Geheimakte W.B. 1 (1942)

In 1849, Germany is divided into numerous small states. The Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein is under attack from the Danes in the north, and the German coast is sealed off by an enemy blockade. Non-commissioned officer Wilhelm Bauer wants to break through the blockade and, for this reason, tries to attach an explosive charge to a Danish frigate lying in wait off the coast, without the backing of his military superiors. But before he can do so, his own men stop him, and he is court-martialed for acting on his own authority. The presiding officer, a general, is nevertheless sympathetic to Bauer’s bold initiative and is also interested in Bauer’s plans to build a submarine that could approach enemy ships undetected in the future and sink them. Bauer finds an influential supporter for his audacious plans in Admiral Brommy. Before long, the engineer has completed his designs. As luck would have it, the father of an old friend, Karl Hösly of Kiel, owns a shipyard. Bauer’s first model is built there, and the shipyard foreman, Paul Schultze, becomes another supporter of his idea. To make the submersible capable of attacking, Bauer takes up an idea of Admiral Brommy’s: that they must also be able to fire on the enemy from aboard the vessel. Along the way, Wilhelm Bauer also finds time to fall in love with Karl’s sister, Sophie. She returns his feelings. When the vessel is finally finished and ready for action, it is the English who thwart Bauer’s success with an act of sabotage. Bauer’s submarine is damaged and sinks to the bottom. With great difficulty, Bauer and his small crew manage to escape the metal coffin alive and surface again. From then on, Wilhelm Bauer finds a generous patron in King Maximilian of Bavaria. He allows the inventor to carry out further trial dives on Lake Starnberg. On one of these occasions, Bauer meets the Russian Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, who is staying in Bavaria. He is enthusiastic about Bauer’s idea and generously offers to help him, without the inventor having to surrender his rights to the patent. At least, that is what he promises. In Kronstadt, Bauer can complete his submarine at Konstantin’s expense, undisturbed. Bauer travels to Russia and builds the first fully developed submarine there according to his designs. Some time later, the German envoy in St. Petersburg visits him and tells Bauer that the means are now available back home as well to complete his maritime invention. Bauer, a patriot through and through, wants to return home at once, but the Russian Grand Duke has no intention of letting him leave and wants Bauer’s invention put to use for Russia’s war machine. In a daring nighttime escape, Bauer and his men, hampered by Russian troops, board their own submersible to flee toward Germany. With a single, precisely aimed shot, Wilhelm Bauer destroys the gate to the harbor basin, so that now only he can leave the harbor and shipyard complex while submerged. Admiral Brommy is already waiting for him at sea with his ship and takes Bauer aboard, where Sophie Hösly also embraces him eagerly. But Bauer sinks his own invention to the seabed just inside Russian territorial waters, since it had been funded by the Russians. Naturally, he has saved the construction plans for a new vessel built solely for Germany.