Heinrich Kirchheim

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Captain Kirchheim with the uniform of the Prussian Army

Heinrich Kirchheim (born April 6, 1882 in Gross Salze , † December 14, 1973 in Lüdenscheid ) was a German lieutenant general in World War II .

Life

Kirchheim joined the infantry regiment "Prince Friedrich of the Netherlands" (2nd Westphalian) No. 15 of the Prussian Army in Minden on May 1, 1899 as a flagjunker and advanced to lieutenant until mid-October 1900 . On the occasion of the suppression of the Herero uprising , he joined the Schutztruppe for German South West Africa on October 1, 1904 and served in the German colony until March 1914. For his work Kirchheim received the Order of the Crown, IV. Class with Swords, and had meanwhile been promoted to first lieutenant in mid-February 1910 . He then returned to Germany and was employed in the Magdeburg Jäger Battalion No. 4 .

First World War

At the beginning of the First World War , Kirchheim became a company commander in the Hanoverian Jäger Battalion No. 10 . With his battalion he took part in the fighting on the Western Front . There he was promoted to captain on August 24, 1914 . On the same day Kirchheim was shot through the neck while attempting to take an English battery at Fontaine aux Pierre east of Cambrai . After his recovery he and his battalion transferred to the newly founded Alpine Corps in May 1915 and was deployed with them in Tyrol . The Archduke Karl visited the battalion on June 27 and gave him the Edelweiss badge , which was worn until the end of the campaign to Shako and cap.

During the Battle of Verdun , Kirchheim was in the Charleville hospital . On August 15, 1916, Kirchheim was appointed commander of the battalion.

On August 25, 1918, Kirchheim led his battalion to storm the Kemmel . An artillery shell wounded him in the head. For his high merit in the storming Kirchheim was submitted on May 12 for the Pour le Mérite , but did not receive it. In the defensive battle between Somme and Oise , Kirchheim and his battalion again distinguished themselves in such a way that he was proposed for the second time by his regimental commander. On October 13, 1918, Wilhelm II issued a cabinet order to award the Pour le Mérite to the deserving officer. In the last weeks of the war, Kirchheim and his battalion were again in action in the Balkans and, after the retreat fighting in Serbia and Macedonia, returned to Hungary via the Danube and Sava .

Free Corps

After the end of the war and return home, Kirchheim set up the Hannoversche Jägerbataillon from the remnants of the battalion on January 18, 1919 in Goslar. It arrived in Fraustadt ( Posen ) on the evening of January 25th . The 10th Division had its headquarters in nearby Glogau . Together with the 2nd battery of the 2nd Thuringian Field Artillery Regiment No. 55 , which was also headed to Fraustadt and was to be attached to the battalion, was tactically under the division. On the 28th, the battery arrived in Fraunstadt with a company from Naumburg Jäger Battalion 4. After hunters of the 14th Jäger Battalion had arrived, Kirchheim reported on February 3 that the battalion had been completed.

On February 6th, it was moved to Rawitsch . An important elevation from Sarne-Sarnowko was recaptured. The battalion was transferred from the Rawitsch section to the Meseritz section , Major General Janke. Its subsection Züllichau was subordinate to Colonel Burchardi , commander of the fusilier regiment "General-Feldmarschall Graf Moltke" (Silesian) No. 38 . In this the battalion was deployed not far from Neudorf . It was Groitzig recaptured.

The OHL issued an order on February 17th that all offensive movements were to be stopped immediately. The battalion was thereupon as the main reserve of the General Command of VI. Army corps relocated to Glogau. Here it was used against the Spartacus uprising .

Recruit depots were set up in Froebel , later also in Schlichtingsheim and Zirkau . At the beginning of March the battalion moved into Herrndorf. There were growing plans for the voluntary Hannoversche Jäger Battalion to be subordinate to the Reichswehr Brigade 27 in Frankfurt (Oder) and to be named Reichswehr Jäger Battalion 27.

