Claus Hinkelbein

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Claus Hinkelbein (born December 28, 1909 in Ludwigsburg , † April 28, 1967 in Bad Salzuflen ) was a German Stuka pilot and officer, most recently in the rank of major general in the Bundeswehr . In 1937 he was one of the passengers of the crashed airship LZ 129 "Hindenburg" .

Life

Wehrmacht

Origin and career as an officer

Claus Hinkelbein came from a family of officers, his father Philipp Hinkelbein achieved the rank of major general in 1941 . He joined the Reichswehr in 1930 and was later accepted into the Wehrmacht Air Force . Hinkelbein was promoted to adjutant to the commander of the bomber group stationed at Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental air base.

Misfortune of the Hindenburg

Lakehurst disaster (1937)

On May 6, 1937, the first lieutenant, together with Colonel Fritz Erdmann and Major Hans-Hugo Witt, was a military observer on the Zeppelin LZ 129 "Hindenburg" . During the Hindenburg disaster in Lakehurst , he was only slightly injured and was one of the 20 surviving passengers. He then gave information as a witness to the United States Department of Commerce . According to newspaper reports, he was later awarded for his rescue operation from other passengers.

Second World War

Hinkelbein served as a dive bomber pilot in World War II . It should - as noted in the Brown Book of the GDR (1968) - u. a. been used in the Polish campaign (1939), the western campaign (1940) and Operation Barbarossa (1941). In the spring of 1940 he was also involved in maneuvers over the North Sea and in the Weser exercise . In June 1940 he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his missions against the British Navy . From September 10th to October 26th, 1939 he was a captain group commander of the II./ Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 ( Junkers Ju 87 ). From December 1939 to June 1940 he was group commander of II./ Kampfgeschwader 30 ( Junkers Ju 88 ) and from September 20 to October 8, 1940 of the supplementary combat group 5. After that, he was most likely promoted to lieutenant colonel . According to East German journalism, Hinkelbein was employed as chief of the general staff of Feldluftgau Command XIV ( Wiesbaden ) until the end of the war .

armed forces

After 1945 he was - according to an author collective of the GDR - sales point manager of a factory for furniture production. He joined the German Armed Forces in the 1950s and from April 1, 1962 to May 12, 1966 was commander of the German Armed Forces School for Inner Guidance in Koblenz . From 1966 to 1967 he was commander of the 4th Air Force Division in Aurich . Most recently he was promoted to major general.

Hinkelbein was married.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Author collective of the Institute for German Military History of the National People's Army : Bundeswehr, Army of Revenge. Problems of the development of the Bundeswehr . German Military Publishing House, Berlin 1965, p. 476.
  2. ^ A b c Michael Sylvester Koziol: Armament, War and Slavery. De Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental Air Base and the concentration camp. A documentation (= research from Württembergisch-Franken . Volume 27). Thorbecke Jan Verlag, Sigmaringen 1986, ISBN 3-7995-7626-6 , p. 22.
  3. ↑ a b BLO: Two Hallers among the rescued from Lakehurst . In: Haller Tagblatt , August 20, 2013.
  4. ↑ cf. Novel by Henning Boëtius : Phoenix from ashes . btb, Munich 2000, ISBN 978-3-89480-566-1 [electronic resource].
  5. ^ Albert Sting : History of the City of Ludwigsburg . Volume 2: From 1816 to the end of the war in 1945 . 2nd edition, Ungeheuer + Ulmer, Ludwigsburg 1995, ISBN 3-930872-26-9 , p. 296.
  6. ↑ cf. Robert Wilson Knight: The Hindenburg Accident. A Comparative Digest of the Investigations and Findings, with the American and Translated German Reports Included . Department of Commerce, Bureau of Air Commerce, Safety and Planning Division, Report No. 11, 1938.
  7. ^ A b c National Council of the National Front of Democratic Germany / Documentation Center of the State Archives Administration of the GDR (Ed.): Braunbuch. War and Nazi criminals in the Federal Republic and West Berlin . State Publishing House of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin (East) 1968, p. 297.
  8. ↑ Geirr H. Haarr: The Battle of Norway . Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley 2010, ISBN 978-1-84832-057-4 , p. 394.
  9. ↑ Peter Schmitz, Klaus J. Thies, Günter Wegmann, Christian Zweng (Eds.): The German Divisions, 1939-1945. Army, land-based navy, air force, Waffen-SS . Volume 1: Divisions 1-5 . Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1993, ISBN 3-7648-2421-2 , p. 178.
  10. ^ Henry L. de Zeng IV., Douglas G. Stankey, Eddie J. Creek: Dive-Bomber and Ground-Attack Units of the Luftwaffe 1933-45. A reference source . Volume 1, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham 2007, ISBN 978-1-85780-279-5 , p. 87.
  11. ↑ John Weal: Ju 88 Kampfgeschwader on the Western Front . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2000, ISBN 1-84176-020-X , p. 20.
  12. ↑ a b collective of authors under the direction of Karl-Ernst Reuter and Lothar Kruss: Die Macht der Hundert. Mechanism of state monopoly rule in West Germany . Published by the German Economic Institute, Dietz, Berlin 1966, p. 273.
  13. ↑ Carl Gero von Ilsemann: The inner leadership in the armed forces (= The Bundeswehr . Volume 5). Walhalla / Praetoria, Regensburg 1981, ISBN 3-8029-6425-X , p. 260.
  14. ↑ a b Dieter E. Kilian : Politics and the military in Germany. The Federal Presidents and Chancellors and their relationship to the military and the Bundeswehr . Hartmann, Miles-Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-937885-36-0 , p. 81.
  15. ↑ BArch. BL 7-4 ( online ( memento from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive )).
personal data
SURNAME Hinkelbein, Claus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Stuka pilot in the Wehrmacht and officer, most recently in the rank of major general in the Bundeswehr
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigsburg
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1967
Place of death Bad Salzuflen