Korvettenkapitän Karl Thurmann: ein kaum bekannter elitärer Stolperstein in der Geschichte der U-Boot-Waffe unter dem Hakenkreuz

Abstract

Corvette captain Karl Thurmann (4th September 1909 - 28th January 1943) is one of the less well-known submarine commanders of World War II. His name does not often appear in scientific and popular treatises about submarine warfare. It was existing photographs that prompted the author to investigate further. Here not only Thurmann's career but also his missions as the commander of U 553, a submarine of the type VII C, are investigated. Herzog also emphasizes the personal relationship between Thurmann and his friend Werner Hartenstein, who was likewise a submarine commander and famed for the so-called »LACONIA Affair.« Herzog focuses, however, on the characterization of Karl Thurmann and the verdict imposed on him by the author Lothar-Günther Buchheim, who got to know Thurmann during his career as a war correspondent, in the form of the fictitious Lieutenant Commander Trumann in his novel "Das Boot," portraying him as a self-opinionated, unconventional individual. The article is a careful attempt to portray the real Thurmann - who is assumed to have died in the Atlantic on 28th January 1943 along with his entire crew of the U-553 - in what amounts to a balancing act between fact and fiction.