part of the handle is also decoratedwith the colored face of a sailor wear-ing a dark blue cap. The rear side ofthe stein has a roster behind the han-dle on which only two names are in-

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Now, finally, one of the always sus-pected, but thus far never seen, sub-marine steins has “surfaced” (Pictures1,2,3,4,5).

It is a 14.6 inch tall 1 Liter pottery steinwith a slightly raised decorative framearound the center motif. It is made upof two standing sailors with the left oneholding up the Imperial War Flag andthe one on the right waving his cap insalute. In the middle between the twosailors a surfaced submarine (withoutbow number) is depicted and under-neath an agglomeration of navy gear,such as a gun barrel, two artilleryshells, an anchor, a paddle and a drumare shown.

The left lateral view of the stein showsa sailor walking with his girl friend andthe writing below says “In der Heimat”(In the homeland). Further below abandeau carries the inscription “ ZurErinnerung an meine Dienstzeit” (In re-membrance of my service time), whichis only completed below the scene inthe right lateral view by “an Bord d. 2.Unterseeb.-Halbflotille 11/14 (aboardthe 2nd submarine half-flotilla (1911 -1914). The right lateral view shows abarroom with two sailors seated at atable. A large beer barrel has been puton the table from which an apron-cladbarmaid is just tapping some freshbeer. This “scene of celebration” iscrowned with the well-known slogan“Brüder, stoßt die Gläser an, es lebeder Reservemann” which translates to:“Brothers, clank the beer glasses, longlive the reservists.”

The stein has a tall domed pewter lidthe finial of which is again a standingsailor who is holding a painted ImperialWar Flag near his head (Picture 6). The

conical lid dome is decorated with thescene of a naval battle in slight relief.The thumblift finial is an imperial eaglesitting on a ball with a “blind” Stanhopelens inerted in the ball roost. The upper

The First Known Submarine Reservist Stein

1, 2, 3

4 5

By Günther Kij and Peter Meinlschmidt

reservists

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were permitted to visit

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and to build up a submarine fleet

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Page 30 Prosit, March 2019

reservists

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and to build up a submarine fleet

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behind the han-

d which only two names are in-

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In the middle between the two

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11/14 (

from which an apron-clad

b is

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which is again a standing

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only two names are inscribed, one ofwhich being Reservist Kröhn (Pictures6, 7, 8).

The 7 cm high stein base has five cir-cular (slightly flattened at the bottom)medallions with incised reservistscenes wrapped around the entirebase. These scenes have inscriptions(starting from the center) such as “Bockreiss aus” (billy goat get running), “Jetztist uns´re Dienstzeit aus” (now, ourservice time is over), “Mutter mach dieTüre offen” (Mother, open the door),“So ist der Dienst schön” (service isnice like this) and “Hoch lebe der Re-servemann” (Long live the reservist).The picture medallions are separatedby two gold-colored oak leaf twigs,each.

The original owner´s name is written inthe center of the bottom side of thebase, i.e. “Reservist Kröhn”. Also to benoted is a thick vermillion final strokedrawn around the base. The undersideof the stein base has the mold number“6190” incised. This type of stein, eventhough being a late dated stein, hasonly two lateral views.

Note: The described type of stein, ofwhich additional navy related varietiesare known, has exclusively been usedfor Navy steins (see the sailors de-picted in the incised scenes). Further-more, other variants (with different lidtypes) are known which only differ by adark blue “final stroke” around the bot-tom of the base instead of a vermillionone. The stein manufacturer is notknown.

As a point of interest, the stein only car-ries the inscription of the navy unit, i.e.the “2.Unter-seeboots-Halbflotille” (2ndSubmarine Half-Flotilla) but does notindicate a specific submarine on whichthe stein owner may have served. Thismay be associated with security regu-lations at the beginning of WW I. Thememoirs of one submarine com-mander show his writing that no out-siders, except those that had the rankof an admiral, were permitted to visit

and inspect a submarine.

The evolutionary history of the subma-rine in Germany and in other countriescan be seen in the internet or in relatedbooks. Here, it should suffice to saythat the German Imperial Navy(Kaiserliche Marine) funded the con-struction of submarines (Uboot in Ger-man) and to build up a submarine fleetstarting in 1905 with the first fully oper-ational submarine U-1 being commis-sioned on 14 December 1906. Threemen were instrumental in this; Empe-rior Wilhelm II Commander in Chief ofthe German Imperial Navy (Picture 9),Grand Admiral von TRipitz, the creatorand organizer of the German Navy(1897-1917, Picture 10) and Fregat-tenkapitan (Commander) HermanBauer, Captain of the German subma-rine forces (Picture 11).

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9

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Prosit, March 2019 Page 31

scribed, one of which being ReservistKröhn (Pictures 7, 8).

The 7 cm high stein base has five cir-cular (slightly flattened at the bottom)medallions with incised reservistscenes wrapped around the entirebase. These scenes have inscriptions(starting from the center) such as “Bockreiss aus” (billy goat get running), “Jetztist uns´re Dienstzeit aus” (now, ourservice time is over), “Mutter mach dieTüre offen” (Mother, open the door),“So ist der Dienst schön” (service isnice like this) and “Hoch lebe der Re-servemann” (Long live the reservist).The picture medallions are separatedby two gold-colored oak leaf twigs,each.

The original owner´s name is written inthe center of the bottom side of thebase, i.e. “Reservist Kröhn”. Also to benoted is a thick vermillion final strokedrawn around the base. The undersideof the stein base has the mold number“6190” incised. This type of stein, eventhough being a late dated stein, hasonly two lateral views.

