Albert Kesselring

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Albert Kesselring, 1940

Albert Kesselring (born November 30, 1885 in Marktsteft ; † July 15, 1960 in Bad Nauheim ) was a German Army and Air Force officer ( General Field Marshal since 1940 ) who held various management positions during the Second World War and, after it ended, was appointed to a British military tribunal in Italy was sentenced to death as a war criminal and later pardoned several times.

Life

Bavarian Army

Kesselring grew up as the son of a teacher and later city school council in Bayreuth . After passing the Abitur at the Christian-Ernestinum high school , he joined the 2nd foot artillery regiment of the Bavarian Army stationed in Metz on July 20, 1904 . On March 8, 1906, he was appointed lieutenant . After he married his wife Pauline on March 29, 1910, the couple adopted a boy (Rainer) in 1913.

In June 1912 he completed a balloon observer course in an airship department (before there were reconnaissance planes , tethered balloons were used ). On October 25th he was promoted to first lieutenant .

At the beginning of the First World War , Kesselring served as a battalion adjutant in the artillery. On December 5, 1914, he was transferred to the headquarters of the foot artillery brigade . Promoted to captain in 1916 , he worked as a general staff officer with divisional and corps headquarters. His achievements during the war were recognized by the award of both classes of the Iron Cross , the Order of Military Merit IV. Class with swords and with a crown and the Knight's Cross II. Class of the Albrecht Order with swords.

Weimar Republic

After the war, Kesselring was taken over by the Reichswehr in 1919 and initially used as the battery boss. In 1922 he was transferred to the Reichswehr Ministry, where he was used, among other things, in the Army Training Department (T 4) and in the staff of the Chief of Army Command. After working as a general staff officer in various divisional headquarters, Kesselring took over as a lieutenant colonel from 1931 to 1933 as commander of the III. Division in the 4th Artillery Regiment in Dresden .

National Socialism

Pre-war period

In 1933, Kesselring, now a colonel , moved to the newly formed Reich Aviation Ministry , where he took over the management of Office D (later the Air Force Administration Office). His area of ​​responsibility included building what would later become the Air Force . He also formally resigned from the army in 1934 and passed the pilot's examination. In 1936 Kesselring was promoted to Lieutenant General , and in June of that year he was appointed Chief of the Air Force General Staff as the successor to Walther Wever in the accident . In June 1937 he took over command in Luftkreis III (Dresden) while being promoted to General der Flieger . At the beginning of the following year he became the commander of Luftwaffe Group Command 1 in Berlin, which was later converted into Luftflotte 1 . At that time he was responsible for the German airspace from Berlin and central Germany to the east.

Second World War

First campaigns
Field Marshal Kesselring in his Siebel Fh 104 aircraft

When Hitler began the Second World War on September 1, 1939 , Kesselring commanded Luftflotte 1 ; she was responsible for the air support of Army Group North during the attack on Poland . After the surrender of Warsaw, which had previously been heavily bombed , he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on September 30, 1939 . In January 1940, he assumed command of the 2nd Air Fleet in the West, during the campaign in the west , the Army Group B supported. Associations under his command carried out a devastating air raid on Rotterdam on May 14 to force the Netherlands to surrender. On 19 July 1940, after the end of hostilities in France , Kesselring was skipping the rank of Colonel-General for Field Marshal transported (simultaneously with eleven other generals). During the subsequent Battle of Britain , his air fleet was responsible for the attacks on south-east England and, from September 1940, on London ( The Blitz ).

In preparation for the attack on the Soviet Union , Kesselring's air fleet was relocated to Poland in June 1941. Their task was to support Army Group Center in their advance on Moscow . She played a decisive role in the successful cauldron battles in the first months of the invasion . In November 1941 the staff and several subordinate units received orders to relocate to Italy.

Mediterranean and Italy

Kesselring moved into its headquarters in Frascati near Rome. He was also given the title of " Commander-in-Chief South at the Italian High Command". His task was to fight the British troops in Malta and to secure German supplies by sea, especially to North Africa. German troops stood or fought there as part of the Africa campaign (September 9, 1940 to May 13, 1943).

