Günther Schwantes

Günther Schwantes (born October 15, 1881 in Kolberg ; † August 11, 1942 Gläsen , Leobschütz district ) was a German lieutenant general in World War II and head of the military intelligence service in the Reichswehr Ministry in 1927/30 .

Life

Günther Schwantes was born as the son of District Court Judge Julius Schwantes. After attending school, he joined the field artillery regiment "von Podbielski" (1st Lower Silesia) No. 5 of the Prussian Army in October 1899 . On August 18, 1900 he was promoted to ensign , then attended war school and advanced to lieutenant on May 18, 1901 . This was followed by his use as a battery officer. From here he was sent to the War Academy on August 1, 1908 for further training for three years , and during this time he was promoted to lieutenant . He was assigned to the General Staff in 1912 and remained in Berlin until shortly before the outbreak of war in the summer of 1914.

With the mobilization on August 2, 1914 Schwantes was captain in the General Staff of VI. Army Corps and experienced the first combat operations of the First World War as a general staff officer . After two years, he was transferred to the General Staff of the 4th Replacement Division on May 14, 1916, and to the General Staff of the 5th Army on August 19, 1916 . From mid-1918 he was active in the general staff of the 39th Infantry Division and stayed here until the end of the war . For his work, in addition to the two classes of the Iron Cross, he had the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords, the Bavarian Military Merit Order IV Class with swords, the Knight’s Cross I Class of the Frederick Order with Swords, the Cross for Merit in War and the Wound badge received in black.

From the beginning of 1919 Schwantes was active in the Army Peace Commission and was then accepted into the Reichswehr . As a captain, he was assigned to the Reichswehr Ministry in Berlin in 1921 . Here he was promoted to major and used from 1924 as a general staff officer in the general staff of the 2nd Cavalry Division . In September of the following year he was again transferred to the Reichswehr Ministry in Berlin and came here, within the Troops Office TA, in the Army Statistics Department T3. The designation as Army Statistics Department was chosen in 1920 for camouflage reasons to cover the intelligence work within the Reichswehr before the Inter-Allied Military Control Commission issued conditions to keep secret. At that time, T 3 was headed by Lieutenant Colonel Curt Liebmann (1881–1960) In 1925, this department concentrated on foreign armies , press work, military attachés and the military intelligence service, the so-called " Abwehr ". Schwantes came into the field of the intelligence service, which was under the direction of Friedrich Gempp (1873-1946). The task of the "defense" consisted of the intelligence service procurement of militarily significant information about the potential opposing armies, the guarantee of the protection of secrets within the own armed forces as well as the armaments industry and the protection against espionage attacks. In this last-mentioned sub-area, there was close cooperation with the Reich Commissioner for Monitoring Public Order (RKO) and the regional state police central offices in Department II C. The information was obtained to a large extent by secret informants. On July 1, 1927, Schwantes took over the management of the "Defense" division. Shortly afterwards, several ministerial areas of the Weimar government, including the Reich Ministry of Finance, the Reichswehr Ministry, especially the maritime transport department of the Naval Office, the naval intelligence service and the army statistics department came under heavy pressure due to press releases on secret military funds and secret armaments. As a result of the investigations initiated, the Reichswehr Minister Otto Geßler (1875–1955) was dismissed, the naval intelligence service was merged with the "Abwehr" and both intelligence services were placed under the direct leadership of the new Reichswehr Minister Wilhelm Groener (1867–1939). This gave Schwantes the difficult task of merging the two services, which were strongly oriented towards their respective branches of service, and of better protecting the ongoing secret military projects from unwanted insights. On February 1, 1928, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. After another two years he handed over the management of the "Abwehr" to Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand von Bredow (1884–1934), who had been working in the area since 1926 . On February 1, 1930 Schwantes was transferred to Neustadt OS and commanded the 11th (Prussian) cavalry regiment here . The following year, the colonel promoted, he was 1933 with the character as a major general adopted at the age of 52 years of active military service.

As of January 19, 1935, he was a member of the SS as SS-Obersturmbannführer (SS No. 184914). It was not until 1936 that he returned to military service, and from 1938 on, he commanded the 19th Infantry Division as Lieutenant General . He was retired in 1940 and retired from active military service on September 1, 1941.

family

On February 12, 1924, Günther Schwantes married Edith von Eicke and Polwitz.

Günter Schwantes died on August 11, 1942 in Gläsen, Leobschütz district.

literature

Gerd Buchheit: The German secret service. Paul Frey Verlag Munich 1967, p. 36ff.
Norbert Müller: The Foreign Defense Office in the OKW. Federal Archives Koblenz, Publishing House for New Sciences, Bremerhaven 2007.

Web links

Günther Schwantes in the online version of the Reich Chancellery Edition Files. Weimar Republic

Individual evidence

↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Berlin 1929, p. 116.
↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the Reichsheeres. Verlag Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin 1925, p. 3.
↑ Gerd Buchheit: The German secret service. Paul Frey Verlag, Munich 1967, p. 36ff.
↑ See Phöbus scandal from mid-1927, triggered by the machinations of the head of the sea transport department Captain Walter Lohmann (1878–1930) and involvement of the officer in the staff of the chief of the naval command Wilhelm Canaris (1887–1945) in secret armaments activities in: Bernd Remmele , Lohmann Affair: Secret armaments projects of the Reichsmarine in the twenties. Master's thesis at the University of Freiburg, 1995.
↑ Irene Strenge: Ferdinand von Bredow. Notes from February 20, 1933 to December 31, 1933. Duncker & Humblot Verlag, Berlin 2009.

personal data
SURNAME	Schwantes, Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German lieutenant general in World War II, head of the defense department of the Reichswehr
DATE OF BIRTH	October 15, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kolberg
DATE OF DEATH	August 11, 1942
Place of death	Gläsen, Leobschütz district

[1] Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Berlin 1929, p. 116.

[2] Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the Reichsheeres. Verlag Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin 1925, p. 3.

[3] Gerd Buchheit: The German secret service. Paul Frey Verlag, Munich 1967, p. 36ff.

[4] See Phöbus scandal from mid-1927, triggered by the machinations of the head of the sea transport department Captain Walter Lohmann (1878–1930) and involvement of the officer in the staff of the chief of the naval command Wilhelm Canaris (1887–1945) in secret armaments activities in: Bernd Remmele , Lohmann Affair: Secret armaments projects of the Reichsmarine in the twenties. Master's thesis at the University of Freiburg, 1995.

[5] Irene Strenge: Ferdinand von Bredow. Notes from February 20, 1933 to December 31, 1933. Duncker & Humblot Verlag, Berlin 2009.