Alfred Zerbel

Alfred Zerbel (1960)

Alfred Zerbel (born September 8, 1904 in Ostritz ; † December 15, 1987 ) was a German officer. After the Second World War he became Lieutenant General of the Army of the German Armed Forces and from April 16, 1960 to September 30, 1964, Second Army Inspector .

Military career

Reichswehr and Wehrmacht

Zerbel joined the Reichswehr in 1924 . In 1927 he was promoted to lieutenant and until 1933 was platoon leader and battalion adjutant in the 10th Infantry Regiment .

After the establishment of the Wehrmacht , Zerbel completed general staff training from 1935 to 1937 and then served in various posts in the Army High Command (OKH) until 1940 . He then served as a Major until 1942 First General Staff Officer (Ia) of the 299th Infantry Division under the command of General of Artillery Willi Moser . The division was deployed in 1941 on the Eastern Front within the 6th Army in the Kiev and Donets Basin area.

From September 4, 1942 to February 16, 1943, Zerbel was in the rank of Supreme Chief of the Training Department in the Army General Staff in the OKH. The Army Training Department issued orders for troop training including military training areas, for autumn and special exercises as well as for the training of reserve and Landwehr units. Furthermore, she had to check the training regulations processed by the weapons inspectors before they were issued to the troops. During this time Zerbel headed the Army Group Center on the Eastern Front from February 16 to March 20, 1943, the General Staff of the XIII. Army corps under the command of General of the Infantry Friedrich Siebert . In February 1945 Zerbel received the German Silver Cross . He last served as a combat group leader of the 11th Panzer Division under Lieutenant General Wend von Wietersheim . On May 5, 1945 the remnants of the division under Wietersheim in Lorraine surrendered to the US troops and Zerbel was taken prisoner by the US until 1948.

During World War II he was u. a. awarded the Iron Cross 1st class.

post war period

After the end of the war and the denazification process , he became a member of the Operational History (German) Section of the Historical Division of the US Army . Some of the former German officers working for the Historical Division were taken over into active service in the newly founded Bundeswehr from 1955/56, for example Burkhart Müller-Hillebrand , Hellmuth Reinhardt , Herbert Büchs , Friedrich Ruge , Gerhard Wagner and Zerbel himself.

armed forces

Zerbel was reinstated as a colonel in 1956 and entrusted with the duties of the head of the receiving office in Defense Division IV. From September 1956 to March 1958 he served as deputy commander of the 5th Panzer Division under Major General Heinrich Baron von Behr in Diez . During this time he was Deputy Commanding General of the newly established III. Corps under Lieutenant General Smilo Freiherr von Lüttwitz . From June 1, 1958 to February 10, 1960 Zerbel led the 2nd Grenadier Division in Giessen as major general , which was assigned to the III. Corps in Koblenz was subordinated. During this time, the unit was transferred to Army Structure II and on April 1, 1959, renamed the 2nd Panzer Grenadier Division and the divisional command moved to Marburg .

On April 16, 1959, Zerbel, promoted to lieutenant general, took over the post of inspector of the army from Hans Röttiger as the second . Zerbel retired on September 30, 1964.

Web links

• Official biography