Hans Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt

Hans Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt as Colonel in the General Staff (1944)

Hans Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt (born August 21, 1904 in Danzig - Langfuhr , † July 25, 1944 in Bad Tölz ) was a German major general .

Life

Fabricius gen Schmidt on Altenstadt coat of arms 1713

Hans Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt

Schmidt von Altenstadt's father Ulrich was Major Adjutant to General Field Marshal von Mackensen , the commander of the Leib-Hussar Brigade in Danzig-Langfuhr. His grandfather Eduard Schmidt von Altenstadt was a Prussian major general. Hans Georg grew up in Danzig and on his parents' estate Medunischken in the Angerapp district . He was married to a Dane and had three children. After graduating from high school, he attended war school and became a career officer.

In 1923 he joined the 4th (Prussian) cavalry regiment of the Reichswehr . In 1939 he was quartermaster of the XVIII. Army Corps . In November 1939 he took up the post of First General Staff Officer of the 18th Infantry Division . Under Eduard Wagner , Quartermaster General in the Army High Command , he became head of the war administration department in the summer of 1940. In this post he was responsible for basic administrative orders for dealing with the civilian population of the Soviet Union . At the same time he had important coordination tasks with the Reich administrations and the party offices of the NSDAP . In August 1943 he moved to the Italian front. There he acted as chief of staff of the combat units (→ Battle of Monte Cassino ). He suffered injuries in a car accident and died in the hospital in Bad Tölz as a result of a pulmonary embolism . On July 1, 1944, three weeks before his accidental death, he was promoted to major general.

For a long time, researchers considered Schmidt von Altenstadt to be a proponent of a moderate occupation policy. He is variously associated with circles of the military resistance . As early as September 1942, he was aware of plans by Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg to eliminate Hitler. In addition, Schmidt von Altenstadt tried, together with his friend Stauffenberg , to win over commander-in-chief of individual army groups for a political overthrow. Already at the end of 1941 he himself was of the opinion that the coup could only succeed if Hitler was killed instead of captured. Only then would the oath that the soldiers of the Wehrmacht had sworn on Hitler have been broken. However, von Altenstadt assessed the support of the generals for the coup to be low. As head of department in the General Staff of the Army, he was able to provide the conspirators with information about what was actually going on in the occupied territories.

As head of the war administration department, he was directly involved in the Holocaust ; for example, he was one of those who arranged the Kamenets-Podolsk massacre on August 25, 1941 . At first he made the devastating occupation policy of the Wehrmacht his own, in large parts he organized it himself. Only after the advance of the German troops had stalled did he advise a more moderate attitude towards non-Russian sections of the population.

In February 1942, Major i. G. Schmidt von Altenstadt for the OKH suggestions for a reversal in the war policy. The Russian resistance could be undermined by improving the supply situation in the population. Local associations should also be set up to fight against Bolshevism. The kolkhos system was also to be dissolved, making land ownership possible for the farmers, and the religious needs of the population were to be taken into account. From September 1942 Altenstadt asked Hitler to stop the persecution of the Jews.

With Quartermaster General Eduard Wagner and Major Graf von Stauffenberg , Schmidt von Altenstadt set up a political self-government for the Caucasian peoples ( Georgians , Azerbaijanis , Armenians and others) in the Caucasus at the end of 1942 . With the guarantee of complete political independence, Wagner, Stauffenberg and Altenstadt hoped to win the Caucasians over to work together. This attempt at political warfare later became known as the "Caucasian experiment". In the conquered areas, the peoples should be offered an attractive alternative to Stalin's Soviet system.

After the population in the occupied territories had been won, local associations were to be set up to fight against Stalin's Soviet regime. Altenstadt's War Administration Department and the Organization Department in the Army General Staff initiated the formation of an army under the Russian General Wlassov. In the years 1942–43, for example, without Hitler's knowledge, a million former Red Army soldiers were set up in voluntary organizations under the slogan “Russia can only be defeated by Russians”. Schmidt von Altenstadt was of the opinion that the people of Russia could also be mobilized beyond the front line to fight against Stalin. The struggle in the depths of the Russian area could only be successfully waged by Russians.

In January 1943, Lieutenant Colonel i. G. Schmidt von Altenstadt again wrote a memorandum in which he called for a ban on manhunts and a fundamentally better treatment of Russian workers, and he also continued to regard a better supply of the population in the occupied territories with food as necessary. This memorandum was also presented to Hitler and Minister of Propaganda Goebbels without any rethinking. Hitler is said to have foamed [with anger] at Schmidt von Altenstadt's proposals when he received them from the Chief of the General Staff of the Army, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel . Other officers and functionaries agreed that the war could only be won by turning away from the previous coercive and colonial methods. This also included the idea of ​​a “New Europe” that was supposed to preserve the independence of the peoples in the East.