Note: The described type of stein, ofwhich additional navy related varietiesare known, has exclusively been usedfor Navy steins (see the sailors de-picted in the incised scenes). Further-more, other variants (with different lidtypes) are known which only differ by adark blue “final stroke” around the bot-tom of the base instead of a vermillionone. The stein manufacturer is notknown.

As a point of interest, the stein only car-ries the inscription of the navy unit, i.e.the “2.Unter-seeboots-Halbflotille” (2ndSubmarine Half-Flotilla) but does notindicate a specific submarine on whichthe stein owner may have served. Thismay be associated with security regu-lations at the beginning of WW I. Thememoirs of one submarine com-mander indicate that no outsider belowthe rank of admiral was permitted tovisit and inspect a submarine.

The evolutionary history of the subma-rine in Germany and in other countriescan be seen in the internet or in relatedbooks. Here, it should suffice to saythat the German Imperial Navy(Kaiserliche Marine) funded the con-struction of submarines (Uboot in Ger-man) and to build up a submarine fleetstarting in 1905 with the first fully oper-ational submarine U-1 being commis-sioned on 14 December 1906. Threemen were instrumental in this; Empe-rior Wilhelm II Commander in Chief ofthe German Imperial Navy (Picture 9),Grand Admiral von TRipitz, the creatorand organizer of the German Navy(1897-1917, Picture 10) and Fregat-tenkapitan (Commander) HermanBauer, Captain of the German subma-rine forces (Picture 11).

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6

7

8

9

10

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It housedt Thisi

its location related to other

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as bathers

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The U-1 was 139 ft long, 12.5 ft wide,and had a crew of 12. It was propelledby two (400 HP) kerosene and twoelectric motors, could remain for 12hours at a maximum depth of 98.5 ft,could sail above water at a maximumspeed of 12.5 mph, and had a torpedotube from which three torpedoes couldbe launched. The SM U-1, HisMajesty´s Uboot, can still be seen inthe Deutsches Museum in Munich.

This first submarine was soon followedup by additionally built subs that weresequentially numbered and continu-ously technically improved.

With respect to the 2. Unterseeboots-Halbflotille indicated on the stein, itcould be learned that it consisted of theso-called “kerosene subs” U-11 (Pic-ture 12) through U 18, and was basedin (the isle of) Helgoland (Heligoland)in the North Sea at the beginning ofWW I. Due to Reservist Kröhn´s serv-ice time (1911-1914), he might haveserved aboard the submarines U-11(commissioned on 21 Sep 1910), U-12(commissioned on 13 Aug 1911) or U-16 (commissioned on 28 Dec 1911).Other submarines were commissionedat later dates.

Built by the wharf at Danzig, the U-11had a length 175 ft, width of 20 ft, max-imum diving depth of 164 ft, diving timewas 50-90 seconds, propelled by(1,000 HP) kerosene and electric mo-tors, speed above water was 16.4 mph,below water was 9.3 mph, armament:

two bow and two stern tor-pedo tubes, six torpedoes,one revolver gun and onetwo inch gun, crew: fourofficers, and 25 otherranks.

FINAL REMARKS

Germany entered WW I with a total of28 submarines distributed over fourhalf-flotillas. Starting from submarineU 19 diesel engines were used. Duringthe war years a total of 374 submarineswere deployed which undertook 3,274sorties in the course of 52 months. 178submarines were sunk by the enemywith 5,249 submariners getting killedwhich corresponds to nearly half thenumber of submarine crews (totalbeing 12,500). Even though the sub-marines did not change the outcome ofthe war, they nevertheless sunk a totalof 6,394 merchant ships and 100 war-ships and were dreaded by the enemy.Contrary to WW II, the subs were in-visible and undetectable during WW Iwhen submerged.

Instituted by Kaiser Wilhelm II on 1 Feb1918, every submariner who had takenpart in at least three offensive sorties

received an Imperial submarinebadge (Picture 13).

Returning once more to ReservistKröhn´s submarine stein, it is almostcertain that he would not have been re-leased into civilian life in 1914 butwould have had to serve for the dura-tion of WWI. As a point of interest, apassage of the German 1917 Fleet As-sociation Calendar reads with respectto “Careers in the Imperial Navy” that“submarine personnel must have ex-ceptionally good hearing abilities”. The-oretically, there should at least be a fewmore submarine steins around, but forunknown reasons this is not the case.It seems that submarine steins areeven rarer than the prized aviationsteins.

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Overview of the commission date and fateof the subs of the 2nd Submarine Half-Flotilla

Uboot # Commissioned Fate

U-11 21 Sep 1911 9 Dec 1914 total loss due to a mineU-12 13 Aug 1911 10 Mar 1915 rammed, 20 dead, 10 survivorsU-13 25 Apr 1912 12 Aug 1914 mine or accident, 25 deadU-14 24 Apr 1912 5 Jun 1915 sunk, 1 dead, 27 survivorsU-15 7 Jul 1915 9 Aug 1914 rammed, 23 deadU-16 28 Dec 1911 8 Feb 1919 sunk in transitU-17 3 Nov 1912 27 Jan 1919 scrapped in KielU-18 17 Nov 1912 23 Nov 1914 rammed, 1 dead, 22 survivors

While the other technical specifications remained roughly the same - the lengthof the sub was increased. Thus U-17 and U-18 were roughly 33 ft longer thanU-11.

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