"The “Swan of the East”." Topic

"Germany may not be a country noted for seafaring swashbucklers a la Francis Drake or Henry Morgan, but it can lay claim to Karl von Muller, the commander of the light cruiser SMS Emden.

During the opening weeks of the First World War, Muller, his ship and its crew of 360 waged an astonishing piratical campaign through the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. The short-lived expedition left more than 30 Allied ships ablaze, ground British trade in the Far East to a standstill and terrorized the ports and sea lanes of more than a quarter of the Earth's surface.…"
Full article here
link

The movie.
YouTube link

Anyone had seen it?

Amicalement
Armand

Hi,

The movie was only 1 week in german cinemas… And only in the noon feature. Now it is blocked and will be shown directly in german tv end of the year and dvd release next year.

But no swachbucklers?
And what is about him?

Felix Graf von Luckner (born Dresden, Germany, 9 June 1881, died Malmö, Sweden, 13 April 1966) was a German nobleman, navy officer, author and noted sailor who earned the epithet Der Seeteufel (the Sea-Devil) – and his crew that of Die Piraten des Kaisers (the Emperor's Pirates) – for his exploits in command of the sailing commerce raider SMS Seeadler (Sea Eagle) in 1916–1917.
link

And him ?
Nikolaus Storzenbecher, or Klaus Störtebeker (c. 1360 in Wismar – 20 October 1401{1400} in Hamburg), was a leader and the best known representative of a companionship of privateers known as the Victual Brothers (German: Vitalienbrüder). The Victual Brothers (Latin "victualia") were originally hired during a war between Denmark and Sweden to fight the Danish and supply the besieged Swedish capital Stockholm with provisions. After the end of the war, the Victual Brothers continued to capture merchant vessels for their own account and named themselves "Likedeelers" (literally: equal sharers).

link

And all these guys????
link

Greetings and have fun

And let's not forget the pirate Hans Sprungfeld with his silver tongue, who once dueled George Washington:

link

Excuse me, just having fun.

You're right Rudi, there are many German cultural heros we in the US know nothing about, because of the language barrier. Enlighten us.

And these! link

But thanks for the link for the movie, I can only hope we get an English dubbed version one day. I often wargame Sydney vs. Emden. link

It's a rare to find a bit of WWI that was close to home for we antipodeans!

Many thanks for the data Rudi!.

Hope to see the movie as Get me Sennett had said.

Amicalement
Armand

The Cleveland State University library has a signed copy of Lowell Thomas's The Sea Devil's fo'c'sle (signed by Luckner, that is).

Very entertaining reading, by Joe!

Oh, hell yes! I'd take a Region 0-NTSC German language DVD; even though I don't sprachen sie. The teaser was enough!

I have a Kaiserliche Marine war ensign hanging in the basement.

Doug

During the opening weeks of the First World War, Muller, his ship and its crew of 360 waged an astonishing piratical campaign through the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Muller wasn't a "pirate." He was a legal naval combatant carrying out a legitimate campaign against the commerce of a legal belligerent power.

Jim

And here is the reply of the Military History Now editor to my comment:

True… I was exercising a bit of creative liberty to make the headline a bit more interesting. My apologies!

And my response to him:

But "creative liberties" shouldn't be used in a publication that labels itself military history. Such journalistic sensationalism only sullies the work of historians to educate the general public and preserve the historic accounts for our descendants.

Jim

Well said Jim!.

Amicalement
Armand

Thank you, Jim, for helping keep editors in check!

Dang that looks neat, wonder if there will be an english version