Albert Praun

Albert Praun (born December 11, 1894 in Staffelstein , † March 3, 1975 in Würzburg ) was a German general in the Wehrmacht intelligence force in World War II and later head of the Federal Intelligence Service .

Life

Praun joined the Bavarian Army as a flag junior in 1913 and served in various intelligence departments during the First World War . After the end of the war as a first lieutenant and awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , the Wound Badge in Black and the Order of Merit IV Class with Swords, Praun was accepted into the Reichswehr . During the Weimar Republic , it was one of Praun's tasks to camouflage the communication structures between the regular and Black Reichswehr . On January 30, 1933, Praun was in Koenigsberg with the news troop . One of the functions of Praun was the management of war maps and surveying .

During the Second World War , Praun commanded the 18th Panzer Division at the Braunschweig company from July 1942 to August 24, 1942 . When companies Edelweiss was Praun of 22 August 1942 to 25 September 1943 commander of the 129th Infantry Division . On October 27, 1943 Praun was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross , after having received the German Cross in Gold on February 7, 1942 . From April 5 to August 10, 1944, Praun was in command of the 277th Infantry Division in Normandy .

On July 20, 1944 , the coup d'état against Hitler failed . General Erich Fellgiebel , responsible for intelligence in the army , was arrested on the same day as one of the “main conspirators”, and his deputy Lieutenant General Fritz Thiele at the beginning of August 1944 as a co-conspirator. Praun was then commissioned on August 12, 1944 with the management of the army intelligence of the Wehrmacht.

Since the Americans did not pass him on to the French from detention in Neumarkt and he was subsequently not extradited by the Federal Republic, the trial for the murder of 19 French Resistance members in Marseille took place in Praun's absence. He was sentenced to death there on February 1, 1955.

From 1956 to 1965 Praun was head of the telecommunications reconnaissance of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). The murder of his cousin Otto Praun , in which, according to the news magazine Der Spiegel , the BND was also involved, is one of the most spectacular criminal cases in German history.

In 1961, Praun also initiated the establishment of the Fernmeldering e. V., which sees itself as "an association of members of the former telegraph and intelligence service, active and former members of the telecommunications service of the German Armed Forces and everyone who feels connected to telecommunications and command service".

Publications

• The communications links of a theater of war. In: Wehrwissenschaftliche Rundschau. 3: 228-235 (1953).
• Wehrmacht communication links. In: Defense. 2 (1953), No. 9, pp. 11-16.
• Bavarian telegraph and news troops. Wuerzburg 1963.
• Soldier in the telegraph and intelligence corps. Self-published, Würzburg 1965.
  • new edition entitled: Albert Praun. A German (Soldier) Life 1894–1975. ed. by Hella Praun, self-published, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-937082-22-0 .
• with Kunibert Randewig: An investigation into the radio service of the Russian, British and American armies in World War II from the German point of view, with special consideration of their security. Fernmeldering e. V., Bonn 1999.

swell

• Review by Praun (PDF; 29 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 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. 603.
2. ↑ Last shine . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 1967, p. 64 ( online ).
3. ^ French Trials ( Memento from March 2, 2010 on WebCite )
4. ↑ cf. Fernmeldering e. V., accessed on May 20, 2012