Hans Höffner

Hans Höffner , also: Hoeffner (born August 27, 1901 in Cottbus ; † December 16, 1987 ), was a German officer in the Reichswehr , general staff officer of the Wehrmacht , commander in the Federal Border Guard and general in the Bundeswehr .

Life

Hans Höffner was the son of the writer and magazine editor Johannes Höffner and his wife Klara, who worked as a writer under the name Klara Hofer . He graduated from the Bamberg New Gymnasium .

He then joined the 17th (Bavarian) cavalry regiment in Bamberg in 1921 as an officer candidate . In 1924 he was promoted to lieutenant . He later served as first lieutenant in the 12th (Saxon) cavalry regiment in Dresden , where he was promoted to Rittmeister in 1934 . He was accepted as an officer in the Wehrmacht and graduated from the military academy before he held the post of 2nd General Staff Officer of the 31st Infantry Division from 1936 to 1938 . This was followed by employment as a company commander in Panzer Reconnaissance Department 8.

When the Second World War broke out , he took part in the Polish and Western campaigns as 1st General Staff Officer of the 252nd Infantry Division . After serving in the General Staff of the Army, he was promoted to Colonel i in January 1943. G. promoted. He gained further operational experience from 1941 to 1944 in Russia, Ukraine and Italy. In France (Paris) he served in the rank of Colonel i. G. as "General of Transport". Most recently he was in command of the 29th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, which was set up on December 1, 1944.

After the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany , he provided essential help in setting up the Federal Border Guard. The police general was initially deputy commander of the central border protection command, before he rose to the command of the southern border protection command at the end of June 1953 .

He later switched to the German Armed Forces, from which he resigned as Brigadier General on September 30, 1961 .

He spent his old age in Aschau im Chiemgau .

Others

As a general staff officer of the Wehrmacht, Höffner is said to have expressed himself critically towards the Nazi leadership and Adolf Hitler as well as positively towards the officers involved in the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 around Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg . The later lieutenant general and inspector of the army, Albert Schnez , who was temporarily subordinate to Höffner as a soldier of the Wehrmacht, intended to report this officially, which would have resulted in Höffner being convicted by the People's Court. Höffner only escaped this because he had previously been captured by the Americans. Schnez was criticized for this in Germany and many other NATO countries.

Web links

• Hans Höffner , in Internationales Biographisches Archiv 49/1953 of November 23, 1953, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible).
• These rumors In: Der Spiegel . 26/1967, June 19, 1967.
• Vorloopig Rapport In: Der Spiegel . 46/1967, November 6, 1967.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heinz-Peter Würzenthal , Dermot Bradley , Hansgeorg Model and Markus Rövekamp : Complete list of generals and admirals of the Bundeswehr 1955–1990 (= Germany's generals and admirals, part VI a). Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-1783-6 , p. 48
2. ↑ These rumors In: Der Spiegel . 26/1967, June 19, 1967.