Eugen Müller (General)

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Eugen Müller (1939)

Eugen Müller (born July 19, 1891 in Plantières , † April 24, 1951 in Berlin ) was a German general in the Wehrmacht . From October 1940 until the end of the Second World War he was the first and only head of the department " General zb V. at the Commander-in-Chief of the Army ", he himself carried the title General zb V. at the High Command of the Army (OKH) (zb V. stands for "for special use".). In his function, he was responsible for legal issues in the OKH and, among other things, was involved in the creation of the martial law decree. In 1942 he was promoted to general of the artillery .

Life

Eugen Müller was born on July 19, 1891 in Plantières near Metz in what was then Alsace-Lorraine . Müller joined the Bavarian army in 1910 at the age of 19 as a flag junior .

First World War and the interwar period

After two years he was made lieutenant in 1912 . Müller began his service in the 1st Foot Artillery Regiment , took part in the First World War from 1914 to 1918 and served in the Reichswehr after the war .

Müller was promoted to major there . In October 1933 he became a lieutenant colonel and in 1935 a colonel . On May 1, 1939 he was promoted to major general and took command of the War Academy .

Second World War

From the beginning of the Second World War on September 1, 1939, Eugen Müller was Quartermaster General for the Chief of the Army General Staff and was thus directly subordinate to Franz Halder . This function did not exist in peacetime. As Quartermaster General, Müller was subordinate to three groups: Group Qu 2 was headed by Captain Gähtgens and was responsible for questions relating to the area of ​​operations and for military orders against the civilian population there. Group Z was headed by Ministerialdirigent Danckwerts and was responsible for other orders against the civilian population in the operational area. Group III under General Judge Erich Lattmann was responsible for general questions of martial law and field war justice. In addition, he oversaw the military academy under the direction of General Liebmann . As Quartermaster General, Müller confirmed the ten death sentences from the second trial against the Polish defenders of the Danziger Post . The Polish postal officials was to partisan accused the applicability of Article 2 of the Hague Regulations (awarding combatant status of civilian postal clerk) was denied. The prisoners were shot after the convictions were confirmed. The chief of staff and thus Eugen Müller's deputy was Eduard Wagner , who was considered to be extremely capable .

On August 1, 1940, Müller was promoted to lieutenant general. Two months later, on October 1, 1940, Eugen Müller was replaced in his function as Quartermaster General by General Eduard Wagner and from then on he took the position of General eg V. at OKH . The previous Group III of the Quartermaster General continued to be subordinate to Müller by being subordinate to him as the “Legal Department in the OKH”. The legal department was responsible for criminal matters within the field army and against the civilian population in the occupied countries, for the organization of martial law and for prisoners of war. Eugen Müller was thus still responsible for the confirmation or annulment of court martial judgments, he was able to exercise the right of grace and was responsible for supervising the court martial under the OKH.

Before the attack on the Soviet Union , Müller played a leading role on the part of the OKH in bringing about the martial law decree. On May 6, 1941, he sent two drafts to the OKW . The first draft concerned the "treatment of hostile residents" and the restriction of jurisdiction in the war with the USSR, later referred to as the "Martial Law Decree". The second draft concerned the guidelines on the "treatment of political sovereigns for uniform implementation" of June 6, 1941, briefly referred to as the Commissar Order . In the first half of June 1941, Müller gave lectures to the Ic officers and army judges of Army Groups North (June 10 in Allenstein ), Middle (June 11 in Warsaw ) and South , with the Ic officers and army judges of the subordinate armies and Panzer groups were present. During these lectures he informed the officers and army judges about the martial law decree. According to the protocol in Warsaw, he stated that “in the coming mission a sense of justice u. U. have to step behind the necessity of war ”.

One month after the start of the war, on July 25, 1941, he wrote a directive to the commanders of the rear army areas North, Central and South about the taking of hostages among the civilian population: It is expressly pointed out that a previous arrest of hostages is not a liability for future injustice is required. Even without special notice and arrest, the population is liable for the peace and quiet in their areas.

On September 13, 1941, during a visit to Army Group North, the Chief of Staff, Kurt Brennecke, asked Müller not to apply the Commissar's order and instead treat the Commissars with courtesy in order to speed up their defection . After returning home to the OKH, Müller tried to implement this proposal after weakening it, but was initially unsuccessful. In June 1942 Müller was promoted to general of the artillery. In 1944 he lost Groups I (responsible for political affairs, liaison with the NSDAP, questions of pastoral care in the field army and nationality issues) and II (responsible for spiritual care and defensive leadership) of the Army Department to the newly established Nazi leadership. He remained in his position until the end of the war.

literature

  • Christian Streit: No comrades: the Wehrmacht and the Soviet prisoners of war 1941–1945 . Dietz-Verlag, Bonn 1997. ISBN 3-8012-5023-7 . (Third edition and new edition of the work The Soviet Prisoners of War as Victims of the National Socialist War of Extermination 1941–1945 from 1977, also a dissertation at the University of Heidelberg.)
  • Andreas Toppe: Military and international law of war: legal norm, specialist discourse and war practice in Germany 1899-1940 . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2008. ISBN 3-486-58206-2 .

Web links

Commons : Eugen Müller  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Toppe: Military and international law of war: legal norm, specialist discourse and war practice in Germany 1899-1940 . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2008, p. 201. ISBN 3-486-58206-2 .
  2. ^ Andreas Toppe: Military and international law of war , p. 314.
  3. ↑ Martin Broszat and Hans Buchheim: Anatomy of the SS State: Expert Opinion of the Institute for Contemporary History . Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1967, p. 147 (documents for the war crimes trials that began on December 20, 1963 in Frankfurt am Main.)
  4. ↑ Italics in the original, protocol printed by Gerd R. Ueberschär , Wolfram Wette (ed.): The German attack on the Soviet Union. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-596-24437-4 , pp. 283f / cf. Johannes Hürter: Hitler's Heerführer: The German Supreme Commanders in the War against the Soviet Union 1941/42 . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2007, pp. 253-254. ISBN 3-486-58341-7 .
  5. ↑ Andreas Toppe: Military and international law of war , p. 426.
  6. ↑ Johannes Hürter: Hitler's Army Leader: The German Supreme Commanders in the War against the Soviet Union 1941/42 . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2007, pp. 400–402. ISBN 3-486-58341-7 .
personal data
SURNAME Müller, Eugene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German general in the Wehrmacht
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Plantières
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1951
Place of death Berlin