Frederick J. Kroesen

Frederick James Kroesen (born February 11, 1923 in Phillipsburg , New Jersey , † April 30, 2020 ) was a general in the US Army . He last served from 1979 to 1983 as commanding general of the 7th US Army in Heidelberg and was also commanding general of the Central Army Group of NATO . Before that, he commanded the VII. US Corps from 1975 to 1976 and the US Army Forces Command from 1976 to 1978 and subsequently served as Vice Chief of Staff of the Army until 1979 . After Kroesen left the army in 1983, he became a businessman, most recently as chairman of the company for security systems NetTalon .

RAF attack on Kroesen

The four-star general and his companions were injured when his armored limousine in the morning of September 15, 1981 in Heidelberg on Karlstor from the RAF -Terroristen Christian Klar with a reactive anti-tank rifle of the type RPG-7 was fired. The command Gudrun Ensslin claimed responsibility for the attack . In 1991 an arrest warrant was issued against the former Minister for State Security of the GDR Erich Mielke and six employees of the ministry, inter alia, on suspicion of aiding and abetting the attempted murder of Kroesen . As a support service, Klar's military training was suspected to include an RPG-7 bazooka, which he received in the GDR. However, it remained unclear whether this took place before the offense. The investigation of the Federal Prosecutor's Office was closed in August 1994 because of a "large number of contradicting statements".

Awards

Selection of decorations, sorted based on the Order of Precedence of Military Awards :

Defense Distinguished Service Medal
Army Distinguished Service Medal
Silver Star (2 ×)
Legion of Merit (3 ×)
Distinguished Flying Cross
Bronze Star (3 ×)
Purple Heart (3 ×)
Air Medal (29 ×)
Army Commendation Medal (3 ×)
National Defense Service Medal (2 ×)
Korean Service Medal (2 ×)
Vietnam Service Medal (9 ×)
Large Cross of Merit with Star of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Officer of the French Legion of Honor

Fonts

General Thoughts: Seventy Years with the Army. Institute of Land Warfare, Association of the United States Army, 2003.

literature

Butz Peters : Deadly mistake. The history of the RAF. Argon, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-87024-673-1 , chapter "Four-Star General Kroesen", pp. 522-527.

Web links

Commons : Frederick Kroesen - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Biographical interview with Kroesen. In: Oral History Archives of WW-II , Rutgers University (with details of the RAF attack, English).

Obituary on the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) website .

Individual evidence

↑ Frederick J. Kroesen Ret. Gene. In: Bloomberg.com (English).
^ Butz Peters : Deadly error. The history of the RAF. Argon, Berlin 2004, p. 525 and p. 794, end note 261. Accordingly, when Klar was convicted by the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court in 1985, the executor could not yet be determined, but new findings made Klar able to name the executing perpetrator in the judgment of the Higher Regional Court of Koblenz against Henning Beer in 1991 become. These new findings were based on statements from RAF dropouts in the GDR after their exposure in 1990; Gerd Rosenkranz : Clearly short appearance in Stammheim. In: Die Tageszeitung , September 8, 1992.
^ RAF: Brutal execution, stitch by stitch. Der Spiegel, September 21, 1981. Online , accessed March 5, 2015
↑ "We now trust them to do everything" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1991 ( online ).
↑ Jan-Hendrik Schulz: The relations between the Red Army Fraction (RAF) and the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in the GDR. In: Zeitgeschichte Online , May 2007. Stefan Aust reports that the accused stated that they carried out the exercises following the attack in order to reconstruct it, i.e. the Baader-Meinhof complex . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1985, quoted from the new edition 2008, ISBN 978-3-455-50029-5 , p. 875 f. In detail on this Butz Peters : Tödlicher Errtum. The history of the RAF. Argon, Berlin 2004, pp. 578–581 and pp. 588–591, especially p. 589: According to Inge Viett and five other witnesses, the bazooka exercise took place in the spring of 1981, according to seven other witnesses, including Christian Klar and four GDR Officials, in the spring of 1982.
↑ RAF proceedings against Mielke suspended. In: Neues Deutschland , September 17, 1994 ( DPA notification); Butz Peters : Deadly mistake. The history of the RAF. Argon, Berlin 2004, p. 589 f.

personal data
SURNAME	Kroesen, Frederick J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kroesen, Frederick James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American Commander in Chief of the Army
DATE OF BIRTH	February 11, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH	Phillipsburg , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH	April 30, 2020

[1] Frederick J. Kroesen Ret. Gene. In: Bloomberg.com (English).

[2] Butz Peters : Deadly error. The history of the RAF. Argon, Berlin 2004, p. 525 and p. 794, end note 261. Accordingly, when Klar was convicted by the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court in 1985, the executor could not yet be determined, but new findings made Klar able to name the executing perpetrator in the judgment of the Higher Regional Court of Koblenz against Henning Beer in 1991 become. These new findings were based on statements from RAF dropouts in the GDR after their exposure in 1990; Gerd Rosenkranz : Clearly short appearance in Stammheim. In: Die Tageszeitung , September 8, 1992.

[3] RAF: Brutal execution, stitch by stitch. Der Spiegel, September 21, 1981. Online , accessed March 5, 2015

[4] "We now trust them to do everything" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1991 ( online ).

[5] Jan-Hendrik Schulz: The relations between the Red Army Fraction (RAF) and the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in the GDR. In: Zeitgeschichte Online , May 2007. Stefan Aust reports that the accused stated that they carried out the exercises following the attack in order to reconstruct it, i.e. the Baader-Meinhof complex . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1985, quoted from the new edition 2008, ISBN 978-3-455-50029-5 , p. 875 f. In detail on this Butz Peters : Tödlicher Errtum. The history of the RAF. Argon, Berlin 2004, pp. 578–581 and pp. 588–591, especially p. 589: According to Inge Viett and five other witnesses, the bazooka exercise took place in the spring of 1981, according to seven other witnesses, including Christian Klar and four GDR Officials, in the spring of 1982.

[6] RAF proceedings against Mielke suspended. In: Neues Deutschland , September 17, 1994 ( DPA notification); Butz Peters : Deadly mistake. The history of the RAF. Argon, Berlin 2004, p. 589 f.