As Churchill correctly summarized, the kaiser’s East Asia Squadron was doomed from the outset. Yet a single vessel, Emden, undertook the most remarkable commerce raiding cruise of World War I. In a three-month period, Müller’s cruiser had seized or destroyed fifteen enemy merchantmen, aggregating some sixty-six thousand tons. In addition, it had sunk a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer. Equally important, Emden had thoroughly disrupted Allied commerce in the Indian Ocean and greatly embarrassed the Royal Navy.

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Emden’s greatest impact may have been psychological. At a time when the kaiser’s armies in Europe were portrayed as skewering Belgian babies on their bayonets, Emden’s strict adherence to the laws of war stood in marked contrast.

Most of Emden’s survivors spent the remainder of the war as prisoners on Malta. Müller was imprisoned first on Malta and then in England, where he attempted to escape but was recaptured. His executive officer, Mucke, made the most of his experiences on Emden and prospered after the war as an author and lecturer. Müller, in contrast, declined most invitations to speak and lived quietly at his home in Blankenburg until his death in 1923. Asked once why he did not write a memoir, Müller replied, “I should not be able to escape the feeling that I was coining money from the blood of my comrades.”

This article by John M. Taylor was originally published in the Summer 2007 issue of MHQ Magazine. For more great articles, subscribe to MHQ magazine today!

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