In recognition of his leadership and the performance of the troops, Kesselring was awarded the Oak Leaves on February 25, 1942 and the Swords of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on July 18 of the same year. For his 200th front flight in 1942 he received the golden front flight clasp . In October 1942 his authority was extended to all armed forces nominally under Italian command in the Mediterranean area, with the exception of Erwin Rommel's Panzer Army Africa , and in early 1943 he was given overall command of the Tunisian bridgehead ( Tunisian campaign February to May 1943). His over-optimistic assessments of the situation contributed to the downfall of Army Group Africa in the Tunisian campaign.

After the Allies landed in Sicily (from July 10, 1943) and Mussolini's fall in July 1943, Kesselring was tasked with preparing the measures to be taken in southern Italy in the event of a defection in Italy ( Axis case ). After the Allies landed in Italy , Kesselring was appointed Commander in Chief Southwest and Commander in Chief of Army Group C on November 21 . He was also given executive power in the Italian operational areas.

Hostage shootings in Italy
Kesselring during an inspection in Italy, December 23, 1944

Kesselring was always loyal to Hitler and never made any specific statements about the Nazi regime. As Commander-in-Chief in Italy, he was responsible for several so-called "atonement measures" by the Wehrmacht against the Italian civilian population after attacks by the Italian Resistance against members of the Wehrmacht. After an assassination attempt in Via Rasella in Rome on March 23, 1944, in which 33 members of the Bolzano police regiment fell victim, Kesselring had 335 completely uninvolved Italian civilians shot in the Ardeatine Caves . From April 1944, Kesselring also headed the entire "fight against gangs" in the Italian operational areas. The highest SS and Police Leader , Karl Wolff , was personally subordinate to him and received the guidelines from Kesselring.

A logistical problem with the German withdrawal was Rome, with its priceless monuments and irreplaceable buildings. The Allies had started bombing San Lorenzo , a district of Rome that was mainly inhabited by workers, as there were supposedly German troops and supply centers there. To prevent a second Monte Cassino or even Stalingrad , Pope Pius XII refused . to leave the city and sought a universal declaration of Rome as an open, military-free city . Many helped him, on the Vatican side Pankratius Pfeiffer , Domenico Tardini , Otto Faller , on the German side Ernst von Weizsäcker and SS- General Karl Wolff.

At the beginning of June 1944, Kesselring declared Rome an “open city” and withdrew all troops except for a rearguard. On June 4, 1944, troops of the 5th US Army marched into Rome.

On July 19, 1944, one day before his 40th service anniversary, Kesselring was awarded the diamonds for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. He was one of 27 winners of this award .

Towards the end of one of the most difficult defensive battles in Italy, on the northern slopes of the Apennines , Kesselring was seriously wounded on October 23, 1944 during one of his daily troop visits. On his behalf, Colonel General Heinrich von Vietinghoff took over the supreme command in Italy until mid-January. On January 5, 1945, Adolf Hitler received Kesselring at the Fuehrer's headquarters in Adlerhorst .

End of war

On March 8, 1945, one day after the Ludendorff Bridge near Remagen was taken, Kesselring was summoned to the Fuehrer's headquarters again, where he was appointed Gerd von Rundstedt's successor as Commander-in-Chief West . On March 11th he took command of the Western Front . He had an influence on the further course of the war due to the fact that the Allies crossed the Rhine, which could no longer be stopped - they crossed the river on March 23 at Nierstein , on March 24th / 25th . March between Emmerich and Wesel ( Operation Plunder ), as well as in other places - no more. In the event of the army fronts being cut up and the formation of a boiler, Hitler appointed him commander in chief in the southern boiler. At the end of April 1945, the previously independent Commander-in-Chiefs Southwest and Southeast were also subordinate to him.

