Carl Hilpert

Carl Hilpert, around 1943

Carl Hilpert (born September 12, 1888 in Nuremberg , † February 1, 1947 in Moscow ) was a German army officer (since 1945 Colonel General ). During the Second World War he was employed as a general staff officer in the west until 1942 and then as a commander of major units of the army on the eastern front and was the last commander in chief of the Courland Army Group .

Life

Empire and First World War

Carl Hilpert joined the 14th Bavarian Infantry Regiment "Hartmann" in Nuremberg on July 15, 1907 as a flag junior . From 1908 he attended the Munich War School for one year and was promoted to lieutenant on May 26, 1909 .

During the First World War , Hilpert was deployed as a battalion and regimental adjutant in the Royal Bavarian Brigade Replacement Battalion 9 and in the Royal Bavarian Replacement Infantry Regiment No. 5 until 1917 and was promoted to captain at the end of 1917 after attending a training course for heavy weapons and being promoted to captain Chief of an MG company in the 5th Reserve Infantry Regiment. As a substitute, he also took on the duties of a battalion leader and from March 1918 was a machine gun officer in the regiment's staff. He ended the war as a battalion commander in the 17th Bavarian infantry regiment "Orff" .

Interwar period

After the war, Hilpert was accepted into the Reichswehr and from 1921 was company commander and regimental adjutant in the 21st Infantry Regiment in Nuremberg. From 1922 to 1925 he worked in the Reichswehr Ministry and then came to Stuttgart to join the staff of Military District Command V, where, among other things, he was in charge of training for assistant leaders .

On June 1, 1929 he was promoted to major and transferred to the staff of Infantry Leader VII in Munich . On October 1, 1933, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel , and on February 1, 1935, he was appointed commander of the 35th Infantry Regiment in Tübingen. Here he was promoted to colonel on September 1, 1935 . In 1937 he returned as Chief of Staff of the IX. Army corps in Kassel back into staff service. Here he was appointed major general on April 1, 1939 .

Second World War

When the Second World War broke out , Hilpert became Chief of Staff in Army Department A on September 9, 1939 under the orders of Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord , who was responsible for securing the western border with Belgium and the Netherlands. After its dissolution on October 3, the staff was used to form the South Border Section Command in Cracow , where Hilpert also remained active before he took up the post of Chief of Staff of the 1st Army under Erwin von Witzleben on February 5, 1940 . With this federation Hilpert took part in the campaign in the west and after its successful completion was promoted to lieutenant general on October 1, 1940 . Since Erwin von Witzleben, who was appointed General Field Marshal , now took over Army Group D (from April 1941 also Commander-in-Chief West ) in occupied France, Hilpert followed him on October 26, 1940 as the new Chief of Staff of the Army Group. Hilpert remained in this position for the next year and a half. After Witzleben was replaced by Gerd von Rundstedt in April 1942, Hilpert was relieved of this post and transferred to the Führer Reserve .

On June 26, 1942 Hilpert (to represent the sick general of the infantry Kurt von der Chevallerie ) with the leadership of the LIX. Army Corps, which was deployed in the area of Army Group Center on the Eastern Front. After Chevalleries recovery, Hilpert returned the command in July and instead took over the leadership of the XXIII. Army corps deployed in the Rzhev area as part of the 9th Army . During the fighting in this room Hilpert was promoted to General of the Infantry on September 1, 1942. After participating in the defense of the Soviet major offensive Operation Mars , he gave the command of the XXIII. Army Corps and instead took over the LIV on January 20, 1943 as the commanding general . Army corps that was deployed as part of the 18th Army of Army Group North outside Leningrad and was involved in heavy defensive battles during the Second Ladoga Battle . With the strength of his corps reinforced to form the "Hilpert Corps Group", he succeeded in repelling the Soviet attacks on the Sinyavino Heights, which he defended. In the following summer 1943 he proved himself in further defensive battles in the Third Ladoga Battle , for which he was later awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on August 22, 1943 .

Hilpert had already been transferred to the Führer Reserve on August 1, 1943 . From October 31, 1943, he commanded the XXVI for a short time . Army Corps in front of Leningrad, before taking over the I. Army Corps on January 1, 1944 in the area of ​​the 16th Army , which fought in the Newel area . In the course of the Soviet winter offensive ( Leningrad-Novgorod Operation ) Hilpert's troops got into heavy fighting, and Hilpert himself fell out. Therefore, until his return on April 1, 1944, Lieutenant General Walter Hartmann was entrusted with the management of the corps. In the fighting that the beginning of the Soviet summer offensive Operation Bagration followed, succeeded Hilpert in July 1944 in heavy fighting, from the firm position Polotsk break. For this achievement he was awarded the Knight's Cross Oak Leaves on August 8, 1944.

On September 3, 1944 Hilpert was finally commissioned with the deputy leadership of the 16th Army. However, this was locked in the Kurland cauldron barely six weeks later . From January 18 to 30, 1945 he was briefly assigned the deputy command of Army Group North , which was renamed Army Group Courland on January 25 . On January 30th he became commander in chief of the 16th Army and on March 15th he became the last commander in chief of Army Group Courland. In this position he was responsible for the possible evacuation of the Kurland pocket and so the 11th Infantry Division , which was experienced in combat, was scheduled for shipment to Kiel. Promoted to Colonel General on May 7, 1945 with effect from May 1, he went into Soviet captivity on May 9, 1945.

Hilpert was sentenced to death for war crimes by a Soviet military tribunal and executed in Moscow on February 1, 1947. He was buried in grave no. 43 in the Krasnogorsk cemetery near Moscow.

Awards

• Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st class
• Bavarian Order of Military Merit IV class with swords
• Clasp for the Iron Cross, 2nd and 1st class
• German cross in gold on February 19, 1943
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with oak leaves
  • Knight's Cross on August 22, 1943
  • Oak leaves on August 8, 1944 (542nd award)

literature

• Gerd F. Heuer: The Colonel General of the Army. Owner of the highest German command posts. Moewig Verlag, Rastatt 1988, ISBN 3-8118-1049-9 , pages 108-111

Individual evidence

1. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 , pp. 49 ( google.de [accessed on July 20, 2019]).
2. ↑ Andreas Weigelt, Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944-1947). A historical-biographical study. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-36968-5 , pp. 263f.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Ranking list of the German Imperial Army. Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Berlin, p. 128
4. ↑ ^{a b} Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 391.