Alfred Niezychowski

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Alfred Niezychowski (1888-1964) was a Polish noble (szlachta), a German Count, Lieutenant Commander of a commerce raider ship during World War I, an author and lecturer, and a Michigan political candidate for public office.

Contents 1 Childhood 2 Career 3 American citizenship 4 Works 5 Notable relatives 6 Trivia 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Childhood

He was born near Posen, Germany (now Poznań, Poland) on July 28, 1888, the fourth child out of six to Stanisław Nieżychowski (1851-1897) and Lucia (Łucja) Taczanowska (1862-1917).

His father died when he was nine years old. Two years later, his mother, now thity-seven years old, married the 29-year-old Count Rodryg Dunin, and had four more children. They lived on the Granówko estate, near Poznań. Niezychowski was educated at the German military school at Wahlstadt, Silesia, and at the naval schools at Danzig (Gdansk) and Kiel. His oldest brother Count Josef von Niezychowski initially attained high rank in the German Army, but at the outbreak of World War II changed his allegiance and served as a General in the Polish Army. [1]

[edit] Career

As an adult, Niezychowski joined the German merchant marine of the Hamburg-American Line, and was an officer on such ships as the Hamburg- American liner Victoria Louise and Prinzessen Irene in 1914, before being transferred to his most famous assignment, the German passenger liner Kronprinz Wilhelm, where he held the rank of Lieutenant. He was later promoted to Lieutenant Commander in the German naval reserve and became second in command. The ship was one of the fastest in the world, having won the Blue Riband a few years earlier for the fastest-ever Atlantic crossing, in 5 days, 11 hours, and 57 minutes.

Germany entered World War I in August 1914, while the ship was in port in New York, and the Kronprinz Wilhelm was ordered into service with the Imperial German Navy as an auxiliary cruiser. She left port and rendezvoused with the SMS Karlsruhe to have deck guns installed, and then spent the next 251 days capturing and sinking commercial vessels off the coast of South America, while simultaneously evading capture by the Allies. The ship eventually ran out of supplies, and dozens of the men in her crew had become sick with beri-beri from the restricted diet on the long voyage. Her captain headed for Virginia, and successfully evading the British ships guarding the port, entered safe harbor at Newport News, in 1915. At the Norfolk Navy Yard, the ship and crew were originally interned as neutrals by the United States, until that country entered the war in 1917. At that time, Niezychowski and the rest of the crew became American prisoners of war and the ship was officially seized by the US Navy. Renamed the USS Von Steuben, she was turned into a troopship.

[edit] American citizenship

Despite officially being a prisoner of the United States, Niezychowski was evidently quite a popular storyteller among influential Americans, partially because he was the nephew of Baron Ladislaus Hengelmuller, who had been Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the United States for decades, until retiring in 1913. Niezychowski was known as the "jolly Polish count" and after his release from Fort McPherson, Georgia in August 1919, he moved to Washington DC, where he was welcomed into diplomatic and society circles. [2]. He was also President of the Polish American Navigation Company of New York.

In October 1923, Niezychowski became engaged to Nanine H. Ulman (1896-1972), a Baltimore socialite and Colonial Dame, daughter of Jacob A. Ulman of Helmore Farms in Green Spring Valley, and great grand-niece of President Thomas Jefferson. Niezychowski renounced his European titles, became an American citizen in January 1926, and married on December 27, 1927. Admiral Walter McLean, commander of the Norfolk Navy Yard where his ship had been interned ten years earlier, was his best man.

After his wedding, Niezychowski and his wife moved to Detroit, Michigan where he entered the business world. First he worked as a salesman with a printing and advertising company, and later with the Seldon & Johnson real estate firm. In 1928, he published a book about the Kronprinz Wilhelm's 251-day adventure, and gave lectures on the subject. [3]. One of his lecture taglines was that of all of the ships that had been sunk during the ship's wartime duty, it had never caused the loss of a single human life. The capturing and sinking had been done in a very civilized, even courteous, manner. Passengers who had been taken aboard from a captured vessel were often given first class accommodations aboard the ex-passenger liner (members of the crew, received second class cabins), until they could be transferred to another ship.

