Kinau was the eldest child of fisherman Heinrich Wilhelm Kinau and his wife, Metta Holst, on the Elbe island of Finkenwerder (now part of Hamburg).

He served as a lookout on the light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden and died when the ship was sunk in the Battle of Jutland.

His body was found on the Swedish shore on the island Väderöbod midsummer's eve 1916 near Fjällbacka.

He was recognised by carrying a poem, "Letzter Wunsch", which predicted his demise, in a hermetically sealed box in his pocket: Letzter Wunsch / Sterb ich auf der stolzen See, / gönnt Gorch Fock ein Seemansgrab.

Gorch Fock is buried on the Stensholmen in Bohuslän the northernmost part of the Swedish west coast.