Erich Hoepner

Erich Hoepner, 1939

Erich Kurt Richard Hoepner (born September 14, 1886 in Frankfurt (Oder) ; † August 8, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German army officer ( Colonel General since 1940 ) and resistance fighter in the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 .

Life

Empire and First World War

Erich Hoepner was the son of the doctor Kurt Hoepner and his wife Elisabeth born. Kienast. In 1890 his family moved to Berlin-Charlottenburg . From 1893 he attended the Kaiserin-Augusta-Gymnasium, where he graduated from high school in 1905. In June 1909 Hoepner joined the Schleswig-Holstein Dragoon Regiment No. 13 ( Metz Fortress ) as a flag junior . In 1910 he married Irma Gebauer, daughter of the manufacturer Julius Gebauer . This marriage resulted in two children. In October 1913 he was assigned to the War Academy in Berlin.

From August 1914 Hoepner was orderly officer of the XVI. Army Corps . From 1916 he served at the front. In the course of the First World War , Hoepner was promoted to Rittmeister and received several awards, including two classes of the Iron Cross , the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with swords and the 2nd class Knight's Cross with swords of the Württemberg Frederick Order .

Weimar Republic

In 1920 Erich Hoepner became squadron chief in Reiter Regiment 2 ( Allenstein in East Prussia ). This task was followed by the service as captain in the general staff of the inspection of the cavalry in Berlin from 1921 on. From 1923 he was a general staff officer of the 1st Cavalry Division in his native Frankfurt (Oder). In 1927 Hoepner became major in the general staff and first general staff officer (Ia) of the military district command I in Königsberg ( East Prussia ). From 1930 he served as a battalion commander in Infantry Regiment No. 17 in Braunschweig . In 1932 Hoepner was promoted to lieutenant colonel. At that time he was the commander of the cavalry regiment No. 4 in Potsdam .

time of the nationalsocialism

Pre-war period

In 1933 Hoepner was appointed Chief of the General Staff of Military District I in Königsberg. In 1933 he was promoted to colonel. At that time he was Chief of Staff of Group Command  I in Berlin . In 1937 he was appointed major general. Erich Hoepner was the commander of the 1st Light Division in Wuppertal . In 1938 he was promoted to lieutenant general. In the last months before the outbreak of the Second World War , Hoepner served with the rank of general of the cavalry as commanding general of the XVI. Army Corps in Berlin.

Second World War

When the attack on Poland Hoepner was commanding general of the XVI. Army corps (motorized) , which comprised two tank and two infantry divisions and belonged to the 10th Army . On October 27, 1939, he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . In the same position he took part in the western campaign and was the commanding general in the battles of Hannut and Gembloux. He was promoted to Colonel General on July 19, 1940.

Hoepner (right) with SS Brigade Leader Walter Krüger in Russia (October 1941), recording of a propaganda company

On May 2, 1941, Hoepner formulated his views on the coming war in the " Barbarossa deployment and combat instructions ":

“The war against Russia is an essential phase in the struggle for existence of the German people. It is the struggle of the Teutons against Slavism, the defense against Jewish Bolshevism . This struggle must aim at the destruction of today's Russia and therefore be waged with unheard-of severity. Every combat action must be guided in its design and implementation by the iron will to the merciless, complete annihilation of the enemy. In particular, there is no sparing for the bearers of today's Russian-Bolshevik system. "

- Colonel General Hoepner

The corps was renamed Panzergruppe 4 in early 1941 . At the beginning of the Russian campaign in June 1941, Hoepner was in command of the XXXXI. Army Corps and the LVI. Army corps (motorized) with a total of seven divisions . With his troops he fought in the double battle near Vyazma and Bryansk . Finally, the Panzer Group was upgraded to the 4th Panzer Army in December 1941 . This large association now consisted of five army corps with twelve divisions. At that time, Hoepner was one of the most successful and well-known tank commanders alongside Guderian , Hoth , von Kleist and Rommel .