Kesselring's successor as Mayor Southwest, Heinrich von Vietinghoff-Scheel , and his chief of staff, Hans Röttiger, initiated the surrender in Italy at the end of April 1945. Kesselring wanted to have them shot dead, but could not prevent the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces in Italy from being signed on May 2nd .

On May 15 - a week after the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht - Kesselring himself became an American prisoner of war. The Western Allies interned him along with other high officers and NSDAP functionaries at Camp Ashcan in Bad Mondorf, Luxembourg .

post war period

Albert Kesselring detention card, June 23, 1945

On May 6, 1947 he was sentenced to death by shooting by a British military tribunal in Mestre near Venice after 57 days of trial for knowledge and toleration of hostage shootings and his orders to "fight gangs" . In July, however, he was pardoned to life imprisonment and sent to Werl in moved to a military prison. Kesselring's defender was Hans Laternser . In 1948 the sentence was reduced to 21 years.

On October 23, 1952, he was pardoned, also because of his poor health due to cancer , and released early.

From 1952 to 1960 Kesselring was federal leader of the Der Stahlhelm - Kampfbund für Europa , a re-establishment of the Stahlhelm in the post-war period of the First World War. In 1953 Kesselring published the first part of his memoir ( Soldier to the Last Day ) and in 1955 the second ( Thoughts on the Second World War ). He did not distance himself from his actions or his unconditional loyalty to Adolf Hitler . On July 16, 1960 he died of a heart attack in a sanatorium in Bad Nauheim ; he was buried in the mountain cemetery in Bad Wiessee . The funeral speech was given by the then Inspector of the Air Force and former Wehrmacht General Josef Kammhuber .

reception

In the almost 400-page monograph Kesselring's last battle , published in 2004 . War crimes trials, politics of the past and rearmament by Kerstin von Lingen , it is shown that the post-war public in Germany made the moral assessment of Kesselring largely unilaterally in his favor.

It describes in detail how a real press campaign “Freedom for Kesselring!” Took place for his pardon. The FAZ, for example, had the headline: “Innocent people cannot be amnestied.” The highlight was a series by the Stern magazine , which opened in 1951 with the title “Not grace, but law”. Above all, he was credited with securing art treasures and declaring Rome an “Open City”.

The extermination of entire Italian villages, including women, children and old people, committed on the “gang orders” of June 17, 1944, was suppressed or ignored. In Adenauer's Germany, the “force field of anti-communism and the cold war” was, in her opinion, effective in reinterpreting “the war criminal as a man of honor who languished in prison”.

The pardoning concession of the Allied judiciary, so they found, created the false impression that a “victorious judiciary” was now being corrected. The reviewer of the Frankfurter Rundschau judged that von Lingen's book was a detailed, "highly differentiated study that did historical justice to the field marshal without giving the war criminal Kesselring the slightest thing".

