Gerhart Schirmer

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Gerhart Schirmer (born January 9, 1913 in Chemnitz , † September 5, 2004 in Lauf (Baden) ) was a German Air Force officer.

Life

Schirmer joined the police force in Saxony on April 6, 1932 . Promoted to lieutenant on October 1, 1934, he switched to the Air Force on September 1, 1935 . After completing his pilot training, he became a squadron captain of a technical company on March 1, 1936 in Oldenburg (Oldb) . Since October 1937 first lieutenant , he became company commander 5./FliegerAusbRgt 62 in Quedlinburg on December 1, 1937 .

After a year and a half transferred to the paratroopers , he was company commander 6th / 2nd paratrooper regiment (of the Air Force) in Tangermünde from May 1, 1939 . He was deployed on the Valkenburg military airfield , in the Polish campaign , as a captain in June / July 1940 in Norway ( Weser Exercise Company ).

For his work on the Corinth Canal at the end of April 1941 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . In May 1941 he led the 2nd battalion of his regiment (FschJgReg 2) in the Merkur company (Crete).

In the German-Soviet war he came to the Mius in November 1941 . A year later he came to Tunisia as a battalion commander in Paratrooper Regiment 5. Since February 1943 leader of the regiment, he was promoted to major on June 1, 1943 and ordered to Italy until November 1943 (see Italian campaign (Second World War) ). On January 1, 1944, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed regimental commander of the 16 parachute regiment. From July to November 1944 he fought in Lithuania and East Prussia . On November 18, 1944, he was awarded the Knight's Cross Oak Leaves (657th award). On February 1, 1945 he became the first general staff officer of the 1st Paratrooper Division .

In 1945 he was taken prisoner by the English near Hamburg. On the way to Magdeburg at the end of May 1945, he was arrested by the Red Army and taken to Tangermünde Castle . From there he was transferred to the Sachsenhausen special camp . In January 1950 he was taken to the central remand prison of the Soviet secret police, the Stasi prison and what was later to become the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen memorial . Sentenced to three times 25 years of forced labor by the special counseling service in September 1950 , he was sent to the Vorkuta labor camp in October 1950 . He had to work in shafts 1, 11 and 40. On January 12, 1956, he returned to West Germany.

Since December 1, 1956 he was an officer in the German Armed Forces , from May 1, 1957 to October 31, 1962, he was in command of the Luftlande Kampfgruppe A9, from which the 25th Airborne Brigade emerged . Promoted to colonel on April 1, 1959 , from November 1, 1962, he was commander of Army Aviation Command 2 in Ulm and Laupheim. His last position was from November 1, 1968 to March 31, 1971, in command of Defense District Command 51 (Stuttgart).

Works

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paratrooper Battalion 251, the men from the Schirmer
  2. ↑ Wladislaw Hedeler , Horst Hennig (ed.): Black pyramids, red slaves. The strike in Vorkuta in the summer of 1953 . Leipzig 2007, pp. 275f.
personal data
SURNAME Schirmer, Gerhart
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German air force and army officer, most recently colonel in the Bundeswehr
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Chemnitz
DATE OF DEATH September 5, 2004
Place of death Run (bathing)