During the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, Hoepner ordered as commander of the XXXXI. Army Corps and the LVI. Army Corps offered the "shooting of Russian commissioners in uniform" and also "the same treatment of civilian commissioners". This order, contrary to international law, went beyond the commissioner's order, which did not call for the indiscriminate killing of the Soviet party and administrative officials.

resistance

As early as 1935, Hoepner made contact with the German resistance through his superior officer Ludwig Beck . In September 1938, during the Sudeten crisis , he and his division made himself available to the resistance group around Beck and Franz Halder for a planned coup d'état against Hitler . The Munich Agreement , however, thwarted the plans and the coup did not come to fruition.

On January 8, 1942, Erich Hoepner was dishonorably dismissed from the Wehrmacht by Hitler for “cowardice and disobedience” after he had ignored an order to hold out during the Soviet winter offensive and ordered the tactical withdrawal of his units. This resulted in the loss of all medals and decorations as well as the deprivation of the right to wear a uniform. Hoepner explained his decision to Field Marshal von Kluge : “Field Marshal General, I have duties that are higher than my duties towards you and my duties towards the Führer. These are the duties towards the troops entrusted to me. ”On January 12th, he returned to Berlin to defend himself against Hitler's arbitrariness, because Hitler would have had to use strict legal and civil service procedures to dismiss Hoepner. That is why the Greater German Reichstag passed a resolution on April 26, 1942, according to which the “Führer” was authorized to remove any German from his office even without observing existing legal provisions.

Erich Hoepner before the People's Court after the failed assassination attempt on July 20, 1944

In the summer of 1943 he moved with the family to his sister in Bredereiche (today Fürstenberg / Havel ). In autumn 1943 he was informed of the plans for the assassination attempt and asked for support. On July 19, 1944, Erich Hoepner returned to Berlin. During the failed attempted assassination and coup d'état of July 20, 1944, Hoepner, who, if the plan was successful, was intended to be "Commander-in-Chief in the home war area", was in the Bendler block . He was arrested there in the early hours of July 21st.

In the first trial on August 7 and 8, 1944, Hoepner was brought to trial at the People's Court for treason against the people. Field marshal Erwin von Witzleben was also one of the accused, and the President of the People's Court, Roland Freisler , personally chaired the trial . On August 8th, Hoepner sentenced him to death . The sentence was carried out on the same day in the execution site of the Berlin-Plötzensee prison by hanging on Hitler's express orders .

Honors

Berlin memorial plaque for Erich Hoepner and Henning von Tresckow (at the Bundeshaus )

• 1956: Renaming of the "Gymnasium Charlottenburg" - successor to the "Kaiserin-Augusta-Gymnasium", the former Hoepner School - in Bayernallee ( Berlin-Westend ) by a BVV decision of the Charlottenburg district of Berlin as "Erich-Hoepner-Oberschule" . In 2006 the school management initiated a long process to rename the school again; since August 1st, 2008 the grammar school has been called " Heinz-Berggruen-Gymnasium ".
• 1969: Designation of a Wuppertal barracks in Generaloberst Hoepner barracks (now closed).
• One “Erich-Hoepner-Strasse” each in Düsseldorf and Neuss as well as one Hoepnerstrasse in Leipzig and one “Erich-Hoepner-Ring” street in Wuppertal. This is located on the site of the former Colonel General Hoepner barracks.
• 1996: The " Wilhelm-Florin-Strasse " in Leipzig was renamed "Hoepnerstrasse" because it was already called Hoepnerstrasse between 1947 and 1965.
• An inscription on the tombstone of his wife Irma Hoepner geb. Gebauer at the Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf in Berlin reminds of him.

