Background
Langsdorff was born on 20 March 1894 in Bergen on the island of Rugen. He was the eldest son in a family with legal and religious traditions rather than a naval tradition.
Langsdorff was born on 20 March 1894 in Bergen on the island of Rugen. He was the eldest son in a family with legal and religious traditions rather than a naval tradition.
In 1898, the family moved to Düsseldorf, where they were neighbours of the family of Graf (Count) Maximilian von Spee, who was to become a German naval hero (while losing his life) at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914. Influenced by his honoured neighbours, Langsdorff entered the Kiel Naval Academy against his parents' wishes in 1912. During the First World War, the then-Lieutenant Langsdorff received the Iron Cross 2nd Class at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and subsequently worked on minesweepers for the rest of the war. He received the Iron Cross 1st Class sometime during the remainder of the war, but the exact date is unknown.
During the inter-war years, Langsdorff served in various roles including the Defense Ministry in Berlin and commanding a torpedo boat flotilla. After a few years in the Interior Ministry, he was posted to the new pocket battleship (later re-classified heavy cruiser) Admiral Graf Spee, named after his former neighbor in Düsseldorf. On 1 Jan 1937 he was promoted to the rank of captain and took over the command of Graf Spee. With him at the helm, Graf Spee successfully sank nine merchant ships in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean in the latter part of 1939, damaging Britain's ability to transport goods to and from her distant territories without any loss of German life.
His righteous upbringing made him a merciful conqueror of the sea: during the nine sinkings he spared every British life, placing every prisoner in his supply ship Altmark before sinking the beaten ships. His successful raids attracted over twenty Allied warships to hunt for him, and he was found by British Hunting Group G, under the command of Commodore Henry Harwood, at River Plate off South America. After a 90-minute battle with two light cruisers and a heavy cruiser, the British ships disengaged. Langsdorff, whose ship also sustained heavy damage, sailed for the neutral port of Montevideo. Requesting the port for two weeks' time for repairs, he was granted only 72 hours.
When the time was up, Graf Spee was still in no sailing shape, especially with a large British fleet that Langsdorff thought must be waiting for him outside the port. He berthed his sailors aboard German freighters at Montevideo, wrapped himself in the colors of Imperial Germany, not the Nazi swastika, gave the order to scuttle the ship, then committed suicide. His suicide note read "for a captain with a sense of honor, it goes without saying that his personal fate cannot be separated from that of his ship."
Langsdorff now rests in the German section of the La Chacarita Cemetery in Buenos Aires.
Hans Langsdorff's son, Joachim Langsdorff, also joined the German navy. He was killed while piloting a Biber midget submarine in December 1944. His craft was later recovered by the Royal Navy and is currently displayed at the Imperial War Museum in London.