Erich Mülbe

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Erich Mülbe

Erich Mülbe (born November 23, 1898 in the Stralauer Vorstadt , † December 29, 1976 in Essen ) was a German officer , historian and publicist .

Life

Mülbe's parents were Julius Friedrich Ferdinand Mülbe and Martha Helena Emilie geb. Conrad († 1915). Both came from Pomeranian farm worker families. The father was a milk dealer in Tegel . Baptized and raised as a Protestant, Mülbe attended "from the Michaelistage 1904 until Michaelis 1914 again the secondary school, later the Humboldt-Oberrealschule in Tegel".

Soldier 1914–1920

With the certificate of primary school, he went to the German Army as a 15-year-old volunteer on October 1, 1914 . He wanted to pursue a career as a soldier on the avant-garde path . During the First World War he fought in machine gun departments in the east, south and west . He was promoted and honored, but was only appointed officer in March 1918 at the Kaiser’s department head's request . Until the end of the war he was division leader of the mountain machine gun division 257, which he demobilized in Seesen by January 1919 . In the Spartacus uprising , in the Baltic State Army (summer 1919) and in the Ruhr uprising , he was in an officer battalion . He became platoon commander, battalion adjutant, regimental adjutant and (again) company commander . He was wounded and received the Iron Cross , the Baltic Cross and a commendation by brigade orders. It was not until the autumn of 1920 that he was able to take leave to begin studying at the Westphalian Wilhelms University . He received his departure on January 1, 1921, when his regiment became the 18th Infantry Regiment .

“I had seven difficult but also rich years behind me. They were heavy with all the misery I saw; but they were also infinitely rich in large army campaigns all over the world: in Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and Rumania, in Croatia, Slavonia, Tyrol and northern Italy; It went through northern France and through Belgium to eastern France and over to Courland and then back again and through half of Germany. "

- Erich Mülbe

Studies and work 1921–1935

In the Weimar Republic , after the winter semester in Münster, he did an apprenticeship at August Thyssen-Hütte in Dinslaken. In the summer semester of 1921 he studied political science, history and philosophy at the University of Hamburg as a working student . He heard from Max Lenz , Erich Ziebarth , Karl Rathgen , Friedrich von Gottl-Ottlilienfeld and Bruno Cassirer , sometimes also from Robert Petsch and Agathe Lasch . During the autumn break he was an apprentice on the Hamburg-America Line . In the winter semester of 1921/22 he was allowed to go to the colleges regularly, including in the mornings. He enjoyed studying primarily through Lenz and his course on the history of the Reformation . And Leopold von Ranke moved into his field of vision. The student traineeship ended at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin . He studied history with Erich Marcks , Friedrich Meinecke , Albert Brackmann and Ernst Perels . He studied philosophy with Eduard Spranger and Heinrich Maier , political science with Max Sering , Werner Sombart , Heinrich Herkner , Ignaz Jastrow and Ludwig Bernhard . He spent the winter semester of 1923/24 at the University of Vienna , where he heard Alfons Dopsch , Heinrich von Srbik and Othmar Spann . It took him two semesters to expand his knowledge of Latin and take the supplementary examination. With a doctoral thesis on Leopold von Ranke, he was magna cum laude and valde laudabile as Dr. phil. PhD. The speakers were Erich Marcks and Eduard Spranger. The fact that he dealt with Ranke also shows Mülbe's attitude: Ranke represented the systematic, source-critical working method and objective, fact-based historiography. He then pursued economic policy and journalistic activities at the Reich Association of German Industry ( Jakob Wilhelm Reichert ), in the Foreign Office ( Roland Köster ) and at Lufthansa . Between 1926 and 1936 he traveled several times to western and southern Europe.

Wehrmacht 1936–1946

Also active for the propaganda of the Wehrmacht , he edited the magazine "Das Ehrenkreuz" with Hans Henning von Grote in the 1930s. Until issue 40 of September 30, 1936, Grote was the chief editor. He was followed by Mülbe, who also wrote articles himself, until the end of the magazine in October 1936. The magazine in the format 35.3 × 25.2 cm had 16 pages per issue and was produced in the private Carl Sabo print shop until October 28, 1936. From November 1st it appeared twice a month under the title Die Wehrmacht . In this magazine Mülbe wanted to present soldier virtues, the behavior of soldiers in civil life and the relationship between the Wehrmacht and the population in an entertaining way. He dealt with James Keith and Hermann von Boyen . He wrote the Luftwaffe's first flight report for the Wehrmacht .

