Gottfried von Erdmannsdorff

Heinrich Otto Gottfried von Erdmannsdorff (born April 25, 1893 in Kamenz , † January 30, 1946 in Minsk , Soviet Union ) was a German major general in World War II .

Life

origin

Gottfried was a son of the royal Saxon bailiff and Rittmeister a. D. Heinrich von Erdmannsdorff (* 1852) and his wife Gertrud, born von Schönberg (* 1865) from the Kreipitzsch family . The future general of the infantry Werner von Erdmannsdorff was his older brother.

Early years and World War I

Erdmannsdorff joined the 2nd Jäger Battalion No. 13 of the Saxon Army in Dresden on February 8, 1913 as an ensign . From May 1913 to January 1914 the future officer attended the Hanover War School . On February 24, 1914, he was promoted to lieutenant . When the First World War broke out , he went into the field as a company officer in the 1st company of his home unit.

The battalion was deployed on the Western Front, where Erdmannsdorff was wounded on September 29th. After his recovery in November 1914, he was initially assigned to the replacement battalion and was transferred back to the front in December 1914. In August 1916 he was transferred to the staff in the Jäger Regiment on horse No. 7 . In mid-January 1917 Erdmannsdorff returned to his regular battalion, where he held the position of company commander until August 1917. Subsequently, in the meantime promoted to first lieutenant , the same assignment took place in the Reserve Jäger Regiment No. 26 until the beginning of December 1917. In mid-December Erdmannsdorff took over the position of deputy regimental adjutant in the Jäger Regiment on Horse No. 7 at short notice. In mid-January 1918, he changed as a company commander to the Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 26, where he worked as an adjutant from May 1918 . On June 3, 1918 Erdmannsdorff was wounded for the second time. After the restoration of his health, he came to Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 13 in August 1918 and in the following month again to field work in the Jäger Regiment on Horses No. 7 where he was employed as a regimental adjutant. For his behavior, Erdmannsdorff received both classes of the Iron Cross , the Wound Badge in silver, the Knight's Cross II. Class of the Order of Merit with Swords and the Albrecht Order with Swords, the Reussian Cross of Honor III. Class with swords and the War Merit Cross After the armistice in Compiègne , Erdmannsdorff marched back home with his regiment and was demobilized there .

Reichswehr and transition to the Wehrmacht

In January 1919 Erdmannsdorff returned to his main unit, the 2nd Jäger Battalion No. 13, which was being demobilized. On February 25, 1919 Erdmannsdorff joined the Freikorps Grenzjäger Department 1, where he was deployed as a company commander. With the formation of the Provisional Reichswehr, this unit merged into the Reichswehr-Grenz-Jäger-Regiment 23 and Erdmannsdorff continued to be used as a company officer. With the further reduction of the army and the creation of the Reichswehr , Erdmannsdorff was active as an orderly officer in the staff of the 10th Infantry Regiment from January 1, 1921 . After his promotion to captain on April 1, 1925, he served as chief of the 16th Company, later as chief of the 6th Company. On March 31, 1933 Erdmannsdorf was retired from military service.

Erdmannsdorff received his reactivation on April 1, 1934 as commander of the III. Battalion of the Kolberg Infantry Regiment. In this function he was promoted to major on May 1, 1934 and to lieutenant colonel on October 1, 1936 . From October 15, 1935, the regiment was renamed the 4th Infantry Regiment . On November 10, 1938 Erdmannsdorf was appointed commander of Erfurt ; a position that he filled up to September 1939 when the Second World War broke out. On June 1, 1939, he had already been promoted to colonel .

Second World War

During the German attack on Poland on September 10, 1939, Erdmannsdorff was assigned to the General Staff of the 14th Army under Commander-in-Chief Wilhelm List . The army was part of Army Group South . After the invasion of Poland, the army was relocated to the western border and renamed Army High Command 12 . On November 1, 1939 Erdmannsdorff received his appointment as commander of the 171 infantry regiment. With this, the colonel took part in the campaign in the west in the spring of 1940 . During the eastern campaign , Erdmannsdorff's regiment was part of the 56th Infantry Division within the Army Group South, and later the Army Group Center in whose rear area it performed security tasks. Here Erdmannsdorf was awarded the German Gold Cross on February 14, 1942 and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on March 20, 1942 . On October 5, 1942, Erdmannsdorf was entrusted with the command of Division 465 , whose commander he became on December 1, 1942 while being promoted to major general. The division was first in France and later in the Military District V laid. In March 1944, Erdmannsdorff gave command of the division to Lieutenant General Kurt Hoffmann and temporarily joined the Führerreserve . On April 1, 1944 he was appointed commander of the city of Mogilev, which Hitler had declared a fixed place . The city was surrounded at the end of June 1944 together with the 12th Infantry Division under Lieutenant General Rudolf Bamler in the course of Operation Bagration and taken by the Red Army after heavy fighting .

Captivity and execution

On June 28, 1944, Erdmannsdorff was taken prisoner by the Soviets . Although the major general identified with the aims of the Association of German Officers - he was a co-signer of the appeal of the 50 generals to the people and the armed forces - he was indicted on numerous counts in the Minsk trial in January 1946 . These included the deportation of 10,000 people, the destruction of villages, schools and churches, the shooting of those unable to work during the construction of fortifications, the use of people as living obstacles and the organization of three bloody punitive actions against peaceful citizens under the guise of fighting partisans as well as the Establishment of camps in which many people perished. After a show trial in front of a Soviet military tribunal, in which the verdict was already determined, he was sentenced to death on various charges . After appropriate “preparatory work”, as is customary in such trials in the Soviet Union, he “confessed” to the acts he was accused of. On January 30, 1946, the sentence was carried out publicly by hanging at the Minsk Racecourse .

literature

Dermot Bradley (Ed.): The Generals of the Army 1921-1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 2: v. Blanckensee – v. Czettritz and Neuhauß. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1993, ISBN 3-7648-2424-7 .
Hannes Heer , Klaus Naumann: War of Extermination Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941–1944. Two thousand and one 1995, ISBN 3-86150-198-8 .
Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt, Mike Schmeitzner, Andreas Weigelt: Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944–1947). A historical-biographical study . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-36968-5 , short biographies on the accompanying CD, p. 123f.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch des Adeligen Häuser. 1901. Second year, Justus Perthes, Gotha 1900, p. 286.
↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1924, p. 166.
^ Georg Tessin : German associations and troops 1918–1939. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1974, ISBN 3-7648-1000-9 , p. 191.
↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 297.
↑ Manfred Messerschmidt: The Minsk Trial 1946 . In: Crimes of the Wehrmacht . Ed .: Heer and Naumann, Zweiausendeins 1997, ISBN 3-86150-198-8 , p. 653.

personal data
SURNAME	Erdmannsdorff, Gottfried von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Erdmannsdorff, Heinrich Otto Gottfried von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German major general in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH	April 25, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kamenz
DATE OF DEATH	January 30, 1946
Place of death	Minsk

[1] Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch des Adeligen Häuser. 1901. Second year, Justus Perthes, Gotha 1900, p. 286.

[2] Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1924, p. 166.

[3] Georg Tessin : German associations and troops 1918–1939. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1974, ISBN 3-7648-1000-9 , p. 191.

[4] Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 297.

[5] Manfred Messerschmidt: The Minsk Trial 1946 . In: Crimes of the Wehrmacht . Ed .: Heer and Naumann, Zweiausendeins 1997, ISBN 3-86150-198-8 , p. 653.