Fritz-Hubert Grasses

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Fritz-Hubert Gräser (born November 3, 1888 in Frankfurt (Oder) ; † October 4, 1960 in Göttingen ) was a German officer , most recently a general of the tank troops and commander-in-chief of the 4th tank army in World War II .

Life

Grass joined the cadet corps on February 28, 1907 as ensign in the grenadier regiment "Prince Carl von Preußen" (2nd Brandenburg) No. 12 in his hometown and was promoted to lieutenant on January 27, 1908 . From November 1, 1912, he was used as an adjutant and after the outbreak of the First World War he was employed with the regiment on the Western Front . Here he was promoted to first lieutenant on November 8, 1914, and as such he worked as a regimental adjutant from June 20, 1915. On September 16, 1915, Gräser took over the 9th company of his regiment as leader . During a battle on September 29th, he was seriously wounded by a shot in the head and spent the following time in the hospital . After his recovery he was assigned to general staff training for the Army High Command von Mackensen and he was promoted to captain shortly afterwards on December 18, 1915 . In the following period, from June 14, 1916, Gräser was assigned to the general staffs of the Austro-Hungarian Army Groups Planter-Baltin and Archduke Karl on the Eastern Front . On November 1, 1916, he was transferred to the General Staff of the 41st Division . Three months later, Gräser joined the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army Group Archduke Joseph , stayed there until December 1917, when he was second General Staff Officer in the General Staff of III. Army Corps to act. In May 1918, Gräser took over the post of first general staff officer in the general staff of the 1st Reserve Division.

After the end of the war, he was transferred to the General Staff of the Army High Command (AOK) North of the Eastern Border Guard and on July 21, 1919 to the General Staff . On January 21, 1920, Grasses was removed from the army. In the following years he worked as a landowner in Hubertushof near Reppen and was also head of Motor-Fahrzeug AG in Frankfurt an der Oder from 1927 to 1931 .

As a state protection officer and head of the West-Hornberg district, Gräser was reinstated on November 1, 1932, and on October 1, 1933 appointed commander of the Frankfurt military district command. When he was promoted to major on May 1, 1934, he was reactivated into active service and Grass was initially assigned to the 8th Infantry Regiment . He completed a training course for reactivated officers in Döberitz from July 17 to September 14, 1934, and on October 1, 1934, he was commander of the 1st Battalion of the Crossen Infantry Regiment . A year later, he had command of the MG Battalion 8 in Züllichau and was in this function initially on March 1, 1936 Lieutenant Colonel and on October 1, 1938 Colonel promoted.

Before the start of the Second World War, Gräser was appointed commander of the 29th Infantry Regiment on August 26, 1939 , which he was to lead during the attack on Poland and subsequently in the campaign in the west . He and his regiment then took part in Operation Barbarossa , the attack on the Soviet Union , and he was seriously wounded on July 11, 1941. His left leg had to be amputated in the hospital , the right knee was smashed. During his recovery and subsequent transfer to the Führerreserve , he became major general on October 1, 1941 . On March 1, 1943 he was appointed commander of the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division and promoted to lieutenant general . Grasses commanded the unit until May 31, 1944, even after it had been converted into the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division . He was then transferred to the Fuehrer's Reserve again and attended a course for commanding generals in Hirschberg from June 12 to 27, 1944 . On June 28, 1944, he was initially assigned to lead the XXIV Panzer Corps and, from August 20, 1944, to lead the XXXXVIII. Panzer Corps . At the same time he was promoted to General of the Panzer Troops on September 1, 1944 (seniority later improved to December 1, 1943), he was finally appointed Commanding General . As early as September 21, 1944, Gräser was commissioned to lead the 4th Panzer Army and was finally confirmed as Commander-in-Chief from January 30, 1945. With the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht , he and the remnants of his army were taken prisoner by the United States , from which he was released in June 1947.

Awards

literature

Wolf Keilig: Ranking list of the German army 1944/45, Podzun-Pallas-Verlag Friedberg o. J., page 24.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 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. 344.
personal data
SURNAME Grasses, Fritz-Hubert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently General of the Armored Force in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt (Oder)
DATE OF DEATH 4th October 1960
Place of death Goettingen