Adolf Herrgott

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adolf Herrgott (born October 1, 1872 in Bamberg , † February 15, 1957 in Lindau ) was a German officer , most recently Lieutenant General in World War II . As such, he was the commander of prisoners of war from 1941 to 1942 , including during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in occupied Poland .

Life

The son of a major general was educated in the cadet corps and joined the 2nd Infantry Regiment "Crown Prince" of the Bavarian Army on July 22, 1890 as portepee - ensign . After graduating from war school he was promoted to secondary lieutenant in 1892 and was adjutant of the Vilshofen district command from 1896 to 1898 . Then Herrgott returned to his main regiment and was used there as a battalion adjutant from 1901. From 1902 to 1905 he graduated from the War Academy , which made him qualified for the general staff and the subject. In 1906 he was promoted to captain and at the same time transferred to the central office of the general staff in Munich. Herrgott stayed here for the next two years, was company commander in the 13th Infantry Regiment "Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary" from 1908 to 1910 and was then transferred to the General Staff of the 6th Division . As a major , he was assigned to the Great General Staff in Berlin in 1912, and at the same time Herrgott was a military member of the Bavarian Senate at the Reich Military Court . During this time Herrgott also received training as an observation officer on various airships .

When the First World War broke out , Herrgott initially worked as an observation officer at the airship port in Düsseldorf . On August 24, 1914, he was transferred to the War Ministry in Munich and on September 5, 1914, he was appointed First General Staff Officer of the 6th Reserve Division . With the large association he took part in the battle of Nancy-Epinal and the fighting on the Meuse heights between the Meuse and the Moselle. At the end of December 1914 he left the division and became first general staff officer of the II Army Corps . In the further course of the war he had other general staff assignments. Including from July to September 1916 as a liaison officer to the Army Group "Archduke Karl" then with the Army Group "Archduke Joseph" and then until July 18, 1917 in the General Staff of the 7th Army . In July, Herrgott, now a lieutenant colonel , was transferred to the "Palestine" army group . From December 1917 to April 6, 1918 he served in the Ottoman Army with the rank of Turkish major general. Back in the Bavarian army, he was reinstated as a general staff officer, most recently as chief of the general staff of the 6th Army . In August 1918 he received the order Pour le Mérite .

After the end of the First World War, Herrgott was accepted into the provisional Reichswehr with the rank of lieutenant colonel . He joined the Freikorps Epp and took part as commander of the Bavarian Rifle Corps in the suppression of the Munich Soviet Republic . After the occupation of Munich on May 2, 1919, he was briefly city ​​commander on May 6 . His staff included Ernst Röhm and Christian Roth . Then Herrgott took over command of the Reichswehr Rifle Regiment 41. With a detachment he took part in the invasion of the Reichswehr troops in Hamburg in July 1919 , where the so-called brawn riots had broken out . Herrgott caused a sensation when, prior to Friedrich Ebert's inaugural visit as Reich President in Munich in August 1919, he publicly accused the Bavarian Minister for Military Affairs, Ernst Schneppenhorst, of supporting the Soviet Republic and demanding that he be charged with high treason. Herrgott stated that he could not guarantee Schneppenhorst's safety if he were to attend the troop parade in front of Ebert. Reichswehr Minister Gustav Noske refused to dismiss Herrgott.

Herrgott was transferred to the Reichswehr Ministry in Berlin on October 1, 1919, as head of the Department of Education and Training . There he became head of the teaching and later training department (T 4) on May 17, 1920. Herrgott returned to the troop service in April 1922, was in command of the 4th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment until October 31, 1922 and then commander of the 20th (Bavarian) Infantry Regiment in Regensburg. In this position he was released on February 1, 1923 major general and on November 30 from active service.

After an active military service, Herrgott devoted himself to shooting sports as a defense training. From 1923 to 1934 he was in charge of the Reich Association of German Small-bore Riflemen and in 1933/34 also of the German Shooting Association .

During the following years Herrgott took on various tasks as a teacher and trainer for the Reich Ministry of War. He belonged to the conservative Bavarian resistance group around Franz Sperr .

Herrgott received the character of Lieutenant General on August 27, 1939, the so-called Tannenberg Day.

During the Second World War, Herrgott was initially made available to the army of the Wehrmacht on January 15, 1940 , but was not given a post directly. From May to September 1941 he was commander of the prisoners of war for special use in the Generalgouvernement , then in the military district V. In 1942 he was transferred to the Führerreserve and finally retired on April 30, 1943.

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (Ed.): The Generals of the Army 1921-1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 5: v. Haack-Hitzfeld. Osnabrück 1999. ISBN 3-7648-2538-3 . Pp. 348-350.
  • Othmar Hackl : The Bavarian War Academy (1867-1914). CH Beck´sche publishing house bookstore. Munich 1989. ISBN 3-406-10490-8 . P. 468.
  • Raul Hilberg : perpetrator, victim, spectator. The extermination of the Jews 1933–1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag. Frankfurt am Main 1996. ISBN 3596132169 .
  • Theodor von Zeynek: An officer in the General Staff Corps remembers. Theodor Ritter von Zeynek. Single and ed. by Peter Broucek . Böhlau, Vienna, Cologne, Weimar 2009. ISBN 978-3-205-78149-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Othmar Hackl: The Bavarian War Academy (1867-1914). CH Beck´sche publishing house bookstore. Munich 1989. ISBN 3-406-10490-8 . P. 468.
  2. ^ Walter Mühlhausen: Friedrich Ebert 1871-1925. President of the Weimar Republic. Dietz. Bonn 2006. ISBN 3801241645 . P. 308.
personal data
SURNAME Lord God, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently lieutenant general in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Bamberg
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1957
Place of death Lindau