Wolfgang Luth's lecture on leadership

Id have to disagree with the dominative character, in essence all he seemed to be doing was looking out for the well being of his men, and lets be honest most people if not all if they have a boss that they realize cares about what they think people are more motivated to put their selfish bull**** (excuse the language) aside and be more than willing to lay their life down for their fellow crew members who thanks to their captain they all know and have a deeper understanding of.
I think of it as team building activities, the more you get your men to work with eachother and have fun together and develop a more personal relationship, the easier they will function as a single unit. I know this just from when I played football, our coach was a big guy into being part of our lives and getting us to be a close team. As such during my 4 years at the HS playing for them, no we never went to state, but we were a determined team with the same goal and understood what needed to be done. In a game of emotion we were never the team to break because we worked with eachother so well.

yes he seems dominative, but as a captain you need to command a certain respect, but on the side (even though being a Nazi) he understood that if he cared about his men, they would care too, (like the part where he talked about treating his seamen like they werent pure trash and actually mattered) this makes sense because in essense, theyre part of a functioning unit, and without them, his U-boat is just a worthless piece of submergeable boat in the Atlantic.

Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit

Just read it. The man I see through (or between) these lines of text is a very demanding, dominative character. I'm almost sure I wouldn't go along well with him, I get fed up fast with such types - I understand my duty and how I perform it is under constant detailed control of superiors, but where it comes to my private life (or just private parts) I'm not letting any officer close to it. He won't tell me if I should visit brothels or not, if I should spend my hard earned money on vodka, or send it to family. "Sir, go realize your idea of perfect state of total control somewhere else, Captain Sir." Oh dear, I hate being paternalised so much, and this guy even wanted to decide which music is too hard for me to understand... One doesn't join the Navy to be raised by officers, people enlist to be soldiers, not kids. And under Luth "Everyone had to sing", "everybody had to tell the story over the loud-speaker", "Everyone had to compose"...

[U777]

yes he seems dominative, but as a captain you need to command a certain respect, but on the side (even though being a Nazi) he understood that if he cared about his men, they would care too, (like the part where he talked about treating his seamen like they werent pure trash and actually mattered) this makes sense because in essense, theyre part of a functioning unit, and without them, his U-boat is just a worthless piece of submergeable boat in the Atlantic.

While I don't agree with his political views I do agree with most of the rules on his boat and the way he handled the crew, they were well intended for the benefit of the crew. If I was in command of a small diesel sub like a VIIC I would deff tear a page or two out of his leadership playbook.

[frau kaleun]

Say what you will about his political/social views - and those are pretty well-documented, and not pretty to say the least - everything I've read about him seems to indicate that his crews loved him and that his concern for them did not end when their service together did.

[verte]

A great read, and a good leader.