Colonel i. G. v. Up until the end of this year, Altenstadt was actively involved in the resistance as a liaison to Italy. There, too, he probed to find helpers for the imminent assassination attempt. After the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944 , the propaganda department and other agencies assumed that Schmidt von Altenstadt was directly involved in the attempted insurrection. The following day the family's Medunischken estate in East Prussia was searched and the Gestapo interrogated Schmidt von Altenstadt's father for two days . Contemporary witnesses assume that Major General Hans-Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt only escaped the fate of the other 200 people involved in the conspiracy of July 20, 1944 through his death in the military hospital on July 25, 1944, some of whom spoke of Altenstadt's suicide. Hans Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt's widow married General a. D. Gerhard Feyerabend .

Military biography

Date of entry: 04/01/1923   

Troops according to reports:  

• May 1st, 1927 6th Squadron / 4th Prussian Cavalry Regiment
• May 1st, 1928 May 1st, 1929 2nd Squadron / 4th Prussian Cavalry Regiment
• May 1st, 1931 May 1st, 1932 1st Squadron / 4th Prussian Cavalry Regiment
• 03.01.1939 05.11.1939 General Staff XVIII Army Corps Salzburg 
• 07/10/1940 Headquarters 18th Infantry Division
• October 6, 1943 January 20, 1944 General Command LI. Mountain Corps
• 01/22/1944 07/25/1944 General Command XIV Panzer Corps  

Hospital stays:

• June 18, 1944 Tegernsee Reserve Hospital, Schwaighof Partial Hospital 
• July 13th, 1944 Bad Tölz reserve hospital 
• July 25th, 1944 died in Res.-Lazarett Bad Tölz   

Ranks and promotions:

• 08/01/1924 Private
• 11/01/1924 NCO
• 10/01/1925 Ensign
• 08/01/1926 Senior Ensign
• December 1st, 1926 Lieutenant
• 02/01/1929 First Lieutenant
• 11/01/1934 Captain
• 01.06.1940 Major i. G.
• 02.03.1942 Lieutenant Colonel i. G.
• October 6, 1943 Colonel i. G.
• 07/01/1944 Major General

Orders and decorations:  

• 09/29/1939 Iron Cross, 2nd class
• May 18, 1940 Iron Cross 1st class
• May 8th, 1944 German cross in gold

Front inserts:  

• September 1939 – November 1939 Poland as Quartermaster XVIII. Army Corps
• November 1939 – July 1940 Western Front as 1st General Staff Officer, 18th Division
• October 1942 – November 1942 Eastern Front as Regimental Leader 82nd Division
• August 1943 – January 1944 Italy as Chief of the General Staff LI Mountain Army Corps
• January 1944 – June 1944 Italy as Chief of General Staff XIV Panzer Corps

Use without combat:  

• July 1940 – June 1943 Head of Department in the Army General Staff

literature

• Joachim Hoffmann : Caucasus 1942/43: the German army and the oriental peoples of the Soviet Union, Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991, ISBN 3-7930-0194-6
• Ulrich Schmidt von Altenstadt , Christoph Bauer (Ed.): Oath and Conscience: Between Hitler's Millstones - Research on the History of General Staff Officer Hans-Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt, EPUBLI, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-7375-8594-1 .
• Rainer Blasius : For a better Germany , in: FAZ from July 20, 2015 ( PDF file , accessed on July 26, 2015)
• Manfred Zeidler : The Caucasian Experiment , in: Institute for Contemporary History (Ed.): Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, VfZ 03/2005, Oldenbourg, ( PDF , accessed on April 19, 2015)
• Jürgen Thorwald : The Illusion - Red Army soldiers in Hitler's armies , Droemer Knaur Verlag, Zurich 1974, ISBN 3-85886-029-8 .
• Gert Carsten Lübbers: Wehrmacht and economic planning for the company "Barbarossa". Dissertation at the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster. Münster 2010. ( PDF , accessed on August 26, 2014)
• Hamburg Institute for Social Research (Ed.): Crimes of the Wehrmacht. Dimensions of the War of Extermination 1941–1944. Exhibition catalog. 1st edition. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-930908-74-3 , p. 132.
• Dieter Pohl : The rule of the armed forces. German military occupation and local population in the Soviet Union 1941–1944. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58065-5 , p. 94 f.
• Ulrich Schmidt von Altenstadt, Christoph Bauer: Hans-Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt - 1904–1944. EPUBLI, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-8442-8477-5 .
• Babette Quinkert: Propaganda and Terror in Belarus 1941–1944, German intellectual warfare against civilians and partisans. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76596-3 .

