Georg Ritter von Hengl

Georg Hengl , knight of Hengl since 1918 (born October 21, 1897 in Lailing near Wallersdorf , † March 19, 1952 in Sonthofen ) was German general of the mountain troops in World War II .

Life

origin

He was the son of the teacher Georg Hengl and his wife Katharina, nee Hausladen.

Military career

Bavarian Army

Hengl attended the Humanist Gymnasium in Neuburg an der Donau and joined the 11th Infantry Regiment "von der Tann" of the Bavarian Army as a volunteer on August 4, 1914 at the beginning of the First World War . He subsequently fought with various regiments on the western and eastern fronts and was promoted to lieutenant in the reserve on March 27, 1916 . At the beginning of February 1918 he was transferred to the air force and trained as an observer. During this time, Hengl was taken on as an active employee. He then came to the Aviation Department A 295 (b) and specialized here in the aiming of artillery on special targets. After a total of 115 such missions and eight aerial victories, he was on October 29, 1918 by King Ludwig III. entrusted with the Knight's Cross of the Military Max Joseph Order . The award was connected with the elevation to the personal nobility and he was allowed to call himself Ritter von Hengl after his entry in the nobility register . For his achievements he was also awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords and the Military Merit Order IV Class with Swords and Crown. In addition, he had received the gold wound badge for his multiple wounds .

Weimar Republic

After the war he joined the Bavarian Resident Army, fought in the Epp Freikorps against the Munich Soviet Republic and joined the police force. In the Bavarian State Police, Hengl rose to police captain until June 1933 .

Third Reich

On July 1, 1934, Hengl changed as SS-Obersturmbannführer to the SS disposable troops and took over the SS-Standarte Deutschland as commander from July 7, 1934 . Hengl's Nazi sentiments were considered "very pronounced". In the 20th Mountain Army , he was later to form a leadership troika of inveterate National Socialists together with Eduard Dietl and Ferdinand Schörner .

On October 15, 1935, Hengl was taken over as a captain in the Wehrmacht , where he was chief of the 4th Company of the 100 Mountain Infantry Regiment. As a major (since March 1, 1936) he took over the III. Battalion of the Mountain Infantry Regiment 99 as its commander. On April 1, 1939, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and shortly afterwards he took a leave of absence for private reasons. With the beginning of the Second World War he took part in the attack on Poland with his battalion . On February 24, 1940 he became the commander of the Mountain Infantry Regiment 137 and led it as part of the Weser Exercise Company , the occupation of Denmark and Norway. During the invasion of the Soviet Union, on July 10, 1941, Ritter von Hengl gave the order to " shoot all prisoners, " as a corporal in his unit reported.

Because of his services as commander of the regiment, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on August 25, 1941 . Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to colonel . On March 2, 1942 Hengl was in the lead in northern Norway standing 2nd Mountain Division commissioned on April 1, to Major General transported and finally appointed commander of the division on 20 April 1,942th On January 21, 1943, he was appointed lieutenant general .

On October 23, 1943, he was promoted to commanding general of the XIX. Mountain Corps and promoted to General of the Mountain Forces on January 1, 1944. This was followed on May 15, 1944, by his appointment as head of the Nazi leadership staff in the Army High Command and on June 20, the award of the German Cross in Gold. In July 1944 Hengl gave a speech on "ideological training" at the NS-Ordensburg Sonthofen . Hengl demanded that the officer must educate his soldiers to be “unrestrained in the will to destroy and to hate” . These slogans were taken up by the commander of the replacement army in an order of July 21, 1944: "The thoughts of the guidelines and the lecture of the chief of the Nazi command staff of the army are for further work [...] orders" .

On May 7, 1945, the Hengl Combat Group delivered the last battles to the approaching US troops on the Wilder Kaiser ; Hengl became a prisoner of war in the United States .

post war period

After his release, Hengl worried about the "timeless military virtues" and the "honorary shield of the Wehrmacht". So he wrote in a foreword in 1951: “ Narvik and Dietl were a household name among the people. […] May this book keep the memory of Colonel-General Dietl alive in the German people and especially in the youth! He was one of the best. "

family

Hengl married Maria, née Schin, on April 19, 1921. The marriage resulted in a son who rose to become a captain in the mountain troops during World War II .

literature

Dermot Bradley (Ed.), Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Markus Brockmann: The Generals of the Army 1921-1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 5: v. Haack-Hitzfeld. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1999. ISBN 3-7648-2538-3 . Pp. 304-306.
Rudolf von Kramer, Otto von Waldenfels: VIRTUTI PRO PATRIA. The Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order. Acts of War and Book of Honor 1914-1918. Self-published by the Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order. Munich 1966. p. 318.
Roland Kaltenegger : The German Mountain Troop 1935–1945. Munich 1989.
Roland Kaltenegger: Schörner. Field Marshal of the last hour. Munich 1994.
Jakob Knab: "Unassailable Tradition Maintenance" - The Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order and the Royal Bavarian Infantry Body Regiment . In: Geschichte Quer , issue 12, 2004.

Web links

Biography at AXIS Biographical Research

Individual evidence

↑ Hannes Heer (ed.): "Women who serve in the Red Army are always to be shot". Confessions of German prisoners of war about their use on the Eastern Front . Hamburg 1995, p. 12 .
↑ ^a ^b Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 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. 380.
^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 264 ( google.de [accessed on August 3, 2019]).
^ Karl Herrmann and Gerda-Luise Dietl: General Dietl . Munich 1951

personal data
SURNAME	Hengl, Georg Ritter von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hengl, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German police officer, general of the mountain troops in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH	October 21, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lailing near Wallersdorf (Lower Bavaria)
DATE OF DEATH	March 19, 1952
Place of death	Sonthofen

[1] Hannes Heer (ed.): "Women who serve in the Red Army are always to be shot". Confessions of German prisoners of war about their use on the Eastern Front . Hamburg 1995, p. 12 .

[Scherzer-2] Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 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. 380.

[3] Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 264 ( google.de [accessed on August 3, 2019]).

[4] Karl Herrmann and Gerda-Luise Dietl: General Dietl . Munich 1951