Built at Howaldtswerke, Kiel, she was launched in 1929 as the cargo shipNeumark for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG). In 1939 the Kriegsmarine requisitioned her for use as a commerce raider. She was converted by Blohm+Voss in late 1939, and commissioned as the raider Widder on 9 December of that year. She sailed on her first and only raiding voyage in May 1940.
Leaving Germany on 6 May 1940, she made for Bergen, in Norway. On 13 May Widder encountered the British submarine HMS Clyde on the surface, exchanging gunfire for more than an hour, with no hits for either side. After the engagement, the cruiser sheltered in Sandsfjord. On 14 May she put to sea, crossing the Arctic Circle the next day. On 21 August 1940, 800 miles west of the Canary Islands, she sank Anglo Saxon, which had been carrying coal from Newport, Wales, to Bahía Blanca, Argentina. After refuelling from the auxiliary ship Nordmark, she slipped through the Denmark Strait. Over a 5½ month period she captured and sank ten ships, totalling 58,644 GRT.
Widder was reported to have machine-gunned the crew of Anglo Saxon in their lifeboats. One jolly boat with seven crewmen survived. Over two months later, on 27 October, the last two survivors in the boat landed in the Bahamas after a 2,275-mile voyage. One of the two was killed when his next ship was torpedoed in 1941. The other survived the war and testified against von Ruckteschell, who was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for war crimes. He died in prison in 1948.
Having completed her mission, she returned to occupied France on 31 October 1940.
Later history
Deemed unsuitable as a merchant raider due to persistent drive problems, Widder was re-christened Neumark, and used as a repair ship in Norway, playing a major role in repairing the battleship Tirpitz in 1943–44. After the war she was taken into British merchant service as Ulysses, then sold back to Germany as Fechenheim in 1951. She was converted into a motor ship in 1954. She was wrecked off Bergen in 1955, and scrapped shortly after.
She was one of only two German auxiliary cruisers to survive the war, after one 1940 cruise. Her captain, Helmuth von Ruckteschell, was one of only two German naval commanders convicted of war crimes at the end of the war.
