Gotthard Heinrici

Gotthard Heinrici, 1943

Heinrici's signature

Gotthard Fedor August Heinrici (born December 25, 1886 in Gumbinnen , † December 10, 1971 in Karlsruhe ) was a German officer , most recently Colonel General in World War II . He commanded major formations of the army in various theaters of war. Heinrici is considered one of the few defensive experts in the Wehrmacht .

Life

Empire and First World War

Heinrici was born as the only son of Pastor Paul Heinrici and his wife Gisela, née von Rauchhaupt , who came from an old Prussian aristocratic family. The von Rauchhaupt family had been producing soldiers again and again since the 12th century. His paternal grandfather was the pastor and consistorial councilor August Heinrici . Field Marshal General Gerd von Rundstedt was his cousin, as was the behavioral scientist Otto Koehler with whom he grew up in the rectory of Gumbinnen. Heinrici joined the 6th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 95 on March 8, 1905 as a flag junior and completed an officer training. On August 18, 1906, he was appointed lieutenant . Before the outbreak of the First World War , he was promoted to first lieutenant on February 17, 1914 .

Heinrici first fought on the Eastern Front , where he took part in the Battle of Tannenberg . On the Polish theater of war, he expressed anti-Semitic resentments that he had inherited from his parents' house, and made fun of the “ caftan Jews with ringlets ” who could be found in large numbers in Poland . On June 18, 1915 he was promoted to captain and from 1916 he was involved as a company and battalion leader in the Battle of Verdun . After being seriously wounded, he was transferred to the staff service . Until the end of the war he was First General Staff Officer (Ia) of the 203rd Infantry Division . During the war, Heinrici was awarded eleven times, including both classes of the Iron Cross and the Knight's Cross of the House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords .

Weimar Republic

At the beginning of 1919 he returned to Infantry Regiment No. 95 and shortly afterwards in February 1919 went to the Eastern Border Guard with a volunteer division .

In 1920 he was accepted into the Reichswehr , the first years with the staff of the 1st Division . From September 1, 1924 he was company commander of the 14th Company in the 13th (Württembergisches) Infantry Regiment , from February 1, 1926 as a major . From autumn 1927 he was employed for three years in the troop office (TA) of the Reichswehr Ministry in the Army Organization Department (T2), from August 1, 1930 as a lieutenant colonel. Since autumn 1930 as battalion commander of the III. Battalion in the 3rd (Prussian) Infantry Regiment , Heinrici was transferred to the staff of Group Command 1 in Berlin on October 1, 1932 as Ia .

The Weimar Republic refused Heinrici, of the DNVP was close to decreases. Shortly after the seizure of power of the Nazis , he expressed in a letter to his parents the hope "that we finally get out of the Marxist-Jewish filth".

Period of National Socialism until the start of the war

From March 1, 1933, Heinrici was employed with the rank of colonel as a department head in the Reichswehr Ministry, later the Reich Ministry of War. On January 1, 1936, he was promoted to major general . With effect from October 12, 1937 he was appointed commander of the 16th Infantry Division and promoted to lieutenant general on March 1, 1938 .

Heinrici and his wife Gertrude had two children, Hartmut and Gisela. He was a religious man who regularly attended church. His belief and the refusal to join the NSDAP made him unpopular in the Nazi hierarchy and led to arguments with Hitler and above all Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring , who held him contempt.

He was repelled by the anti-Semitic excesses of the Reichspogromnacht , but this did not lead him to distance himself from the regime, whose hostility to Jews he shared in principle.

As a commander of combat units

At the beginning of the Second World War , Heinrici was deployed with his division on the Siegfried Line. On April 20, 1940 he was promoted to General of the Infantry and took command of the XII. Army corps that broke through the Maginot Line in the French campaign (May / June 1940) south of Saarbrücken .

In the war against the Soviet Union , Heinrici was in command of the XXXXIII. Army corps of Army Group Center , with which he took part in the Battle of the Białystok and Minsk , the Battle of Kiev and the Battle of Moscow . On September 18, 1941, he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross .

Briefing of the situation between General Field Marshal Günther von Kluge and Gotthard Heinrici (right), mid-1943

On January 20, 1942, he took over command of the 4th Army , which was to stabilize the front from its headquarters in Spas-Demensk . On January 1, 1943 Heinrici was appointed Colonel-General conveyed. In the summer of 1943 he had to withdraw to Orsha with the 4th Army . For the temporary stabilization of the front he was awarded the Knight's Cross Oak Leaves on November 24, 1943 .

