author
Paul König
1867–1933
Best known for commanding the merchant submarine Deutschland on its headline-making voyages to the United States during World War I, he turned a dangerous wartime mission into a firsthand adventure story. His writing offers a rare view of the sea, technology, and propaganda from inside the German war effort.
1 Audiobook
The voyage of the "Deutschland"
by Paul König
About the author
Born on March 20, 1867, Paul König was a German sailor, merchant navy officer, and business executive who became internationally known during World War I. He served with North German Lloyd and later gained fame as the captain of the merchant submarine Deutschland, which made two commercial voyages to the United States in 1916 despite the British blockade.
König later wrote about those journeys in The Voyage of the "Deutschland", a memoir-like account that helped introduce English-language readers to one of the war's most unusual naval episodes. The book blends travel narrative, wartime observation, and personal perspective, making it valuable both as a historical document and as a vivid piece of sea writing.
He died in 1933. Today, he is remembered less as a conventional literary figure than as a participant-observer whose dramatic experiences at sea gave rise to a distinctive eyewitness narrative from the First World War.