Richard Stumpf


Richard Stumpf was Roman Catholic, a tinsmith and a member of a Christian trade union. From 1912 to 1918 he served in the High Seas Fleet of the German Imperial Navy. From just before the start of the First World War to its end, he wrote a personal war diary. Because the diary comprehensively represented the internal situation in the fleet from the perspective of a regular sailor, it has been documented in full length by the enquiry commission of the German Weimar Republic parliament in its investigation report.

Education, service in the Imperial Navy, memberships and war diary

Stumpf was born 20 February 1892 – according to another source 21 February 1892 – in Grafenberg and died 23 July 1958 in Heiligenstadt. He was a catholic tinsmith and a member of a Christian trade union, and he received the basic education of a worker. However, he was well-read and interested in many things. As a journeyman he had come as far as Veneto and South Tyrol. He constantly educated himself further.
From 1912 until November 1918 he served in the German Imperial Navy. Most of that time, i.e. from shortly before the outbreak of World War I in 1914 until March 1918 he was deployed on the from the I. Squadron, in the beginning as a seaman and later as seaman first class. In a diary entry from 1916, he noted that he still hadn’t managed to become a seaman first class due to always frankly stating his opinion. However, in March 1918 he mentioned that he had become a seaman first class by then; probably on the occasion of being transferred to SMS Wittelsbach.
Stumpf was a member of a Christian trade union and had joined the right-wing German Fatherland Party whilst still at war.
He wrote a war diary that spanned over six books, shedding light on the internal situation and especially on the relationship between officers and enlisted men. This is why the enquiry commission of the German Reichstag included the text in full length in its investigation report. Huck, Pieken und Rogg established an exhibition titled: "Die Flotte schläft im Hafen ein ", presenting Stumpf's notes alongside another diary. In the exhibition catalogue they explain that Stumpf's six notebooks cannot be regarded as diaries in a strict sense, but that the books contain transcripts, which have been written on the basis of lost diary records. The transcripts show several corrections in another handwriting that can be attributed to an editing for the publication in 1927. Stumpf was appointed special expert for the navy activities by the enquiry commission.

