Gerlach Hemmerich

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Gerlach Hemmerich 1940

Gerlach George Emil Hemmerich (born February 4, 1879 in Isenhagen , † December 31, 1969 in Berlin ) was a German lieutenant general .

Life

Basic transportation data

origin

Hemmerich was the second son of the chief magistrate Ernst Hemmerich (1836–1899) and his wife Helene, née Freiin von der Knesebeck (1846–1926). His older brother was Ernst August Emil Christoph (* 1875).

Military career

Hemmerich attended the Royal Prussian Gymnasium in Celle from 1885 to 1897 . He announced early on that he wanted to become a lawyer . Instead, at the end of February 1897, he joined the 2nd Company of the Infantry Regiment "von Voigts-Rhetz" (3rd Hannoversches) No. 79 as an officer candidate and became a professional soldier . The reason for the change of heart is not known, Hemmerich regretted this decision in later years.

Hemmerich performed general troop service in his regiment from 1898 to 1905; from 1902 as adjutant and court officer. He was then used in the last two mentioned properties from 1905 to 1908 in the Landwehr district command in Göttingen. From October 1908 to July 1911 Hemmerich was assigned to the War Academy in Berlin , which he graduated with “very good” to “excellent” achievements, especially in surveying. After a brief interlude with his regular regiment, he was assigned to the General Staff in Berlin-Wilmersdorf in the local trigonometric department in April 1912 . The department was an organizational unit of the Prussian Land Survey , which in turn was entrusted with the production of topographical maps and the necessary surveying work for the German Reich. Here Hemmerich u. a. responsible for the training of officers for surveying work in German South West Africa . In March 1914 he was transferred to the Army General Staff while retaining his previous position .

When the First World War broke out , Hemmerich was transferred to the General Staff of the V Reserve Corps as 2nd General Staff Officer . The corp took part in the Battle of Longwy in August 1914 . In March 1915 Hemmerich, now as 1st General Staff Officer, was transferred to the General Staff of the 119th Division . The division fought together with Austrian and Turkish associations in Galicia and from 1917 on the Western Front in Flanders . At the beginning of October 1917, Hemmerich was transferred as 1st General Staff Officer to the General Staff of General Command 59 . He held the same position from April 1, 1918 until its dissolution in January 1919 in the General Staff of the I. Reserve Corps .

On October 1, 1919, Hemmerich was transferred to the Army Department of the newly founded Reichswehr Ministry, where he worked as a consultant for surveying and map matters. As a result of the reduction in army strength to 100,000 men, Hemmerich left the Reichswehr as a major on August 25, 1920 and took up civilian work in the Reich Association of Banks. In 1923 he became director of the human resources department at the discount company. After this credit institution merged with Deutsche Bank in 1929, he became head of personnel and director of the head office in Berlin. In 1936 Hemmerich was forced to resign by the company's works council as a result of persistent refusal to join the NSDAP .

In the same year, at the request of Ludwig Beck - the two men had already had a long-standing friendship at the time - he was asked to head the department for surveying and maps in the newly established General Staff of the Wehrmacht , which Hemmerich only intended to accept on the condition that he would return would find use as an active general staff officer; what he was ultimately allowed to do. On October 1, 1936, he was reactivated with the rank of lieutenant colonel i. G. Under his leadership as department head, a high-performance specialist service for army surveying and military geography was created until the end of the war, later renamed the "Department for War Maps and Surveying". In the course of the Blomberg-Fritsch crisis in 1938, Hemmerich unsuccessfully asked for his early departure from the army. Repeated requests for early retirement also remained in vain. With a renewed restructuring of the war map and surveying system from March 1945 Hemmerich's position became dispensable, which is why he was transferred to the Führerreserve at the beginning of April 1945 . It was no longer used during wartime.

In mid-September 1945, Hemmerich was interrogated and arrested by US investigators. For the next two years he was detained in various internment camps. In May 1947 Hemmerich was indicted before the IV. Chamber of the Karlsruhe Court on the basis of the law for the liberation from National Socialism and militarism . In the course of the proceedings, however, Hemmerich was able to convincingly demonstrate that he was not a main culprit or a militarist within the meaning of the aforementioned law. His statements were also supported by affidavits from former employees. The court ultimately acquitted Hemmerich. After his release from prison in July 1947, he returned to Berlin. There he spent his old age together with his wife. On his 75th birthday, he was honored with a commemorative publication in the journal of the Allgemeine Vermessungsnachrichten.

On December 23, 1969, Hemmerich, now 90 years old, was admitted to a Berlin hospital with phlegmon on his right arm and in poor general condition, where he died eight days later. His burial took place in the closest family circle at the Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof Stahnsdorf .

family

Hemmerich married Eva Gabriel (1885–1971) in September 1904. The two daughters Ilse (1906–1930) and Ruth (1908–1999) and son Gerlach (* 1912) emerged from their marriage. Gerlach died in June 1944 as a result of a wound he had suffered in a hospital in Breslau .

Publications

  • Thoughts on military maps in the Military Scientific Review, Issue No. 5, year 1937
  • The map armor of the enemy states for the current war in Military Science Review, Issue No. 1, year 1942
  • Four years of war maps and surveying (review and look-out) in messages from the chief of war maps and surveying, issue No. 8, year 1943

Awards

Web links

Commons : Gerlach Hemmerich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Hemmerich, Gerlach
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hemmerich, Gerlach George Emil (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lieutenant general
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Isenhagen
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1969
Place of death Berlin