Alfred von Randow

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Alfred v. Randow

Alfred Georg Friedrich Kuno Karl von Randow (born February 8, 1879 in Neisse ; † December 25, 1958 in Cologne ) was a German officer , most recently a colonel , commander of the Detachement von Randow ( Freikorps ) in the Baltic States and donor of the Teutonic Knights Cross .

Life

Alfred came from the noble family von Randow and was the eldest son of Hermann von Randow . Like his father and grandfather, he embarked on a military career. Randow joined the Queen Augusta Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 4 , attended the war schools in Hersfeld and Metz , and graduated as an officer in August 1898. Transferred to the Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 5 in Spandau near Berlin in 1899, he stayed there for many years. During this time he married Ada , the daughter of the state elder in Silesia , Elgar von Dalwigk , and Louise Höffken-Haarhaus , the daughter of a manufacturer from Barmer. The two sons Elgar and Gero emerged from the marriage. With his second wife, the Alsatian farmer's daughter Elisabeth Schneider, he had three more sons, Wolf-Hildebrand, Götz-Krafft and Sven-Holm.

First World War and Free Corps Leader in the Baltic States

At the First World War Randow took from the first day part. At the end of the war he was on the Eastern Front in the Baltic States. After the Commander-in-Chief East had already asked the Supreme Army Command for permission to set up volunteer units on November 15, 1918 , on January 2, 1919, at his request , Captain von Randow received the approval from the Chief of Staff of Army High Command 8, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bürkner , to set up a volunteer battalion. Three days later he had already gathered 85 volunteers who, as a volunteer battalion “Railway Protection 8”, secured the Lidowiany-Tauroggen railway line. On January 12, 1919, there were already around 700 volunteers in the " Detachement von Randow ", and on January 25 the Freikorps was over 2,000 men strong. A cannon battery and a four-inch gun gave it strong backing.

Randow commanded the detachment for barely five months. During this time he gave the corps a flag and donated a badge and a medal . In the middle of the black flag was a white shield with a continuous black cross (Deutschritterschild), in the lower outer corner of the flag the coat of arms of Randows. It was conducted until the unit was dissolved. After that it was first in the Schlageter Memorial Museum, then in the Army Archives in Potsdam and since 1938 with the Kyffhäuserbund . It has been missing since the end of the Second World War . The badge of the detachment also showed the German knight's shield and was initially worn on the collar corners of the tunic and coat, and later on the left upper arm.

The time after the Freikorps

On May 17, 1919, Captain Meyer took command, and on June 1, 1919, the Randow Detachment was incorporated into the Provisional Reichswehr .

After the conclusion of the Versailles contract , Alfred von Randow had to retire from military service and then worked for many years at the Sachsenwerk in Dresden , where his father was a member of the supervisory board. Then the National Socialist government came to power and with it the chance for quasi military activity again. Randow entered the Reich Labor Service , where he was most recently a labor leader or senior labor leader .

At the outbreak of the Second World War, 60 years old, he was reactivated again towards the end of the war and was active in the defense . In 1949 he was arrested by the Soviet occupation authorities and initially taken to the Bautzen prison. He was later sentenced to 25 years of forced labor by the Soviet troops because of his defensive activities, but above all because of his volunteer corps deployment, and transported to Siberia . There he lived in various camps for seven years until he was released in 1955 as part of the return of the ten thousand .

literature

  • Olof von Randow: The Randows. A family story. Degener, Neustadt / Aisch 2001, ISBN 3-7686-5182-7 , ( German family archive 135/136).
  • From railway protection in Lithuania to the Randow Freikorps. In: The rider to the east . Volume 8, 1936, episode 7, p. 12.
  • Ernst von Salomon (ed.): The book from the German free corps fighters. Limpert, Berlin 1938, (reprint: Verlag für Holistic Research and Culture, Viöl 2001, ISBN 3-932878-92-2 , ( archive edition )).
  • Walter Rosenwald : The Detachement / Freikorps von Randow and its decorations. In: Orders and Medals. The magazine for collectors and researchers. 6th year, issue 29, 2004, pp. 30–37.
  • Kurt-Gerhard Klietmann : Volunteer Detachment from Randow 1919. In: Feldgrau. Volume 4, 1964, p. 106ff.

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