Arno von Lenski

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Arno Ernst Max von Lenski, 1943

Arno Ernst Max von Lenski (born July 20, 1893 in Czymochen , East Prussia , † October 4, 1986 in Eichwalde ) was a German officer , commander of the 24th Panzer Division during World War II . As a military expert and honorary judge at the People's Court from 1940 to 1942, he was also involved in at least one death sentence . Later he was general of the National People's Army of the GDR and a functionary of the GDR block party NDPD .

Life

Brief overview of the transport vita

Lenski came from an old noble family . He was the tenth child of the family. His father Richard von Lenski was a landowner with 2600 acres on an old manor in Czymochen. His mother Bertha von Lenski was a teacher by profession and came from a farming family in Masuria .

Military career

In 1903 Lenski was accepted into the Köslin Cadet House in Western Pomerania, where he received an education based on Prussian convictions. In 1908 he was transferred to the main cadet institute in Groß-Lichterfelde near Berlin . Here he was made an ensign four years later . On March 22, 1912 he joined the Grenadier regiment on horseback Freiherr von Derfflinger (Neumärkisches) No. 3 in Bromberg , after attending the war school in Hersfeld (Hesse) he was promoted to lieutenant .

Lenski took part in the First World War, initially as a platoon leader , from 1915 as an adjutant or orderly officer in the staff of the General Command z. b. V. 55 .

After the end of the war, Lenski was accepted into the Reichswehr , where he served in the 6th (Prussian) cavalry regiment in Demmin and Pasewalk . He then worked for nine years (with interruptions) at the cavalry school in Hanover, where he began in 1921 as a riding school under Major Wilhelm Keitel , who later became the head of the Wehrmacht High Command . From 1925 he worked there himself as a teacher, from 1929 he took over as Rittmeister of the 5th squadron of the 14th Reiter Regiment in Ludwigslust .

In 1930 Lenski married the daughter of a Hamburg bank clerk, but she died of leukemia two years later . From 1933 he was major in command of the non-commissioned riding school and adjutant to the commander of the cavalry school in Hanover. In 1935 he married Erica Nette from Wörbzig near Köthen , the daughter of a landowner, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. Also in 1935 Lenski was appointed commander of the 6th Cavalry Regiment in Schwedt / Oder , which was moved to Darmstadt in 1937 . On March 1, 1936 Lenski was first promoted to lieutenant colonel and on August 1, 1938 to colonel .

Second World War

At the beginning of the war in 1939 Lenski served as the commander of a reconnaissance department on the Western Front, and from December 1, 1939 as the commander of the School for Rapid Troops in Krampnitz near Potsdam . On August 29, 1940, he was appointed honorary member of the People's Court by Adolf Hitler for a period of five years and assigned to the 3rd Senate, which primarily dealt with the offenses of treason , defeatism , dismantling of military strength and eviction from military service . In September 1942 he was given command of the 24th Panzer Division . In this capacity he was promoted to lieutenant general on January 1, 1943 .

Participation in death sentences of the People's Court

From 1940 to 1942, Lenski was involved in at least three judgments against eight people (including one death sentence and life-long and temporary prison sentences ) in his function as an assessor (honorary judge) or military expert in espionage trials at the People's Court . Triggered by reports that appeared in the West German press in 1960, the Ministry for State Security initiated investigations into Lenski's involvement in the Nazi judiciary, the results of which, however, were kept secret. Lenski himself had admitted his work at the People's Court in 1944/1945 to NKFD and KPD functionaries, including Wilhelm Pieck and Walter Ulbricht .

Captivity

On February 2, 1943, he came after the destruction of the 24th Panzer Division during the Battle of Stalingrad with the remains of the 6th Army in Soviet captivity . Initially brought to Krasnogorsk , he was transferred to Suzdal in April 1943 , then to the prisoner of war camp 5110/48 Woikowo .

After some hesitation, Lenski joined the National Committee for Free Germany and the Federation of German Officers on May 7, 1944 . For this he was sentenced to death in absentia by a court martial in Torgau.

He was an employee of the newspaper and the broadcaster Free Germany in Lunowo. From December 1944 to May 1945 he studied social sciences and political economy in the Antifa school in Krasnogorsk. From March 1946 to August 1949 he was a military advisor at Mosfilm for the documentary The Battle of Stalingrad .