In 1932, while in the investment brokerage business, Niezychowski ran as a Democratic candidate for the Michigan First District. He was a staunch Democrat, and wanted to fight for the immediate repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, as well as lowering tariff laws to restore foreign trade. However, he lost in the primary election to George G. Sadowski.[4]

Niezychowski and Nanine had no biological children, though Niezychowski did become guardian for the children of his half-brother Count Antoni Dunin, after both Antoni and his wife Zofia Werner Dunin (daughter of Polish vice-Finance Minister Edward Werner) had been killed in 1939, during the German offensive in the Invasion of Poland. According to the Detroit News, Alfred worked with Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan, to obtain visas so that the orphaned children could enter the United States in the 1940s. They were:

• Count Stanley Dunin, who later participated in a NASA project, launching the world's first geosynchronous communications satellite
• Countess Magda Dunin Hirata, who later married Japanese-American scientist Arthur Hirata
• Countess Christine Dunin Zika, later the mother of noted botanist Peter Zika

Niezychowski died on June 13, 1964 in Michigan, and was buried in Mt. Elliott Cemetery in Grosse Pointe.

[edit] Works

• Count Alfred von Niezychowki, The Cruise of the Kronprinz Wilhelm, 1928, Doubleday & Company, with introductions by Admiral Walter McLean (commandant of the Virginia Norfolk Navy Yard where the Kronprinz Wilhelm was interned), and Count Felix von Luckner

[edit] Notable relatives

• Rodryg Dunin, Alfred's stepfather, was a "hrabia" (Count) and listed in the Polish Biographical Dictionary, a Who's Who of Poland
• Baron Ladislaus Hengelmuller, longtime Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the United States, was Alfred's uncle by one of his father's sisters.
• Alfons Taczanowski, hereditary member of the Prussian House of Lords, was Alfred's great-uncle on his mother's side.
• Edward Werner, Polish vice-Finance Minister, was the father-in-law of Alfred's brother Antoni Dunin.
• Antoni Dunin, Alfred's younger half-brother, was a Polish army officer killed in 1939, and recipient of the Virtuti Militari award (similar to the American Medal of Honor).
• Stanley Dunin, Antoni's son, the nephew that Niezychowski sponsored into the United States, grew up to be one of the engineers on a NASA project, launching the world's first geosynchronous communications satellite. In later years he also became a business consultant for the Peace Corps and World Bank.

[edit] Trivia

• Alfred was known for signing autographs with green ink

[edit] See also

• German liner Kronprinz Wilhelm
• auxiliary cruisers

[edit] References

• The New York Times, October 30, 1923, "Engaged to Count Von Niezochowski"
• The New York Times, December 28, 1927, "Miss Ulman Weds Count"
• TIME magazine, January 9, 1928
• Review of The Cruise of the Kronprinz Wilhelm in The Nation, Volume 130, Issue # 3365, January 1, 1930
• The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians - contains information about the 1932 election
• Genealogy Images of History
• The New York Times, June 17, 1964, "Alfred Niezychowski, 75, Served on German Raider" (pdf)
• (Portuguese) Grandes Guerras - Os grandes conflitos do seculo XX (Major conflicts of the 20th century)
• "Polish Nobleman, W.W. I Sea Raider, Dies", June 16, 1964, Detroit Times
• "We Congratulate . . .", June 28, 1941, Detroit Free Press
• Obituary, June 1964, Grosse Pointe News"
• "Former Nobleman Runs for Seat in Congress", July 27, 1932, Detroiter

[edit] External links

• Family tree maintained by great-niece Elonka Dunin.

• "Capital District Kiwanis History", Baltimore, Maryland, 1930 (includes a mention of Niezychowski in the annual minutes, listing him as "second in command" of the Kronprinz Wilhelm)
• Alfred Niezychowski's male line of ancestors (Polish surname was Nieżychowski)