General Army Office

The General Heeresamt was located in the east wing of the Bendlerblock (photo of the south facade on the Landwehr Canal , 2009)

The General Heeresamt (spelling: General Heeres-Amt ; abbreviation: AHA ) was an authority of the German Wehrmacht before and during the Second World War . It was subordinate to the Chief of Army Armaments and Commander of the Replacement Army (Chief H Rüst u BdE), an office in the Army High Command (OKH). The official seat was the east wing of the Bendlerblock (picture) in Berlin-Tiergarten .  

structure

From February 20, 1934, the head of the AHA was initially Colonel and later Colonel General Friedrich Fromm (1888–1945). In February 1940 he was succeeded by General Friedrich Olbricht (1888–1944).

The General Heeresamt, called the Wehramt until April 1934 , was divided into a number of departments , most of which were called inspections and were numbered with Arabic numerals . In addition to the Central Department (Z), the Army Budget Department (H.Haush.), The Army Legal Department (H.Recht), the Substitute and Army Department (AG E / H) and the Substitute (E), Army (H) and Army Clothing departments (Defendant) these were the following inspections:

• War Schools (In 1)
• Infantry (In 2)
• Riding and driving (In 3)
• Artillery (In 4)
• Pioneers (In 5)
• Panzer troops , cavalry etc. Army motorization (In 6)
• News Troop (In 7)
• Driving force (In 8)
• Fog troops , gas defense and air protection (In 9)
• Railway Pioneers (In 10)
• Technical Troops (In 11)
• Automotive (In 12)
• Army anti-aircraft cartillery (In 13)
• Fortress Inspection (In Fest)
• Army Medical Inspection (S In)
• Veterinary inspection (V In)
• Field equipment inspection (Fz In)

The inspections were further divided into groups, denoted by Roman numerals , and finally into papers . Inspection 7, Group VI (OKH In 7 / VI), i.e. Group VI of the AHA's intelligence service inspection in the OKH, was of particular importance . This was the cryptanalytic group of the army , that is a counterpart to OKW / Chi , the cipher of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW).

literature

• Friedrich L. Bauer : Deciphered Secrets. Methods and maxims of cryptology. 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Springer, Berlin a. a. 2000, ISBN 3-540-67931-6 .
• Klaus-Jürgen Müller : The Army and Hitler - Army and National Socialist Regime 1933-1940. Walter de Gruyter 2009, ISBN 3-486-55350-X .

Web links

• Army Security Agency : Notes on German High Level Cryptography and Cryptanalysis . European Axis Signal Intelligence in World War II, Vol 4, Washington (DC), May 1946. PDF; 7.5 MB (English), accessed on September 11, 2018.
• Who was Harry Welsch? cryptocellartales.blogspot , accessed on September 11, 2018.
• Original documents from the AHA, accessed on September 13, 2018.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Bendler Block 1933 to 1945, accessed on September 11, 2018.
2. ↑ Klaus-Jürgen Müller: The Army and Hitler - Army and National Socialist Regime 1933–1940. Walter de Gruyter 2009, ISBN 3-486-55350-X , p. 208.
3. ↑ German Army troop index 1933–1945 Part 02 - Top war structure PDF; 50 kB accessed on September 11, 2018.
4. ^ Army Security Agency: Notes on German High Level Cryptography and Cryptanalysis . European Axis Signal Intelligence in World War II, Vol 4, Washington (DC), 1946 (May), p. 4.