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Arno Graf von Kriegsheim - in the literature often just Arno Kriegsheim - (* February 16, 1880 in Wiesbaden ; † cannot be determined) was an officer in the Prussian General Staff , then political director of the Reichslandbund and in World War II as a lieutenant colonel chief of staff at the commander's of the Rear Army Area North.

Life

Kriegsheim began his military career in the years 1893 to 1898 as a royal Prussian cadet with subsequent promotion to lieutenant . From 1906 to 1910 he attended the Prussian War Academy in Berlin-Mitte and in 1911 joined the General Staff .

During the First World War he served from 1914 to 1918 as a general staff officer, company commander and battalion commander . His last position was in 1918 as a major in the Supreme Army Command as a political intelligence officer and liaison officer between the Supreme Army Command and the Prussian War Ministry. In 1919 he was still employed with the Great General Staff, but was then decommissioned as a major (retired).

From now on he worked as a caretaker of the Kriegsheim'schen Fideikommiss Jordansmühl ( district Reichenbach , Lower Silesia ). Also in 1919 he became managing director of the German Land Confederation and in 1921 as head of the "Department for Political Planning and Coordination" director of the new Reich Landbund in Berlin. In this function he was also the editor of the "News Gazette of the Working Group on German Agriculture" (Berlin). On September 20, 1923, he and its President Gustav Roesicke ( Member of the National Assembly for the DNVP ) and board members Hans von Goldacker (DNVP) and Hans Bogislav Graf von Schwerin had a conversation with Hans von Seeckt , who had headed the Army Command of the Reichswehr since June 1920 ; the representatives of agriculture urged Seeckt to take power, above all they demanded "the removal of all social democratic influence from the government" . He held this office until 1936.

Also in 1919 he became a member of the DNVP and remained so until 1929. He was a member of the German gentlemen's club (DHK), an association of large landowners, industrialists, bankers, high ministerial officials and other high-ranking public figures during the Weimar Republic . He was also a member of the " Society for the Study of Fascism ". From 1928 to 1933 he was a member of the " Provisional Reich Economic Council ".

In 1931 he arranged for Adolf Hitler to visit the Reich President Paul von Hindenburg . In 1933, Kriegsheim joined the NSDAP (membership number 2,644,698) and became the chief of staff in Reich Main Department I of the Reichsnährstand (until 1934). In 1934 he joined the SS (membership number 218.830). In the years 1934 to 1937 he was Reich Commissioner z. b. V. in the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture (organization of the German war food industry), from 1936 to 1937 also head of the food security department at the Reichsbauernführer . Around 1937 he was appointed SS-Sturmbannführer , but was retired in 1938.

During the Second World War he was from April 15 to May 20, 1940 Major in the Border Guard Section Command Center and then until February 14, 1941 in the Higher Command z. b. V. of the 36th Army Corps. In February and March 1941 he was briefly in the quartermaster department of the Commander-in-Chief in Poland . From mid-March 1941 as a Lieutenant Colonel Chief of Staff under Infantry General Franz von Roques the commander of the Rear Army area north of Army Group North .

From the beginning, Roque's staff was very critical of the Eastern campaign. In 1950, Peter Kleist , liaison officer of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories until November 1941, wrote in a book about the opinions of this staff:

"They called the whole war, not least the Eastern campaign, military madness"

- Hasenclever : Wehrmacht and occupation policy in the Soviet Union - The commanders of the rear army areas 1941–1943. Pp. 197-198

At two meetings in November and December 1941, Kriegsheim gave his opinion on the actual war situation to Kleist's successor, Hauptmann Unterstab. He also told Hauptmann Unterstab that the shooting of Jews was unworthy of a German. Unterstab had reported this to his superiors and this report reached Heinrich Himmler , Reichsführer SS , and Alfred Rosenberg , Reich Minister for the occupied eastern territories. The SS now started investigations against Kriegsheim for " defeatist statements" . Roques could not help Kriegsheim, but only get a transfer from lower staff. Kriegsheim and Roques were linked by a "close relationship of trust". Both had several times before the First World War, u. a. at the War Academy and on the General Staff, served together. Because of his comments critical of the regime, he was finally replaced in May 1942 as Chief of Staff at the Commander of the Rear Army Area North and first released from the SS and later from the Wehrmacht .

After the Second World War he was charged with “crimes against peace and humanity” under Control Council Act No. 10 of December 20, 1945.

Publications

• as editor: news sheet of the working group of German agriculture. Berlin 1919 ff.
• The political significance of the Reichs-Landbund. In: W. Lambach (ed.): Political Practice. Hamburg and Berlin 1926, pp. 295–303.

literature

• Jörn Hasenclever: Wehrmacht and occupation policy in the Soviet Union: The commanders of the rear military areas 1941-1943 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2010. ISBN 978-3-506-76709-7 .
• Bernd Hoppe: From Schleicher to Hitler. Documents on the conflict between the Reichslandbund and the Schleicher government in the last weeks of the Weimar Republic. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Volume 45, 1997, issue 4, page 629f. ( (PDF; 7.5 MB) ).

Web links

• Arno Kriegsheim in the online version of the Reich Chancellery Files Edition . Weimar Republic
• Literature list in the online catalog of the Berlin State Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry from September 20, 1923 in the "Files of the Reich Chancellery, Weimar Republic"
2. ^ Timm C. Richter: War and crime . Situation and intention: case studies. Meidenbauer, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-89975-080-5 , p. 215 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
3. ^ Marlis G. Steinert: Hitler's War and the Germans; Mood and attitude of the German population in the Second World War. P. 274, Econ Verlag, 1970, ISBN 3430187508 ( excerpt )