Hans Ritter (General)

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Hans Ritter (born March 2, 1893 in Harburg an der Elbe ; † May 21, 1991 in Munich ) was a German officer , most recently General of the Air Force Aviators in World War II .

Life

Promotions

Early years and World War I

Ritter joined the Imperial Navy on April 1, 1912 , where he initially received his basic infantry training. He then served as a midshipman on the training ship Hertha . After attending the Naval School Mürwik and several ensign courses, Ritter came to the cruiser Friedrich Carl with the outbreak of the First World War . He remained on this until its sinking on November 17, 1914. In January 1915, Ritter was assigned to the Hessen ship of the line , where he continued his practical on-board training until March 1915. Following this, Ritter served on the liner Lorraine until March 1916 and then switched to naval aviation .

There, Ritter completed his pilot training with the I. Sea Aviation Department until May 1916 and was then employed until March 1917 as a pilot at the Angersee Sea Aviation Station in Courland . From March to May 1917, Ritter retrained on a new type of aircraft at the combat single-seater school in Danzig . He then flew as a pilot until March 1918 when Seefliegerstaffel Flanders II and in Seefrontstaffel Flanders . In March 1918 Ritter became 2nd Adjutant of the I. Sea Aviation Department; this post held until January 1919 after the end of the war.

Interwar years

After the demobilization of his aviation department, Ritter was appointed station manager of the combat flying school in Langfuhr in January 1919 . After the banning of military aviation in Germany due to the Versailles Diktakts joined Knight from October 1, 1920, the Navy back. There he served as a watch officer on the cruiser Hamburg until September 1922 . On October 1, 1922, Ritter was appointed commander of the Tender Drache , which he led until March 1923. During this time, Ritter attended the ship artillery school . From April 1923 to June 1926, Ritter acted as a consultant for aviation and air protection in the fleet department of the naval command . He then attended two further courses at the Mürwik Naval School by the end of September 1939. From October 1926 to the end of September 1928, Ritter was a guard and 3rd artillery officer on the Schleswig-Holstein liner . then he returned to naval management, where he was again active as a consultant for aviation in the fleet department until the end of September 1933. On October 1, 1933, Ritter was appointed 5th Admiral Staff Officer (for aviation) in the fleet command; he also held his post in the Navy High Command until September 30, 1935.

On October 1, 1935, Ritter joined the Air Force and was appointed lieutenant colonel . Here he was used until the end of March 1936 as commander of the Air Force School in Parow . On April 1, 1936 he was appointed higher commander of the aviation schools and the aviation replacement departments in Luftkreis VI (See), in which function he was also the air base commander of Warnemünde .

Second World War

On February 1, 1939, he was promoted to General of the Air Force with the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. Here he also acted as the commander of the naval aviation associations and temporarily as the inspector of the sea pilots in the Reich Ministry of Aviation . On September 19, 1944, he was transferred to the Führerreserve , from which he retired from military service at the end of January 1945 with effect from January 31, 1945. On July 3, 1945, Ritter was arrested by the Red Army and sentenced to 25 years of forced labor. On October 9, 1955, he was released prematurely from POW camp 5110/48 Woikowo and returned to West Germany.

Awards

Fonts

  • Der Luftkrieg , Koehler Verlag, Berlin et al. 1926.

literature

  • Karl Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935–1945 Part II, Volume 3: Odebrecht – Zoch , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1992, ISBN 3-7648-2207-4 , pp. 116–117

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred Zeidler: Stalin Justice contra Nazi crimes. The war crimes trials against German prisoners of war in the USSR from 1943 to 1952. State of knowledge and research problems. Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism, Dresden 1996. ISBN 3-93164-808-7 , p. 70 "Transport list for returnees from October 1955 with those released from the Vojkovo general camp."
personal data
SURNAME Ritter, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently General der Flieger in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Harburg on the Elbe
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 1991
Place of death Munich