Gerhard Schmidt (officer)
Gerhard Schmidt (born January 25, 1914 in Gilgenburg , † January 19, 2006 in Bergisch Gladbach ) was a German officer in the Wehrmacht and the Bundeswehr .
Life
As the son of a veterinarian, Schmidt attended school in Gilgenburg and the grammar school in Osterode in East Prussia . After graduating from high school, he enrolled as a medical student at the Albertus University in Königsberg in 1932 . He became a member of Corps Masovia and was an excellent senior . After the Physikum he signed up for a voluntary year in the Reichswehr in November 1934 . He came to the newly established Artillery Regiment 21 in Elbing . Taken over as a flag junior in the Wehrmacht, he was sent to the war school in Bornstedt (Potsdam) . His course director was Erwin Rommel .
In 1936 he joined an artillery regiment as a senior ensign . Officer since April 1937, he took part in the invasion of the Sudetenland , the invasion of Poland and the campaign in the west . In France and the Netherlands he was part of an occupation division .
In the German-Soviet war he was regimental adjutant and department commander . Most recently he was lieutenant colonel and first general staff officer (Ia) of the 342nd Infantry Division in the central section . On May 4, 1945, four days before the Wehrmacht surrendered , he was proposed by Kampfgruppe Nickel for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross ; but it did not come to the award. Schmidt fell into American and British captivity .
Dismissed in July 1947, he first worked in Bavaria , where his family was staying. In 1944 he married Hannelore Bandow. From February 1952 he took care of administrative matters for the Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel in winter and in summer for the five Christian sea hospices of the Sarepta Sisterhood in Norddorf on Amrum .
In December 1956 he was again a soldier in the Bundeswehr. He was deployed in Hanover , Bad Godesberg , Neumünster and Kiel . Promoted to brigadier general in March 1968 , he was deputy commander of the Schleswig-Holstein Territorial Command . In 1971, at the age of 56, he took temporary retirement and moved to Bergisch Gladbach with his second wife, a lawyer in the state finance administration of North Rhine-Westphalia . In 1973 “Jeneral Schmedt” spoke at the Kösener Congress in Würzburg to honor the dead of the fallen corps students . The widow, Renate Schmidt-Eggers, died on February 21, 2016.
Awards
- Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and (1940) 1st class
- East Medal
- Demyansk Shield
- Wound badge (1939) in black
- Infantry assault badge in silver
- Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class (1970)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Renate Schmidt-Eggers, Rüdiger Döhler : In memoriam Gerhard Schmidt . Corps newspaper of Masovia-Königsberg zu Potsdam, summer semester 2006, p. 30 f.
- ↑ German newspaper Corp 3/1973
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schmidt, Gerhard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German army officer, most recently Brigadier General of the Bundeswehr |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 25, 1914 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gilgenburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 19, 2006 |
| Place of death | Bergisch Gladbach |