Erich Kühlenthal

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Erich Kühlenthal (1933)
Erich Kühlenthal, Ludwig Beck and Hans Speidel (from left to right) on leaving the French War Ministry (1937)

Erich Kühlenthal (born October 13, 1880 in Spandau , † October 19, 1958 in Munich ) was a German artillery general .

Life

Kühlenthal occurred on October 1, 1899 as a cadet in the second Rheinische Field Artillery Regiment. 23 of the Prussian Army in Koblenz and was initially on January 29, 1900. Ensign and on 18 January 1901 to lieutenant promoted. On August 1, 1905 he was appointed adjutant in the 2nd battalion of his regiment. In this function he became a first lieutenant on October 18, 1909, and a year later until July 1913 he was sent to the war academy in Berlin for further training . On September 10, 1913 he was assigned to the General Staff . There, Kühlenthal was promoted to captain on December 18, 1913 .

With the outbreak of World War I , he was deployed on the Western Front as a company commander with his regular regiment. In February 1915 he was transferred to the staff of the 16th Infantry Division and from March 12, 1918, Kühlenthal acted as the first general staff officer of the 204th Infantry Division . Major Kühlenthal (since July 15, 1918) remained with this large association after the end of the war until January 10, 1919. He was then accepted into the Reichswehr and until October 1, 1923 as a liaison officer with the Reich Commissioner for the occupied Rhineland . He then joined the General Staff of the 3rd Division and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 1, 1925 . On February 1, 1926, Kühlenthal was appointed commander of the 4th Division of the 3rd (Prussian) Artillery Regiment , based in Potsdam .

On March 1, 1928, while being promoted to colonel , Kühlenthal was transferred to the Reichswehr Ministry . On March 1, 1928, he replaced the previous head of T / 3 Curt Liebmann (1881-1960) of the Foreign Armies Department, which bore the camouflage designation Heeres-Statistischen-Department (T 3). This department included the military intelligence service of the Reichswehr, called "Abwehr" and, since 1928, also the naval intelligence service, which has been operating under the organizational name "Nachrichtenstelle (N)" of the Naval Office. His task here was above all to bring the machinations of the head of the maritime transport department Walter Lohmann (1878–1930), which had become known to the public since August 1927 , into "calmer waters" under enormous political pressure " to get. Kühlenthal led this department until October 31, 1930 and then handed it over to his successor Herbert Fischer (1882–1939) without this process having already been completed . From November 1, 1930, Kühlenthal was assigned to Artillery Leader VI in Münster and promoted to major general on October 1, 1931 . As such, he then became chief of staff at Group Command 2 in Kassel .

Before his appointment as military attaché at the German Embassy in Paris on April 1, 1933, Kühlenthal was assigned to the staff of Group Command 1 for two months. Kühlenthal was promoted to lieutenant general on October 1, 1933 , and from 1934 also took over the post of military attaché in Madrid and Lisbon. He remained in his duties as a military attaché in Paris and Lisbon until the end of 1938. Then his transfer took place in the leader Reserve of the Army High Command and on 30 November 1938 Kühlenthal was awarded the character retired from military service as a general of artillery. Coming from Paris in 1939 he took over the duties of a special leader in Spain on behalf of the Foreign Office / Defense. In the responsibility of a section head he was deployed in the Madrid area until the end of the war. Only in 1946 did he return to Germany from Spain.

Awards

literature

  • Dermot Bradley : 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 7: Knabe – Luz. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2004, ISBN 3-7648-2902-8 , pp. 275-276.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Ranking list of the German Imperial Army. Ed .: Reichswehr Ministry , Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Berlin 1930, p. 109
personal data
SURNAME Kühlenthal, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German general of the artillery
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Spandau
DATE OF DEATH October 19, 1958
Place of death Munich