Friedrich von Hollmann


Friedrich von Hollmann was an Admiral of the German Imperial Navy and Secretary of the German Imperial Naval Office under Emperor Wilhelm II.

Naval career

Hollmann was born in Berlin, Germany. He entered the Prussian Navy in 1857 and made his first trip as a cadet aboard the sailing training ships SMS Amazone, and. In 1859–1862 he took part in the Eulenburg expedition to the Far East along with Karl Eduard Heusner, whom he would follow years later as Secretary of the German Imperial Naval Office.
In 1863 he was appointed to the Central Division of the Prussian Navy Department.
During the Second Schleswig War in 1864 he commanded the gunboat, and then served as a Lieutenant aboard the cadet school ship. From 1867 to 1869 he was assigned to the Naval Academy Mürwik in Kiel.
In the Franco-Prussian War in 1870–1871, Hollmann was a Kapitänleutnant, then served the expedition to North and South America aboard the screw frigate. During this voyage, he led a landing party ashore in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in a successful attempt to force the Haitian government to pay a debt owed to a German merchant.
Between 1874 and 1881, he returned to the Central Division of what was now the German Imperial Admiralty. During this period, he commanded the cadet ships and from 1876 to 1878, and then captained the academy frigate of the on its global tour from 1881 to 1883, the year the Krakatoa volcano erupted. On 20 May 1883 the German ship was stationed in the Sunda Strait, observing the ongoing eruption.
In 1886–1887, he was president of the Ship Examination Board and in the subsequent two years, Chief of Staff of the Admiralty. Now a konteradmiral, Hollmann commanded the squadron which accompanied the Kaiser and Kaiserin on their royal visit to Greece and Turkey from 1889 to 1890.
On 22 April 1890, Hollmann became a member of the Federal Council (Bundesrat of Germany\\

Later life

Hollmann was appointed a member of the Prussian House of Lords in 1904. In 1906 he became the President of the Institute for Testing of Aerodynamic Models of the Powered Airship Society and its successor company, the Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft, which dealt with the construction, development and distribution of airships, including for the navy.
On 27 January 1905, he was appointed to the Order of the Black Eagle.
He was one of the founders of the German Fleet Association.
After leaving the navy, Hollmann was a member of the supervisory board of the AEG, and later its chairman. He died in Berlin.