In October 1915 he was promoted to Korvettenkapitän and in December of that year took command of the Pola Flotilla.

During the war he succeeded sank 55 ships of a total tonnage of 157,473 gross register tons (GRT), including a large American tanker O.

The crew, as well as survivors from another of his victims, USS Merak, a freighter seized by the US and assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service,[2] escaped the lightship and rowed to shore.

[1] The submarine tender Waldemar Kophamel was named in his honor in 1939 and served in the German Navy until sunk by the Royal Air Force on 18 December 1944.

After the war, it was raised by the USSR, renamed Kuban, and served with the Soviet Navy until 1978.