Edgar Feuchtinger
Edgar Feuchtinger (born November 9, 1894 in Metz , † January 21, 1960 in Berlin ) was a German officer and lieutenant general in World War II until 1945 .
The Reich Court Martial sentenced and demoted Feuchtinger in March 1945; his case was discussed again in the 2008 discussion about the rehabilitation of war traitors. During the Cold War , he worked as a spy for the Eastern Bloc , gaining extensive knowledge of the structure of the Bundeswehr through private contacts and betraying it to the GDR .
First World War and acceptance into the Reichswehr
As the son of a music dealer , he attended high school and graduated from high school in March 1914. He then joined in the same year in the cadet school in Karlsruhe and continued this training in Hauptkadettenanstalt (PCA) in Gross-Lichterfelde continued. Even here he was noticeable for his fearlessness and great talent for military affairs. Shortly after the outbreak of World War I , he was promoted to ensign on August 7, 1914 . With his unit, the Baden Foot Artillery Regiment No. 14 , he marched to the front. On August 18, 1915, he was appointed lieutenant .
In the next few years he fought in Russia ( Eastern Front ) and France ( Western Front ), taking part in the battles near Verdun , the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of the Aisne near Chemin des Dames and from September 25, 1917 in the foot artillery -Regiment 212 belonged to. On March 21, 1919 he was accepted into the Reichswehr , where he began his service in the 13th Artillery Regiment. In the next few years he was transferred, among other things, because his commanding officers drew negative attention to him. From October 1, 1920 he was transferred to the 25th Rifle Regiment, on January 1, 1921 to the 13th Württemberg Infantry Regiment. He served in the 5th Artillery Regiment from October 1, 1921. Three years later he was transferred to the 2nd (Prussian) Artillery Regiment . On April 1, 1925, he was promoted to first lieutenant .
Commander of the artillery and organizer in the Nazi regime
From February 1, 1929, he performed his service as head of a battery in the 7th (Bavarian) Artillery Regiment . He was promoted to captain on November 1, 1929. With the artillery regiment "Amberg", the artillery regiment 10, he led a battery from October 1, 1934. Then he was transferred to the field artillery school in Jüterbog on January 1, 1935, to teaching staff A of the teaching regiment. That same year he was promoted to major on November 1st .
Since he had proven to be an excellent organizer in the troop service, he was commissioned to lead the events of the Wehrmacht at the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg in 1935 . These skills were also wanted in 1936 for the XI. Use the Olympics , where he was a member of the organizing committee.
The armament of the Wehrmacht from around 1935 promoted his career as well as that of many of his comrades:
From October 1, 1937 he led the III. Battalion of the 26th Artillery Regiment, which was part of the 26th Infantry Division . He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on August 1, 1938. He was appointed commander of the 227 Artillery Regiment of the 227th Infantry Division on August 26, 1939. With this unit he took part in the campaign in the west (fighting in Belgium and France); until October 1941 he was stationed there. He was then transferred to the Eastern Front, where the German-Soviet War began on June 22, 1941 . On August 1, 1941, he was promoted to colonel . In the area of Army Group North , Feuchtinger again demonstrated his organizational talent by forming a new combat unit out of scattered troops and captured weapons and breaking out of an encirclement by Soviet units.
Invasion of southern France and reorganization of the 21st Panzer Division
On November 27, 1942, he commanded Combat Group A, which occupied the city of Toulon as part of the company Lila and tried to bring the ships of the French fleet stationed there under their control. On April 7, 1943, he was given command of the Rapid Artillery Brigade 931. In the following months he set up a new division from various units and booty weapons, which he called the 21st Panzer Division (the division of the same name was captured in North Africa taken). He had a technically gifted reserve officer, who was an entrepreneur in civil life, build his own designs of assault guns and rocket launchers from the Hotchkiss works near Paris and German guns . He personally reported the formation of this "own" division to Adolf Hitler . He was promoted to major general and commander of the 21st Panzer Division on August 1, 1943.
Feuchtinger was mostly judged badly by subordinates and superiors in France and in several other commandos. Allegedly, as an artilleryman, he only received command of a tank division through his connections with the NSDAP . At least he had no experience in commanding armored units. Above all, he showed his great organizational talent there. B. organized the most modern radio equipment. Knowing that he had no knowledge of commanding tanks, he left his regimental commanders, who were experienced in tank combat, to train and manage their units. He himself stayed in Paris very often.