literature

• Walter Bussmann :  Hoepner, Erich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 350 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Jürgen Schmädeke and Peter Steinbach : The resistance against National Socialism. Piper, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-492-11923-9 .
• Heinrich Bücheler: Colonel General Erich Hoepner and the military opposition against Hitler. In: Contributions to the resistance 1933–1945. German Resistance Memorial Center , Berlin.
• Heinrich Bücheler: Hoepner. The fate of a German soldier in the twentieth century. Herford 1980 u. Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-8132-0118-X .
• Walter Chales de Beaulieu : Colonel General Erich Hoepner: Military portrait of a tank leader. Vowinckel, Neckargemünd 1969.
• Geralf Gemser: Can a school bear this name? On the role model effect of the Wehrmacht General Erich Hoepner. Tectum, Marburg 2005, ISBN 978-3-8288-8927-9 .
• Samuel W. Mitcham Jr. , Gene Mueller: Colonel General Erich Hoepner. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.): Hitler's military elite. From the beginning of the war to the end of the world war. Vol. 2, Primus Verlag, Darmstadt 1998, ISBN 3-89678-089-1 , ISBN 3-534-12678-5 (Scientific Book Society), pp. 93-99; Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr. et al. Gene Mueller: Colonel General Erich Hoepner . In: Gerd R. Ueberschär: Hitler's military elite. 68 CVs . Primus, Darmstadt 2011. ISBN 978-3-89678-727-9 , pp. 364-370.
• Johannes Hürter : Hitler's military leader. The German commanders-in-chief in the war against the Soviet Union in 1941/42. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-57982-6 , p. 632 f. (Short biography).

See also

• Personalities of July 20, 1944

Web links

Commons : Erich Hoepner  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Erich Hoepner in the catalog of the German National Library
• Arnulf Scriba: Erich Hoepner. Tabular curriculum vitae in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
• Short biography of the German Resistance Memorial Center
• Answer of the federal government to a small inquiry - honors Hoeppner are not objectionable (PDF; 96 kB)
• Felix Römer : War Crimes: Hitler's Obedient Troop. In: Spiegel Online , one day , December 12, 2008
• Wolfgang Benz : Witzleben, Erwin von, among others In: Kurt Groenewold , Alexander Ignor, Arnd Koch (Hrsg.): Lexicon of Political Criminal Processes . Online, as of March 2020.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cauerstraße 36–37, today Ludwig Cauer Elementary School
2. ↑ ^{a b} 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 112-113
3. ↑ Quoted from: Aufmarsch- und Kampfanweisung Barbarossa, documented in: Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm , Rassenpolitik und Kriegführung - Sicherheitspolizei und Wehrmacht in Poland and the Soviet Union, Passau 1991, p. 140; see also Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr. et al. Gene Mueller: Colonel General Erich Hoepner . In: Gerd R. Ueberschär: Hitler's military elite. 68 CVs. Primus, Darmstadt 2011. ISBN 978-3-89678-727-9 , pp. 364-370, here pp. 365f.
4. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham Jr., Gene Mueller: Colonel General Erich Hoepner . In: Gerd R. Ueberschär : Hitler's military elite. 68 CVs . Primus, Darmstadt 2011, pp. 364-370, here p. 364.
5. ↑ Veit Scherzer : The knight's cross bearers. Main band. 2nd revised edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3-938845-17-1 , p. 86ff., P. 116.
6. ^ Dermot Bradley: The Generals of the Army 1921-1945. Vol. 6. Hochbaum – Klutmann. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2002, ISBN 3-7648-2582-0 , page 40f.
7. ↑ Janusz Piekalkiewicz: The Second World War. ECON Verlag, 1985, Part II, p. 570. “Hitler was upset because it was already the second case of this kind within a few days after Gen. Sponeck ignored the Fuehrer's order in the Crimea. Hitler wants to set an example and dishonorably dismisses Hoepner from the Wehrmacht. "
8. ↑ Resolution of the Greater German Reichstag of April 26, 1942. Printed and published in the Reichsgesetzblatt of April 27, 1942. Excerpts from the wording: “[...] The Führer must therefore - without being bound by existing legal provisions - be in a position at all times to meet any German [...] to remove from his office [...] without initiating prescribed procedures. ”Samuel W. Mitcham Jr., Gene Mueller: Colonel General Erich Hoepner. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.): Hitler's military elite. 68 CVs. Primus Verlag, Darmstadt, 2nd edition 2011, ISBN 978-3-89678-727-9 , pp. 364-370, here pp. 367 f.
9. ↑ Gerd R. Ueberschär : Stauffenberg. July 20, 1944. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-10-086003-9 , p. 156
10. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 634. Photo of Irma Hoepner's grave at http://www.berlin.friedparks.de (accessed on March 10, 2019).