During the retreat and the following months, the Soviet Western Front attacked Heinrici's 4th Army in eleven consecutive battles. Due to tactical inadequacies on the part of the Soviet army command and good leadership by Heinrici, there were enormous losses on the part of the enemy. Heinrici had good field fortifications built a few kilometers behind the front, while the front lines were sparsely occupied. If the destruction of the Soviet artillery set in on the front German lines, these soldiers withdrew to the rear fortifications. The Soviets then had to stop the artillery fire when attacking in order not to endanger their soldiers or the German field fortifications were out of range. The attacking infantry and tanks hit the intact Wehrmacht fortifications and were wiped out. The unsuccessful attacks cost the Red Army over 530,000 soldiers; the losses of the 4th Army amounted to 35,000 men, 10,000 of them dead and missing. These successes contributed greatly to Heinrici's reputation as a defense specialist.

Heinrici repeatedly advocated a withdrawal of Army Group Center and the associated shortening of the front line, which now protruded far to the east, especially after the previous successes of the Red Army in Ukraine. After Hitler finally rejected these plans at the staff meeting on May 20, 1944 and committed himself to the creation of " permanent positions ", Heinrici reported sick and gave up command of the 4th Army. On June 4, General of the Infantry Kurt von Tippelskirch became his successor . On June 22nd, the Red Army began Operation Bagration . The 4th Army was encircled and broken up near Minsk in July; later the unit was reorganized.

On August 17, 1944, Heinrici was appointed commander of the 1st Panzer Army , which formed the core of the Northern Ukraine Army Group. With this he had to withdraw further and further via Poland and Slovakia in heavy retreat battles. Heinrici confirmed his reputation as a defensive specialist. On March 3, 1945 he was awarded the knight's cross swords.

On March 21, 1945 Heinrici was appointed commander of the Vistula Army Group , which was supposed to stop the Red Army's attack on Berlin, because of his defensive skills . He was the commanding officer in the defeat in the Battle of the Seelow Heights . He realized that the main Soviet thrust would take place over the Oder along Reichsstrasse 1 . So he decided to only defend the west bank of the Oder with a thin veil and instead had the Seelower Heights fortified, which form the western edge of the Oderbruch and rise about 48 meters above the Oderbruch. In order to achieve the necessary manpower for the defense, he had the German lines thinned out in other places. At the same time, German pioneers transformed the Oderbruch, which was already soaked by the spring flood, into a single swamp by opening a reservoir upstream. Behind it, three defensive belts were created that reached as far as the outskirts of Berlin . The last line, about 15-20 km behind the first line, was the so-called Wotan position , which consisted of tank trenches , PaK positions and an extensive network of trenches and bunkers. In the early morning hours of April 16, 1945, 3:00 a.m. CEST , 5:00 a.m. Moscow time , the attack was initiated by what was probably the strongest barrage in history. 40,000 artillery pieces were used. A large part of this blow remained ineffective, however, as Heinrici and the commander of the 9th Army ( General Busse ) had expected the attack on that day. The night before, the bulk of the units had been detached from the front, except for safeguards, and moved to the prepared positions on the Seelow Heights. It was not until April 18 that both Soviet fronts pushed through the defensive positions with very heavy losses. Due to disagreements with the OKW, he was relieved of his post on April 29, 1945 at his own request. Heinrici left for Schleswig-Holstein.

This last phase of his military career was typical of Heinrici's tense relationship with the National Socialist military leadership. He had already repeatedly ignored orders to leave only “ scorched earth ” behind on retreats , for example with regard to the city of Smolensk . For this reason, Heinrici had already been relieved of his command for two months in 1942 and 1943. In both cases, however, he was brought back due to his indispensable skills.

After the Second World War

Heinrici came on May 28, 1945 near Flensburg in British captivity . On May 19, 1948, he was released from Island Farm Camp . After that he lived in Endersbach near Waiblingen. In the 1950s he prepared studies for the Operational History (German) Section of the Historical Division of the United States Army .

Heinrici died shortly before his 85th birthday on December 10, 1971 in Karlsruhe and was buried with military honors in the cemetery in Freiburg im Breisgau . His estate is at the local Federal Archives-Military Archives . The historian Johannes Hürter evaluated Heinrici's letters and diaries for an article in the quarterly magazine for contemporary history and two books.

