Günther Ludwig (politician)

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Günther Ludwig (born August 31, 1899 in Friedenau , † November 4, 1971 in Berlin ) was a German party functionary of the GDR block party NDPD and a professional soldier. From 1949 to 1950 he was a member of the Provisional People's Chamber of the GDR and from 1950 to 1952 a member of the Mecklenburg state parliament .

Life

Education and military career

Günther Ludwig was a son of the professional soldier Max Ludwig . After changing schools several times, he also began military training in 1912 and graduated in 1917 with an exam at the Hauptkadettenanstalt in Berlin-Lichterfelde . He then joined the foot artillery regiment No. 18 as an ensign and took part in the war in France during the First World War, where he was promoted to lieutenant the following year. After the end of the war he served at the Eastern Border Guard in Graudenz and from 1919 in the Fahrabteilung 2 in Altdamm . In 1920 he was discharged from the army.

From 1920 to 1922 Ludwig studied chemistry , law and economics at the University of Königsberg , but did not achieve a degree. Instead, he resumed his military career. He trained at the Artillery School in Jüterbog and served in the Artillery Regiment 1 in Allenstein until 1925 . He then taught at the Berlin Army Gas Protection School and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1926 . He then became platoon leader in Artillery Regiment 1. From 1928 to 1930 he was a teacher at the Army Sports School in Wünsdorf . In 1933 he was transferred from Artillery Regiment 1 in Allenstein to Artillery Regiment 37 in Rastenburg , where he was promoted to captain and battery leader. As a major , he taught artillery at the Dresden War School from 1935 to 1938 .

Second World War and prisoner of war

From 1939 to 1940 Ludwig was department commander in the 69th Artillery Regiment in Mannheim . After a war mission in France, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was a consultant for artillery operations in the staff of the 1st Army . Now as a colonel , he again took part in combat operations in World War II in 1942 as commander of the 4th Panzer Artillery Regiment and was then awarded the German Cross in Gold.

On the surrender of the army staff in Stalingrad, Ludwig wrote that on January 30, 1943, he defended a row of ruins with minimal strength, which was about 100 m from the command post of Commander-in-Chief Paulus . On that day Ludwig received the order from the chief of the 6th Army, General Schmidt , to prevent the Russian from entering the "Red Square" or the Commander-in-Chief (Paulus) from being raised from his command post during the night "Ludwig" only had about 50 men who were able to hold a rifle in their hand as a makeshift rifle. The order was impracticable. " Ludwig's "objections were not heard by General Schmidt, the order remained." At 6 p.m. German time, three Russian tanks pushed themselves within five meters of Ludwig's command post. He was specifically asked to vacate the command post within 10 minutes. Since he had no other means of defense apart from rifles and pistols, he decided to start negotiations with the Russians in order to protect the countless wounded in the basement. With his adjutant and orderly officer, he contacted the battalion commander of the 29th Division as a parliamentarian and asked to refrain from opening fire through the tanks in front of his command post. He arranged a truce with the local Russian commander until daylight hours at 4 a.m. "Only in this way was a hopeless fight to prevent Paul from command post." When he was back in his command post, he was led into the army by an officer on behalf of General Schmidt. General Schmidt received him in the presence of General Roske. Ludwig reported "that a parliamentarian from the theater spoke to me" and was suddenly interrupted during this remark with violent arm movements with the words: >> Parliamentarians come to you, why does nobody come to us "<< It sounded like a cry for help. "Ludwig was speechless and offered to Schmidt: >> If it’s only about that, Herr General, then I undertake that a parliamentarian will be here in front of this house at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. << ! << General Schmidt was like a different person. Lively, almost excited, he (Schmidt) responded to my (Ludwig's) decision that when I got light I would go into captivity with my officers and soldiers and see to it that at 8 o'clock a senior Russian officer would be in front of the >> department store <<. " "Seconds later, I was standing alone in the twilight vaulted cellar of the Paulus command post, shaking my head. So this was the end of a >> fight to the last cartridge << that Mr. Schmidt had been constantly talking about! In the future I walked slowly across the "Red Square", the way to my comrades. The next morning, as discussed, the tragedy of Stalingrad ended! "

