Biographical Note

Otto Giese was born November 8, 1914 in Bremen, Germany .  Starting in 1933, he served aboard square-riggers and numerous oceangoing freighters, after which he attended the German Nautical Academy for his mate’s license, which he received in 1938.  He was a junior officer aboard the ocean liner SS COLUMBUS when war was declared in September of 1939.  The ship was scuttled and he was taken to Ellis Island by the USS Tuscaloosa.  The crewmen who were of military age were then sent to Angel Island off San Francisco.  With several other fit officers, he eluded immigration officials to escape to the Japanese.  He was involved with blockade running, returning to Germany and training for U-boat service. 

Giese’s U-Bootwaffe service was in the Far East, North Atlantic, and Indian Ocean.  Even after Germany ’s surrender he was interned by the British in the infamous Changi jail in Malaya and was not repatriated until 1947.  After World War II, he obtained a master’s license and started his own shipping line, which operated in the North Sea, the Baltic, the Caribbean and the Far East.  In 1964, he moved to Florida, and became a US citizen in 1968.  He was pier superintendent and manager of Fillette Green Steamship Agency in Pensacola, Florida until he retired in 1981.  He died September 29, 2001. 

Scope and Content Note

The Otto Giese Papers contain correspondence, speeches, audiotapes, artwork sketches, photographs, writings, scrapbooks, clippings, memorabilia and other material documenting the private and public life of this mariner.  The collection spans the dates 1938 to 1979, with the bulk of the material dating from 1938 to 1947.  The collection records Giese’s extraordinary career, and includes materials relevant to the politics and attitudes of a seafaring German in World War II.

The strengths of the collection lie in the extensive documentation in a variety of media of Giese’s career, from charming sketches of life at sea to a superb collection of photographs and audiotapes of interviews.  He records the social, political and personal aspects of the period by combining news clippings, photographs and his personal assessment of key events.  This unique historical overview includes his justification for the invasion of Poland , and he offers an unwavering assessment of the dictates of duty.   Although hardship and loss are part of his life, his anecdotes are positive and relay the camaraderie of U-boat sailors at war. 

The material is arranged chronologically, unless otherwise noted, and includes items in German, Japanese, Spanish, and English.

Container List

Box 1:

4 Folders containing clippings, drawings, photographs and notes from German language diary Nr. 3. Ellis Island, Angel Island, and escape via Hawaii to Japan , 1940.

2 diaries in the German language: Nr. 1. SS Columbus Tragedy, 09/39 to 12/39 and Nr. 2. SS Columbus Tragedy, 12/39 to 1/40.

2 diaries in the German language:  Nr. 4.  Blockadebrecher Anneliese Essberger nebst Tarnugen 01/41 to 07/41 and  Nr. 5.  Blockadebrecher Anneliese Essberger nebst Tarnugen, 07/41 to 09/41

Box 2:

German language diary, Nr. 6 Blockaderun.  Operations with U-405; U-boat watchofficer courses; Operations with U-181; POW Changi Jail, Malaya and England , 09/41 to 09/47.

Box 3:

102 Photographs and 13 sleeves of negatives used in preparing the manuscript for Shooting the War: The Memoir and Photographs of a U-boat Officer in World War II  by Otto Giese and James E. Wise, Jr. (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, c1994).

Box 4:

7 photograph albums covering the years from 1935 to 1943

Box 5:

Family and ship Photographs (6)

Box 6:

9 audio tapes including:

1 tape by H. Lochner, sole survivor of U-425

2 each, Otto Giese, Anneliese Esseberger, Darien/Bordeau, 6/21/41 to 9/9/41

2 each, Otto Giese, WWII memories 1939 to 1945

4 each, Otto Giese, U-405, 3/1/42 to 9/16/42

Box 7:

Folder containing CD-ROM, photographs and article from the periodical, Via Pensacola.

Unboxed notebook diaries in three-ring binders for the following years:
1952   German language, clippings and letters included.
1953   German language, contains some photographs.
1953-63   German, Spanish and some English language clippings, letters, photographs
1959   German, Spanish and some English language.  Contains involvement in Havana shipping.
1960   2 diaries for the year 1960.  Primarily German language.  Contains information on political climate for shipping in Latin America.
1961   3 diaries for the year 1961.   Mostly English language, some German.  Emphasis on Cuban, Mexican and Dominican Republic politics.
1963   Mostly English language.