Friedrich Materna

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Friedrich Materna (born June 21, 1885 in Hof , Moravia , † November 11, 1946 in Vienna ) was an officer in the Austrian Armed Forces and most recently general of the infantry of the German Wehrmacht in World War II .

Life

Born in Moravia in 1885 as the son of the school principal Hermann Materna and Anna Falkowsky, attended the Königsfeld cadet school as an ensign from August 18, 1904, and joined the Austro-Hungarian Army on May 1, 1905 with Infantry Regiment No. 97 , where he was promoted to lieutenant on November 1, 1905 . From 1910 to autumn 1913 he attended the war school in Vienna and served in 1913/15 as an officer in the general staff of the 4th Infantry Brigade in Jaroslau . In 1917/18 he was an authorized general staff officer at the Archduke Eugen Army Command in Italy. On July 23, 1918, he married the Baroness Helene Rajacsich-Brinski.

In September 1920 he joined the Ministry of the Army and was made lieutenant colonel on January 1, 1921 . From 1926 to 1928 he commanded the 2nd Brigade of the Federal Army in Vienna. Since June 1, 1929, he was promoted to colonel in October 1929 as a specialist in the Army Inspectorate. Between 1931 and 1934 he served in Department 2 of the Federal Ministry for the Army. Materna was promoted to major general of the Austrian Armed Forces on June 25, 1935 and took over as the successor to Colonel Friedländer on September 1, 1936, the head of the training department in the Federal Ministry of Defense . In the same year he received the Officer's Cross of the Austrian Order of Merit .

After the German invasion of Austria , on March 13, 1938, he was accepted as major general in the German Wehrmacht. On April 1, 1940 he was given command of the 45th Infantry Division , with which he took part in the Polish campaign in 1939 and in the western campaign in 1940 . On June 1, 1939, he was promoted to lieutenant general and on November 1, 1940, he was promoted to general of the infantry. On August 5, 1940, Materna was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and on December 15, 1942, he was awarded the German Cross in Gold . From October 25, 1940 to September 10, 1942, he was Commanding General of the XX. Army corps , with which he participated in Operation Barbarossa from June 1941 . First, in the ninth , and later with the 4th Army on the middle eastern front used his troops came up to the room Moscow before and had to go to the Soviet counter-offensive in the area Vyazma in the trench warfare pass.

From February 1 to the end of 1943 he was the commanding general of the Deputy General Command XVIII. Army corps in military district XVIII based in Salzburg . On December 10, 1943, Materna gave up his command and was transferred to the Führerreserve . On September 1, 1944, he was retired from active service in the Wehrmacht.

literature

  • Christian Hartmann : Wehrmacht in the Eastern War. Front and military hinterland 1941/42. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2009, p. 153.
  • Peter Broucek , Edmund Glaise von Horstenau : A general in the twilight. Minister in the corporate state and general in the OKW. Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Successor, Vienna 1983, p. 580.
  • Percy Ernst Schramm (ed.): War diary of the high command of the Wehrmacht. Bernard & Graefe Publishing House for Defense, Frankfurt am Main 1965. Volume I: 1940/41. edited by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ From the armed forces. From Ordinance Gazette No. 16. In:  Oesterreichische Wehrzeitung , December 11, 1936, p. 6 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / add
personal data
SURNAME Materna, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Major General in Austria
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Hof , Moravia
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 1946
Place of death Vienna