Erich Buschenhagen
Erich Buschenhagen (born December 8, 1895 in Strasbourg , † September 13, 1994 in Kronberg im Taunus ) was a German infantry general in World War II .
on December 8, 1944
Life
Buschenhagen was the son of an official. On March 9, 1914, he joined the Telegraph Battalion No. 3 of the Prussian Army as a flag boy . After the outbreak of World War I , Buschenhagen worked as a telegraph officer in the telephony department of the VIII Reserve Corps , was appointed ensign on October 26, 1914 and a few days later he was appointed leader of the telephony train of the 16th Reserve Division . In the further course of the war, further assignments followed in various radio units and at the end of January 1915 he was promoted to lieutenant and in mid-October 1918 to first lieutenant. As such, Buschenhagen was transferred to the chief of intelligence staff on October 30, 1918 , where he saw the Compiègne armistice . For his achievements during the war, Buschenhagen had both classes of the Iron Cross and the Austrian Military Merit Cross III. Class received with war decorations.
After the end of the war, Buschenhagen was appointed head of the encryption department at the interpreting school in Berlin on November 20, 1918 , before he was appointed leader of the evaluation department of the Supreme Army Command on March 10, 1919 . October 1, 1919, he was with the acquisition in the Provisional Reichswehr offset to the news school while the service as head of Chiffrierstelle Army Division (T 1) in the Ministry of Defense ordered. Within the ministry, Buschenhagen came to the Army Statistics Department (T 3) on September 30, 1920, where he was used until October 10, 1925. This was followed by brief assignments to the 3rd (Prussian) intelligence department and to the Jüterbog artillery school . As a captain , Buschenhagen was chief of the 2nd company of the 2nd (Prussian) intelligence department in Stettin from February 1, 1926 to September 30, 1928 and was then transferred back to the Reichswehr Ministry in Berlin . Here he worked as a consultant in the Army Organization Department (T 2) and in the Army Training Department (T 4). On December 1, 1932, Buschenhagen was transferred to the staff of the 1st Division , promoted to Major on April 1, 1933 , and from June 1, 1934, he was assigned to the Army Training Department for two months. He was then transferred back to the Reich Ministry of War as a consultant. On October 1, 1935, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Two other short uses, u. a. as commander of Intelligence Forces III, followed. On March 1, 1938, Buschenhagen took over the command of the Pomeranian 5th Infantry Regiment and was promoted to colonel at the same time. July 1, 1939 brought him a brief transfer to the Führerreserve, and then on August 10, 1939, when the XXI was reorganized. Army Corps in East Prussia to take up the position of Chief of the General Staff and to enter the war with this major unit.
On March 1, 1940, Buschenhagen was entrusted by renaming the army corps to "Group XXI" as Chief of Staff at General of the Infantry Falkenhorst with the elaboration of the attack plans on Norway for the army side. The undertaking that was ultimately successful despite all the difficulties and which began on April 9, 1940 and led to the occupation of all of Norway, resulted in the expansion of Group XXI to become Army High Command and Wehrmacht Commander in Norway on December 19, 1940, whose chief of staff was Buschenhagen. In the first half of 1941 Buschenhagen played a key role in the secret discussions with the Finnish Army that were preparing for the war against the USSR . On June 4, 1941, he had a so-called “Lapland command post” set up under the AOK to lead the attacks on Murmansk and Karelia, which moved into quarters in Rovaniemi, while AOK Norway remained in Oslo. Buschenhagen and Falkenhorst were often active in the Finnish command post until the end of 1941, where Buschenhagen was also promoted to major general on August 1, 1941. On May 15, 1942, he was replaced by Major General Rudolf Bamler and on June 18, 1942, he took command of the 15th Infantry Division, which was then in France for refreshment.
In February 1943 Buschenhagen's division moved to Army Group South, under whose command it remained for a full year and where it witnessed the heavy fighting through the Ukraine. Your commander was promoted to lieutenant general effective May 1, 1943, and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on December 5, 1943 for the services of his division . Shortly before, on November 20, 1943, Buschenhagen took over the leadership of the LII. Commissioned by the Army Corps and appointed Commanding General and General of the Infantry on January 1, 1944 . In May and at the beginning of June 1944 he carried out German relief attacks on the Dniester front as the “Buschenhagen group”, which were unsuccessful and very lossy. Nevertheless, on July 4, 1944, the general received the 521st Oak Leaves for the Knight's Cross. The major Soviet offensive on Romania from August 20, 1944 led very quickly to the collapse of the fronts and the encirclement and destruction of 16 German divisions of the 6th Army. On September 4, 1944, Buschenhagen and his corps staff were taken prisoner by the Soviets , from which they were only released on October 10, 1955.
He was one of the fifty German generals who signed the appeal "To the people and the Wehrmacht" on December 8, 1944, calling on the German population and army to separate from the Nazi leadership and to end the war.
At the Nuremberg trial of the main war criminals , Buschenhagen testified in front of the court on February 12, 1946, as a witness to the preparations for war with Finland and the criminal commissioner order .
literature
- Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Markus Rövekamp: The Generals of the Army 1921–1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 2: v. Blanckensee-v. Czettritz and Neuhauß. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1993. ISBN 3-7648-2424-7 . Pp. 384-386.
- Wolf Keilig : The generals of the army. Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg 1983, p. 57.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ranking list of the German Imperial Army. Ed .: Reichswehr Ministry . ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1924. p. 172.
- ↑ 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. 256.
- ↑ Text online at pkgodzik.de (PDF; 53 kB)
- ^ Timeline , Robert H. Jackson Center, accessed November 17, 2018.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Buschenhagen, Erich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German general of the infantry |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 8, 1895 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Strasbourg |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 13, 1994 |
| Place of death | Kronberg im Taunus |