As commander of the 14th Panzer Division he got on 31 January 1943 in Stalingrad in captivity . According to his own account, he went into captivity after agreeing to surrender his combat troops with the opposing Soviet division the day before. In the same year he became a member of the National Committee "Free Germany" and later appeared in various camps as their representative. In the course of an increasing reinforcement of the German police forces in the Soviet occupation zone, it was decided in spring 1948 to create barracked police units. For this management staff was needed, which should also be recruited among the German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union. To this end, around 150 Wehrmacht officers, including Ludwig, were brought together in the Central Antifa School in Krasnogorsk in the early summer of 1948 . The participants were promised a quick return to their homeland if, in return, they undertook to serve in the East German police. In September 1948 Ludwig was able to return to Germany as part of an action in which 5 generals and 100 Wehrmacht officers were released into the Soviet occupation zone. Ludwig was greeted in Frankfurt (Oder) by Walter Ulbricht , who asked him about his future plans. He told Ulbricht that he would go back to Thal near Eisenach and apply there to work as a driver at the EMW works , to which Ulbricht replied: “Well, nothing will come of it. I think that something else will be found for you. "

Politicians and the military in the Soviet Zone / GDR

Ludwig joined the German People's Police . With the start of duty on October 1, 1948, Ludwig with the VP rank was commander (lieutenant colonel) chief of staff of the main department border police / readiness for the state of Thuringia, based in Weimar . In the course of the centralization of the police in the Soviet occupation zone, Ludwig was subordinate to the German Interior Administration in Berlin a short time later. At the same time he was involved in the founding of the National Democratic Party of Germany (NDPD) in Thuringia and became its deputy chairman. Until September 1949 he was chairman of the NDPD regional association of Thuringia. In the course of the separation of the border police and barracked readiness by decision of July 20, 1949, Ludwig was transferred to Berlin. There, Ludwig received tasks in the rank of inspector of the VP at the newly established head office training .

Ludwig's party career also continued in Berlin. In the Provisional People's Chamber, which was constituted on October 7, he became a member of the NDPD parliamentary group. From 1950 he belonged to the state parliament of Mecklenburg. From July 13 to November 17, 1950 he held the office of Minister of Justice and from November 18, 1950 to July 25, 1952, the office of Minister of Trade and Supply. He worked in the Mecklenburg state governments under Prime Minister Wilhelm Höcker , Kurt Bürger and Bernhard Quandt . From 1951 Ludwig took over the chairmanship of the Mecklenburg State Association of the NDPD, and he also became a member of the party's main committee in Berlin, which he remained until 1955. He was also a member of the Free German Trade Union Confederation , the FDJ and the Mecklenburg State Executive Committee of the Association of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime .

From August 1952 to January 1953, Ludwig was a member of the Rostock District Assembly. He was deputy chairman of the Rostock district council .

In addition to his political work, Ludwig completed a distance learning course from 1951 to 1953 at the German Administrative Academy Walter Ulbricht in Forst Zinna and Potsdam .

Service in the NVA, death and descendants

In February 1953, Ludwig joined the barracked people's police and in the following month became head of the protection service / gas protection administration in the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR . From 1956 he was a colonel in the National People's Army (NVA) and headed the “Chemical Troops” administration in the Ministry of National Defense . In 1958, like other former officers of the Wehrmacht , he was dismissed from active service in the NVA, although an MfS surveillance in the previous year had not revealed any suspicion of a "politically hostile attitude or action by the Ludwig family". In 1959 Ludwig was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver.

After a long illness, Ludwig died in Berlin at the age of 72.

Ludwig had been with the pharmacist's daughter Eva (* 1907), born in 1929 . Behrend, married. She was also a member of the NDPD from 1950 to 1963. The marriage had two children.

Awards

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Günther, Ludwig In: Michael Buddrus, Sigrid Fritzlar: State governments and ministers in Mecklenburg 1871–1952. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2012, p. 199.
  2. ↑ a b Einsiedel, Heinrich, Graf von .: Stalingrad and the responsibility of the soldier . Ed .: Joachim Wieder. 4th, completely redesigned. New edition. Herbig, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-7766-1778-0 , pp. 369, 370, 371 .
  3. ↑ Piekalkiewicz, Janusz 1925-1988 arr.: Stalingrad anatomy of a battle . Bertelsmann, 1981, OCLC 1070157022 .
  4. ↑ Neue Berliner Illustrierte , No. 41/1964
  5. ^ Daniel Niemetz: Das feldgraue Erbe: The Wehrmacht Influences in the Military of the Soviet Zone / GDR , Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86153-421-5 , p. 54.
  6. ^ Neue Zeit , July 14, 1950, p. 1.
  7. ^ A b Günther, Ludwig In: Michael Buddrus, Sigrid Fritzlar: State governments and ministers in Mecklenburg 1871–1952. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2012, p. 200.
personal data
SURNAME Ludwig, Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German NDPD functionary and professional soldier
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin-Friedenau
DATE OF DEATH 4th November 1971
Place of death Berlin