Invasion 1944
During the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, the 21st Panzer Division was the only German motorized task force in the immediate Allied landing area. Feuchtinger was in Paris that day. When he returned to his divisional command post on June 6th, he took his lover, an actress from Hamburg, with him. When he led an attack with his division towards Caen and Strand on June 6th during the Battle of Caen , it was caught in the fire of the heavy ship artillery and bombed by the Allies (see Operation Neptune # German Troops ) and was canceled by the regimental commanders. In the further fighting in the Caen area, the division suffered heavy losses of people and material. Feuchtinger was promoted to lieutenant general on August 1, 1944. Shortly afterwards, on August 6, 1944, he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . In August a large part of his division was trapped and destroyed in the Falaise pocket. The 21st Panzer Division in Lorraine was reorganized from remnants of the division that were outside the pocket or that could still break out of it. After fighting on the edge of the Vosges at Baccarat at the end of October, Feuchtinger reported: "In the combined fire of the artillery and the few anti-tank guns, we were able to destroy over 40 enemy tanks in a very short time." In fact, only about a dozen tanks had been destroyed.
In contrast to many other commanders, especially with the tank units, Feuchtinger practically never stayed in the front line. Feuchtinger's leadership style and way of life were the subject of discussion and criticism from the troops and commanders there from the beginning of the invasion until his trial.
Conviction before the Reich Court Martial
While his division in Lower Alsace was involved in heavy fighting in January 1945 , he stayed in Celle and organized well-supplied accommodation for his lover in a manor house. He also brought three non-commissioned officers with him to work there. This effort did not go unnoticed by the local population, who were upset about it. He was therefore arrested on January 5, 1945 and tried before the Reich Court Martial . The charges were of enriching Jewish property through the illegal sale of furs, the deprivation of NCOs from military service, the misappropriation of Wehrmacht property and the disclosure of military secrets to his South American lover. In the verdict of March 19, 1945, he was sentenced to death and demoted to gunner . All medals and awards were stripped from him.
Pardon and desertion
On March 2, 1945, Hitler decided that Feuchtinger should be deployed to the front again. The dictator said at the briefing that day:
“I want Feuchtinger to be given another job to build something. We can't afford the luxury of holding onto such people [...] Now it's every man! I don't care whether he brought some furniture or not. Why shouldn't I use such a talent? You can always grab it afterwards! "
He was to report to the 20th Panzer Grenadier Division at Seelow . A search that began in the division for him on April 12, 1945 was unsuccessful. Instead of going to the front, he went into hiding near his manor at Celle. On May 29, 1945, he went into British captivity in a general's uniform. He passed through several prison camps, including the British camp Trent Park , where his presence in the US camp Allendorf met with violent protests from other generals. On August 23, 1947, he was released from captivity in Wuppertal .
Post-war period and collaboration with the GRU
Since he posed as a victim of the Nazi judiciary, he received the highest rate of a general pension. He then acted as a representative of several companies and the Bremer Vulkan shipyard. By marrying a wealthy widow, he got a position in the trade in steel products for large-scale industry. In May 1953, he met a stranger at Krefeld main station , who presented him with a document showing that the military police wanted him from April 12, 1945. The stranger asked him for information about the rearmament or this document would be published. He undertook to provide the information for the Soviet military intelligence service GRU . He should send the information to an address in Berlin-Pankow : Paul Kutt, Granitzstraße 44.
Contacts with ex-generals
Then he looked for contacts with former Wehrmacht generals , where he met Adolf Heusinger and Hans Speidel . When the Federal Minister Theodor Blank announced the names of the first officers of the newly formed Bundeswehr on November 13, 1955 , Feuchtinger had already passed them on to his contact address. Feuchtinger developed a busy travel activity as a liaison between big industry and the Bundeswehr. Under this guise he visited many garrisons of the Bundeswehr and also made contacts in the Federal Ministry of Defense . There he was able to meet an old friend again, Colonel Carl-Otto von Hinckeldey . This served in 1938 in the III. Department of Artillery Regiment 26 in Düsseldorf under Feuchtinger as adjutant .