Awards

literature

  • Friedrich Andrae: Also against women and children. The war of the German Wehrmacht against the civilian population in Italy 1943–1945. Piper, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-492-03698-8 .
  • Michael Bertram: The image of Nazi rule in the memoirs of leading generals of the Third Reich - a critical investigation. Ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-8382-0034-7 .
  • Robert Herde: Command responsibility. The persecution of the "Second Guard" of German and Japanese generals in the Allied trial program after the Second World War (= Nomos Universitätsschriften - Geschichte. Volume 12). Nomos, Baden-Baden 2002, ISBN 978-3-7890-7089-1
  • Gerhard Hirschfeld , Tobias Jersak (Hrsg.): Careers in National Socialism: Functional elites between participation and distance. Campus, Frankfurt am Main u. a. 2004, ISBN 3-593-37156-1 , pp. 205-224.
  • Elmar Krautkrämer : Field Marshal General Albert Kesselring. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.): Hitler's military elite. Volume 1. Primus, Darmstadt 1998, ISBN 3-89678-083-2 , pp. 121-129.
  • Kerstin von Lingen: Kesselring's last battle. War Crimes Trials, Politics of the Past and Rearmament: The Kesselring Case. Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-506-71749-9 . ( Digitized version )
  • Gerhard Schreiber: German war crimes in Italy. Perpetrator, victim, law enforcement. Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-39268-7 .
  • Werner Sünkel, Rudolf Rack, Pierre Rhode: Adlerhorst. Autopsy of a Führer headquarters (= essays on history + technology. Volume 7). Sünkel, Leinburg 1998, ISBN 3-930060-07-8 (3rd edition. Ibid. 2002, ISBN 3-930060-97-3 ).
  • Thilo Vogelsang:  Keßelring, Albert. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 542 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Albert Kesselring  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matthias Rüb: Nazi massacre in Italy: Vaulted place, injured people . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed August 12, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Kerstin von Lingen : Kesselring's last battle. 2004, p. 34.
  3. ↑ For more information, see Pier Paolo Battistelli: Albert Kesselring Osprey Publishing 2012, ISBN 978-1-84908-735-3 .
  4. ↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin, p. 118.
  5. ↑ a b c Veit Scherzer : 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 , p. 438.
  6. ↑ Gerhard Schreiber : The end of the North African campaign and the war in Italy 1943 to 1945. In: Karl-Heinz Frieser , Klaus Schmider , Klaus Schönherr , Gerhard Schreiber, Krisztián Ungváry, Bernd Wegner: The Eastern Front 1943/44 - The War in the East and on the secondary fronts. On behalf of the MGFA ed. by Karl-Heinz Frieser. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-06235-2 , pp. 1135ff.
  7. ↑ commanded by Mark W. Clark . Film (sw, 20:51) by the US War Department
  8. ↑ Klaus Naumann : Review of: von Lingen, Kerstin: Kesselring's last battle. War Crimes Trials, Politics of the Past and Rearmament: The Kesselring Case . Paderborn 2004 , in: H-Soz-u-Kult , November 12, 2005.
  9. ↑ Hagen Keller et al. (Ed.): Liber Amicorum Arnold Esch ( p. 66 )
  10. ↑ p. 437, footnote 32
  11. ↑ IN MEMORIAM . In: Der Spiegel . No. 31 , 1960 ( online ).
  12. ↑ Klaus Naumann : Review of: von Lingen, Kerstin: Kesselring's last battle. War Crimes Trials, Politics of the Past and Rearmament: The Kesselring Case . Paderborn 2004. In: H-Soz-u-Kult , November 12, 2005.
  13. ^ Jörg Nimmergut : German medals and decorations until 1945. Volume 4. Württemberg II - German Empire. Central Office for Scientific Order Studies, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-00-001396-2 , p. 2441.
  14. ↑ The book deals with so far little-known proceedings that were carried out after the Second World War against the "Second Guard" of the military leadership of Japan and Germany before American and British courts-martial. It reconstructs some little-known Nuremberg succession proceedings and a number of other processes in Italy and Southeast Asia on the basis of little or unknown files and classifies them in the history of international martial law . ( Review )
Chiefs of Staff of the armed forces of the Wehrmacht (1935–1945)


Chiefs of the General Staff of the Army

Ludwig Beck  | Franz Halder  | Kurt Zeitzler  | Heinz Guderian (md W. d. G. b.) | Hans Krebs (md W. d. G. b.) | Alfred Jodl (md W. d. G. b.)

Chief of the General Staff of the Air Force

Walther Wever  | Albert Kesselring  | Hans-Jürgen Stumpff  | Hans Jeschonnek  | Günther Korten  | Werner Kreipe (md W. d. G. b.) | Karl Koller

Chiefs of the Naval War Command of the Navy

Günther Guse  | Otto Schniewind  | Kurt Fricke  | Wilhelm Meisel

predecessor Office successor
Gerd von Rundstedt Commander in Chief West
personal data
SURNAME Kesselring, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Field Marshal General in the Third Reich
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Marktsteft
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 1960
Place of death Bad Nauheim