Korvettenkapitan Georg von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, details of his naval career here, went down with his boat U-459 off the coast of Spain after evacuating his crew.

Georg has a very unusual surname, which he shares with a famous 19th c. scholar, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (it does appear that Ulrich spells Moellendorff with an extra final 'f'). Ulrich was known for writing a harsh review of Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, marrying Theodor Mommsen's daughter, writing an early history of classical scholarship, and for revitalizing the Inscriptiones Graecae project in the first three decades of the twentieth century. The Wilamowitzes were Prussian Junkers, and they added the 'von Moellendorf' in 1813 when a Prussian field marshal made them his heirs. I'm not aware of any other source for this compound surname.

The surname is also unusual in Georg's case because U-Boat commanders were typically engineering/mechanical types drawn from Central Germany rather than the Prussian aristocracy. In other words, there are very few 'vons' in the U-boat arm of the Kriegsmarine.

The information I have about the U-boat commander Georg does not specify that he was descended from Junkers, but his combat actions (deliberately going down with the ship when he didn't have to) suggest something of the 'Prussian mentality'.

Does anyone know if these two were related? What do people think the probability of a relation is? Does anyone have access to online archives that could clear this up in a definitive way? Thanks!