Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel

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General of the Infantry Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel (1941)

Carl-Heinrich Rudolf Wilhelm von Stülpnagel (born January 2, 1886 in Berlin ; † August 30, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German officer , most recently a general of the Wehrmacht infantry in World War II and involved in the attack against National Socialism in the attack on March 20 July 1944 .

Family and World War One

Stülpnagel is the name of an aristocratic family from Uckermark , which was first mentioned in a document in 1321. Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel was the son of the Prussian Lieutenant General Hermann von Stülpnagel (1839-1912) and his wife Luise, nee Freiin von der Tann -Rathsamhausen (1856-1907).

In 1904 he passed the Abitur at Lessing-Gymnasium in Frankfurt am Main . On October 1, 1904, he joined the 1st Grand Ducal Hessian Infantry (Leibgarde-) Regiment No. 115 of the Prussian Army as a flag junior in Darmstadt . After passing the officer's examination on May 18, 1905, he was appointed lieutenant on January 21, 1906 . From October 1, 1911 to June 30, 1914, he attended the War Academy in Berlin and was promoted to first lieutenant in mid-July 1913 . When war broke out in 1914 he was chief of his regiment's 12th  company and regimental adjutant . On July 19, 1915, he was promoted to captain . On January 20, 1916 he married on Good Brandis Helene Baroness von Pentz (1889-1965), daughter of the Saxon landowner Friedrich Freiherr von Pentz, Familienfideikommissherr on Good Brandis, and his wife Marie, née Steinmetz. The two sons Joachim (born 1917) and Walter (born 1919) emerged from the marriage. At the end of the First World War , Stülpnagel was the first general staff officer in the 18th Infantry Division on the Western Front . For his work he had received both classes of the Iron Cross .

Weimar Republic and World War II

Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, 1941, Poland

In December 1932 Stülpnagel was assigned to the Reichswehr Ministry and took over the management of the Foreign Armies department in the Army Office on December 1st . He replaced Herbert Fischer here, who had continued the restructuring that had begun in the work area in 1927/28. The department was responsible for evaluating military information about the armed forces of other countries, especially potential military opponents. With the so-called Röhm Putsch in the summer of 1934, he took an increasingly critical stance towards the Nazi regime . On October 1, 1935 he was appointed major general and in the following year he handed over the management of the Foreign Army Department to his successor Kurt von Tippelskirch (1891-1957). On October 6, 1936, von Stülpnagel became the commander of the newly established 30th Infantry Division in Lübeck . From February 1938 he was Oberquartiermeister  II and from November 1938 to May 1940 Oberquartiermeister I in the Army General Staff and thus deputy to Chief of Staff Franz Halder . On April 20, 1939 he was promoted to general of the infantry.

Stülpnagel was initiated into the September 1938 conspiracy and was one of Hitler's staunch opponents on the Army General Staff in the winter of 1939/40. During the second phase of the western campaign , he temporarily led the II Army Corps . He then became chairman of the Franco-German Armistice Commission until December 1940. He then led the 17th Army of Army Group South in the German-Soviet War . As the commanding general of the 17th Army, he was confronted with the murders of Jews in Ukraine. After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Lemberg on June 28, 1941, Ukrainians led a pogrom in which, after the city was taken on the morning of June 30, by the 1st Mountain Jäger Division under Major General Hubert Lanz , volunteers were also involved , Members of the Einsatzgruppen and Wehrmacht soldiers involved. Since Stülpnagel already had the commanding general of the XXXXIX. Army Corps Lieutenant General Ludwig Kübler had commissioned Lieutenant General Ludwig Kübler with his representation to maintain security, discipline and order, the city commander Colonel Karl Wintergerst, appointed by Kübler, was responsible for ensuring that the pogrom could not be stopped immediately, but by exhibiting the corpses of the Soviets Ukrainians murdered in prison was incited. Especially since Stülpnagel's army had to keep in touch with the rapid advance of the neighboring Panzer Group I , it is hardly possible to relate it to the USSR incident report No. 10 of the Reich Security Main Office of June 2, 1941: “AOK 17 suggested, initially those in the new occupied areas to use anti-Jewish and anti-communist Poles living in self-cleaning campaigns. T. literally corresponds to Reinhard Heydrich's deployment orders No. 1 of June 29 and No. 2 of July 1, and their agreement with the Wehrmacht suggests, it could be a product of the Reich Security Main Office.

Stülpnagel was undoubtedly responsible for orders signed by him from members of his staff that "primarily Jewish and communist residents" were to be held responsible for acts of sabotage. "Especially the Jewish Komsomol are to be seen as the carriers of the sabotage and the formation of gangs of young people." For the fact that he himself was a "decided anti-Semite", as Manfred Messerschmidt judges, the only argument is his memorandum to the Army Group Command South of August 12, 1941 on " Position and influence of Bolshevism ”. Its last section undoubtedly corresponds to the Nazi ideology: “Increased struggle against Bolshevism and international Judaism, which is primarily in its favor. […] There is often an irritated mood against the Jews among the population of the occupied area. [...] On the other hand, it has already been established that draconian measures against Jews have generated compassion and sympathy for them in individual sections of the population. Resolute education about Judaism among the population, especially in Ukraine, is therefore necessary in order to initially achieve a more resolute and uniform rejection. ”The fact that propaganda is demanded instead of reprisals corresponds to the preceding parts, which, contrary to National Socialist policy, advocate“ attraction for cooperation, sensible treatment and also care for the population ”as well as promoting economic development. This ambivalence suggests that Stülpnagel wanted to back up his criticism of the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group South General Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt with a regime-compliant deal. Because of his rejection of the occupation and conquest policy, Stülpnagel, who had received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on August 21, 1941 , officially announced his resignation as Commander-in-Chief of the 17th Army on October 4, 1941, as a sick note.