References and comments

1. ↑ Ulrich S. v. Altenstadt, Christoph Bauer (ed.): Oath and conscience - Between Hitler's millstones. EPUBI, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-7375-8594-1 , p. 194 ff.
2. ^ Hans-Jörg Mauss: As a medical officer in World War II. The Diary of Dr. Wilhelm Mauss. Publishing house Dr. Köster, Berlin 2008, p. 332 ff.
3. ^ Ulrich Schmidt von Altenstadt: Hans-Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt, 1904-1944: Report from Hitler's grinder. P. 45. ( online )
4. ^ Ulrich Schmidt von Altenstadt, Christoph Bauer: Hans-Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt - 1904–1944. EPUBLI, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-8442-8477-5 , p. 72.
5. ^ Joachim Hoffmann: Caucasus 1942/43 - The German Army and the Orient Peoples of the Soviet Union. Military History Research Office (ed.). Rombach Verlag, Freiburg 1991, ISBN 3-7930-0194-6 , p. 38.
6. ↑ Jürgen Thorwald : The Illusion - Red Army soldiers in Hitler's armies. Droemer Knaur Verlag, Zurich 1974, ISBN 3-85886-029-8 , p. 167.
7. ^ Sven Steenberg : General Wlassow - The leader of the Russian Liberation Army - traitor or patriot. Moewig, Rastatt 1986, ISBN 3-8118-4356-7 , p. 156.
8. ↑ Dieter Pohl names Walter Bussmann here . (See Dieter Pohl: Die Herrschaft der Wehrmacht. German military occupation and native population in the Soviet Union 1941–1944. 2nd edition. Oldenbourg, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-59174-3 , p. 95, footnote 29.) During the war, Bußmann belonged, among other things, to the QU 4 B department of the Quartermaster General OKH , Eduard Wagner . He kept the war diary there during the Wehrmacht attack on the Soviet Union . Walter Bußmann: "Notes" from the War Administration Department at the Quartermaster General (1941/42. In: Deutschefrage und Europäische balance. Festschrift for Andreas Hillgruber on his 60th birthday. Edited by Klaus Hildebrand and Reiner Pommerin . Böhlau, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3- 412-07984-7 , 229.) As part of its activities there Bußmann also evaluated the killing messages of the SS - Einsatzgruppen out, so had first-hand knowledge of the Holocaust . An example of the assignment of Schmidt von Altenstadt to the resistance in the memoir literature is Hans von Herwarth : Between Hitler and Stalin. Experienced contemporary history 1931–1945 , Propylaea, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Vienna 1982, ISBN 3-549-07627-4 , p. 286 ff.
9. ^ Mathias Schröder: German Baltic officers in the Second World War and their political initiatives for General Vlasov. In: Michael Garleff (Ed.): Baltic Germans, Weimar Republic and Third Reich. Volume 2. Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-12299-7 , p. 337 f.
10. ^ Joachim Kramarz: Count Claus Stauffenberg - November 15, 1907-20. July 1944 - An Officer's Life. Bernhard & Graefe, Frankfurt am Main 1965, p. 135.
11. ↑ Peter Hoffmann : Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg - The Biography. 2nd Edition. Pantheon, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-570-55046-5 , p. 267.
12. ↑ Georg Mayer: Effects of July 20, 1944. In: Thomas Vogel (Ed.): Aufstand des Gewissens - Military Resistance against Hitler and the Nazi Regime 1933–1944. Verlag ES Mittler Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-8132-0708-0 , p. 303.
13. ↑ Otto Bräutigam: This is how it happened - A life as a soldier and diplomat. Holzner-Verlag, Würzburg 1968, p. 685.
14. ↑ Frido von Senger and Etterlin: War in Europe. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1960, p. 251 ff.
15. ^ Joachim Kramarz: Claus Graf Stauffenberg - November 15, 1907-20. July 1944 - An Officer's Life. Bernhard & Graefe, Frankfurt am Main 1965, p. 144 f.
16. ↑ Otto Bräutigam: This is how it happened - A life as a soldier and diplomat. Holzner-Verlag, Würzburg 1968, p. 482 ff.
17. ↑ Herberg Franke: As a representative of the Foreign Office at the Army High Command in: Rainer A. Blasius (Ed.): Hasso von Etzdorf - A German Diplomat in the 20th Century, Haumesser Verlag, Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-9520313-1-3 , P. 71 ff.
18. ↑ Harold C. Deutsch: Conspiracy against the war - The resistance in the years 1939-1940, Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1969, p. 193f.
