Gerhard Hoffmann (General)

Gerhard Hoffmann (born October 13, 1887 in Qualisch ; † November 6, 1969 in Wedel ) was a German officer , most recently a general of the Luftwaffe anti-aircraft cartillery in World War II .

Life

Promotions

• March 22, 1906 Lieutenant
• November 8, 1914 First Lieutenant
• December 18, 1915 Captain
• September 30, 1920 Character as Major
• November 1, 1934 Major
• March 1, 1936 Lieutenant Colonel
• October 1, 1937 Colonel
• June 1, 1939 Major General
• June 1, 1941 Lieutenant General
• December 1, 1942 General of the anti-aircraft artillery

Hoffmann came on 22 March 1906 as a cadet in the Infantry Regiment "King Ludwig III. von Bayern ”(2nd Lower Silesian) No. 47 . In this he acted as a company officer until November 1914 after the outbreak of the First World War . On November 8, 1914, he switched to the Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 37 while being appointed first lieutenant as a company commander, where he remained until the end of September 1915. He then rose to the rank of adjutant of the 18th Reserve Infantry Brigade. From September 18, 1916 to January 25, 1917, Hoffmann then served as General Staff Officer in the V Reserve Corps . He then performed the same function until May 5, 1917 with the staff of the 3rd Landwehr Division and from May 6 to November 23, 1917 with the staff of another division. After a few days as an officer for special use at Army High Command 2 , Hoffmann was transferred to the quartermaster staff in the main headquarters on November 28, 1917 , where he remained until June 8, 1918. Afterwards Hoffmann became a general staff officer with the staff of the IX. Army Corps , where he remained after the end of the war until the end of April 1919. , Meanwhile, from 1 May 1919 in the Provisional Reichswehr adopted, acted Hoffmann by the end of September 1920 9 as a general staff officer in the Reichswehr Brigade On this day he left the ceremony with character as Major out of the military service.

On July 14, 1932, Hoffmann was employed as a state protection officer with the rank of major in the Reichswehr and was initially employed there until the end of May 1934 at the command offices in Oppeln , Kreuzberg and Waldenburg . He then acted as an adjutant to the President of the Reich Air Protection Association until October 21, 1934 . From October 22, 1934 to the end of February 1936, meanwhile already active on November 1, 1934 as a supplementary officer in the Luftwaffe, Hoffmann was deployed in the Luftkreis-Kommando V in Munich .

On March 1, 1936, Hoffmann was reactivated for the Air Force, where he was also assigned to the 1st Division of Flak Regiment 5 in Munich . After a one-month shooting course in July / August 1936, which took place in Wustrow , Hoffmann acted from August 10 to the end of September 1936 as a liaison officer to the command staff of the VII Army Corps . In September 1936 he finished his anti-aircraft training with the II. Department of Flak Regiment 22 in Brandenburg an der Havel and was appointed commander of the II. Department of Flak Regiment 5 on October 1, 1936. Hoffmann held this position until the end of May 1937. He then acted from July to September 1937 in the same function in the I. Department of Flak Regiment 12. There Hoffmann was appointed regiment commander on October 1, 1937.

On August 1, 1938, Hoffmann was promoted to commander of the Berlin Air Defense Command , later Air Defense Command 1. There he replaced the fatally injured Colonel Braun. Hoffmann led this command until June 23, 1940, then handed it over to his successor, Colonel Werner Prellberg, and was appointed commander of Air Defense Command 9 on June 24, 1940 . At the end of February 1941, Hoffmann gave this command over to Lieutenant General Otto Wilhelm von Renz and was appointed commander of the Air Defense Command 4 , later 4th Flak Division, on March 1, 1941 . He led this until February 28, 1942, when he was appointed commander of the 15th Flak Division . In the blue case , his division was characterized by high numbers of kills and advanced to Maikop . At the end of November 1942 Hoffmann gave command to Major General Eduard Muhr and was appointed Commanding General of the IV Air Force Field Corps on November 30, 1942 . On July 1, 1943, Hoffmann was posted to the staff of Luftgau Command III in Berlin, where he remained until the end of the month. On August 1, 1943, Hoffmann was appointed commanding general and commander in Luftgau III in Berlin. He was then transferred to the Führerreserve of the Air Force High Command (OKL) on February 21, 1945 and released from active military service on April 30, 1945. A prisoner of war did not follow.

Awards

• German cross in gold on December 21, 1942

literature

• Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945. Volume 3: Odebrecht – Zoch. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1992. ISBN 3-7648-2207-4 . Pp. 111-112.