page_title: Günther Lütjens
section_title: Commemoration
hierarchical_section_title: Günther Lütjens / Commemoration
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Der Zerstörer Lütjens (D185) beim Einlaufen in Kiel am 12. Juli 2003. English: The German guided missile destroyer Lütjens (D185) entering Kiel, Germany, on 12 July 2003.
context_page_description: Johann Günther Lütjens was a German Admiral whose military service spanned more than thirty years and two world wars. Lütjens is best known for his actions during World War II and his command of the battleship Bismarck during its foray into the Atlantic Ocean in 1941. In its aftermath, the episode entered into naval legend.
  Born in 1889, he entered into the German Imperial Navy in 1907. A diligent and intelligent cadet he progressed to officer rank before the outbreak of war, when he was assigned to a Torpedo boat Squadron. During World War I Lütjens operated in the North Sea and English Channel and fought several actions against the British Royal Navy. He ended the conflict as a Kapitänleutnant with the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class to his credit. After the war he remained in the service of the navy, now renamed the Reichsmarine. He continued to serve in torpedo boat squadrons eventually becoming a Commanding Officer in 1925. In the Weimar Republic era, Lütjens built a reputation as an excellent staff officer.
  In 1935, after the Nazi Party came to power under Adolf Hitler in 1933, the navy was remodelled again and renamed the Kriegsmarine.
context_section_description: The Bundesmarine (navy of the Federal Republic of Germany) named the guided missile destroyer Lütjens after Günther Lütjens. The ship was christened by Gerda Lütjens, wife of Lütjens' oldest son Gerhard, in Bath, Maine on 11 August 1967, and was decommissioned in 2003. In his christening speech the then secretary of state at the Ministry of Defence, Karl Carstens, stated that Lütjens had set an example of "unwavering sense of responsibility and devout faithfulness to duty".
  Choosing the name "Lütjens" for the newly commissioned destroyer was not without controversy, but the Minister of Defence Gerhard Schröder wanted to break the taboo surrounding the heroes of World War II who were not Nazis but who were not associated with the 20 July plot, the failed assassination of Adolf Hitler. The former Inspector of the Navy Ruge had feared that Lütjens was not known well enough and had suggested the names Adenauer, Berlin and Rommel instead. Schröder however wanted to bridge the gap to former traditions and wanted to name the destroyers after former heroes of the three branches of the Wehrmacht (Heer, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe). Lütjens' name had previously been cleared by the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office (Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt or MGFA), formerly in Freiburg im Breisgau. Schröder concluded with the words "We must have the courage like any other people, to honour men who have served their country bravely and faithfully."
  Following the christening an American worker at the Bath Iron Works approached and asked the attending German journalists "do you only have Nazi heroes back home in Germany?" US newspapers had introduced the namesake as a former Nazi sea hero. Present at the christening was a Bundeswehr helicopter which had been used to shuttle the official German government visitors around, and it bore the insignia of the Bundeswehr, a variant of the Iron Cross. When US radio reporters caught sight of the helicopter they mistakenly referred to the Iron Cross insignia as a swastika in their reports, thus further adding to the controversy.
  Lütjens was the first of three Lütjens-class destroyers. The other two were Mölders, named after the Luftwaffe World War II fighter pilot Werner Mölders, and Rommel, named after the Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
caption: Lütjens (D185).
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