Heinrich Heitsch

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Oskar Christian Heinrich Heitsch (born September 10, 1916 in Spremberg near Neusalza, Upper Lusatia ; † March 31, 1986 in Dresden ) was a career officer in the Barracked People's Police (KVP) and the National People's Army (NVA) of the GDR, last rank lieutenant general , with the academic staff Graduate military scientist ( Dipl.-Mil. ) And professor .

Life and military career

He grew up as the son of a professional officer who served in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic . The father Alfred Walter Heitsch was captain and battalion commander , the mother Clara Bertha Alice née. Brendler housewife. After primary school in Neusalza-Spremberg (1922–1930), from 1930 to 1934 he attended secondary school with a high school diploma. Heitsch was the chief spell leader in the Hitler Youth , and professional soldiers were not allowed to join the party later. Like his father saw the Graduate Heinrich Heitsch further ahead as a professional officer and undertook to serve in the armed force army of the Wehrmacht , of which he was from 1935 to 1945. He was made lieutenant in 1938 and later promoted to major . He served as a staff officer in infantry divisions and then in the Army General Staff until the end of World War II . Then Major Heitsch was in Soviet and Polish captivity until 1949.

Heinrich Heitsch's grave on the Tolkewitz urn grove

Career in various armed organs

In the course of 1949 he returned to what was then the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ). On September 15, 1949, a few weeks before the founding of the GDR on October 7, he joined the new armed body Head Office Training (HVA), which, alongside the Head Office of the German People's Police (HVDVP) and Head Office of the Seepolizei (HVS), is a mainstay of the Ministry of the Interior (MdI) in the Soviet Zone, later the GDR. The HVA was the predecessor of the Barracked People's Police (KVP). Until 1950 Heinrich Heitsch acted as chief of staff of the administration for training at the main administration for training of the Ministry of the Interior and from October 1, 1949 also as chief inspector . From 1950 to 1951 he was an officer for special use (e.g. V.) in the staff of the main training administration and then until 1953 head of the rear services of the HVA of the barracked people's police in Berlin-Adlershof founded on July 1, 1952 . In 1952 he became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). On October 1st of the same year he was appointed major general . From 1953 to 1955 Heinrich Heitsch headed the People's Police School for Infantry in Döbeln, Saxony .

University studies in the USSR

Major General Heitsch then graduated from 1955 to 1957 at the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces in the USSR in Moscow . After his studies - in the meantime the National People's Army had been founded in the GDR on March 1, 1956 - he held the post of 1st deputy commander of the NVA College for Officers in Dresden, later the Friedrich Engels military academy, from 1957 to 1977 . From June 1, 1963 to April 30, 1964, Major General Heitsch was entrusted with the leadership of the highest military training institution in the GDR. On October 7, 1977, the 28th anniversary of the GDR, he was promoted to lieutenant general. At the age of 61 he was retired from active military service on November 30, 1977. For his services to the NVA, he received the gold medal for the “ Patriotic Order of Merit ” and gold for “For Merit for the People and the Fatherland” . Heitsch died in Dresden in 1986 and was buried in the Tolkewitz urn grove .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harry Waibel : Servants of many masters. Former Nazi functionaries in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1 , p. 132.
personal data
SURNAME Heitsch, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German professional officer of the barracked People's Police and the National People's Army of the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH September 10, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Spremberg near Neusalza
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1986
Place of death Dresden