Political and military functions in the GDR

On August 17, 1949, he returned from Soviet captivity to the Soviet occupation zone . His application for recognition as a victim of the Nazi regime was granted in October 1949. In May 1950 he was accepted into the executive board of the NDPD . From March 1951 he worked as director of the Berliner Stadtkontor, a position that earned him a much higher salary. On August 1, 1952, he took up a position on the staff of the Barracked People's Police and was appointed major general of the KVP on October 1, 1952 . From 1952 to 1953 he was head of the administration for motorization in the Ministry of the Interior . On April 28, 1956, Lenski was appointed chief of the armored forces of the Strausberg ( Struzberg barracks ) Ministry of National Defense .

Lenski was one of the representatives of Berlin in an advisory capacity in the GDR Land Chamber from 1949 to 1958 . Since 1952 he was a member of the main committee of the NDPD, for which he sat from 1954 to 1958 in the city council of Berlin and from 1958 to 1967 as a member of the People's Chamber. In addition, he sat on the presidia and boards of the DTSB , the German-Soviet Friendship (DSF) and the National Olympic Committee of the GDR . As a former general of the Wehrmacht, Lenski was observed from 1954 by the Ministry for State Security by unofficial employees in his official and private environment, but none of the suspicions could be substantiated.

retirement

By resolution of the Politburo of the SED on February 15, 1957, almost all former Wehrmacht officers were gradually released from the NVA and retired by the end of the 1950s. In December 1957, the SED Security Commission decided to retire Lensky as well. On July 31, 1958, after reaching the statutory retirement age of 65, he was dismissed from active service in the NVA; his years of service in the Wehrmacht were counted towards his pension.

After retiring, Lenski turned to his hobby above all, equestrian sports. From 1958 to 1962 he worked as a consultant to the riding sports team and the terrain riding group of the Vorwärts Berlin army sports club. From 1959 he headed the equestrian section of the Society for Sport and Technology of the GDR. From 1970 he took over the office of President of the German Equestrian Federation of the GDR. From November 13, 1964 Lenski was chairman of the working group of former officers . Lenski died on October 4, 1986 at the age of 93. He was buried in the Strausberg forest cemetery.

Awards

Quotes

“ That is not what the division wanted: instead of being released into the well-deserved retreat, we will be deployed elsewhere in Stalingrad. This time at the gloomy “Red October” steelworks. The factory was an immense area of ​​slag heaps, track systems, factory halls and huge buildings made of reinforced concrete, which now consisted only of smashed steel skeletons. Large-caliber artillery shells from both sides shot the factory to rubble, churned up the ground, tore large chunks out of the buildings and created an unimaginable mess of bent steel girders, sheet metal cladding, rubble and debris. Still, an order is an order. "

- Major General Arno von Lenski on the replacement of parts of the 79th Infantry Division in the “Red October” steelworks by the 24th Panzer Division on November 1, 1942

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rüdiger Wenzke: Arno von Lenski - NVA tank general with Prussian roots . In: Hans Ehlert, Armin Wagner (Ed.): Comrade General! . Ch.links, Berlin 2003, p. 98.
  2. ^ Rüdiger Wenzke: Arno von Lenski - NVA tank general with Prussian roots . In: Hans Ehlert, Armin Wagner (Ed.): Comrade General! . Ch.links, Berlin 2003, p. 113.
  3. ↑ Bernd-Rainer Barth , Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Lenski, Arno von . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  4. ↑ Klaus Froh and Rüdiger Wenzke: The Generals and Admirals of the NVA, Christoph-Links Verlag 2000, ISBN 3828905420 , p. 134
  5. ↑ Bernd Reinhardt: Back to the nation! World Socialist Web Site, January 20, 1999
  6. ^ Rüdiger Wenzke: Arno von Lenski - NVA tank general with Prussian roots . In: Hans Ehlert, Armin Wagner (Ed.): Comrade General! . Ch.links, Berlin 2003, p. 108.
  7. ^ Rüdiger Wenzke: Arno von Lenski - NVA tank general with Prussian roots . In: Hans Ehlert, Armin Wagner (Ed.): Comrade General! . Ch.links, Berlin 2003, p. 109.
  8. ↑ a b c d Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Berlin 1930, p. 137
  9. ↑ David M. Glantz: Armageddon in Stalingrad: September-November 1942 (The Stalingrad Trilogy, Volume 2). University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2009, p. 613.
personal data
SURNAME Lenski, Arno von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lenski, Arno Ernst Max von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, lieutenant general of the Wehrmacht, general of the NVA, MdV, NDPD functionary
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Czymochen
DATE OF DEATH 4th October 1986
Place of death Eichwalde