In February 1942, Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel was appointed as the successor to his distant relative Otto von Stülpnagel as military commander in France based in Paris, which he remained until 1944. During this time he maintained relations with the resistance , among other things through his colleague Lieutenant Colonel of the Reserve Caesar von Hofacker (1896–1944, executed in Berlin-Plötzensee ).

Memorial plaque to Carl Heinrich von Stülpnagel on the grave of his father in the main cemetery of Frankfurt am Main

July 20, 1944

Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel was directly involved in the conspiracy of the officers against Adolf Hitler , which led to the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 , and was convinced that the policies of the Nazi regime would lead Germany into catastrophe. He succeeded in arresting the most important functionaries and leaders of the Schutzstaffel , the security service of the Reichsführer SS and the Secret State Police in Paris .

Since July 1944 a total of 1,200 members of the Nazi regime have been arrested. Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel had tried in vain to persuade Commander-in-Chief West , Field Marshal Günther von Kluge , to take part in the putsch. When the news of the failure of the assassination attempt reached Paris on the night of July 20, 1944, he was removed from his post by von Kluge. When he received the order on July 21, 1944 to report to the Wehrmacht High Command in Wünsdorf near Berlin, he tried to shoot himself and became blind. In the hospital , he was arrested and sent to Berlin, where he on 30 August 1944 by the People's Court sentenced to death , and in the same day Plötzensee executed was.

Karl Kitzinger (1886–1962) was succeeded by Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel as military commander in France .

memory

A plaque commemorating Carl Heinrich von Stülpnagel was placed on the father's grave in Frankfurt's main cemetery . The grave was by the magistrate of the city to honor grave explained.

See also

literature

  • Heinrich von Stülpnagel , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 03/1953 of January 5, 1953, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available).
  • Genealogical manual of the nobility . (GHdA) Noble houses A Volume XVIII, p. 429, Volume 87 of the complete series. Starke, Limburg (Lahn) 1985, ISSN  0435-2408 .
  • Heinrich Bücheler: Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, soldier - philosopher - conspirator. Ullstein, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-550-07300-3 .
  • Johannes Hürter : Hitler's military leader. The German commanders-in-chief in the war against the Soviet Union in 1941/42. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-486-57982-7 (short biography p. 666 f.).
  • Ernst Klee : The personal lexicon for the Third Reich, who was what before and after 1945. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt / Main, 2005, p. 612, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
  • Barbara Koehn : Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel. Officer and resistance fighter. A defense. (Contemporary historical research 34.) Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-428-12892-1 .
  • Gerhard Ringshausen : Resistance and Anti-Semitism. The case of Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel. In: Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte / Contemporary Church History 27 (2014), pp. 144–162.
  • Friedrich-Christian Stahl: General Karl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.): Hitler's military elite. From the beginning of the regime to the beginning of the war. Volume 1. Primus, Darmstadt 1998, ISBN 3-89678-083-2 , pp. 240-247.
  • Gerd R. Ueberschär (Ed.): Nazi crimes and the military resistance against Hitler. Primus, Darmstadt 2000, ISBN 3-89678-169-3 , therein:
    • Christian Streit: Members of the military resistance and the genocide of the Jews in the southern section of the Eastern Front. Pp. 90-103.
    • Manfred Messerschmidt : Motives of the military conspirators against Hitler. Pp. 107-118.
    • Hans Mommsen: The position of the military opposition in the context of the German resistance movement against Hitler. Pp. 119-134.

Web links

Commons : Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. 2nd edition, Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 612.
  2. Also on the following orders Johannes Hürter : Hitler's Army Leader. The German commanders-in-chief in the war against the Soviet Union in 1941/42. Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-57982-6 , p. 667 (accessed from De Gruyter Online).
  3. Hannes Heer: Bloody Overture. Lemberg, June 30, 1941: The murder of Jews begins with the invasion of the Wehrmacht. In: The time. No. 26/2001.
  4. Klaus-Michael Mallmann u. a. (Ed.): The “Event Reports USSR” 1941. Documents of the Einsatzgruppen in the Soviet Union. WBG, Darmstadt 2011, pp. 64–68, here p. 66; see Christian Streit: Members of the military resistance and the genocide of the Jews in the southern section of the Eastern Front. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (Ed.): Nazi crimes and the military resistance against Hitler. Primus, Darmstadt 2000, pp. 90-103, here. P. 91 f.
  5. Quotation n .: Johannes Hürter: Hitler's Heerführer. Munich 2007, p. 572.
  6. Manfred Messerschmidt: Motives of the military conspirators against Hitler. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (Ed.): Nazi crimes and the military resistance against Hitler. Primus, Darmstadt 2000, pp. 107-118, here. P. 110.
  7. ^ Barbara Koehn: Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel. Officer and resistance fighter. A defense. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2008, p. 143 f.
  8. ^ Gerhard Ringshausen: Resistance and Anti-Semitism. The case of Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel. In: Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte / Contemporary Church History. 27 (2014), pp. 144–162, here pp. 155 f.