Felix von Bendemann

Bendemann was born in Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony. He was the son of the painter Eduard Julius Friedrich Bendemann (1811–1889) and Lida Schadow, who was the daughter of the sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow. The painter Rudolf Bendemann was his brother.

Bendemann and three brothers served in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870–71. He was in the Prussian Navy as an officer on the gunboat {{SMS|Meteor|1865|6}} in Key West when the war began. On 23 October the news of the outbreak of war reached the ship's captain, Eduard von Knorr. Meteor sailed for Cuba where, on 9 November they fought the only serious naval battle of the war with the French aviso Bouvet commanded by capitaine de frégate Alexandre Franquet. After an artillery exchange and an attempts by the Bouvet to ram the Meteor, both ships were incapacitated. Although the French left the scene of battle, the outcome was indecisive. As a result of this wartime conduct, he was honored with the then rarely given Iron Cross.[http://www.luebeck-kunterbunt.de/TOP100/Judentum.htm "Judentum in Deutschland"] citing Dietrich Bronder. (1975). Bevor Hitler kam, pp. 324-346.Clara Schumann: An Artist's Life Based on Material Found in Diaries and Letters by Berthold Litzmann; READ BOOKS, 2007 484 pages, p. 280.

Bendeman was enrolled in the German Imperial Naval Academy (Marineakademie) in 1874. In his class would be three other future admirals: Otto von Diederichs, Viktor Valois and Gustav von Senden-Bibran. He then commanded the gunboat {{SMS|Sperber|1860|2}} from September 1876 to April 1877.

File:Sms olga 1902.jpg Bendemann furthered German imperialist interest in West Africa.]]

Lieutenant-Commander (Korvettenkapitän) Bendemann commanded the screw corvette {{SMS|Olga}} in 1884 as part of the newly formed West African-cruiser squadron (Westafrikanische Geschwader), again under Rear Admiral Eduard von Knorr, to carry out "gunboat diplomacy" in Germany's Western African area of interest, the colony of Kamerun, against a local revolt. Troops landed from Knorr's corvette {{SMS|Bismarck}} and the Olga stormed the rebels and by 22 December succeeded in defeating the rebels. This led to treaties with France and Britain recognizing Cameroon as a German Colony. Afterward, a pleased Kaiser Wilhelm I awarded Bendemann the Prussian Order of the Royal Crown, 3rd Class with Swords.{{cite web|url=http://www.medalnet.net/Cameroon_1884.htm |title=Cameroon 1884 |publisher=Medalnet.net |date= |accessdate=2012-09-06}}

He and the German navy suffered a misfortune on 16 February 1894. While Captain of the pre-dreadnought battleship {{SMS|Brandenburg}} taking a trial trip with forced drought the main boiler-tube burst, the explosion causing the death of over forty men.German Emperor's Speeches... of the Emperor William II. Tr. Louis Elking. London: Longmans, Green, 1904. P. 239.

From 14 March until 31 December 1899, he served as Chief of the Admiralty Staff (Admiralstab). In this position he expressed his concern for what he saw as Germany's hopeless situation with a weak navy and facing Britain in isolation. One solution he saw an alliance with the United States, which was already a valuable trading partner of Germany.Imperialism at sea: naval strategic thought, the ideology of sea power, and the Tirpitz Plan, 1875-1914 by Rolf Hobson; BRILL, 2002, 358 pages, p. 276.

He also favored such realpolitik actions as the violation of Danish neutrality, in case of war with Great Britain, by immediately occupying the waterways of the Danish archipelago (The Belts) to deny the Royal Navy access to the Baltic Sea and Russia.Naval warfare in the twentieth century, 1900–1945: essays in honour of Arthur Marder by Arthur Jacob Marder, Gerald Jordan; Taylor & Francis, 1977. p.34.

Image:SMS Hertha.jpg, Bendemann's second flagship in China waters.]]

From February 1900 until 1902, he commanded the East Asia Squadron (Ostasiengeschwader) from his flagships the protected cruiser {{SMS|Irene}}, and then the protected cruiser {{SMS|Hertha|1897|6}}. When Bendemann took command of the East Asia Squadron, he found it unprepared for the challenges presented by the Boxer Rebellion. He actually had to borrow charts from the Russians and maps from the British in order to operate in the Yellow Sea.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 Nevertheless, he forcefully advanced the idea of taking the Taku Forts and the ships under his command were able to make a noteworthy contribution in the Battle of Taku Forts.The origins of the Boxer War: a multinational study by Lanxin Xiang; Routledge, 2003, 382 pages, p. 282. On 8 June 1900, he brought the large cruisers {{SMS|Hansa|1898|2}} and Hertha and the small cruisers {{SMS|Gefion}} and Irene before the Taku Fort (together with warships of other nations) to land detachments of Seebataillone (marines) for the protection of their citizens in Tientsin

From 1903 through 1907, he was head of the North Sea Naval Station Marinestation der Nordsee in Wilhelmshaven.

Admiral von Bendemann died in Halensee (Berlin) on 31 October 1915.

• 1870—Honored with the then rarely given Iron Cross
• 1884—Prussian Order of the Royal Crown, 3rd Class with Swords.
• 1902—Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George.
• 1905—Bendemann was raised to the Prussian nobility (knighted).
• 1906—Japan's ribbon bar 1st Class, Grand Cordon was conferred on 8 May 1906, recognizing his actions as Commander of the Squadron during the Boxer Rebellion.British Library. "Handlist of Japanese Manuscripts Acquired Since 1984," [http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/pdfs/japmsscat.pdf 'Or. 14819 Certificate conferring Order of the Rising Sun on Admiral von Bendemann,' p. 3.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018002654/http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/pdfs/japmsscat.pdf |date=2012-10-18 }}
• 1909—Inducted as member 390 of the Gesetzlose Gesellschaft zu Berlin.{{cite web|url=http://www.gesetzlose-gesellschaft.de/chronologie.phtml |title=Chronologisches Mitgliederverzeichnis |publisher=Gesetzlose-gesellschaft.de |date= |accessdate=2012-09-06}}
• 'Mount Bendemann' and 'Bendemann Harbour' in New Guinea were named in his honor by his friend Wilhelm Knappe, who was German colonial commissioner (Reichskommissar) in the area, 1887–1910.

{{See also|Bendemann}}

;Notes

{{reflist}}

;Bibliography

• {{in lang|de}} Bronder, Dietrich Karl Heinz. (1975). [https://books.google.com/books?id=6UNIPgAACAAJ&dq=Bevor+Hitler+kam Bevor Hitler kam] (Before Hitler Came). Geneva, Switzerland: Marva. {{OCLC|163226232}}
• {{cite book

|editor=Dermot Bradley

|first1=Hans

|last1=Hildebrand

|first2=Ernest

|last2=Henriot

|work=Deutschlands Admirale 1849–1945. Die militärischen Werdegänge der See-, Ingenieur-, Sanitäts-, Waffen- und Verwaltungsoffiziere im Admiralsrang

|volume=I

|title=A–G

|publisher=Biblio

|location=Osnabrück

|year=1988

|isbn=3-7648-1499-3

|pages=91–92

}}

{{Commons category|Felix von Bendemann}}

• [http://www.michaeltillheinze.de/f_k1990/f_k900308.htm michaeltillheinze.de]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bendemann, Felix von}}

Category:1848 births

Category:1915 deaths

Category:German untitled nobility

Category:German people of Jewish descent

Category:19th-century German people

Category:Admirals of the Imperial German Navy

Category:Grand Cordons of the Order of the Rising Sun

Category:Military personnel from Dresden

Category:Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George