Gerhard Schmidhuber
Gerhard Schmidhuber (born April 9, 1894 in Dresden , † February 11, 1945 in Budapest ) was a German major general in the Wehrmacht who prevented the extermination of the Budapest ghetto .
Life
Schmidhuber joined the Saxon Army on April 1, 1914 as a one-year volunteer . When the First World War broke out , he was employed in the 12th Infantry Regiment No. 177 , where he was promoted to lieutenant in the reserve on September 8, 1915 . Awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , Schmidhuber retired from the army on February 21, 1920 and started doing business.
On October 1, 1933, he was reinstated as an L-officer and first lieutenant in the reserve at the officers' headquarters in Dresden . On October 15, 1934, he was taken into the active relationship, with senior service from December 1, 1935 promoted to captain and used in the 10th Infantry Regiment. From November 10, 1938 he was company commander in the 103rd Infantry Regiment and on April 1, 1939, took over as a major in the 2nd Battalion.
As a battalion commander, Schmidhuber took part in the attack on Poland at the beginning of the Second World War, then in the western campaign in France, in the attack on Yugoslavia and from June 1941 in the war against the Soviet Union . Promoted to lieutenant colonel on July 1, 1941 , Schmidhuber relinquished command of the battalion on April 30, 1942, was appointed colonel retrospectively from April 1, 1942 , and then as a teaching group leader at Panzer Troop School II. On July 11, 1943, he took over the command of the 304 Panzer Grenadier Regiment of the 2nd Panzer Division on the Eastern Front. There he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on October 18, 1943 . From February 3 to March 1, 1944, Schmidhuber took part in the 9th division leader course in Hirschberg and was then employed as deputy leader of tank divisions, for example with the 7th Panzer Division from May 2, 1944. On September 9, 1944, he took over he led the remnants of the 13th Panzer Division , which had been smashed in Romania, and directed its re-establishment in Hungary. On October 1, 1944, Schmidhuber became division commander and major general. His division was trapped in Budapest at Christmas 1944 along with other German and Hungarian units. After being mentioned in the Wehrmacht report on December 20, 1944, he received the Oak Leaves for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on January 21, 1945 (706th award).
The battle for Budapest ended with the last units attempting to break out, in which Schmidhuber was killed on February 11, 1945 in Retekstraße, near the Heuplatz (Széna tér) in Budapest.
In 2007 he was posthumously honored by the Hungarian daily Népszabadság for his services in rescuing the last surviving Jews in Budapest . Raoul Wallenberg's authority had caused Schmidhuber to protect the Budapest ghetto against the Hungarian Arrow Cross members .
literature
- Wolfgang Keilig : The generals of the army. Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg 1983, p. 303.
- Dieter Hoffmann: The Magdeburg Division. On the history of the 13th Infantry and 13th Panzer Divisions 1935–1945. Verlag Mittler & Sohn, 2001, p. 263ff.
Web links
- István Szende: Egy hiányzó tábla. In: Népszabadság. 2007. január 18. / (Hungarian, viewed February 3, 2007)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Krisztián Ungváry: The Battle of Budapest 1944/45. Stalingrad on the Danube. FA Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-7766-2120-6 , p. 272.
- ^ Fritjof Meyer: The angel of Budapest. DER SPIEGEL 30/2001.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schmidhuber, Gerhard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German major general in World War II |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 9, 1894 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dresden |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 11, 1945 |
| Place of death | Budapest |