Georg-Hans Reinhardt

Georg-Hans Reinhardt (1941)

Georg-Hans Reinhardt (born March 1, 1887 in Bautzen , † November 24, 1963 at Tegernsee ) was a German army officer ( Colonel General since 1942 ) who served in the Saxon Army , the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht .

biography

Georg-Hans Reinhardt was the son of the banker Georg Reinhardt and his wife Lisbeth, née Marbach. He attended high school in his hometown and passed the Abitur there. Soon after he joined on 25 March 1907 as an ensign in the 8th Infantry Regiment "Prince Johann Georg" no. 107 of the Saxon army in Leipzig one. In 1908 he was promoted to lieutenant and in January 1912 also became a court officer in the III. Battalion . He only served briefly during a detachment in the 2nd Uhlan Regiment No. 18 from November 1912 to February 1913, not in the infantry . Such commands were common at the time in order to broaden the horizons of the young officers beyond their own branch of service. In July 1913 Reinhardt finally got the post of regimental adjutant .

This was followed by promotion to first lieutenant before the First World War broke out. There he fought first in France and later on the Eastern Front . In addition to both classes of the Iron Cross , Reinhardt was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of St. Henry on August 22, 1915 , and the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords on August 30, 1918 . At the end of the war he was captain and first general staff officer (Ia) of the 192nd Division (8th Royal Saxon) . He then worked for the Grenzjägerbrigade 19 and was accepted into the Reichswehr on May 16, 1920 . Various uses followed and in 1928 he was assigned to the Reichswehr Ministry, where he worked in the Army Training Department (T 4). In 1932 he became a lieutenant colonel in the battalion commander in the 10th (Saxon) Infantry Regiment , and in 1933 he was chief of staff in the 4th division for a few months . In autumn 1933 he returned to the Reichswehr Ministry, where he became head of the army training department. As such, he was promoted to colonel on February 1, 1934 and major general on April 1, 1937 .

On October 12, 1937, he became the commander of the 1st Rifle Brigade of the 1st Panzer Division , and on November 10, 1938, he took over command of the 4th Panzer Division . For the services of his division during the attack on Poland , which marked the beginning of the Second World War , he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on October 27, 1939 , after he had been promoted to Lieutenant General on October 1, 1939 . On February 15, 1940 he was appointed commanding general of the XXXXI. Army corps (mot.) , Which he led in the western campaign . For the services of the corps in the breakthrough through the Ardennes and the advance to the English Channel , he was promoted to General of the Armored Force on June 1 . Reinhardt also took part in the Balkan campaign with his corps in early 1941 .

From June 1941 Reinhardt ran the XXXXI. Army corps in the Russian campaign as far as Leningrad . On October 5, 1941, he took over Panzer Group 3 , which from 1942 was called the 3rd Panzer Army . With this he took part in the battle for Moscow . After he was awarded the Knight's Cross on February 17, 1942 for the services of the Panzer Army during the defensive battles in the winter of 1941/42, he was promoted to Colonel General in mid-March with effect from January 1. With his tank army, he formed the north wing of Army Group Center in the area north of Smolensk in 1942 and 1943 and conducted successful defensive battles there in the winter of 1943/44. For this he was awarded the Knight's Cross on May 26, 1944. Like the entire Army Group Center, however, the now severely weakened 3rd Panzer Army was unable to cope with the Soviet summer offensive (" Operation Bagration "). Large parts of this army were captured or wiped out while defending the region around the city of Vitebsk .

On August 16, 1944, Reinhardt succeeded Walter Model, who had been transferred to the West, as Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Center. Reinhardt succeeded in rebuilding a front on the East Prussian border after the devastating summer losses. On January 26, 1945, after the collapse of the front on the Vistula and after differences of opinion with Adolf Hitler, he was relieved of his command and transferred to the Führer Reserve .

War crimes conviction

In June 1945 Reinhardt was arrested by the US Army and sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment in the OKW trial on October 27, 1948 according to counts II and III for “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity”. The court held evidence of individual guilt (for drafting and issuing criminal orders such as the commissioner's order and the command order , for crimes against prisoners of war and civilians, for abducting civilians for forced labor and for participating in or supporting the task force in the murders of Jews in the East) .

Reinhardt was released from the Landsberg war crimes prison in June 1952 . In the same year, Konrad Adenauer received Reinhardt and other “soldier symbolic figures” to urge the release of further convicts and to respond to the severe criticism of the war crimes regulation initialed in the transition agreement.

Post-war years

From 1954 he took over the chairmanship of the Society for Military Studies and wrote numerous memoranda . As official recognition for this work, he was awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on November 24, 1962 .

Awards (selection)

• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on October 27, 1939
• Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves on February 17, 1942
• Knight's Cross with Swords on May 26, 1944
• Great Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on November 24, 1962.

literature

• Christoph Clasen: Colonel General Hans-Georg Reinhardt. Stuttgart 1996. ISBN 3-928666-99-1 .
• Johannes Hürter : Hitler's military leader. The German commanders-in-chief in the war against the Soviet Union in 1941/42. (2nd edition), R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2006 (= sources and representations on contemporary history , vol. 66). ISBN 978-3-486-58341-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johannes Hürter: Hitler's Army Leader. The German commanders-in-chief in the war against the Soviet Union in 1941/42. Munich 2007, p. 31, 654.
2. ↑ Johannes Hürter: Hitler's Army Leader. The German commanders-in-chief in the war against the Soviet Union in 1941/42. Munich 2007, p. 654.
3. ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736–1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, p. 531.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Also on the following orders Johannes Hürter : Hitler's Army Leader. The German commanders-in-chief in the war against the Soviet Union in 1941/42. Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-57982-6 , p. 655 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
5. ↑ Wolfram Wette: Case 12: The OKW Trial. In: Gerd G. Ueberschär (Hrsg.): National Socialism in front of a court . 2nd edition Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-596-13589-3 , p. 208.
6. ↑ Norbert Frei: Politics of the Past. The beginnings of the Federal Republic and the Nazi past. 2nd edition Munich 2002, ISBN 3-423-30720-X , p. 288.