Hans-Joachim von Mellenthin

[Igor Starikow]

Hello, Dear Friends! Happy New Year!

Please, help me again with the search Info about Kapit?nleutnant Hans-Joachim von Mellenthin (1887 - 1971) and may be Date of his promotions.

Ranks:

1.4.1906 Seekadett

?.?.1907 F?hnrich zur See

?.?.1909 Leutnant zur See

19.9.1912 Oberleutnant zur See

13.7.1916 Kapit?nleutnant

? Korvettenkapit?n

? Fregattenkapit?n

Decorations & Awards:

Prussia: Order "Pour le M?rite", 25 February 1918 <LI>Prussia: 1914 Iron Cross 2nd Class <LI>Prussia: 1914 Iron Cross 1st Class<LI>Prussia: Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, Knight's Cross with Swords<LI>Mecklenburg-Schwerin: Military Merit Cross 2nd Class

Does anyone have a complete list of his awards and decorations?

Does anyone have a better photo of this man?

Thanks

Igor

[Guest Rick Research]

Are you doing the entire Imperial German navy, one officer at a time? WHY?

As far as ALL 1914-1918 Pour le Merite winners-- there is a series of books still being published in Germany that gives their complete careers/promotions/assignments and birth/death information.

I do not have any of those-- but the information is ALL already readily available to anyone interested in "the Blue Max." I focus on more average mortals.

But there is no source that ever gives all officers' complete list of awards. Jubilee Medals are never listed, nor are the colonial campaign medals. Lists from the 1914-18 war do not show foreign awards at all. There was a small but very significant gap in reporting decorations between the last peacetime Rank List of 1914 and the reduced awards displayed in the next edition, 1916. A lot of those awards are shown in Willi Geile's

"Die im 'Milit?r-Wochenblatt' und im 'Marineverordnungsblatt' ver?ffentlichen preussischen und fremdstaatlichen (deutschen und ausserdeutschen) Ordensverleihungen an Offiziere der preussischen Armee und der kaiserliche Marine von 1914 bis 1918"

published by PHV Phaleritischer Verlag Michael Autengruber, Offenbach, 1997

(ISBN 3-932543-00-9)

but mostly what you obviously need and SHOULD have are RANK LISTS. These are expensive when they can be found at all, but our own Paul C has produced an EXCELLENT series of them (and is always working on more and more and more) on CDs which can be found at

<a href="http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2421...mp;#entry229507" target="_blank">http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2421...mp;#entry229507</a>

these can also be bought from Detlev Niemann in Hamburg, who carries these CDs in Europe.

The "most" complete awards lists can ONLY be found for officers who continued serving in the Reichsmarine after 1924, because their WARTIME awards and pre-war German-allies' awards are listed in Lists from 1924 to 1932. But even there-- pre-1914 awards from NON Central Powers countries are omitted, so you have to have the 1914 Rank List and Geile's book. Oddly, Finnish awards from 1918+ are NEVER shown at all--nor are ANY post-1918 peacetime awards from foreign countries (decorations awarded for ship visits to South America etc etc).

It thus becomes a hunt to chase down information from assignments, photographs, award rolls (we are still working on many of the German award rolls 1914-18 that have yet to be published), memoirs etc.

Admirals are easy, because their entire careers from birth to death can be found in the 4 volume "Deutschlands Admirale 1849-1945" series by Hans H. Hildebrand and Ernest Henriot, published by Biblio Verlag in Osnabr?ck between 1988 and 1996. These volumes are "expensive" but worth every single National Currency Unit to have available at your fingertips whenever needed. Unsold out of print copies can STILL be found for "like new" sale, from Helmut Weitze in Hamburg, for instance. These should be obtained NOW, before the final stocks run out and they suddenly become even more Rare & Out Of Print Books at a premium price.

Because you never say WHY you are always asking for information, to what ultimate purpose, I have no idea when--if ever--you will be able to complete whatever your task is. But with the amount of information that you are always asking for, you really DO need to obtain a solid, basic, and extensive "home library" that you can look ANYBODY up in, at any time. There is no "easy" way to do all this. There is no ONE book to Look Up Everything.

Rank Lists--and especially the editions of 1914 and the 1914-1918 Navy Honor Rank List--are essential to any German navy research library.

