Erich Löffler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Erich Löffler (born March 23, 1908 in Eisenach ; † March 27, 1945 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German officer , most recently in the rank of lieutenant colonel .

Career

Erich Löffler as major , 1943

Erich Löffler was born in Eisenach . In the Weimar Republic he joined the Reichswehr as a professional soldier and rose to senior sergeant major in it and the later Wehrmacht until 1939 .

After the outbreak of World War II , he quickly rose to the ranks of officers: he became a company - e.g. B. the 3rd Company of Infantry Regiment 57 in Eisenach, and battalion leader and finally from 1944 commander of an infantry regiment with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1941 he fought outside Moscow . In 1942, as a captain , he received numerous other awards, for example the German Cross in Gold , the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . In 1943 his regiment was crushed in Ukraine .

When the Grenadier Regiment 57 was reorganized in Denmark in 1944, Löffler became the commander of the regiment with which he took part in the Battle of the Bulge . At the beginning of March 1945 he became combat commander of Koblenz . His helpless complaints to the Gauleiter about the falling morale of the almost 2,000 soldiers who were supposed to defend the city had no consequences. On March 14th, he declared the right bank of the Moselle from Moselweiß to the Deutsches Eck a combat zone and had the area cleared. On March 18, 1945, American troops occupied Koblenz. Löffler had already retired to Marburg , the new location of the 57th Grenadier Regiment of the 9th Volksgrenadier Division .

Here he received the order to leave for Frankfurt am Main with a small staff. He was supposed to be appointed combat commander there and defend the city to the last house. On the morning of March 27, 1945 Löffler arrived at the commandant's office at Taunusanlage 12 . An announced reinforcement of the defense by SS units has not materialized. In the early afternoon of the same day, an American shell struck the building, killing him and his staff. His predecessor, Major General Friedrich Stemmermann , who was recalled by Albert Kesselring , was also wounded, but survived the grenade impact. Two days later the war in Frankfurt was over.

Stemmermann had already stopped the fighting and Löffler, among other things, sent the Volkssturm home for defense. He ordered an anti-aircraft battery surrounded by the Americans in Goldstein to destroy the guns and, if necessary, to surrender. He also had barricades dismantled.

He was buried in the main cemetery in Frankfurt.

Awards (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b A shell hit ends the final battle for Frankfurt. Frankfurter Rundschau from March 23, 2005.
  2. ^ The archive: reference work for politics, economy, culture . O. Stollberg., 1942, p. 605 ( google.de [accessed on August 7, 2020]).
  3. ↑ Stadtarchiv Koblenz: End of the war in 1945: "All resistance in Koblenz was given up at 10 o'clock ..." In: Stadtarchiv Koblenz. March 17, 2020, accessed on August 7, 2020 (German).
  4. ^ Klaus-Dietmar Henke: The American occupation of Germany . Walter de Gruyter, 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-59079-1 , p. 356 ( google.com [accessed August 7, 2020]).
  5. ↑ a b c Armin Schmid: Frankfurt in the firestorm: the history of the city in the Second World War . Societäts-Verlag, 1984, ISBN 978-3-7973-0420-9 , pp. 227 ( google.com [accessed August 7, 2020]).
  6. ↑ When the Main became the front . FAZ of March 26, 2020
  7. ↑ grave site
personal data
SURNAME Löffler, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Eisenach
DATE OF DEATH March 27, 1945
Place of death Frankfurt am Main