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Germany (1916)
Sources:
Gottfried Keller (chronicler) / Sankt Egidien
Werner Gränitz (brother) / Lichtenstein
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Gerhard Gränitz was born on 6 March 1916, the fourth child of Oswin Gränitz in Sankt Egidien, a small city of 2,500 in Saxony. Gerhard had three brothers and two sisters. His father was the mayor from 1925 to 1937. From 1931 to 1934 Gerhard was trained as a metal worker at the Thiele Company in the neighboring town of Glauchau. After his exams, Gerhard was unemployed for a time before he found a job with a road-building company on the route between Dresden and Meerane. Today this stretch is a part of the Autobahn A-4.
In 1936 he was drafted into the State Labor Service for a year after which he volunteered for the Kriegsmarine and reported to basic training in 1937. Because of his training as a metal worker, he was assigned to the Engineering MOS. His first sea duty was on the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee. Gerhard performed his duties well and was chosen to be an NCO candidate. After completing the courses, he was promoted to Machinist’s Mate and, in 1940, was assigned to the battleship Bismarck at the Blohm and Voss works in Hamburg. About this time he became engaged to Elly Soph who had met several years before in the gymnastics club in Sankt Egedien. Since he spent most of the time on board ship, and leave was very rare because of the war, they did not spend much time together. On 27 May 1941 the 25-year-old Gerhard Gränitz went down with the Bismarck. The town of Sankt Egidien lost another of its sons that day. Able Seaman Gerhard Wilhelm was also lost with the Bismarck.
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