Three Sons for the Kaiser: A German Family’s Sacrifice in the First World War

296 pages

Mike Farquharson-Roberts PhD (Mar Hist)

“Their sons, they gave, their immortality”[1]

What is widely regarded as the best war film of the Second World War Saving Private Ryan recounts the efforts made to extract the eponymous private from D Day action because his three brothers had already been killed. In reality, there were many instances of siblings dying in action. A quick Google search records four Borgstrom brothers killed over a six month period in 1944, three von Blucher brothers killed on the same day during the invasion of Crete, the five Sullivan brothers lost in the same ship in 1942, and three Rogers brothers lost in the same ship just weeks after the Sullivans.

This book recounts the history of the Gercke family, the father a naval officer, who was to outlive his three sons; all were killed in the First World War. It is a well written and very readable account of a German family and the lives and deaths of three young German officers based on primary sources, letters and personal accounts.

The father, Philipp, had a distinguished early career, serving in and subsequently commanding the Royal yacht, the SMY Hohenzollern and becoming friends with the Kaiser. He apparently regularly played cards with him, winning so often that in the 1920s he was to total up his outstanding IOUs from the Kaiser! However, his career came to a juddering halt, partly because he was found to be red/green colour blind but more because he was an alcoholic; the author quotes from a blunt report by a superior. He continued to serve, even being entrusted with an intelligence mission concerning the outbreak of the war and through the war. His son Hermann followed him into the navy and married an English woman, the author is his granddaughter. One of his other sons, Waldemar, became an engineer, and Georg was a talented artist just beginning to make his name at the outbreak of war.

The book recounts how Waldemar and Georg came to be army officers on or close to the outbreak of war, and follows them through early campaigns, including woundings, to their eventual deaths. Also covered are episodes of incompetent leadership, unpreparedness and atrocities against civilians.

Hermann outlived his brothers by a couple of years, serving at sea mainly in the Baltic and ashore in staff positions. He commenced U boat training but was temporarily withdrawn in 1917 because of his knowledge and experience of the Baltic theatre to participate in Operation ALBION. Despite never having conducted an amphibious operation before, the Navy and the army combined to conduct a superb landing and follow up land campaign.[2]  Hermann, returning to submarines was to die captaining a U 154 in the eastern Atlantic.

There is significant discussion of the background to the events, social and political, of the pre-war years. This extends into the war, in particular the doings of Room 40 tracking Hermann to his demise are fascinating. However, the further the author moves from the front line, errors of fact and perception creep in. This is most evident at sea (at one point she mixes up port and starboard p.43), battleships were built of steel long before the Second World War, and few navies had ‘ironclads’ in front line service in the 20th century. While her opinions on the land events are apposite, some of the pronouncements on naval tactics and operations are less so.

The account of the last years of their father is brief. He outlived his sons by many years consoled by his daughter. His daughter in law, Hermann’s widow, moved back to England.

This book is strongly recommended as useful (and emotional) background to the First World War from the German side, providing some interesting details.

[1] (Sub Lieutenant) Rupert Brooke (RNVR), 1914 and other poems (Sidgwick & Jackson, London: 1915) p.13.

[2] R. Foley in Amphibious Assault: Manoeuvre from the Sea, Ed TTA Lovering, Crown Copyright 2005, pp23-36.