Ernst Maisel

Ernst Maisel (born September 16, 1896 in Landau in the Palatinate ; † December 16, 1978 in Schönau am Königssee ) was a German officer , most recently lieutenant general and, since 1944, deputy head of the Army Personnel Office during World War II . Maisel became known to the general public as the bearer of Hitler's ultimatum for Field Marshal Erwin Rommel .

Life

Maisel joined the 12th Field Artillery Regiment of the Bavarian Army in his hometown as a volunteer on January 4, 1915 during the First World War . On March 23, he was promoted to NCO and shortly afterwards the regiment came on April 3, 1915 for its first field deployment in Flanders on the Western Front . In quick succession he was first on 12 June for the sergeant, on July 26 for cadet and on 23 August 1915 to Ensign and simultaneously to reserve lieutenant promoted. From then on he was employed as the battery officer of the 4th battery. Almost a year later he was wounded for the first time at the Battle of the Somme and after his recovery on October 28, 1916, he was assigned to the regimental staff. In mid-December 1917 he was transferred to the 1st field artillery regiment "Prince Regent Luitpold" . Here he was wounded again in the fighting in Flanders on April 16, 1918 and then assigned to the regimental staff, where he was to remain until the end of the war.

After the war, his company was taken over in the Reichswehr as a platoon leader in the 13th mortars - Company of 21 (Bavarian) Infantry Regiment in Fuerth . On April 1, 1925 he was first lieutenant , in 1928 he was assigned to the staff of the II Battalion and in 1931 a battalion adjutant . When he was promoted to captain on April 1, 1932, he was given command of the 13th Company. Between 1933 and 1934 Maisel was a regimental adjutant, was promoted to major on April 1, 1936, and was transferred to Frankfurt am Main on October 1, 1936 as adjutant of the 15th Infantry Division . As a commander , he then took over the III. Battalion of 104th Infantry Regiment in his hometown.

Ernst Maisel est in Sevastopol , 1942

Shortly before the start of the Second World War, Maisel was promoted to lieutenant colonel on August 1, 1939 , and to adjutant of the Deputy General Command IX on April 1, 1940. Army corps appointed in Kassel . In this function he was responsible for securing the western border south of Landau. On May 1, 1941, Maisel took over the 42nd Infantry Regiment and fought in Yugoslavia before the regiment advanced to the Crimea as part of Operation Barbarossa , the attack on the Soviet Union . Colonel (since October 1, 1941) Maisel was relieved of his position on September 24, 1942 and transferred to the Army High Command as department head of the Army Personnel Office. On January 15, 1943, Maisel was appointed head of office group P 2, which was divided into three departments:

1st department

Ideological education

Principles of education and honor

political affairs

2nd department

Honor and court proceedings

3rd department

u. a. German bloodline, complaints

In the following years he was promoted to major general on June 1, 1943 and lieutenant general on October 1, 1944 , and in January 1945 he was appointed deputy head of the Army Personnel Office.

Maisel, together with Lieutenant General Wilhelm Burgdorf, became known as the bearer of Hitler's personal ultimatum and the poison ampoule for Erwin Rommel and the field marshal's forced suicide. Despite various attempts by the Rommel family, Maisel was not held responsible for this after the war.

Maisel was taken prisoner by the Americans on May 7, 1945 , from which he was released in March 1947.

Awards

• Iron Cross 2nd class on April 6, 1916
• Iron Cross 1st Class on July 30, 1918
• Black Wound Badge (1918) on May 23, 1918
• Bavarian Order of Military Merit IV Class with crown and swords on March 3, 1919
• Clasp for the Iron Cross, 2nd and 1st class
• Wound Badge (1939) in silver on August 1, 1941
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on April 6, 1942
• Infantry storm badge in silver on September 24, 1942

literature

• 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. Volume: Documents. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2006, ISBN 3-938845-09-0 , pp. 21-24.
• Ernst Maisel , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 45/1949 of October 31, 1949, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)