Hans Feige

Hans Feige (born November 10, 1880 in Königsberg , † September 17, 1953 in Schussenried ) was a German officer , most recently general of the infantry in World War II .

Life

Feige was the son of an officer. He also became a professional soldier and in 1900 a lieutenant in the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Lorraine Infantry Regiment No. 135 of the Prussian Army . In 1903 he was a battalion adjutant there. In 1909 he was transferred to the infantry regiment "Lübeck" (3rd Hanseatic) No. 162 , commanded to the war academy and promoted to first lieutenant . From 1912 he was active in the general staff and in 1913 promoted to captain .

In the First World War he was in 1914 in the General Staff of the IX. Army Corps and from 1915 in the General Staff of the 38th Infantry Division , which 1915 u. a. fought in northern Russia and in March 1916 in the Battle of Verdun . There he was wounded and returned to the General Staff of the 1st Marine Division in Flanders in the summer of 1916 . In 1918 Feige was on the General Staff of the 1st Guard Reserve Division on the Western Front near Armentières and Artois and he was promoted to major in July 1918 .

After the end of the war, Feige initially joined a volunteer corps in 1919 . He was then taken over in the Provisional Reichswehr and from 1920 on the General Staff of the 1st Cavalry Division in Königsberg. In 1923 he became commander of the III. Battalion of the 6th Infantry Regiment in Flensburg and promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1925 . In 1926 he became Chief of Staff of the 1st Division and in 1928 was promoted to Colonel . In 1929 he was commander of the 9th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment and in February 1931 he was transferred to the Reichswehr Ministry. There Feige was used as head of the Army Department (T 1, National Defense Department ) in the Troop Office (TA) and promoted to major general in October 1931 . In October 1932 he was transferred to the staff of Group Command 1 and from December 1932 appointed Chief of Staff.

From October 1, 1933 to April 1, 1935, Feige was Lieutenant General in command of the 1st Cavalry Division as the successor to Lieutenant General Ludwig Beck . On March 31, 1935, he was retired and given the character of general of the cavalry .

Feige was reactivated in the Second World War and in August 1939 he was the commanding general of the Deputy General Command of the II Army Corps in Stettin and thus at the same time commander of Military District II (Stettin) . At the beginning of the western campaign , in May 1940, he was the commanding general of the Higher Mountain  Command XXXVI., Which came to Norway in the autumn of 1940 ( Operation Weser Exercise ). In December 1940 he became general of the infantry . From June to November 1941 his command fought in Finland in the Soviet-Finnish War . Here, together with Lieutenant General Eduard Dietl and the Finnish General Hjalmar Siilasvuo, he ran the Silberfuchs company in the direction of Kantalahti in northern Scandinavia. Feige's option part was called "Arctic Fox Company". Despite Finnish support, he could not achieve the operational goal of the Murman Railway . After the failure, he was transferred to the Führerreserve at the end of 1941 and finally discharged from the Wehrmacht in June 1942 due to age.

Awards

• Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st class
• Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with swords
• Hanseatic Cross Lübeck
• Iron crescent
• Cross of Honor of the World War
• Clasp for the Iron Cross, 2nd and 1st class
• German cross in gold
• Grand Cross of the Finnish Order of the White Rose

literature

• Mann, Chris M. & Jörgensen, Christer (2002), Hitler's Arctic War , Hersham, UK: Ian Allan Publishing Ltd, ISBN 0711028990 .
• Michael Buddrus : Mecklenburg in the Second World War. Edition Temmen , Bremen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8378-4000-1 .
• Ueberschär, Gerd R. (1983): "Warfare and Politics in Northern Europe". In Boog, Horst; Forster, Jürgen; Hoffmann, Joachim; Klink, Ernst; Müller, Rolf-Dieter; Ueberschär, Gerd R. The attack on the Soviet Union . Volume IV. Military History Research Office. German publishing company. Page 810–882. ISBN 3421060983 .