For the Second World War, the 3rd volume of Hildebrand's (yes, him again) epic work contains "Honor Rank List" style information on many recalled senior ranking officers

like (this time) von Mellenthin

(growing coffee in Columbia in 1963 according to that year's Naval Officers Association Directory)

but I do not have the WW2 Hildebrand volume 3.

I feel like all I am is a robot automatic database. Questions in--answers given. No "human" feedback.

Rank dates that I have on von Mellenthin =

F?hnrich zur See 6.4.07 A

Leutnant zS 30.9.09 (seniority unknown)

charakterisiert Korvettenkapit?n zS aD 31.7.22

The German Naval Archives preserves ALL Imperial Navy officer personnel files and has ALL awards, with dates...

but they do not release any information to the public. It must be a nice job, locking the doors behind oneself every day for decades and never doing anything (dusting the shelves? drinking coffee--a LOT of coffee? writing letters to annoying people that no, the archive never releases information from 1918?) until pension time. WE have to do THEIR jobs for them, as best we can.

[Paul C]

The time that it takes to continual ask for officer information gets to be extensive. One of the reason I put together a CD with the Imperial German ranklists was so that other collectors could have the information at their fingertips. The CD sells for only $75. I don't mean to be promoting my CD I just would like to see people get the information they need without continually causing others to dig up the information and type it out. I have gotten to the point where I do not provide officer information to someone who continually asks for career information and will not obtain the ranklists. My time, and the time of others, is too valuable to spend on requests for information that can be obtained through the ranklists.

[ccj]

The time that it takes to continual ask for officer information gets to be extensive. One of the reason I put together a CD with the Imperial German ranklists was so that other collectors could have the information at their fingertips. The CD sells for only $75. I don't mean to be promoting my CD I just would like to see people get the information they need without continually causing others to dig up the information and type it out. I have gotten to the point where I do not provide officer information to someone who continually asks for career information and will not obtain the ranklists. My time, and the time of others, is too valuable to spend on requests for information that can be obtained through the ranklists.

Intersting. I sent you a PM. What does one by having the CD? Ranklist list for what years and what format?

[Paul C]

Charles, you question requires a very long answer. In short ranklists were published ever year, except 1914-1918 except Navy, for Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria and Wurttemburg. The ranklists are a list of officers by regiment or assign and list a person awards and decoration. The awards listings are not all inclusive. The ranklists are the main source on German officers.

[Komtur]

As far as ALL 1914-1918 Pour le Merite winners-- there is a series of books still being published in Germany that gives their complete careers/promotions/assignments and birth/death information.

From the above mentioned book

[Komtur]

...

[Komtur]

...

[Guest Rick Research]

Perfect. That is EXACTLY

what Igor needs for all his specialized questions, for the gaps where we simply don't have all the answers. The PLM biography volumes DO.

[Igor Starikow]

Many Thanks for very interesting information! It`s the great help for me!

Thank you very much again!

Igor

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Gentleman,

I agree that's good research on this Pour le Merite U-boat commander. One thing that I'm puzzled though. For so many years,I knew this PLM man that named Hans von Mellenthin. This year of 2012 I found that he was named Hans-Joachim von Mellenthin. I wonder how this Hans-Joachim came about?

Sincerely,

Edward L. Hsiao

[Dave Danner]

Gentleman,

I agree that's good research on this Pour le Merite U-boat commander. One thing that I'm puzzled though. For so many years,I knew this PLM man that named Hans von Mellenthin. This year of 2012 I found that he was named Hans-Joachim von Mellenthin. I wonder how this Hans-Joachim came about?

Sincerely,

Edward L. Hsiao

Hans-Joachim was his given name. Actually, his full name was Hans-Joachim Wilhelm Ernst von Mellenthin. For some reason, even though double first names are really common in Germany, many sources drop one. Even the navy ranklists just use Hans, so maybe he often went by the shorter name. Oddly, for such a common name, he was the only Hans in the entire von Mellenthin family at the time, so maybe he didn't think he needed to use the "-Joachim".

His brother Kurt-Herbert Martin Hermann von Mellenthin is called Kurt-Herbert in the Ehrenrangliste, but just Kurt in the 1918 Rangliste.