Gustav-Adolf Kuntzen

Gustav-Adolf Kuntzen (born December 23, 1907 in Berlin ; † August 15, 1998 in Wachtberg ) was a German officer, most recently lieutenant general in the Bundeswehr. After the Second World War he was President of the Clausewitz Society and was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.

Life

Origin and Reichswehr

Kunzenes great-grandfather was the lawyer and politician Georg Beseler ; his uncle was Colonel General Hans von Beseler and his brother-in-law the constitutional lawyer Hans Helfritz . Kuntzen was born in 1907 as the son of a college teacher.

He attended the Joachimsthalsche Gymnasium in Templin and the Friedrichs-Gymnasium Herford , where he graduated from high school in 1929. In the same year he joined the 3rd (Prussian) intelligence department of the Reichswehr in Potsdam as a radio operator . He served in the 9th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment in Wünsdorf and Potsdam. In 1930/31 he attended the infantry school in Dresden and in 1931/32 the artillery school Jüterbog. In 1932 he was made a lieutenant; until 1935 he was a platoon leader .

Wehrmacht

In October 1935 he was an adjutant to the commander of the 111 Intelligence Force in Potsdam. In 1937 he was company commander in Intelligence Department 62 in Zossen. In 1938/39 he completed the general staff course at the War Academy in Berlin. In 1939/40 he was Ic of the 215th Infantry Division and 1940 of the XXV. Army Corps . From 1940 to 1943 he was Id at Army High Command 17 . In 1943 he was transferred to the Führerreserve . From 1943 to 1944 he was Ia / F of Army Group North and from 1944 to 1945 Ia of the 122nd Infantry Division . At the end of the war he was taken prisoner by the Soviets, from which he did not return until 1950.

armed forces

From 1950 to 1953 he was a publishing clerk in the Grote'sche publishing bookstore.

In 1953/54 he worked as an appraiser for the Blank office. In July 1953 he became a salaried employee and in 1954/55 he became head of the department. In 1955 he joined the Bundeswehr as a colonel and sub-department head in the command staff . In 1958 he was promoted to brigadier general as well as deputy commander and chief of staff of the territorial defense command in Bad Godesberg. Then he was general of the command troops and stage manager of the telecommunications troops in the Army Office in Cologne. In 1962 he was deputy head of the personnel department in the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn for six months .

After promotion to major general in 1962, he replaced Major General Schnez in September 1962 as Chief of Staff in the Armed Forces Staff . In July 1964 he was appointed to the newly created post of Deputy Inspector General of the Bundeswehr. He was retired on April 1, 1967.

Others

From 1969 to 1974 he was President of the Clausewitz Society .

He was married to the daughter of the publisher Gustav Müller-Grote and the father of two children.

Honors

1933-1945

• Iron Cross 1st Class
• War Merit Cross 1st Class
• 1945: German cross in silver

after 1945

• 1964: Commander's Cross with Star, Order of the Phoenix , Greece
• 1965: Orden del Mérito with star, Chile
• 1966: Large Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany

literature

• Dermot Bradley , Heinz-Peter Würzenthal, Hansgeorg Model (eds.): The Generals and Admirals of the Bundeswehr (1955-1999). The military careers (= Germany's generals and admirals. Part 6b). Volume 2, 2: Hoffmann - Kusserow. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 2000, ISBN 3-7648-2370-4 , pp. 805-807.
• Viktor Toyka , Rüdiger Kracht: Clausewitz Society. Chronicle 1961–2011 . Edited by the Clausewitz Society, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-9810794-6-3 , pp. 24-25.
• Gustav Adolf Kuntzen , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 23/1967 of May 29, 1967, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)