Wilhelm Ehm
| Wilhelm Ehm | |
|---|---|
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Wilhelm Ehm, middle, at a Fleet parade for the 30th Anniv of the German Democratic Republic
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| Born | August 30, 1918 |
| Died | August 9, 2009 (aged 90) |
| Allegiance |
 Nazi Germany East Germany
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| Service/branch |
Wehrmacht Volksmarine
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| Rank | Admiral |
| Commands held | People's Navy (Volksmarine) |
| Awards | Karl-Marx-Orden, Ehrenspangel der Vaterländischer Verdienstorden, Scharnhorst Order |
Wilhelm Ehm (August 30, 1918 in Pula, Austro Hungarian Empire (now Croatia) – August 9, 2009 in , Germany) a World War II Wehrmacht veteran and East German Admiral who was Deputy Minister of National Defense of the German Democratic Republic and head of the People's Navy (Volksmarine).
Ehm's father was a carpenter who served as an armorer and a bugler in the Austro-Hungarian Navy (KuK Kriegsmarine) during World War I. Ehm was born during his father's military service at Pula, a major Austro-Hungarian Navy port on the Adriatic near Trieste. He had a brother Hermann, born in 1913 and a younger sister Maria, born in 1921.
After the war ended in 1918, his family went back to Komotau (now Chomutov), the hometown of his father in Bohemia, which is now part of the Czech Republic. There his father served as a municipal employee. After the death of his mother in 1931, his father remarried a woman with a daughter and son.
After eight years of elementary school, Ehm apprenticed as an electrician from 1932 to 1938. Later he worked as an electromagnetic radio mechanic. During this period he became a member of the Socialist Workers' Youth and the International Metalworkers' Federation.
After the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, Ehm was drafted into the German army and remained a soldier until 1945. He served as a non-commissioned master radioman (Oberfunkmeister) in the campaigns in France and Russia, although his assignments being primarily in the rear areas, he did not see actual combat. He married Melitta Capek in September 1942 in his hometown of Komotau.
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