Georg Rickhey

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Adhesive sheet photo by Georg Rickhey. Photo taken in June 1947.

Georg Johannes Rickhey (born August 25, 1898 in Hildesheim ; † 1966 ) was a German engineer and general director of Mittelwerk GmbH in Dora-Mittelbau .

biography

Rickhey, who holds a doctorate in engineering , was a member of the NSDAP from October 1931 ( membership number 664.050). From 1940 he headed the Gauamt Technik in Essen, was promoted to senior division manager of the party in the Gau Essen in 1942 and was at the same time authorized signatory of an Essen mining company. From the beginning of 1942 he was employed in the Reich Ministry of Armaments . From there, in the course of 1942, he was transferred to Demag AG, a mechanical engineering company that also produced tanks during the Second World War , where he was a manager on the board.

From April 1944 he acted as general director of Mittelwerk GmbH in Dora-Mittelbau , where the V1 and V2 rockets were produced underground . At the same time, he took over from Otto Förschner as operations manager, who in turn was appointed as a defense officer. Together with Walter Dornberger and Wernher von Braun , Rickhey received the Knight's Cross for War Merit Cross for services to the production of retaliatory weapons .

After his arrest by the US Army in May 1945 , Rickhey was taken to Wright Field , Ohio , as part of Operation Paperclip . In a denazification personnel sheet , Rickhey falsely claimed that he only joined the NSDAP in 1935 and that he had not been politically active before 1933. Because of his indictment in the Dachau Dora Trial , which took place as part of the Dachau Trials from August 7, 1947 to December 30, 1947, Rickhey was transferred back to Germany. Rickhey and 18 other suspects were charged with the concentration camp crimes in Dora-Mittelbau. He was accused of being partly responsible for the catastrophic conditions in the camp, of having cooperated closely with the SS and Gestapo and of having witnessed executions.

Rickhey was acquitted for lack of evidence . His acquittal was essentially based on exonerating statements by Wernher von Braun and Arthur Rudolph . However, during the trial, the co-defendant prisoner functionary, Josef Kilian, testified that Rickhey was present at a particularly brutal mass strangulation of 30 prisoners on March 21, 1945. In the process, Rickhey denied this. Rickhey was the only "V-Waffen" production engineer ever to be tried. In addition, he was one of the scientists who should be recruited by the USA for its own purposes. A few months after his acquittal, he attributed his charges to "denunciation and false testimony by communists and Russian agents". Rickhey returned to Wright Field Air Force Base after the trial ended. Nothing is known about his further life.

literature

  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8
  • Jens-Christian Wagner: Production of death: The Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp , Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-89244-439-0 . (Zugl .: Göttingen, Univ., Diss., 1999 under the title: Wagner, Jens-Christian: Verlagerungswahn und Tod).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rainer Eisfeld : Moonstruck. Wernher von Braun and the birth of space travel from the spirit of barbarism. zu Klampen, Springe 2012, ISBN 978-3-86674-167-6 , p. 125.
  2. ^ A b c Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 496.
  3. ↑ Jens-Christian Wagner: Production of death: Das KZ Mittelbau-Dora , Göttingen 2001, p. 198 f.
  4. ↑ http://www.peenemunde.de/History/jahr1944  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.peenemunde.de  
  5. ^ Rainer Eisfeld: Moonstruck. Wernher von Braun and the birth of space travel from the spirit of barbarism. zu Klampen, Springe 2012, ISBN 978-3-86674-167-6 , p. 165.
  6. ↑ Cf. Robert Sigel: In the interest of justice. The Dachau war crimes trials 1945-48. , Frankfurt am Main 1992, p. 16 ff., P. 99 f.
  7. ^ Rainer Eisfeld: Moonstruck. Wernher von Braun and the birth of space travel from the spirit of barbarism. zu Klampen, Springe 2012, ISBN 978-3-86674-167-6 , p. 164.
  8. ↑ Quoted in Rainer Eisfeld: Moonstruck. Wernher von Braun and the birth of space travel from the spirit of barbarism. zu Klampen, Springe 2012, ISBN 978-3-86674-167-6 , p. 169.
personal data
SURNAME Rickhey, Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rickhey, Georg Johannes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Engineer and general director of Mittelwerke GmbH in Dora-Mittelbau
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Hildesheim
DATE OF DEATH 1966