Adrian von Fölkersam

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Adrian von Fölkersam (center, next to Otto Skorzeny ) in Budapest, 1944

Adrian "Arik" Freiherr von Fölkersam ( Russian: Адриан Арминович Фелькерсам; * December 20, 1914 in Saint Petersburg ; † probably January 21, 1945 near Hohensalza , Wartheland or around 1949) was a German member of the special unit Brandenburger and Waffen SS officer, posthumously in the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer in World War II .

Career

Von Fölkersam was born into the German-Baltic noble family von Fölkersam , who had worked for the Russian Empire for a long time , making him fluent in Russian. His father, Magnus Conrad Armin von Fölkersam, was an Imperial Russian officer and art historian. Von Fölkersam's family fled Russia after the Russian Revolution and settled in Latvia . In 1932 he made his Abitur at the classical grammar school in Riga . From 1934 he attended the universities in Munich, Königsberg and Vienna and studied economics (political economy). At that time he became a member of the NSDAP and the SA . He also worked as a journalist for the Rigasche Rundschau . Von Fölkersam joined the Brandenburgers together with his brother in May 1940 and trained a special unit made up of ethnic Germans of Russian origin. His unit was very active during Operation Barbarossa .

In the summer of 1942 he defended the oil fields of Maikop far in enemy territory with his force, called Der wilde Haufen, consisting of 60 Russian-speaking men from Germany and the Baltic States . Disguised as Russian NKVD soldiers; the uniforms came from defected soldiers; the troops smuggled through the enemy lines. He gave himself up to the Soviet officers in command of the city of Maikop; at that time still in the rank of lieutenant d. R .; as Major Turchin from the Zhdanov Brigade with a special assignment. As a result of this reprimand, he received preferential treatment as a supposedly combat-experienced officer of the Red Army, so that his troops carry out unrestricted reconnaissance campaigns and at the beginning of August, during the advance of the German Wehrmacht, put the Soviet forces into chaos through targeted measures. B. by announcing the withdrawal of the Soviet troops, imprisoning alleged deserters of the Red Army and pulling the Soviet engineers away from the destruction of the oilfields. For this mission he was awarded the Knight's Cross and promoted to lieutenant.

In 1944 von Fölkersam switched to the Waffen-SS in the SS-Jagdverband Ost due to a lack of deployments with the Brandenburgers , whereby he came under the command of Otto Skorzeny , under whom he later became chief of staff and his friend. This unit was active on the Eastern Front and took part in the kidnapping of Miklós Horthy Jr. and the removal of his father, the Hungarian regent Miklós Horthy , from the company Panzerfaust . During the Battle of the Bulge , von Fölkersam took over as leader of Combat Group X of the Armored Brigade 150 a . a. participated in Operation Greif , and was wounded there in late 1944. He was seriously wounded again after being dispatched to the Eastern Front again, but then fought against the advancing Red Army in central Poland in January 1945 . Adrian von Fölkersam is said to have been killed by a shot in the head on January 21, 1945 near Hohensalza in the Wartheland during fighting with the Red Army. He had been given the task of preventing the Red Army's advance near Hohensalza with the SS-Jagdverband Ost (approx. 800 men) and other available forces. At the time of his death he was SS-Hauptsturmführer and commanded the SS-Jagdverband Ost as the successor to Otto Skorzeny. Posthumously he was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer. Another source reports of Soviet captivity and the loss of his tracks around 1949.

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Peter Tsouras: Disaster at Stalingrad: An Alternate History . Grub Street Publishers, 2013, ISBN 978-1-78346-946-8 ( google.de [accessed June 7, 2019]).
  2. ^ Dietrich Loeber: The Classical Gymnasium in Riga 1919–1939. A reminder . Hamburg 1970. p. 205.
  3. ^ A b David R. Higgins: Behind Soviet Lines: Hitler's Brandenburgers capture the Maikop Oilfields 1942 . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014, ISBN 978-1-78200-600-8 , pp. 25 ( google.de [accessed June 7, 2019]).
  4. ^ A b c Gordon Williamson: German Special Forces of World War II . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-78096-999-2 ( google.de [accessed June 7, 2019]).
  5. ^ A b c Franz Kurowski: The Brandenburger Commandos: Germany's Elite Warrior Spies in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2005, ISBN 978-0-8117-5053-0 ( google.de [accessed June 7, 2019]).
  6. ↑ Hagen Berger: Walter Girg : on Hitler's behalf behind the enemy lines: secret operations in the uniform of the enemy: a bearer of oak leaves between Skorzeny, CIA and BND . Verlag für Wehrwissenschaften, 2014, ISBN 978-3-9816037-1-2 , pp. 62 ff . ( google.de [accessed on June 8, 2019]).
  7. ↑ Veit Scherzer : The knight's cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives . 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , pp. 313 .
personal data
SURNAME Fölkersam, Adrian von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fölkersam, Adrian Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German member of the Brandenburg special unit and Waffen SS officer in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1945
Place of death near Hohensalza , Wartheland