The Reichswehr-Jäger-Battalion Kirchheim now wore the edelweiss, which was worn on the cap during the war, as a common symbol of the battalion on a green plate as a collar badge.

When the state of war with the Poles came into force again at 9 p.m. on June 23, the battalion wanted to advance east again. However, this was not the case as the National Assembly decided to sign the Versailles Peace Treaty . On June 26th the order arrived to load the battalion. Until July 9th it was law enforcement officers in Küstrin and was then subordinated to General Command X and transported to Celle. It stayed here until July 28th. Kirchheim handed over his battalion, to whose staff he was henceforth, on August 2nd to Major Pflugradt.

Reichswehr

From October 1st, 1920, the IVth Battalion of Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 13, which had once emerged from Wesel Infantry Regiments 56 and 57, was to be merged into the Jäger Battalion. This had as III. (Jäger) Battalion of the 17th Infantry Regiment to be formed from the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 20, its place in the new Reichswehr, which has existed since January 1, 1921 . Kirchheim was company commander again .

He was promoted to major on April 1, 1923. One month later he was appointed adjutant of the 1st Cavalry Division in Frankfurt (Oder), where he was employed on the staff. He was appointed battalion commander in the 7th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment on May 15, 1926. Here he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on November 1, 1928 . He was appointed commandant of Glatz on February 1, 1930. As such, he became a colonel on April 11, 1931 and retired from active service on March 31, 1932.

National Socialism

Two years later he was reactivated and on October 1, 1934, he was appointed military district commander of the training battalion of the Arnsberg Infantry Regiment . On November 15, 1934 he was appointed military district leader of Cologne , and on June 1, 1938 of Vienna .

Kirchheim received on 27 August 1939 the so-called Tannenbergtag , the character as Major General awarded.

Second World War

During the Second World War, Kirchheim was appointed commander of Infantry Regiment 276 ( 94th Infantry Division ) on October 1, 1939, and of the 169th Infantry Division from December 1, 1939 . On July 1, 1940, he received the patent for his rank.

Kircheim was appointed on March 1, 1941 Head of the Special Unit Libya and with the leadership of the Italian Division "Brescia" in North Africa commissioned. Neither Kirchheim nor his staff had military experience in the theater of war there, but Erwin Rommel chose him to strengthen his understaffed field formations. For his work in the siege of Tobruk , he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on May 14, 1941 .

From June 15, 1941, Kirchheim was the leader of the Special Tropen Staff at the OKH in Berlin . He was appointed lieutenant general on July 1, 1942.

After the loss of Africa, the staff was dissolved in 1943 and Kirchheim was appointed head of the special staff C in the OKH. This was responsible for control tasks in the training of the replacement army . From August 2, 1944, he was a deputy member of the Army Court of Honor , which was supposed to expel the July 20 conspirators from the Wehrmacht.

From October 15, 1944, Kirchheim was inspector of the Berlin Military Replacement Inspection. After he was transferred to the Führerreserve on April 1, 1945, he was taken prisoner of war on April 12 . On May 4th, he came to Camp 11 in Trent Park and was later transferred to Island Farm Special Camp 11 . On September 30, 1947, he was released into the American sector .

Awards

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (Ed.): The Generals of the Army 1921–1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 6: Hochbaum – Klutmann. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2002, ISBN 3-7648-2582-0 , pp. 469-470.
  • Hanns Möller : History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volume I: A-L. Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935, pp. 571-572.
  • Fritz Jung: The Goslar hunters in the world wars. Lax, Hildesheim 1933.
Volume I: The Hannoversche Jäger Battalion No. 10. With appendix: The Voluntary Hannoversche Jäger Battalion.
Volume II: The Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 10 and its cycling companies.
III. Volume: The Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 23. With appendix: The Association of Former Goslar Jäger.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1924, p. 135
personal data
SURNAME Kirchheim, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lieutenant General in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Big salts
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1973
Place of death Ludenscheid