Help from Hinckeldey
Feuchtinger won Hinckeldey's trust because he told him that he was working on a study of the 1944 invasion and that he wanted to make military comparisons with the current state. Feuchtinger received secret documents from Hinckeldey about tactical operations, nuclear warfare operations and knowledge of airborne troops and many other documents of the Bundeswehr. During his visits to the Ministry of Defense, he also met General Werner Panitzki , who was Chief of Staff in the Armed Forces Staff from January 10, 1958 . The unhindered and longer stay in the ministry enabled him to stay in Hinckeldey's study when he was absent.
NATO contacts
In Berlin, he handed the microfilm documents to his commanding officer, Major Wladlen Michajlowitsch Michajlow , whom he visited about every three months. He disguised these trips as business trips for oil deals in interzonal trade . Members of his family also ignorantly helped him get new materials. In Paris he brought a stepdaughter to work as a secretary for NATO . A stepson helped him copy documents. NATO officers, learning of his alleged historical investigations, asked him in June 1956 to give a lecture on the course of the fighting of 1944 on the former battlefield of Caen . Military details, which he learned in conversations with these officers, he passed on to the GRU.
For about seven years he was able to send about 1,000 documents to his clients. When he went to Berlin to meet again in January 1960, he suffered a stroke on the train . When he arrived at the Zoo train station in West Berlin , he was transported to a hospital, where he could give his wife an address by phone before he died there on January 21, 1960. In May 1961, Michajlow tried to get in touch with Hinckeldey again through his wife. But she did not understand what Mikhailov was aiming for with his questions.
Hinckeldey is exposed and sentenced
When Michaijlow resumed conversation with her in June 1961 in Karlshorst , the seat of the GRU headquarters in the GDR , he revealed the real nature of her husband's relationships. Mrs. Feuchtinger immediately declined any further contact and traveled back. When Michajlow forced a GDR citizen named Kühn to visit Hinckeldey on November 24, 1961 in Rhöndorf , he reported that he had been blackmailed into this assignment. Hinckeldey immediately notified the Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD), which had Kühn arrested. Hinckeldey was arrested a few days later. In December 1962 he was sentenced by the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe to six months ' probation for negligent disclosure of state secrets.
Rehabilitation discussion 2007/8
2007/8 was discussed in parliament if convicted by the Nazis to death "war traitors" also "because of war treason " (an imprecise defined term) condemned should be rehabilitated flat rate.
Awards
- Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st class
- Knight's Cross 2nd Class of the Order of Frederick with Swords
- Knight's Cross II. Class of the Order of the Zähringer Lion with Swords
- Hanseatic Cross Hamburg
- Austrian honorary medal for bravery in bronze
- Clasp for the Iron Cross, 2nd and 1st class
- German cross in silver on July 15, 1943
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on August 6, 1944
literature
- Janusz Piekałkiewicz : World History of Espionage , Munich 1988.
- Dermot Bradley , Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Markus Rövekamp: Die Generale des Heeres 1921–1945 , Volume 3, Osnabrück 1994.
- Hans von Luck: With Rommel at the front , Verlag Mittler, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-8132-0861-3 .
- Sönke Neitzel: bugged - German generals in British captivity 1942–1945 . Propylaea, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-549-07261-9 .
- Helmut Roewer , Stefan Schäfer, Matthias Uhl : Lexicon of the secret services in the 20th century . With organizational charts. Herbig, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7766-2317-9 .
Web links
- Military career details
- Helmut Kramer: Relapse into repression and defense against guilt. Last attempt to save the honor of the armed forces justice . In: kramerwf.de , December 2008 (about Feuchtinger's trial before the Reich Court Martial ).
- Markus Deggerich: The last fight . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 2009 ( online ). (about Feuchtinger's trial before the Reich Court Martial).
- Trap killer from the right . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1961 ( online ). (via Feuchtinger's contact with Hinckeldey).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Markus Deggerich: The last fight . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 2009 ( online ).
- ↑ a b c d e Hans von Luck : With Rommel at the front .
- ^ Sönke Neitzel: Abgehört - German generals in British captivity 1942–1945 , p. 443.
- ↑ Piekalkiewicz, Weltgeschichte der Espionage , p. 445
- ↑ spiegel.de April 28, 2008 , Interview with Prof. Wolf-Dieter Müller (2008)
- ↑ a b c d e Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Berlin 1930, p. 152.
- ↑ 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. 129.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Feuchtinger, Edgar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German officer and lieutenant general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 9, 1894 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Metz |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 21, 1960 |
| Place of death | Berlin |