Admiral Graf Spee

This armor-plated ship, operating as a pri­vateer at the beginning of World War II, was named after Count Maximilian Graf von Spee, the commandant of the German East Asia squadron.

The Admiral Graf Spee, commissioned in 1936, was a so-called pocket battleship with a crew of 1,100 sailors. It was of light construction and equipped with modern location devices. From the beginning of the war, it operated very successfully against enemy merchant ships in the South At­lantic and Indian Ocean. Severely damaged during a sea battle with three British cruis­ers off the Rio de la Plata estuary, the Graf Spee succeeded in freeing itself, but it had to dock in the harbor of Montevideo, Chile. Diplomatic pressure from London forced the Admiral Graf Spee to leave the harbor shortly afterward. In view of the ship’s unfitness for battle and his assessment of the situation as hopeless, Commandant Captain Hans Langsdorff decided to scuttle the ship. On December 17, 1939, he per­mitted the crew to climb into lifeboats and gave the order to blow up the ship.

While the Admiral Graf Spee sank, over 1,000 German seamen crossed the Rio de la Plata and landed in Argentina. Langs- dorff had arranged this coup jointly with the German naval attache in Buenos Aires and a friendly shipping company, thus con­fronting neutral Argentina with a fait ac­compli. After leading the crew into safe in­ternment, Langsdorff shot himself. The commandant’s suicide greatly affected pub­lic opinion at the Rio de la Plata. It simul­taneously irritated and impressed the Ar­gentines, caused a wave of admiration even in circles not sympathetic to Germany, and led to the largest funeral since that of de­posed President Hipolito Yrigoyen: 100,000 Argentines joined Langsdorff’s fu­neral at the German section of Chacarita Cemetery.

Launching of the new German armored ship, Admiral Graf Spee, Wilhelmshaven, Germany, 1939. (Underwood & Underwood/Corbis)

The crew of the Admiral Graf Spee en­joyed extensive liberty, although they were officially interned. Argentina firmly re­jected British demands for extradition and even permitted the internees’ wearing of uniforms during liberty. Two hundred and eighty-five Speegrafen (Spee counts) mar­ried at the Rio de la Plata. Quite a number of crewmen managed to escape. Some of them reached Germany through the Soviet Union and rejoined the war as marines.

In response to Allied pressure, the in­ternees living at the Rio de la Plata were forcefully repatriated to Germany on Feb­ruary 16, 1946. However, as many as 500 returned to Argentina during the Peron era. United in the Kameradenkreis Admiral Graf Spee (Admiral Graf Spee circle of comrades) the former seamen still celebrate the day of their captain’s and savior’s death annually.

The sea battle at the Rio de la Plata and the scuttling of the ship was Ar­gentina’s only direct contact with World War II. This incident caused Argentines to view neutrality more positively than at the beginning of the war. In Germany, the honorable and courteous treatment of the German soldiers raised Argentina’s reputa­tion, so that after World War II, the La Plata Republic became a destination for many refugees.

The wreck of the Admiral Graf Spee re­mained where it had been scuttled. With the goal of establishing an Admiral Graf Spee Museum in Montevideo, the first at­tempts to raise it were made at the begin­ning of 2004.

Holger M. Meding

See also Argentina; Chile; World War I;

World War II

References and Further Reading

Lascano, Diego M. Historia en imdgenes del acorazado aleman Admiral Graf Spee. Buenos Aires: (Author’s edition) 1998.

Laurence, Ricardo E. Operativo Graf Spee: Uruguay, Diciembre 17 de 1939, Argentina, Febrero 16 de 1946. Rosario: (Author’s edition) 1996.

Rasenack, Friedrich Wilhelm. Panzerschiff Admiral Graf Spee. Hamburg: Koehler, 1999.