Edgardo von Schroeders

Edgardo von Schroeders Sarratea (1883–1956) was a Chilean admiral who served as Inspector General of the Chilean Navy in 1932.

Biography

Von Schroeders was born in Valparaíso in 1883. He was the son of Teodoro von Schroeders, a Baltic German physician and military officer who emigrated to Chile in 1873, and Emilia Sarratea y Toro, a Chilean.

In 1913, while serving as a lieutenant, von Schroeders was sent to the United States to take command of Iquique, one of the first two submarines purchased by Chile. The outbreak of World War I, however, prevented him from assuming command after the vessel was transferred to Canada. In 1923, with the rank of commander, he became the first commander of the newly established Chilean Naval Aviation. In 1928, by then a captain, he commanded the corvette General Baquedano.

In 1931, holding the rank of rear admiral, von Schroeders was sent by the government of Manuel Trucco as its official representative to negotiate with mutinous sailors at Coquimbo during the Chilean naval mutiny of 1931. Accompanied by Captain Luis Muñoz Artigas, he held negotiations with the sailors' "Estado Mayor de las Tripulaciones" aboard the battleship Almirante Latorre. He remained in senior naval service following the reorganization of the officer corps that followed the mutiny.

Von Schroeders served for several weeks as Inspector General of the Chilean Navy in early 1932. He was the last officer to head the Navy under the title of Inspector General before the position became known as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy.

In 1941, he joined the Frente Nacional Chileno, a corporatist political organization that expressed sympathies toward Nazi Germany and supported the presidential candidacy of retired general Francisco Javier Díaz.

Following his retirement, von Schroeders was one of the founders of the golf club at Cachagua.

He died in Santiago in 1956.