Diary content

Almost every day Stumpf noted down his experiences, observations and assessments in his war diary. He read several books, various newspapers and discussed the political and military developments in detail with his environment, which is reflected in corresponding thoughts and comments in his diary.
Initially Stumpf was conservative, and identified himself with the war aims of the Central Powers. He repeatedly described the general enthusiasm at the beginning of the war which was also shared by him. Soon, however, the perceived unfair treatment by the officers brought him to view the war from a different perspective. He repeatedly described that the "officer caste" would receive a high war allowance besides their already good salary, that they would live in abundance during the war, while the sailors would suffer great hardships. In addition, the officers would humiliate the crews, exert a senseless drill and would constantly invent new methods of bullying the crews.
Only during battles, such as in the Battle of Jutland, the sailors and stokers felt taken seriously and treated properly by the officers. However, there were but few of these battles, because the largely inflexible strategy of the German Navy was based on a misinterpretation of the English approach.
This catastrophic military-strategic planning, which centered on a large naval battle against England near Heligoland, found its reflection in Stumpf's diary when he noted: "We all had to realize gradually that even a victorious naval battle will not guarantee Germany access to the open sea." Arrogance accompanied by strategic inability caused Stumpf to wish that one day the officer caste could be forced to take on an honourable profession and perform a useful activity. The sailors wished to be able to pay back the officers the constant humiliations and harassments that these could perpetrate under the protection of the strict military discipline.
In Stumpf's final analysis, only the officers would have an interest in the continuation of the war, while soldiers and workers had to risk their lives and take great deprivations for the Junkers, "walking safes" and military aristocracy. The fact that soldiers and workers also had a democratic voting legislation denied, caused special bitterness for Stumpf. Around mid-1917 Stumpf wrote that the sailors wanted peace as quickly as possible, and the opinion would prevail that only the officers and war profiteers want to continue the war. In another entry he wrote that it was the officer caste that had driven Germany into the war.
When in February 1917, one morning a pamphlet of the left-wing party USPD appeared on board, this caused great excitement. Stumpf wrote that this leaflet contained along with much truth, a motley mixture of silly platitudes and phrases. Many sheets seem to have been handed over to the superiors, according to Stumpf's perception.
The unrest in the German Navy in the summer of 1917 also found its reflection in Stumpf's diary. He described the events in detail and then noted: "If, in the past, someone had told me that it would be possible for people to be sentenced to jail or executed in Germany without having committed a crime, I would have looked upon him as a fool."
In some text passages, Stumpf talks of the "Jew Liebknecht" when he means the member of parliament for the SPD and the later USPD- and KPD-member Karl Liebknecht. Conservative and right-wing extremist politicians, claimed that Liebknecht was a Jew, in order to exploit anti-Semitism against the leftist movement. This claim lacked any validity. Karl Liebknecht's family came from Saxony and had a Protestant-Christian background. Karl Liebknecht was born in 1871 in Leipzig and baptized as a Protestant in St. Thomas Church. A great-uncle of the father was a Protestant pastor. On the occasion of the unrest in the Navy in summer of 1917 Stumpf sees the labour leader in a different light: "Now I gradually realize why some people fight the military and its system with such determination. Poor Karl Liebknecht! How sorry I feel for you now!"
Stumpf also addressed once the commandment of the Bible, "Thou shalt not kill" and revealed some pacifistic tendencies, but time and again he expressed clearly conservative views when he ranted about the "perfidious Albion" or against France's rapacity, when he showed satisfaction that England had finally to sacrifice rivers of blood, and he wanted to combine the last forces for the defence of the fatherland. Stumpf's inner conflict is expressed among others in the following entry at the end of the diary: "... why did we have to have such criminal, conscienceless officers? It was they who deprived us of all our love for the Fatherland, our joy in our German existence, and our pride for our incomparable institutions. Even now my blood boils with anger whenever I think of the many injustices ."
At the end of the war Stumpf followed, albeit reluctantly, the red flag of revolution: "To the thunderous applause of the mob, the huge Imperial flag was lowered and the red flag of liberty, equality and fraternity rose up over the barracks. I could no longer resist and was swept along by the mass hysteria." But Stumpf's inner conflict was revealed again when the armistice conditions became known. He exclaims, "That's what you get for your god damn brotherhood of nations." But when the fleet had to be surrendered later, Stumpf expressed relief that these instruments of destruction disappeared from German waters.

Testimony before the enquiry commission of the German Weimar Republic parliament (Reichstag)

In one of the enquiry commission's hearings Stumpf had a discussion with Adolf von Trotha, who was Chief of Staff of the German Imperial High Seas Fleet at the end of the First World War. Trotha had primarily initiated the planned fleet attack against England. The advance was prepared without the knowledge and against the clearly expressed orders of the government. These intentions of the Navy command had led to the sailors' mutiny off Wilhelmshaven and the rebellion in Kiel.
Trotha tried to portray Stumpf's allegations as individual cases. Stumpf answered he still had the feeling that two different worlds were facing each other, separated by a Chinese wall. In preparation for the discussion he had interviewed Fritz Betz who also served on board the SMS Helgoland. Betz explicitly confirmed that the vast majority of naval officers in the High Seas Fleet humiliated and abused the sailors and stokers with constant harassment and offensive remarks.

Publication of the diary

Stumpf wrote his diary out of personal interest so as to have a reminder of his war memories.
When in the beginning of the 1920s an intense debate about the stab-in-the-back myth began, Stumpf realized that his diary could contribute to the elucidation of the role of naval officers, and he handed it to Joseph Joos of the Centre Party, who recognized the value of the records and ensured they were read before the enquiry commission of the German Weimar Republic parliament.
In 1927 the USPD-MP Wilhelm Dittmann published an abbreviated version under the title: "Warum die Flotte zerbrach – Kriegstagebuch eines christlichen Arbeiters " Dittmann added a preface, in which he stated that not any outside revolutionary influences have led to the disaster but the conditions in the fleet itself. He also added headings and a table of content.
In 1967 Daniel Horn, then assistant professor of history at Douglas College, Rutgers State University of New Brunswick in the US state of New Jersey, translated the diary into English and published it in full length. He added an introduction, many explanatory notes and an index. He restored as far as possible the anonymous names. Horn, born in Vienna, encountered the diaries in the context of his research on the unrest in the Imperial Navy and the German Revolution.