Georg von Sodenstern

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Georg von Sodenstern (born November 15, 1889 in Kassel , † July 20, 1955 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German officer , most recently General of the Infantry and Commander-in-Chief of the 19th Army in World War II .

Life

After his cadet training, Georg von Sodenstern joined the 3rd Upper Silesian Infantry Regiment No. 62 as an ensign on March 13, 1909 , in which he was promoted to lieutenant on January 27, 1910 . With his regiment he went to the First World War as a company officer in 1914 . On February 25, 1915, he was promoted to first lieutenant . During the war, von Sodenstern awarded both classes of the Iron Cross . On August 18, 1917, he was promoted to captain .

Interwar period

After the First World War he was accepted into the Reichswehr and initially employed in the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 27. It was used as a company commander in the 6th Infantry Regiment .

In 1924 he was transferred as a staff officer to Group Command 2 in Kassel . In 1925 he joined the General Staff of Infantry Leader III in Potsdam . In 1926 he was transferred to the Army Organization Department (T 2) at the Reichswehr Ministry in Berlin . The following year he was assigned directly to the military office and was promoted to major on February 1, 1928 . In 1931 he was appointed adjutant to the chief of the troop office. As such, George was of Sodenstern on October 1, 1932. Lieutenant Colonel and on September 1, 1934 Colonel promoted.

On October 15, 1935, he took over as commander of the newly established 65th Infantry Regiment in Delmenhorst . He gave up this office in August 1937 and was then Chief of the General Staff of the VI. Army corps in Münster . After he was promoted to major general on March 1, 1938 , von Sodenstern became Chief of the General Staff at Group Command 2 on December 1, 1938.

Second World War

When mobilizing for the Second World War , he became Chief of the General Staff of Army Group C under Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb , which was responsible for the defense of the western border during the attack on Poland . On February 1, 1940, he was promoted to lieutenant general . On February 6, 1940 he became Chief of the General Staff of Army Group A under Colonel General Gerd von Rundstedt , with whom he took part in the western campaign. On July 19, 1940, he was awarded the Knight's Cross for this and promoted to General of the Infantry on August 1, 1940 . Due to Rundstedt's appointment as Commander-in-Chief West in October 1940, he remained active in the West until early 1941.

Georg von Sodenstern (half-hidden directly behind Adolf Hitler ) at a briefing at the headquarters of Army Group South in Poltava , June 1942

With the renaming of Army Group A at the beginning of the attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, von Sodenstern became Chief of the General Staff of Army Group South . Here he served under General Field Marshals Gerd von Rundstedt , Walter von Reichenau and Fedor von Bock .

When the Army Group was split up for the upcoming Fall Blau summer offensive in early July 1942, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of Army Group B under Maximilian von Weichs . For his achievements in this function, he was awarded the German Cross in Gold on January 2, 1943 . In July 1943 he was transferred to the Führerreserve .

On August 13, 1943, von Sodenstern was reactivated and in the west he was Commander-in-Chief of the Felber Army Group , from which he formed the 19th Army . In this role he was responsible for the German measures in the Italian occupied territory in southern France when Italy left the war. At the end of June 1944, von Sodenstern was replaced by General of the Infantry Friedrich Wiese and an honorable farewell from the Wehrmacht.

post war period

From 1946 Sodenstern worked as part of the German department of the war history research group of the United States Army , the Operational History (German) Section of the "Historical Division", in the preparation of studies on the Second World War. Since 1954, Sodenstern has presided over a " Working Group for Defense Research " as a figurehead, the actual maker was Jürgen Rohwer . From then on , the two published a Wehrwissenschaftliche Rundschau that had previously been published by ES Mittler & Sohn since 1950 , and later by Lehmanns in Munich. The task of this association was the "dissemination of historical topics about the defense system". The association was financed by the Blank office , the disguised forerunner of the German Armed Forces , with substantial funds from the budget of the Federal Press Office .

Sodenstern died on July 20, 1955 in Frankfurt am Main.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Othmar Hackl : General Staff, General Staff Service and General Staff Training in the Reichswehr and Wehrmacht 1919–1945. Studies of German generals and general staff officers in the Historical Division of the US Army in Europe 1946–1961 . Biblio, Osnabrück 1999, ISBN 3-7648-2551-0 , p. 131 ff.
  2. ↑ Beginnings of West German Security Policy 1945-1956. 4 volumes, including volume 3: Hans Gotthard Ehlert: The NATO option. Oldenbourg, Munich 1993 ISBN 3486516914 pp. 336, 338
  3. ↑ a b c Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Berlin 1930, p. 124
  4. ↑ 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. 709.
personal data
SURNAME Sodenstern, Georg von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently General of the Infantry in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH November 15, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH kassel
DATE OF DEATH July 20, 1955
Place of death Frankfurt am Main