Admiral Maximilian von Spee was dispatched to the Pacific at the begining of the Great War. He led a large squadron of cruisers from his flagship Scharnhorst and along with the cruiser Gniesenau. They took up a position off the coast of China, along with other German cruisers,where they shelled the British colonies. At this time the Japanese were allied with Britain and came out against the German cruisers. Von Spee broke off inshore shelling, he and his other commanders took up surface raiding. In an action with combined Japanse and British fleets,Scharnhorst along with Admiral von Spee was sent to the bottom off the Falkland islands,in that action Gniesenau also was sunk! Spee's two sons, on two other cruisers accompanied their ships to the bottom as well
Born in Denmark in 1861 * Graf(Count) von Spee served in the German Kriegs Marine,during the Great War (WWI). He had the famous Panzer Schiff Graf Spee named for him! The Graf Spee was a Surface Raider,that met her end in the Rio Plate in Montevideo harbour in Uraguay!
* But was a member of the German nobility from a Rhenish family.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Schleswig_War