Felix von Luckner

Who was Felix von Luckner?

Felix Graf von Luckner, was a German nobleman, navy officer, author and noted sailor who earned the epithet Der Seeteufel – and his crew that of Die Piraten des Kaisers – for his exploits in command of the sailing commerce raider SMS Seeadler in 1916–1917.

It was his habit of successfully waging war without any casualties that made him a hero and a legend on both sides.

He was the great-grandson of Nicolas Luckner, Marshal of France and commander-in-chief of the French Army of the Rhine, who had been elevated to count in the 18th century by the King of Denmark.

He was married twice, firstly to Petra from Hamburg with whom he had a daughter, Inge-Maria, born in 1913. They divorced in 1914. On 24 September 1924 he married Ingeborg in Malmö.