Friedrich-Wilhelm Muller

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Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller (born August 29, 1897 in Barmen ; † May 20, 1947 in Chaidari near Athens ) was a German infantry general during the Second World War and a convicted war criminal.

Life

In 1914 Müller joined the 1st Pomeranian Grenadier Regiment "King Friedrich Wilhelm IV." No. 2 as a war volunteer . In 1915 he was promoted to Lieutenant in the Reserve in Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 266 .

After the war he joined the police force and was accepted into the army as a major on March 16, 1936. Müller was appointed commander of the III on November 10, 1938. Battalion of the 105th Infantry Regiment and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on May 1, 1939. At the beginning of the Second World War, Müller and his battalion moved into positions in the west, which at the end of September was incorporated into the newly established 72nd Infantry Division . Müller led his battalion in the French campaign , in which he was awarded both bars for the Iron Cross.

On October 1, 1940, he was appointed commander of the Rhenish-Palatinate Infantry Regiment 105. In January 1941 he came with his regiment in the association of the 72nd Infantry Division to Romania as a training force , took part in the Balkan campaign in April 1941 and from June 1941 in the association of the 11th Army in Operation Barbarossa . He received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on September 22, 1941 for his personal achievement in forcing the passage over the southern Bug River. On January 1, 1942, Müller was promoted to colonel with seniority October 1, 1941. For cleaning up the Soviet landing at Eupatoria in the Crimea in January 1942, he was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on April 8, 1942. On August 1, 1942, he was appointed major general and at the same time commander of the 22nd Infantry Division , which was moved from Crimea to Crete, where it was stationed until September 1944. He introduced a merciless terror and had hundreds of people shot if they were even suspected of being partisans. There were also mass shootings of civilians in retaliation for successful partisan operations.

On April 1, 1943, Müller became lieutenant general. In mid-February 1944 he gave up his command and was transferred to the Führerreserve.

The British secret service had already planned to kidnap him, which actually happened to his successor, Lieutenant General Heinrich Kreipe , in April 1944. In doing so, traces were specifically left that were supposed to indicate a British commando operation (which the kidnapping was) to prevent reprisals against the inhabitants of Crete. On May 4, 1944, Müller was commissioned to lead the V Army Corps in the Crimea, but this was no longer carried out.

On June 2, 1944, he briefly took over the management of the LIX. Army Corps on the Eastern Front, but was then promoted to General of the Infantry on July 1, 1944 and appointed Commander of the fortress of Crete. As a measure of atonement after the kidnapping of Lieutenant General Kreipe, he allegedly gave the following order for the destruction of the city of Anogia and the execution of the male inhabitants:

“Because the city of Anogia is a center of English espionage activity in Crete, because the inhabitants of Anogia carried out the act of sabotage in Damasta, because the partisans of various resistance groups find refuge and refuge in Anogia and because the kidnappers Generals Kreipe have made their way through Anogia, where they used Anogia as a base for the transfer, we order the place to be razed to the ground and every male inhabitant of Anogia to be executed who is found within the village or in its vicinity at a distance of up to one kilometer. "

In September 1944 he gave up his command and was transferred to the Führerreserve. On November 13, 1944, Müller became the commanding general of the XXXIV. Army Corps, whose leadership he gave up on December 8, 1944 in exchange with General der Flieger Hellmuth Felmy , to become Commanding General of the LXVIII. To become army corps. This he led on the further retreat through the Balkans. On January 27, 1945, he was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves Swords for his leadership achievements.

On January 30, 1945, Müller replaced General der Infanterie Friedrich Hoßbach , the disgraced commander in chief of the 4th Army in East Prussia . The then Chief of the Army General Staff, Colonel General Heinz Guderian , called Müller in retrospect "a man who had proven himself in the front, but who had never held a higher command." What Hitler did with these personnel, which he shared with General Wilhelm Burgdorf, chief of the Army Personnel Office General Kurt von Tippelskirch declared after the war:

"He was one of Hitler's preferred generals who were known for the unconditional execution of all orders, whatever the consequences for the troops might be."

Müller was the only one of about 60 commanders-in-chief of an army group and army on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 who emerged from a special career, here longer police service.

After the defeat at Heilsberg (→ Heilsberg Operation ) at the end of March 1945, the higher army group command was withdrawn and Müller's 4th Army was in command of all forces in the East Prussia area, including the Königsberg fortress. When the storm on the city began there on April 6th (→ Battle of Königsberg ), Müller forbade a regrouping of the crew for the purpose of an attempt to break out. Since Müller's associations continued to lose ground, he was replaced after the fall of Königsberg.

At the end of April 1945, Müller was captured by the British in Schleswig-Holstein and, after the end of the war, was entrusted with the management of the so-called Müller army group in Schleswig-Holstein, which looked after German prisoners under British sovereignty.

However, Müller was extradited from Great Britain to Greece and charged with war crimes on the island of Crete . The Greek court sentenced him to death . On 20 May 1947 he was with General of the paratroops Bruno Bräuer , his predecessor in Crete from 1942 to 1944, shot .

Awards

literature

  • Wolf Keilig: The Generals of the Army, Podzun-Pallas-Verlag Friedberg 1983, page 232.
  • Giorgos Harokopos: The kidnapping of General Kreipe. Kouvidis Manouras, Iraklio 2002, ISBN 960-86883-4-5 (here Müller is incorrectly named with the first name "Walter").
  • Franz-Josef Schmit: Wittlich's first site commander: General Friedrich Wilhelm Müller as division chief and commander of the "Fortress Crete" and his responsibility for war crimes of the Wehrmacht in occupied Greece 1941–1944. Private print, Wittlich 2015.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinz Guderian: Memories of a Soldier , Heidelberg 1951, p. 364
  2. ^ Kurt von Tippelskrich: History of the Second World War , Bonn 1956, p. 541
  3. ^ Christian Hartmann: Wehrmacht in the Eastern War. Front and Military Hinterland 1941/42 R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2009, 349.
  4. ↑ Richard Lakowski: The collapse of the German defense between the Baltic Sea and the Carpathian Mountains. In: The German Reich and the Second World War , Vol. 10/1, Munich 2008, pp. 547f
  5. ^ Kurt von Tippelskrich: History of the Second World War , Bonn 1956, p. 551
  6. ↑ a b 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. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 555.
personal data
SURNAME Müller, Friedrich-Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German infantry general in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Barmen , today Wuppertal
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 1947
Place of death Chaidari near Athens