19. ^ Andrej Angrick: The Escalation of German-Rumanian Anti-Jewish Policy after the Attack on the Soviet Union, June 22, 1941. P. 23, footnote 65 ( PDF , accessed on August 10, 2011); Dieter Pohl: The rule of the armed forces. German military occupation and local population in the Soviet Union 1941–1944. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58065-5 , p. 258.
20. ↑ Dieter Pohl: The rule of the Wehrmacht. German military occupation and local population in the Soviet Union 1941–1944. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58065-5 , p. 95.
21. ^ Jurgen Forster: Operation Barbarossa in Historical Perspective in: Military History Research Office (Ed.): Germany an the Second World War, Vol 4: Attac on the Soviet Union , Oxford University Press, Deutsche Verlags Anstalt, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 0-19- 822886-4 , p. 1243.
22. ^ Peter Hoffmann: Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and his brothers. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, special edition. 2004, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-421-05774-5 , pp. 252 f.
23. ↑ Manfred Oldenbourg: Ideology and military calculation , Böhlau, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-412-14503-3 , p. 260 f.
24. ^ Institute for Contemporary History (ed.), Jürgen Thorwald: Oberst a. D. Heinz Danko Herre, pages 49–59, PDF , accessed on February 2, 2016. See also: Jürgen Thorwald: Die Illusion - Rotarmisten in Hitler’s Heeren, Droemer Knaur, Zurich 1974, cover text, ISBN 3-85886-029-8 .
25. ↑ Alexander Dallin: German rule in Russia 1941-1945. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1958, p. 453.
26. ^ Gert Carsten Lübbers: Wehrmacht and economic planning for the company "Barbarossa". Münster 2010, p. 514f. ( PDF , accessed on August 26, 2014)
27. ↑ Otto Wenzel: German Ostpolitik 1941 to 1945 in the mirror of the Goebbels diaries in: Citricon 138 Der Second World War , July / August 1993, p. 187, ( PDF , accessed on January 1, 2015).
28. ↑ Helmut Krausnick: Conversation note: Memories of General a. D. Rudolf Freiherr von Gersdorff, page 14.Institute for Contemporary History, accessed on July 18, 2016 . 
29. ↑ Babette Quinkert et al. (Ed.): Propaganda and terror in Belarus 1941–1944, German intellectual warfare against civilians and partisans. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76596-3 , p. 268 ff.
30. ↑ Carola Döbber: Political chief physicians? : New studies on the Aachen medical profession in the 20th century , Kassel University Press, Aachen 2013, ISBN 978-3-86219-338-7 , p. 79. ( PDF , accessed on January 1, 2018)
31. ↑ Georg Mayer: Effects of July 20, 1944. In: Thomas Vogel (Ed.): Aufstand des Gewissens - Military Resistance against Hitler and the Nazi Regime 1933–1944. Verlag ES Mittler Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-8132-0708-0 , p. 303.
32. ^ Sven Steenberg: General Wlassow - The leader of the Russian Liberation Army , Moewig Verlag, Rastatt 1986, ISBN 3-8118-4356-7 , p. 156.
33. ↑ Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt: counter Hitler and Stalin , rabbit and Köhler Verlag, Mainz, 1970, ISBN 3-7758-0785-3 , S. 206th
34. ^ Ulrich Schmidt von Altenstadt, Christoph Bauer: Hans-Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt - 1904–1944. EPUBLI, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-8442-8477-5 , p. 24 f.
35. ↑ Otto Bräutigam: This is how it happened - A life as a soldier and diplomat. Holzner-Verlag, Würzburg 1968, p. 599.
36. ^ Statements from ambassador a. D. Hans Herwarth von Bittenfeld, Colonel a. D. Hinrich Bleicken, major general ret. D. Achim Oster. Otto Hinrich Bleicken: Moving Years 1929-1945 - Memories of a General Staff Officer , Ed .: Traditionsverband Münster, 3rd edition, Münster 2010, p. 79. Ulrich S. v. Altenstadt, Christoph Bauer (Ed.): Oath and Conscience: Between Hitler's Millstones - Research on the History of General Staff Officer Hans-Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt , 3rd Edition, EPUBLI, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-7375-8594-1 , p 56-58.
37. ↑ Ulrich S. v. Altenstadt: Oath and Conscience: Between Hitler's Millstones - Research on the history of General Staff Officer Hans-Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt . Ed .: Christoph Bauer. EPUBLI, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-7375-8594-1 , pp. 194-196 .