Gerhard Engel (General)

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Gerhard Engel (1944)

Gerhard Engel (born April 13, 1906 in Guben ; † December 9, 1976 in Munich ) was a German officer , last lieutenant general in World War II .

Life

Engel joined the 5th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment of the Reichswehr as a marksman on October 5, 1925 . There he was appointed Fahnenjunker on August 17, 1927 . After two assignments to the Dresden Infantry School , he was promoted to lieutenant on September 1, 1930 . As such he was first used in the 2nd Company and from April 1932 in the 3rd Company. As a first lieutenant (from July 1, 1933) Engel was then from September 10, 1933 adjutant of the III. Battalions in Rostock . In 1937 he was promoted to captain . 1937-38 he was head of the 11th Division of Infantry Regiment 27. From 1938 to 1943 he was among the chief aide of the Wehrmacht Rudolf Schmundt adjutant of the army in Chief of the Army . Here, as the army's liaison officer to Hitler , Engel was able to gain deeper insights into his way of thinking.

Engel processed the requests for special permits that Jewish "half-breeds" could join the Wehrmacht or stay in it, which they secured from persecution. Engel was very generous in doing this, which Hitler criticized several times.

In 1941 he was promoted to major and in 1943 to lieutenant colonel. On October 1, 1943, he was transferred to the front at his own request. He took command of the Fusilier - Regiment 27 in the space Newel, then the Grenadier -Regiments 197 and the (Mecklenburg) 12th Infantry Division at Aachen and in the Battle of the Bulge , in May 1944 as a colonel and in November 1944 as a major general . On April 1, 1945 he was promoted to lieutenant general and commander of the Volksgrenadier division "Ulrich von Hutten" in the XX. Army corps in the Halle - Saale area. From May 8, 1945 to December 1947, Engel was a US prisoner of war .

His memories of the time in the Führer Headquarters appeared in book form in 1974 and are an important source. However, it must always be taken into account that they were largely written down from memory.

After his dismissal, he became managing director of a sugar factory near Nörvenich and then a machine tool factory in Düsseldorf . He also ran a comradeship ring for the former 12th Infantry Division. In addition, from April 1958 to December 9, 1976 he was state representative of the Society for Military Studies in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Awards

Works

  • Hildegard von Kotze (ed.): Army adjutant to Hitler 1938–1943: Notes of Major Engel . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-421-01699-2 .

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Markus Rövekamp: 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 3: Dahlmann – Fitzlaff. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1994, ISBN 3-7648-2443-3 , pp. 336-337.
  • Michael Buddrus : Mecklenburg in the Second World War. Edition Temmen , Bremen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8378-4000-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John M. Steiner and Jobst Freiherr von Cornberg; "Arbitrariness within the Arbitrariness" Institute for Contemporary History
  2. ↑ 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. 294.
personal data
SURNAME Engel, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently lieutenant general in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Guben
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1976
Place of death Munich