Diether von Kleist

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Diether-Dennies von Kleist (born March 13, 1890 in Stuttgart , † May 16, 1971 in Göttingen ) was a German officer and prehistoric . He served as an officer in the First and Second World Wars , most recently in the spring of 1945 as Commander of Stolp . As a prehistorian he worked on the Schlawe district .

Life

He was born as a member of the Pomeranian noble family Kleist in Stuttgart in 1890 , where his father Friedrich Wilhelm von Kleist was the Prussian ambassador to the royal Württemberg court. He started a career as an officer in the Prussian army and became a lieutenant in the Emperor Alexander Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 1 in Berlin . Early on he was interested in aviation.

In the First World War he was used as a pilot, but in October 1914 he was taken prisoner by the French . On December 4, 1914, he received the Iron Cross 1st Class . In 1918 he was exchanged and served for several months in the main headquarters as well as battalion commander, most recently as captain .

After the First World War he worked in the Eastern Border Guard in Pomerania , he headed the Border Guard in the Schlawe district . There he combined this official activity with his interest in prehistory research . He was accompanied by Otto Kunkel , the state steward for soil antiquities Pomerania, the district nurse for cultural and historical antiquities appointed in Schlawe county. Kleist, who had no formal scientific training as a prehistoric scientist, acquired the necessary knowledge himself and, among other things, carried out emergency excavations independently. He set up a prehistoric collection in the Rügenwalder Castle . He published a guide through the prehistory of the Schlawe district (1933) on the prehistory of the Schlawe district .

In World War II he served again as an officer. Most recently he was in the spring of 1945 as Colonel in command of Stolp and directed the retreat of the German troops via Lauenburg in Pomerania to the Hela peninsula , from where they were shipped to Mecklenburg. Kleist went into British captivity near Lübeck and was held in the general camp of Ostend for over a year . In the meantime, Eastern Pomerania had come to Poland . He lived with his wife in Flensburg .

The prehistory of Pomerania continued to interest him. He published the prehistoric finds of the Schlawe district (1955). In 1955 he became an honorary member of the Society for Pomeranian History, Archeology and Art . In addition, he contributed to the continuation of the history of the von Kleist family for the period since 1880. He died in Göttingen in 1971. There is an estate in the Bundesarchiv-Military Archive.

Fonts

  • Guide through the prehistory of the Schlawe district. 1933.
  • The prehistoric finds of the Schlawe district. 3. Supplement to the Hamburg Atlas of Prehistory. Hamburg Museum of Ethnology and Prehistory, Hamburg 1955.
  • History of the Kleist family. Third part, second section containing the biographies of the Tychow-Dubberower line. Supplement and continuation. 1971. (together with Berndt von Kleist) ( Online )

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kleist, Diether von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kleist, Diether-Dennies von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and prehistoric
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 1971
Place of death Goettingen