Friedrich Wilhelm von Mellenthin

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Friedrich Wilhelm von Mellenthin (born August 30, 1904 in Breslau ; † June 28, 1997 in Johannesburg ) was a German general (most recently major general), businessman and author.

Life

He came from the old Pomeranian noble family von Mellenthin and grew up on the family estates Mellenthin and Lienichen. Like his father Paul von Mellenthin (1866-1918), who fell as a lieutenant colonel during the last offensives on the Western Front near Tournai , and his older brother Horst , who was to advance to general of the artillery in the Wehrmacht , he made the career of an officer.

He served in World War II as Third General Staff Officer (Ic) in Erwin Rommel's staff in Africa, and later as Chief of the General Staff of XXXXVIII. Panzer Corps and the 4th Panzer Army on the Eastern Front and Army Group G on the Western Front, each under Hermann Balck . He temporarily led the 9th Panzer Division and was promoted to major general in 1944. His last position was that of chief of staff of the 5th Panzer Army , which went down in the Ruhr basin in April 1945 .

After his release from captivity, von Mellenthin emigrated to South Africa , where he married the owner of Trek Air and later founded Luxavia after his divorce. In 1961 he became the regional director of Deutsche Lufthansa for Africa . In 1969 he retired.

In South Africa, Mellenthin came to the conclusion in the African year 1960 that from now on the West could only rely on the apartheid regimes in South Africa (including South West Africa ) and Southern Rhodesia, as well as on the not yet independent colonies of NATO member Portugal ( Mozambique and Angola ) , while the newly formed African states are potentially unstable. In a military-political study, he therefore suggested the establishment of a Southern Africa Treaty Organization (SATO) as a southern expansion of NATO and the establishment of command units that are always ready to intervene.

Mellenthin is the author of several military historical and theoretical writings and an autobiography. His book Tank Battles , published in 1963, has been translated into several languages. In 1969 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class by the Federal President .

family

Friedrich Wilhelm von Mellenthin married Ingeborg von Aulock (born May 15, 1913; † unknown), the granddaughter of a South African emigrant, in 1932. This marriage, which was divorced in 1954, has five children. His second marriage was Sybille Zeltmann (* 1925) in Johannesburg in 1954. There were two children from this marriage.

Fonts

  • Tank battles. A study of the use of tank units in World War II . Vowinckel , Neckargemünd 1963, DNB-Info , published in the United States from 1956 to 1976 under the title Panzer Battles: A Study of the Employment of Armor in the Second World War ( digitized version ).
  • Germany's generals of World War II. Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1980, ISBN 3-404-65027-1
  • with RHS Stolfi, E. Sobik: NATO Under Attack: Why the Western Alliance Can Fight Outnumbered and Win in Central Europe Without Nuclear Weapons. Duke Press Policy Studies, 1984.
  • Check the fate. A German general staff officer reports on his origins, his deployment in World War II and his new career start after the war . In: Soldier Fates of the 20th Century as a Source of History . Vol. 11, Osnabrück 1988, ISBN 3-7648-1729-1 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mellenthin, Friedrich Wilhelm von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military, officer, businessman and author
DATE OF BIRTH August 30, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1997
Place of death Johannesburg