{"id":32168,"date":"2023-10-18T11:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T09:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/?p=32168"},"modified":"2023-10-18T11:41:11","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T09:41:11","slug":"the-li-of-u-96-friedrich-has-just-left-the-ship-after-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/der-li-von-u-96-nun-ist-friedrich-grade-doch-von-bord-gegangen\/","title":{"rendered":"The \"LI\" of U 96 - now Friedrich Grade has disembarked after all!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The longest-lived member of the Naval Officers' Association, retired Captain Friedrich Grade (Crew 35), passed away on Friday, 13 October 2023 in Bornheim am Rhein, just north of Bonn, in the Beethoven retirement home at the age of 107.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The cult film \"Das Boot\" made U 96 and its technical officer - or chief engineer, as it was known at the time - famous. Friedrich Grade was the last survivor of the submarine U 96, which sank 29 ships and damaged four on eleven voyages during the Second World War. As an LI, he took part in seven voyages until 1941 and recorded his experiences in a secretly written diary, which he made publicly accessible in 2017, 75 years after his last voyage. <\/span>He completed two more tours of duty on U 183, then switched to training and trained new crews in ship technology until the end of the war.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Officers of U 96 at the commissioning of the boat in 1940. Photo: U-Boot-Museum Cuxhaven<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his diary, the war correspondent who had embarked on board also found Lothar-G\u00fcnther Buchheim, who used Grade's last voyage on U 96 as a rough model for the novel \"Das Boot\", published in 1973. This global bestseller was in turn the basis for Wolfgang Petersen's film of the same name. In the successful film, which was released in cinemas in 1981 (six Oscar nominations), Grade is not mentioned by name, but merely referred to as the \"chief engineer\" and played by Klaus Wennemann. In later interviews, Grade attests that this actor did a good job and portrayed him quite authentically. The technology in the film was also well shot, but some characters and scenes were a little exaggerated. Well - it was supposed to be a box office hit - and life on board during the enemy voyages was not always \"film-ready\" either!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Promotional montage for the film \"Das Boot\". Photo: Screenshot trailer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An interview with Grade about this film, published in November 2016 in Norddeutschland, is worth seeing as a contemporary document:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n