Hans Hinrichs (General)

Hans Karl Hinrichs (born March 9, 1915 in Darmstadt ; † November 19, 2004 in Koblenz ) was a German officer, most recently with the rank of lieutenant general and member of the Gehlen organization .

Life

Wehrmacht

After graduating from high school in 1933 and briefly studying philosophy, Hinrichs joined the Pioneer Battalion 5 of the Reichswehr in Ulm on April 1, 1934 . In 1935/36 he attended the Dresden War School. In 1936 he served in Pioneer Battalion 9 in Hann and in the same year became platoon leader in Pioneer Battalion 34 in Koblenz. In 1938 he became a battalion adjutant and in 1940 company commander . In 1942 he attended the battalion leader course in Dessau and Mourmulon. From June to November 1942 he was in command of the Panzer Pioneer Battalion 33. In 1942/43 he was in the Führerreserve . From June 1943 to October 1943 he completed the 10th general staff course at the War Academy in Berlin. Then he was u. a. Ib of the 23rd Panzer Division and consultant in the Foreign Armies East Department . In this function he traveled to East Prussia in October 1944, from where he reported, among other things, on the Nemmersdorf massacre . In May 1945 he became a US prisoner of war .

Organization Gehlen

Hinrichs was brought to Fort Hunt ( Virginia ) together with Reinhard Gehlen and five other former members of the Foreign Army East Department . In July 1946 the officers returned to Germany and became part of the Gehlen Organization . From 1949 to 1952, Hinrichs was Head of the Military Analysis Division for the Army and Navy and from 1952 to 1955, after the naval component had been hived off, he was the Head of the Military Analysis Division for the Army.

armed forces

On November 15, 1955, he joined the newly founded Bundeswehr , where, after attending Staff College Camberley (1956), he was deployed in various NATO headquarters ( NORTHAG in Mönchengladbach, LANDCENT in Fontainebleau and AFCENT in Fontainebleau). From 1962 to 1963 he was department head of the Bundeswehr at the command academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg . On November 1, 1963, he became the commander of the 4 Panzer Grenadier Brigade in Göttingen . On July 11, 1964, Hinrichs was promoted to brigadier general. On October 1, 1966, he took up the post of commander of the leadership academy while being promoted to major general . From October 1, 1970 until his retirement on September 30, 1974, Hinrichs was Lieutenant General Commanding General of the I. Corps in Munster .

Others

In 1975 he was President of the Clausewitz Society . On January 1, 1976, Hinrichs became editor-in-chief of the magazine Europäische Wehrkunde .

He was married and had three children.

Awards

1933-1945

• 1939: Iron Cross, 2nd class
• 1940: Iron Cross 1st class
• 1942: German cross in gold

after 1945

• 1972: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Fonts (selection)

• Supplying the Red Army - home base and operational area . In: Basil Liddell Hart (Zsgest./Bearb.): The Red Army . Translated from English by Friedrich Beermann , Verlag WEU / Offene Wort, Bonn 1956, pp. 290-300.

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, 1: Gaedcke - Hoff , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 2000, ISBN 978-3-7648-2369-6 , pp. 372-373.
• Viktor Toyka , Rüdiger Kracht: Clausewitz Society. Chronicle 1961–2011 . Edited by the Clausewitz Society, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-9810794-6-3 , pp. 35–36.
• Hans Hinrichs , in Internationales Biographisches Archiv 18/1977 of April 25, 1977, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

• Against injustice and tyranny - Address by Lieutenant General Hans Hinrichs on July 20, 1973 in the courtyard of the Stauffenbergstrasse Memorial and Education Center, Berlin (PDF file; 59 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thomas Wolf: The emergence of the BND. Construction, financing, control . Ed .: Jost Dülffer et al. (=  Publications of the Independent Historical Commission for Research into the History of the Federal Intelligence Service 1945–1968 . Volume 9 ). Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-96289-022-3 , pp. 127 .