Background
Gustav Bachmann was born at Cammin in Mecklenburg on July 13, 1860, the son of a gentleman farmer.
Gustav Bachmann was born at Cammin in Mecklenburg on July 13, 1860, the son of a gentleman farmer.
Bachmann entered the navy in 1877 and later saw service in Africa and Australia. Bachmann served as chief of staff of the East Asian Cruiser Squadron from 1901 to 1903, and in 1907 as rear admiral began a three-year stint as head of the Central Division of the Navy Office under Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. Bachmann commanded the High Sea Fleet's Scouting Forces in the grade of vice admiral from 1910 to 1913.
The outbreak of the war found Bachmann as chief of the Baltic Sea naval station at Kiel. However, on February 2, 1915, he was appointed chief of the Admiralty Staff, and one month later promoted admiral. A compromise candidate for the Admiralty, he was not known to possess a particularly strong personality; in fact, Tirpitz worked well with "the amiable, always complaisant Bachmann." Bachmann sought to obtain greater operative freedom for the fleet in both the North and Baltic seas, but Kaiser Wilhelm II instead counseled restraint and caution. But the major issue confronting Bachmann was that of unrestricted submarine warfare. Initially only a reluctant bystander, Bachmann under the influence of Tirpitz quickly came to accept the U-boat campaign as the only means available to Germany to force Britain to the peace table and he loyally supported Tirpitz in this endeavor against Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg. Not even a sharp protest note by the United States on May 15 after the sinking of the liners Arabic and Lusitania could deter the chief of the Admiralty Staff from this course. And when the Kaiser sought to assuage the Americans by reverting to submarine warfare according to prize rules, both Tirpitz and Bachmann submitted their resignations on June 7, 1915. Wilhelm II accepted Bachmann's letter on September 3, noting that the two admirals had initiated "downright military conspiracy."
From September 1915 to October 1918, Bachmann returned to his position as head of the Kiel naval station. In the wake of the fleet revolts in the summer of 1917 he demanded energetic measures against the Independent Socialists (USPD) as well as patriotic instruction for the sailors. In vain Bachmann informed the naval command of the low morale in the ranks in October 1918, the very month in which the new Supreme Command under Admiral Reinhard Scheer retired him. Bachmann died in Kiel on August 30, 1943.