Assessment of Heinrici as commander

Johannes Hürter gave notes from the war of extermination in the book . The Eastern Front 1941/42 in the notes of General Heinrici from an assessment of Heinrici as commander: “Heinrici proved to be a tough and capable commander who demanded just as much as his soldiers and who, still as commander-in-chief, had constant personal contact with the combat troops and the front sought. In doing so, he corresponded to the Prussian-German (and Hitler's) ideal of a high troop commander who led “from the front” and combined the skills of the general staff officer with the boldness of the front officer. His notes from the Eastern War are eloquent testimony to this, including the empathy and care for his soldiers, for whom he felt responsible. "

Regarding crimes in Heinrici's area of ​​command, Hürter writes: “The growing respect for the fighting strength of the enemy and the burgeoning understanding for the population in a devastated country did not change the fact that war crimes against Red Army soldiers, commissioners, prisoners of war, partisans and civilians also occurred in Heinrici's area of ​​command . "

As a military commander, he was described by US historians as the Wehrmacht's leading defensive expert and a genius admired by his peers. According to historian Samuel W. Mitcham , Heinrici was "as charismatic as a twenty-pound sack of manure".

Awards (selection)

• Iron Cross, 2nd class, September 27, 1914
• Iron Cross 1st Class, July 24, 1915
• Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords, August 9, 1918
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross , September 18, 1941
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, November 24, 1943
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, March 3, 1945.

Heinrici was named in the Wehrmacht report on November 23, 1943 and October 8, 1944.

literature

• Johannes Hürter : "Customs and customs prevailed, just like in the 30-year war" - the first year of the German-Soviet war in documents from General Gotthard Heinrici . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (48th year, 2nd issue), April 2000.
• Johannes Hürter: A German General on the Eastern Front. Gotthard Heinrici's letters and diaries 1941/42. Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2001, ISBN 3-89702-307-5 . (Review by Volker Ullrich , Die Zeit 26/2001)
• Johannes Hürter (Ed.): Notes from the war of extermination. The Eastern Front 1941/42 in the notes of General Heinrici , Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-534-26769-9 .
• Michaela Kipp: “Big cleaning in the east”. Images of the enemy in German field post letters during World War II. Campus Verlag Frankfurt / New York 2014, pp. 147–180.

Web links

• Literature by and about Gotthard Heinrici in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Gotthard Heinrici  in the German Digital Library
• Entry about Heinrici, Gotthard (1886–1971) in the central database of bequests
• http://www.specialcamp11.co.uk/Generaloberst_Gotthard_Heinrici.htm

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johannes Hürter: A German General on the Eastern Front. The Letters and Diaries of Gotthard Heinrici 1941–1942 . Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley (South Yorkshire) 2014, ISBN 978-1-78159-396-7 , p. 10.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Johannes Hürter: Hitler's Army Leader. The German Commander-in-Chief in the War against the Soviet Union 1941/42 , Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-57982-6 , p. 511 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
3. ↑ Rigg 2002, p. 433.
4. ↑ Johannes Hürter: Hitler's Army Leader. The German Supreme Commanders in the War against the Soviet Union 1941/42 , Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-57982-6 , p. 512 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
5. ↑ Johannes Hürter: VfZ 8/2000, p. 332
6. ↑ Johannes Hürter: VfZ 8/2000, p. 351
7. ↑ The inferno of the highway battles in Russia, welt.de, accessed on February 13, 2014
8. ↑ Wassili Tschuikow: The end of the Third Reich. Goldmann Munich 1966, p. 118.
9. ↑ Johannes Hürter: VfZ 8/2000, p. 333
10. ↑ Johannes Hürter: Notes from the war of extermination. The Eastern Front 1941/42 in the notes of General Heinrici , Darmstadt 2016, p. 240
11. ↑ Johannes Hürter: Notes from the war of extermination. The Eastern Front 1941/42 in the notes of General Heinrici , Darmstadt 2016, p. 21
12. ↑ Johannes Hürter: Notes from the war of extermination. The Eastern Front 1941/42 in the notes of General Heinrici , Darmstadt 2016, p. 18
13. ↑ Johannes Hürter: Notes from the war of extermination. The Eastern Front 1941/42 in the notes of General Heinrici , Darmstadt 2016, p. 19
14. ^ Randy Papadopoulos, David T. Zabecki: World War II in Europe: An Encyclopedia . Routledge, 2015, ISBN 978-1-135-81242-3 , p. 338.
15. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham, Gene Mueller: Hitler's commanders: officers of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, and the Waffen-SS . Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2012, ISBN 978-1-4422-1153-7 . Pp. 66-67.
16. ↑ Also on the following orders Johannes Hürter : Hitler's Army Leader. The German Commander-in-Chief in the War against the Soviet Union 1941/42 , Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-57982-6 , p. 631 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
17. ^ The reports of the High Command of the Wehrmacht 1939-1945, Volume IV 1.1.1943-21.12.1944 , Verlag für Wehrwissenschaften München, Cologne 2004. P. 294
18. ^ The reports of the High Command of the Wehrmacht 1939-1945, Volume V 1.1.1944-9.5.1945 , Verlag für Wehrwissenschaften München, Cologne 2004. P. 337