Hans Zenker

Hans Zenker (August 10, 1870 in Bielitz – August 18, 1932 in Göttingen) was a German admiral.

Biography
Born in Bielitz (now Bielsko-Biała, Poland), he entered the Kaiserliche Marine on April 13, 1889. After serving as captain of several torpedo boats, he commanded in turn the light cruisers SMS Lübeck in 1911 and SMS Cöln (1909) in 1912–13. As captain of the battlecruiser SMS Von der Tann in 1916–17, Zenker saw action in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916.

Zenker joined the Admiralty Staff in 1917. He was appointed to the North Sea area command in 1918, holding this post when the German war effort collapsed in November 1918.

After the war, he was an officer of the Reichsmarine, serving as Inspekteur der Marineartillerie from 1920 to 1923 and the top post of Oberbefehlshaber der Reichsmarine (ObderRM) from October 1, 1924, to September 30, 1928. His tenure as OBderRM saw the beginning of the rebuilding of the German fleet with the construction of light cruisers and torpedo boats and the planning of Deutschland-class cruiser ships, later built as the Deutschland, Admiral Scheer, and Admiral Graf Spee.

Family
His son, Karl-Adolf Zenker, held the office equivalent to OBderRM&mdash;Inspekteur der Marine&mdash;in the West German Bundesmarine from 1961 to 1967.