Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. Hans Wilhelm Langsdorff (20 March 1894 – 20 December 1939) was a German naval officer, most famous for his command of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee before and during the Battle of the River Plate off the coast of Uruguay in 1939. After the Panzerschiff (Deutschland-class cruiser) was unable to escape a pursuing squadron of Royal Navy ships, Langsdorff scuttled his ship. Three days later he died by suicide in his hotel room in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

This is an interesting artifact, a Kriegsmarine button mounted on a 7 ½” diameter wooden plaque with the captain below it reading:

EXTRAORDINARIA PIEZA DE COLECCION
Botón de la Chaquetilla del
KAPITAN ZUR SER: HANS LANGSDORFF
KOMMANDANT
(20/3/1.894 - 20/12/1.939)
PANZERSCHIFF: “ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE”

EXTRAORDINARY COLLECTION PIECE
Jacket Button
KAPITAN ZUR SER: HANS LANGSDORFF
COMMANDER
(3/20/1894 - 12/20/1939)
PANZERSCHIFF: “ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE”

We have no documentation to back this up, but if it’s true, this would be a very scarce piece. 

This is a very interesting artifact, ready to display. 

Langsdorff was born on 20 March 1894 in Bergen, Germany on the island of Rügen. He was the eldest son in a family with legal and religious traditions rather than a naval tradition. In 1898, the family moved to Düsseldorf, where they were neighbours of the family of a senior naval officer, Graf (Count) Maximilian von Spee. In 1912, influenced by his honoured neighbour, but against his parents' wishes, Langsdorff entered the Kiel Naval Academy. During the First World War, Spee became a German naval hero and lost his life, at the Battle of the Falkland Islands (1914). The then-Lieutenant Langsdorff received the Iron Cross 2nd Class at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and subsequently worked in minesweepers for the rest of the war. He received the Iron Cross 1st Class sometime during the remainder of the war, but the exact date is unknown.

In 1923, while posted to the navy office in Dresden, Langsdorff met Ruth Hager. The two were married in March 1924, with their son Johann being born on 14 December. In October 1925, Langsdorff was posted to the Defence Ministry in Berlin to coordinate relations between the navy and the army. In 1927, he was posted to the command of a torpedo boat flotilla, and in April 1930 he was promoted to lieutenant commander. In 1931, he was recalled to Berlin, as his administrative abilities had become well-known and appreciated. Following the rise to power of the NSDAP, Langsdorff requested duty at sea in 1934, but was instead appointed to the Interior Ministry.

In 1936 and 1937, while on board the new pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee as part of the staff of Admiral Boehm, Langsdorff participated in the German support of the Nationalist side in the Spanish Civil War. On 1 January 1937, Langsdorff was promoted to captain. He received command of the Admiral Graf Spee in October 1938.

On 21 August 1939, Admiral Graf Spee left port with orders to raid enemy commercial shipping in the South Atlantic following the outbreak of the Second World War. For the first three weeks of the war, the ship hid in the open ocean east of Brazil while the German government determined how serious Britain was about the war. On 20 September 1939, Admiral Graf Spee was released to carry out her orders.

Over the next 10 weeks, Langsdorff and Admiral Graf Spee were extremely successful, stopping and sinking nine British merchant ships, totalling over 50,000 tons. Langsdorff adhered to the Hague Conventions and avoided killing anyone; his humane treatment won the respect of the ships' officers detained as his prisoners.