was promoted to Fahnrich zur See on 3 April 1914.

Ernst Lindemann left Lothringen on 1 June 1915 to attend the wireless telegraphy school at Murwik.

Ernst Lindemann successfully completed the course and returned from it in July 1915.

Ernst Lindemann then took over the position of 2nd wireless telegraphy officer, a position that fellow officers joked suited his abnormally large ears.

Ernst Lindemann was promoted to Leutnant zur See on 18 September 1915.

Ernst Lindemann's crew had been largely assigned from Lothringen, which continued to serve as a training ship.

Bayern arrived there on 23 November 1918 with a skeleton crew of only 175 men, including Ernst Lindemann, who was then ordered to return to Germany, arriving in Kiel on 12 January.

When Ernst Lindemann returned to Germany, it was uncertain whether he could remain on active military service.

Ernst Lindemann served temporarily in the Dahlem Protection Company a part of the Protection Regiment of Greater Berlin, before he became adjutant to the newly created chief of the Naval Command Department, at the time under the command of William Michaelis.

Ernst Lindemann's commanding officer was Korvettenkapitan Otto Schultze, a former World War I U-boat commander and later Generaladmiral of the Kriegsmarine.

Between 22 September 1931 and 22 September 1934, Ernst Lindemann was a senior lecturer at the Naval Gunnery School in Kiel.

Ernst Lindemann was then posted to the Hessen under the command of Captain Hermann Boehm and served as first gunnery officer from 23 September 1933 to 8 April 1934.

Ernst Lindemann was promoted to Korvettenkapitan on 1 April 1932.

On 30 September 1939, one month after the outbreak of World War II, Ernst Lindemann succeeded Captain Heinrich Woldag as commander of the Naval Gunnery School in Wik in Kiel, after Woldag took command of the heavy cruiser Blucher.

Ernst Lindemann's doubts suggest that he was confident the war would end in a favourable outcome for Germany by mid-1940.

Ernst Lindemann made Von Mullenheim-Rechberg his personal adjutant and instructed him to refer to the ship as "he" rather than "she"; Ernst Lindemann considered the ship too powerful to be referred to as a female.

Ernst Lindemann showed a great deal of attachment to the ship and was respected by his crew.

Ernst Lindemann spent his leave with his wife and daughter and returned on 1 January 1941.

Ernst Lindemann notified Naval High Command, Naval Groups North and West and Fleet Command that Bismarck was ready for action.

Ernst Lindemann openly disagreed with Hitler, expressing his opinion that the possibility of the United States entering the war could not be ruled out.

The alarm was sounded and Ernst Lindemann announced at 20:30 over the intercom: "".

Ernst Lindemann's body was never recovered, and it is thought that he, Lutjens and other officers were probably killed in action when shellfire from the British warships landed on Bismarcks bridge at 09:02.

Ernst Lindemann was said to be with his combat messenger, a leading seaman, and apparently trying to persuade his messenger to save himself.

Ernst Lindemann continued his salute while clinging to the flagmast, going under with the ship.

Shortly after Christmas on 27 December 1941, exactly seven months after the sinking of Bismarck and the death of its commander, Captain Ernst Lindemann received a posthumous Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

Ernst Lindemann received this high award because the Oberkommando der Marine felt that his skilled leadership significantly contributed to the destruction of the British battlecruiser Hood and the damage inflicted on the British battleship Prince of Wales.

Ernst Lindemann was the 94th recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in the Kriegsmarine.

Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, with whom Ernst Lindemann shared a 20-year comradeship dating to the early days of the, presented the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross to Mrs Ernst Lindemann on Tuesday, 6 January 1942, in Dahlem.