Alexander Andrae (General)

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Alexander Andrae in uniform as General of the Aviators

Alexander Andrae (born April 27, 1888 in Köslin , † April 3, 1979 in Wiesbaden ) was a German general of the aviators (until 1943) and general of the artillery (in 1945) in World War II .

Life

Andrae joined the field artillery regiment "General-Feldzeugmeister" (2nd Brandenburgisches) No. 18 on September 17, 1906 as a flag junior , where he was used as a battery officer after his promotion to lieutenant on January 27, 1908 . This was followed by assignments to the Jüterbog field artillery shooting school , the Berlin military gymnasium and the Erfurt rifle factory . On October 1, 1913, he rose within his regiment to a department adjutant and from March 1, 1914 to a regimental adjutant.

When the First World War broke out , he and his regiment were deployed on the Western Front . On March 28, 1915, Lieutenant Andrae transferred to the 56th Field Artillery Brigade as adjutant . He then served from October 1916 to January 1917 as a general staff officer in succession at Army High Command 2 , the 46th Reserve Division , the 23rd , 26th and 25th Infantry Division and the 9th Landwehr Division . From February to September 1917 he had the same function at the General Command of the XVI. Army Corps . During this time he was employed as a company commander in the 12th Royal Saxon Infantry Regiment No. 177 for two weeks and was also assigned to various general staff courses from July to September 1917. After graduation, Andrae was appointed General Staff Officer in the staff of the General Government of Antwerp , where he remained until the end of the war.

From January to the end of February 1919, Andrae was initially assigned to the Foreign Office's intelligence center . From there he changed on March 3, 1919 as a General Staff Officer in the General Command of VI. Army Corps over. He then served from June 17, 1919 to the end of January 1920 in the staff of the infantry leader of Reichswehr Brigade 6. On January 31, 1920 Andrae was retired from military service as a captain and joined the police .

There he acted first from February to September 1920 as chief of the staff of the security police of Schleswig-Holstein and then until September 1922 as a clerk in the high presidium in Kiel . For October 1, 1922 Andrae was appointed commander of the police of Cottbus appointed, which he remained until July 1925th Subsequently, he was transferred from August 1925 to the end of 1926 as a teacher and clerk in the research department at the Higher Police School Potsdam-Eiche and from January 1927 to mid-March 1933 also as a teacher and clerk at the Charlottenburg Police Institute , where Andrae also worked as served as deputy commander at various police stations. On March 21, 1933 he became the commander of the High Police School in Eiche . He was then from June 1, 1934 to October 14, 1935 commander of the Stettin State Police Group .

On October 15, 1935, Andrae transferred to the army and was used as a colonel in the staff of the 12th Artillery Regiment. From there he transferred to the Air Force on August 1, 1936 and completed an observer course at the Braunschweig Aviation School . After its completion he became commander of the air war schools on November 1, 1936, which he remained until August 1939. During this time, Andrae was from mid-March 1938 at the same time inspector of education and training in the Air Force.

Second World War

Shortly before the start of the Second World War, Andrae was appointed commander of Luftgaustabes 17 on August 26, 1939, which he remained for the duration of the attack on Poland until October 1939. Then he was again inspector of the Air Force's education and training system until February 1940. After the occupation of Denmark by German units in March 1940, he became the commander of Luftgaustabes 300 there.

In the Balkan campaign , Andrae was appointed commanding general and commander of the Luftgau Balkans on April 30, 1941 . In this function he was also the commander of the air force staff in the airborne battle for Crete . After the occupation of the island, Andrae was appointed in command of the fortress of Crete on June 9, 1941. Under his command, as part of expiatory actions against the civilian population of Crete, there were mass executions of the civilian population there. When he refused a direct order from Hermann Göring to ruthlessly pursue "saboteurs", Andrae was relieved of his position as fortress commander in August 1942 and temporarily replaced by General Bruno Bräuer . He was thereupon from August 29, 1942 as an officer z. b. V. in the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) and retired from military service as General der Flieger on May 31, 1943.

In April 1945 Andrae was reactivated as general of the artillery, assigned to the army and was available for the few weeks until the end of the war at the Army High Command of the 4th Panzer Army , but was no longer used.

post war period

On May 8, 1945, Andrae was taken prisoner by the British . However, he was soon extradited to the Greek authorities and imprisoned there. After a lawsuit, Andrae was named for his work as the fortress commander of Crete a. a. found guilty in December 1947 and sentenced to life imprisonment because of his participation in so-called "retaliatory actions", which he had even ordered in certain cases . This sentence was commuted to four years imprisonment on December 24, 1951, so that Andrae was released on January 10, 1952.

He now embarked on a political career and was soon one of the most prominent right-wing radicals in the young Federal Republic. He was initially involved in the German Bloc and was a co-founder of the Reichsblock in 1953. Between 1953 and 1955 he was a member of the party board of directors and one of the three chairmen of the German Reich Party . He resigned from the party in 1957, thus anticipating his exclusion from the party due to his national-neutralist stance.

Fonts

  • Readiness leader and readiness. Thoughts about training and education in the police force. Berlin 1928.
  • Police and army. Berlin 1929.

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (Ed.): The Generals of the Army 1921-1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 1: Abberger – Bitthorn. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1993, ISBN 3-7648-2423-9 , pp. 63-64.
  • Daniel Schmidt: Second class officers? Prussian police officers between the Weimar Republic and National Socialism. in: Christian A. Braun, Michael Mayer, Sebastian Weitkamp (Eds.): Deformation der Gesellschaft? New research on National Socialism. Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86573-340-5 , pp. 3-22.
  • Oliver Sowinski: The German Reich Party 1950-1965. Organization and ideology of a right-wing radical party. Frankfurt am Main 1998.
  • Marleen von Xylander: The German occupation in Crete 1941-1945. Freiburg 1989.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Alexander Andrae - Officials of the National Socialist Reich Ministries . In: Officials of National Socialist Reich Ministries . March 13, 2018 ( ns-reichsministerien.de [accessed March 29, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Katefina Králová: The Legacy of the Occupation - German-Greek Relations since 1940 , Böhlau Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-412-50362-8 , p. 140
personal data
SURNAME Andrae, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German policeman and general of the artillery in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Koslin
DATE OF DEATH April 3, 1979
Place of death Wiesbaden