Albrecht Steppuhn

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Georg August Hermann Albrecht Steppuhn (born July 15, 1877 in Sopot , † February 22, 1955 in Wiesbaden-Sonnenberg ) was a German infantry general in World War II .

Life

origin

Albrecht was the son of the Prussian officer Friedrich Steppuhn (1837–1920) and his wife Ida Luise Dorothea, née Huet (1849–1906). His uncle was Hermann Steppuhn .

Military career

After visiting the cadet corps , Steppuhn was transferred to Infantry Regiment No. 128 of the Prussian Army in Danzig on March 7, 1896, as a second lieutenant . From 1902 to 1904 he was adjutant of the III. Battalion and then advanced to regimental adjutant and first lieutenant . After his promotion to captain , Steppuhn became chief of the MG company on July 19, 1911 . In this capacity he took part in the battles at Gumbinnen , Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes on the Eastern Front after the outbreak of the First World War. During the persecution he was seriously wounded on September 11, 1914 in the battle near Szabienen . After his recovery, Steppuhn returned to his regiment at the front on March 3rd and was appointed commander of the III. Battalion and promoted to major in mid-August 1917 . During the attack battle between Soissons and Reims , a detachment under his command stormed the Hurtebise-Ferme section on the Western Front at the end of May 1918 on the Chemin des Dames and then through the valley of Oulches via the Aisne and Aisne Canal the heights to the south of it. Steppuhn managed to bring in nine officers (including a regimental staff), 670 prisoners, 37 artillery pieces, six mine throwers and numerous machine guns. After he had already received both classes of the Iron Cross and the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords, his division commander Major General of Leipzig submitted it on June 6, 1918 for the award of the order Pour le Mérite . For the aforementioned deeds he was awarded the highest Prussian valor award, the Order Pour le Mérite, on June 17, 1918. During the last months of the war Steppuhn was temporarily deputy leader of the 8th West Prussian Infantry Regiment No. 175 .

After the peace agreement , he led the remains of his regiment back to the garrison in Neufahrwasser . From the demobilized troops , a made free association , around headed Steppuhn on border controls in the new German-Polish border in the north of the corridor Lauenburg in Pomerania was used. After the dissolution of the Freikorps, Steppuhn was accepted into the Reichswehr and appointed commander of the training battalion in Infantry Regiment 4 in Neustettin . On October 1, 1921 he was transferred to the staff of Infantry Leader I in Allenstein and a year later as first general staff officer on the staff of Group Command I in Berlin. Steppuhn was promoted to lieutenant colonel on February 1, 1923 with seniority from November 15, 1922, and on October 1, 1926 he was appointed chief of staff of the 3rd Cavalry Division in Weimar . As a colonel , he was in command of the 20th (Bavarian) Infantry Regiment in Regensburg from November 1, 1928 to June 30, 1929 and then as Infantry Leader VII. In this position Steppuhn was on 1 February 1930, Major General conveyed and on 31 January 1931 awarding of the character as a lieutenant general from active duty adopted .

After his departure, Steppuhn received the character of Lieutenant General on January 31, 1931 and the character of General of the Infantry on August 27, 1939, the so-called Tannenberg Day. With the beginning of the Second World War he was appointed commanding general of the Deputy Military District XII in Wiesbaden . In this capacity, he was promoted to General der Infanterie zV on December 1, 1940. His mobilization provisions were lifted on April 30, 1943 and two months later Steppuhn received the German Cross in Silver in recognition of his services .

Review

In March 1943, Johann Mannhardt attested to him, according to traditional records , that Steppuhn, like other commanders for the Alsace region , was “not up to the task”. Steppuhn is referred to as an "admirer of the Führer " and "politically [as] a weak personality".

family

Steppuhn married Marie Luise Leisewitz (1892–1972) on May 18, 1921 in Detmold . Several children were born from the marriage.

literature

  • Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volume II: M-Z. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Berlin 1935, pp. 371–372.
  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 3: P-Z. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2011, ISBN 3-7648-2586-3 , pp. 357-359.
  • Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb : Diary entries and situation assessments from two world wars. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , 1976, p. 180 ff.
  • Hanns Möller-Witten : General Steppuhn. In: German soldier magazine . Volume 5, No. 4, 1955, p. 8. ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Death register of the registry office Wiesbaden No. 345/1955, death certificate Albrecht Steppuhn ( digitalization ). In literature, May 22nd is often mistakenly given as the date of death.
  2. ↑ Klaus D. Patzwall , Veit Scherzer : The German Cross 1941-1945. History and owner. Volume II. Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall, Norderstedt 2001, ISBN 3-931533-45-X , p. 558.
  3. ^ Hermann Kaiser: Courage to confess: the secret diaries of Captain Hermann Kaiser 1941/1943 . Lukas Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86732-072-6 , p. 466 ( google.de [accessed on August 11, 2019]).
  4. ^ Yearbook for West German State History . Self-published by the Landesarchivverwaltung Rheinland-Pfalz., 2000, p. 521 ( google.de [accessed on August 11, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Steppuhn, Albrecht
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steppuhn, Georg August Hermann Albrecht (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German infantry general in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Sopot
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1955
Place of death Wiesbaden-Sonnenberg