page_title: Günther Prien
section_title: Reputation and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Günther Prien / Reputation and legacy
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: U-Boot-Ehrenmal Möltenort mit Eintragung U 47, Kommandant KKAPT. Günther Prien
context_page_description: Günther Prien was a German U-boat commander during World War II. He was the first U-boat commander to receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and the first member of the Kriegsmarine to receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi Germany. It was Germany's highest military decoration at the time of its presentation to Prien.
  Under Prien's command, the submarine U-47 was credited with sinking over 30 Allied ships totaling about 200,000 gross register tons, along with the British battleship HMS Royal Oak at anchor in the Home Fleet's anchorage in Scapa Flow.
context_section_description: According to one biographer, in contrast with Kretschmer, Prien was purportedly a strict disciplinarian who rarely allowed humanity to compromise or interfere with the running of his boat. His crew despised him for it. He harboured much bitterness because of his difficult beginning. He could be genial among fellow officers but his reputation among subordinates was low.
  The 1958 war film U 47 – Kapitänleutnant Prien, directed by Harald Reinl, was loosely based on Prien's combat record and command of U-47. Prien was portrayed by the German actor Dieter Eppler. Prien was portrayed by Werner Klemperer in the 1957 US TV series The Silent Service in the episode, "The U-47 in Scapa Flow".
  Prien was a subject of a hagiographic 1981 account by German author Franz Kurowski, Günther Prien, der Wolf und sein Admiral (Günther Prien, the Wolf and his Admiral). The German scholar Hans Wagener classifies Kurowski's book, published by extreme right-wing publisher Druffel Verlag, as an "almost perfect example of a skillful distillation of the Nazi understanding of the Second World War". The Canadian historian Michael Hadley commented on the narrative's goals as follows: 
  Here he [Kurowski] wished to commemorate the "meritorious soldier and human being Günther Prien [who is] forgotten neither by the old submariners nor" —and this would have startled most observers in Germany today [in 1995] —"by the young submariners of the Federal German Navy".
  The West German navy, at the time named the Bundesmarine (Federal Navy), had considered Prien as namesake for the 1967 commissioned guided missile destroyer Lütjens. However the legend surrounding Prien, that he had distanced himself from Nazism and had become an active member of the German resistance and was held captive at the Wehrmachtgefängnis Torgau (Torgau Wehrmacht Prison), turned out to be false. Consequently, the name Lütjens, named after Admiral Günther Lütjens, was chosen instead.
  The street "Günther-Prien-Straße" in Schönberg, Plön is named after him.
caption: The plaque commemorating Prien and the crew of U-47 at the Möltenort U-Boat Memorial.
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