An award document for an Order of the Red Eagle, IV Class with Crown. The award document measures 426 mm (w) x 332 mm (h) and presents two folding creases and minimal creasing. The recipient is Korvettenkapitan and Marineattaché Wilhelm Karl Widenmann. The document is dated to Berlin on 23 June 1910 and is signed by George von Kanitz. The document is numbered at the bottom left corner “No 8505”.
An award document for a Royal Crown Order, IV Class with Swords. The award document measures 419 mm (w) x 331 mm (h) and presents two folding creases. The recipient is Kapitän zur See (retired) Wilhelm Widenmann. Presented to Widenmann for his service as head of the news bureau in the Reichsmarine Amt. The document is dated to Berlin on 13 January 1917 and is signed by George von Kanitz. The document is numbered at the bottom left corner “No 918”.
Footnote: Wilhelm Karl Widenmann was born 20 June 1871 in London, England. After graduating from school in 1890, Widenmann joined the Imperial Navy and travelled to South Africa, Zanzibar and Delagoa Bay (present day Maputo Bay). From 1904 and 1906 Widenmann served with the German East Asia Squadron as an artillery officer. By 1907, Widenmann rose to Kapitän zur See and succeeded Rear Admiral Carl von Coerper as Marineattache at the German Embassy in London. Widenmann played a vital role in the German-British naval conflict years before the First World War. His superior, the ambassador Paul Graf Wolff Metternich, sought to restrict German armament of the sea, but Widenmann was an advocate of German naval construction and undermined all of his attempts to prevent German naval construction. These attempts were perceived by the British as a threat to security. This contributed significantly to Britain’s informal leaning to the Franco-Russian alliance. Widenmann was dismissed from his position in 1912 and took over command of various ships. In November 1915, he was appointed head of the news bureau in the Reichsmarine Amt. Widenmann remained in this position until March 1916. From April 1916 to January 1917, Widenmann was the division chief in the General Naval Department of the Imperial Naval Office. In February 1917, he became the managing director of the German overseas Service GmbH (founded in1914). It was a private news agency with the goal of procuring and communicating economic news in the interest of German companies and maintaining German propaganda abroad. In 1920, Wilhelm Widenmann became general director at the German overseas Service GmbH. in the 1930s, Widenmann made plans to write a history of the Imperial Navy for the period of 1871 to 1914 and assembled a team of twenty-two researchers and specialists. The history failed because the British had confiscated German naval records from the years 1848 to 1919. Widemann died on 20 September 1955 and is considered a controversial figure to historians for his pre-war foreign policies.