Hans von Greiffenberg

Hans von Greiffenberg (born October 12, 1893 in Trzebiatkow , Bütow district , † June 30, 1951 in Königstein im Taunus ) was a German infantry general in World War II .

Life

Greiffenberg joined the Infantry Regiment "Graf Schwerin" (3rd Pomeranian) No. 14 of the Prussian Army on January 20, 1914 as a lieutenant , with whom he came to the Western Front after the outbreak of the First World War . There he was wounded in August and did not return to his regiment until November, where he became a battalion adjutant shortly afterwards. Another wound soon led to his surrender again until the summer of 1915. On August 18, 1917 he was promoted to lieutenant and in October of the same year he was appointed regimental adjutant. At the same time he was temporarily deputy leader of the III. Battalions. For his work he was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross and the Wound Badge in silver.

After the end of the war, Greiffenberg served for some time in the Eastern Border Guard in the Netzwalde section before he was accepted into the Provisional Reichswehr . After the formation of the transitional army at the beginning of 1920, he joined the staff of the Reichswehr-Schützen-Regiment 4, the later 4th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment . Here he served first as adjutant of the 3rd, then of the 2nd battalion and from January 1, 1923 as a regimental adjutant. In October 1923 he was transferred to the 10th (Prussian) cavalry regiment in order to complete a year-long training as a guide assistant in the 2nd division . Behind it hid the general staff training, which was disguised and prohibited by the Versailles Treaty. In October 1924 he was reassigned to the 4th Prussian Infantry Regiment. He was promoted to captain in April 1925. From 1925 to 1926 he was assigned to the Army Training Department (T 4) in the Reichswehr Ministry He was in command of the Finnish and Spanish armies for a year before completing the secret Wachenfeld courses , and on October 1, 1931, he was appointed company commander in the 4th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment in Deutsch Krone .

From August 1932 to October 1933 Greiffenberg attended the American Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth and was promoted to major on October 1, 1932 . After a renewed stay at the Reichswehr Ministry, he was appointed First General Staff Officer (Ia) at Military District Command IV in November 1934 , in which position he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in June 1935 . In October 1936 he took over the 1st Battalion of the 103rd Infantry Regiment for a year before he was transferred to the Wehrmacht Academy. After his promotion to colonel in January 1938, he joined the Army General Staff as a department head in early February . In October he became chief of the 1st division of the chief quartermaster I. During the mobilization in preparation for the attack on Poland in August 1939, he became chief of the operations department of the general staff. Here he stayed even during the battles to occupy Poland. On August 1, 1940, he was promoted to major general in this position and transferred to the Fuehrer's reserve from October.

Hans von Greiffenberg with Wilhelm List and Josef Dietrich during the surrender negotiations with Greece, April 1941

Maximilian von Weichs (far right) and General Hans von Greiffenberg (center), 1942

From January to May 1941 Greiffenberg was Chief of the General Staff of the 12th Army , with which he took part in the Balkan campaign. For this he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on May 18, 1941 . He was then appointed Chief of the General Staff of Army Group B , a little later renamed Army Group Center , under General Field Marshal Fedor von Bock , with whom he took part in the attack on the Soviet Union . In April 1942 he left this post in order to prepare for the planned summer offensive as chief of staff of the "Anton staff" or "Azov coastal staff". At the same time he was promoted to lieutenant general. When Army Group A was set up on July 7, 1942, he was Chief of Staff of this Army Group, which was under the command of General Field Marshal Wilhelm List and was supposed to advance into the Caucasus as part of the " Blue Fall " . In July 1943 he was recalled from this post and transferred to the Führerreserve .

From October 8, 1943 Greiffenberg was used as a military attaché at the German embassy in Budapest . The German ambassador at this time was Dietrich von Jagow (1892–1945). Here he replaced his predecessor as military attaché Friedrich-Carl Rabe von Pappenheim (1894–1971). After the German occupation of Hungary , Greiffenberg was appointed Plenipotentiary General of the German Wehrmacht in Hungary on April 1, 1944, while at the same time being promoted to General of the Infantry . He held this post until shortly before the end of the war he was taken prisoner by the United States , from which he was released on June 30, 1947.

Then he worked until his death in 1951 in a "Control Group" of the Operational History (German) Section of the "Historical Division" of the US Army , which worked for the former Army Chief of Staff Franz Halder , in which over 300 former high officers of the Wehrmacht had 2,500 operational war history Studies.

literature

Dermot Bradley (Ed.): The Generals of the Army 1921-1945. The military careers of the generals, spwoe of doctors, veterinarians, intdaten, judges and ministerial officials in the general rank. Volume 4: Fleck – Gyldenfeldt. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1996, ISBN 3-7648-2488-3 , pp. 412-413.
Manfred Kehring: The re-establishment of the German military attaché service after the First World War (1919-1933). Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1966, p. 226 ff.

Web links

Commons : Hans von Greiffenberg - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1930, p. 141.
↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd edition, Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 347.
↑ Bernd Wegner : Written victories. Franz Halder, the "Historical Division" and the reconstruction of the Second World War in the spirit of the German General Staff. In: Political Change, Organized Violence and National Security. Edited by Ernst Willi Hansen, Gerhard Schreiber and Bernd Wegner. Oldenbourg, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-486-56063-8 , pp. 287-302, here pp. 292 f.

personal data
SURNAME	Greiffenberg, Hans von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German infantry general in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH	October 12, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH	Trzebiatkow , Bütow district
DATE OF DEATH	June 30, 1951
Place of death	Königstein im Taunus

[1] Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1930, p. 141.

[2] Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd edition, Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 347.

[3] Bernd Wegner : Written victories. Franz Halder, the "Historical Division" and the reconstruction of the Second World War in the spirit of the German General Staff. In: Political Change, Organized Violence and National Security. Edited by Ernst Willi Hansen, Gerhard Schreiber and Bernd Wegner. Oldenbourg, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-486-56063-8 , pp. 287-302, here pp. 292 f.