Mülbe came in March 1936 as a civilian employee to military district command X in Hanover . In August 1936 he became a captain (supplementary officer), press and propaganda officer . In 1937 he published a book on the establishment of the XI. Army Corps in Hanover. The book was placed on the list of literature to be discarded in 1946 . Mülbe stood up for Erich Less in his publications . In the autumn of 1938 he became company commander in the 74th Infantry Regiment in Hameln . During the attack on Poland , he joined the 61st Infantry Division . He directed the officer and candidate courses of his regiment. Promoted to Major (E) in the spring of 1940 after a commanding course , he took part in the campaign in the west as Commander III / 176 (Montmédy, Verdun, Nancy). He received a year Vorpatent and was transferred to the ranking of the fully active officers. He was the commander of training battalions and courses. In the summer of 1941 he was given a six-week leave of absence to Italy to “refresh his knowledge of the Italian language”. After the beginning of the German-Soviet war he was commander of the 2nd / 284th Infantry Regiment. In February 1942 he was entrusted with the command of the 287 Infantry Regiment ( 96th Infantry Division ). In the autumn of 1942 he was a course commander at the Deba field sergeant school on the southern military training area in the Generalgouvernement . After several assignments as a commander, he came to the Italian front in December 1943 with a special order from the army . In January 1944 he was appointed commander of the 126th Infantry Regiment and the (last) commander of Ostend . At the end of August 1944 he came after defensive battles on the Seine when he broke through the Third United States Army under George S. Patton in American captivity in England and in the United States. In the winter of 1944/45 he gave history lectures at the camp college in Trinidad (Colorado) . In both camps (Africa Corps and Western Front) he spoke to 600 officers about war history (from the Earl of Marlborough to Napoleon Bonaparte ) and about general history in the 18th century.

Civilian 1946–1954

Ruhr Almanac

Released from captivity, he resumed his studies in the summer of 1946 to supplement his general and economic knowledge. In autumn 1947 he applied for employment with the German Coal Mining Management (DKBL). In February 1948 he began working as a consultant in the information department. From autumn 1948 to spring 1949 he worked in the finance department of the Coal Control Group at Villa Hügel in Essen . In the information department of the DKBL he had to follow the coal resonance in the national and international publications and to write books, writings and articles ( Herders Lexicon , Mining ). He edited the Ruhr Almanac with Hubert Berke and Heinz Schildknecht . The contractual relationship with the DBKL ended on December 31, 1954. Living in Essen (Hohe Warte 25), he asked the Blank office "obediently to be reinstated into active military service". On November 27, 1956, the Federal Minister of Defense rejected the application because he had exceeded the age limit set for his rank .

marriage

Mülbe's wife (2nd right) and her twin sister (2nd left)

Mülbe was married on February 10, 1940 to Margarethe Jung, daughter of the ironworks entrepreneur Gustav Jung . He got to know her at the end of the 1930s in a circle around Gerhart Hauptmann , whom she met as the niece (2nd degree) of Friedrich Schmidt-Ott . She was cousin (2nd degree) of Günther Ramin , who was himself also nephew (2nd degree) of Friedrich Schmidt-Ott. Erich Mülbe is Heinrich Bonnenberg's uncle through Margaret's twin sister Elisabeth .

Archival false reports

The city archive of Ostend has a number of photos from the liberation in 1944, but no photos of Commandant Mülbe. The finding aids of the Belgian State Archives do not mention the name Mülbe either. The databases of the Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands do not give any mention of Mülbe / Muelbe / Mulbe.

Publications

  • Rankes himself testified to his historical theory and method in the context of contemporary schools of thought . Contribution to the history of historiography . Berlin 1930.
  • Germany's soldiers heart beats here! Reich Warrior Day Kassel 1936 on 4th / 5th July, in: The Cross of Honor of July 1, 1936, No. 27, p. 4.
  • My service in the XI. Army Corps (Military District XI) . Berlin 1937.
  • The Freikorps Unteroffizier , in: Jürgen Hahn-Butry : The book of the German Unteroffizier . P. Francke, 1936. GoogleBooks

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berlin registry office VIIa No. 2503/1898
  2. ↑ a b c d curriculum vitae in Mülbes dissertation, Berlin, May 1927, p. 131f.
  3. ↑ Dissertation: Ranke's personal testimonies about his historical theory and method in the context of contemporary schools of thought .
  4. ↑ a b c Letter to Theodor Blank from October 13, 1954
  5. ^ Verlag Erich Zander, Berlin, 69 pp.
  6. ^ WorldCat
  7. ↑ Index Vol. 3 (GoogleBooks)
  8. ^ Prussian-German field marshals and grand admirals (1938)
  9. ^ Patrick Delaforce: Smashing The Atlantic Wall . London 2005.
  10. ^ FP Büchner, Erich Mülbe (Red.): Ruhr-Almanach. From miners and mining , with 20 color plates and 62 line drawings by Hubert Berke . German coal mining management, Essen 1950.
  11. ↑ Back note on Mülbe's birth certificate, Berlin-Schmargendorf, Wilmersdorf district No. 87/1940
personal data
SURNAME Mülbe, Erich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mülbe, Erich Julius (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, historian and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Stralauer Vorstadt , Berlin
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 1976
Place of death eat