Karl Eduard Heusner

Carl Eduard Heusner
Carl Eduard Heusner
Born	8 January 1843; Perl, Saarland
Died	27 February 1891 (aged 48); Weimar
Years of service	1857—1890
Rank	Vizeadmiral (char.)
Commands held	SMS Oldenburg; State Secretaries of the Naval Office;

Carl Eduard Heusner (8 January 1843 – 27 February 1891) was a Vice-Admiral of the

German Imperial Navy

(Kaiserliche Marine).

Heusner was born in

Mediterranean and the West Indies. In 1872 he did survey work in the Baltic Sea and in 1873 and was chairman of the Torpedo Examination Board or Torpedo Depot at Kiel-Friedrichsort where he and Otto von Diederichs worked on the Whitehead torpedo.^[1]

In 1877 he left the Torpedo Depot and was sent with Tirpitz to the Whitehead Torpedo works (Torpedo-Fabrik von Robert Whitehead) at

Fiume to further study the torpedo.^[2]

In 1878 to 1880 he was posted to South America to protect the interests of Germany during the War of the Pacific. Here he also supervised the observance of the neutrality laws. In 1882 Heusner was Chief (Dezernent) of Section A1 (Military Utilization of Ships/Militärische Verwendung der Schiffe) of the Admiralty's Military Department (Militärische Abteilung), which was headed by Eduard von Knorr. In March, von Knorr put him to develop 'Plan-O' for naval operations against Russia in case of war. His plan called for an attempt at a quick and decisive battle to cripple the Russian fleet, followed by the mining of ports and blockade by a screen of light warships.^[3] In 1883-87 he commanded the armored ships (Panzerschiffen) SMS Deutschland and SMS Oldenburg and then the squadrons off Australia and East Africa.

In 1888

Navy Department (Marineabteilung) in the Admiralty and promoted him to Rear Admiral. In April 1889 he became Secretary of the German Imperial Naval Office in the Cabinet of Otto von Bismarck. He stayed on when Bismarck was replaced as chancellor by Leo von Caprivi, but soon had to resign because of heart disease, turning the office over to Friedrich von Hollmann

.

He retired as a Vice Admiral, and died on 27 February 1891 in Weimar, Germany.

References

^ By order of the Kaiser, p. 48
^ By order of the Kaiser, p. 50
^ By order of the Kaiser, p. 89-90

Sources

By order of the Kaiser: Otto von Diederichs and the rise of the Imperial German Navy, 1865-1902 by Terrell D. Gottschall; Institute Press, 2003, 337 pages.
Hans H. Hildebrand; Ernest Harriot, eds. (1989). H-O. Vol. II. pp. 87–88. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)

[1] By order of the Kaiser, p. 48

[2] By order of the Kaiser, p. 50

[3] By order of the Kaiser, p. 89-90

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Chiefs of the Imperial Admiralty and State Secretaries of the Naval Office
Chiefs of the Imperial Admiralty (1872–1889)	Albrecht von Stosch Leo von Caprivi Alexander von Monts
State Secretaries of the Naval Office (1889–1919)	Karl Eduard Heusner Friedrich von Hollmann Alfred von Tirpitz Eduard von Capelle Paul Behncke Ernst Karl August Klemens von Mann Maximilian Rogge