Albrecht Wüstenhagen

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Albrecht Wüstenhagen (born October 19, 1892 in Klostermansfeld , † April 26, 1944 or June 26, 1944 southwest of Vitebsk , probably near Kochanowa) was a German officer , last lieutenant general in World War II .

Life

Albrecht Wüstenhagen was a son of the district councilor , senior bailiff , captain and domain tenant of Klostermansfeld Otto Wüstenhagen.

He served as an officer in the First World War . He retired from the army in 1919 and worked in agriculture . In 1935 he was taken back into military service. Wüstenhagen served in World War II and, as a colonel , led the 110th Infantry Division from September 1943 to December 1943, replacing Eberhard von Kurowski as commander . In addition, he was commander of the 256th Infantry Division from November 1943 until he died . He took over a unit, which was considerably weakened after the Smolensk Operation , continued as Division Group 256 , which was destroyed in June 1944 during Operation Bagration with other divisions in the IV Army Corps near Vitebsk.

As a colonel and commander of the 129th Artillery Regiment of the 129th Infantry Division , Wüstenhagen was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on December 2, 1942 .

There are different details about the cause of death and the date of death. In addition to death in the field, there is also speculation about a suicide . It was only with the start of Operation Bagration in June 1944 that the infantry division commanded by him began to engage in significant fighting in the Vitebsk area from October 1943. It is also unlikely that, in the event of a possible death at the end of April, he was posthumously promoted to lieutenant general two months later on June 1, 1944 . Rather, it is reported that "General von Wüstenhagen" collected the remains of his division, the 256th Infantry Division, southwest of the Moscow / Minsk motorway on June 25, 1944 . It is therefore likely that Wüstenhagen died at the end of June in the rank of lieutenant general.

He was married. One of his sons was Captain Hans-Albrecht Wüstenhagen (1920–2008), also a knight's cross holder.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Helmut Damerau, Wolfgang Hausen: German Soldier Yearbook . Schild - Verlag, 1994, p. 12 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ^ Wolf Keilig : The German Army, 1939–1945: structure; Use, staffing . Podzun, 1956, p. 371 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. Barbara Selz: The Green Regiment: Der Weg d. 256th Infantry Division from d. View d. Regiment 481 . Kehrer, 1970, p. 247 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. a b Rolf Hinze: The collapse of Army Group Center in the East in 1944 . Motorbuch Verlag, 1980, ISBN 3-87943-681-9 , p. 93 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. Some sources give April 26 or June 26, 1944 as the possible date of death.
  6. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham : German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 , pp. 168 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  7. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 , pp. 305 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  8. 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. 799 .
  9. Michael Salewski, Guntram Schulze-Wegener: War year 1944: in large and small . Franz Steiner Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-515-06674-8 , pp. 93 ( limited preview in Google Book search).