Heinrich Remlinger (Colonel)

Heinrich Gottlob Remlinger (born September 27, 1913 in Ulm , † July 23, 1951 in Brjanka ) was a colonel in the German Wehrmacht .

Life

Heinrich Remlinger joined the Reichswehr in April 1932 . At the beginning of the Second World War he served as a first lieutenant in Cavalry Regiment 15 . At the end of 1942, as Rittmeister , he was in command of the 1st Battalion of the 4th Panzer Grenadier Regiment in the 6th Panzer Division . As commander of the 1st Battalion of the 4th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, he received the German Cross in Gold on March 21, 1943 .

He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on December 1, 1944 and to colonel on January 30, 1945.

Remlinger traveled to Schneidemühl on January 21, 1945 in the entourage of Himmler , commander of the Vistula Army Group . Himmler appointed Remlinger on January 27, 1945; with the recall of the senior officer on site, as commandant of the city of Schneidemühl, which has been declared a fortress and is already strongly contested. Remlinger had about 22,000 men available for defense. The German units consisted mainly of Volkssturm units and replacement troop units , and units were formed from displaced persons and vacationers. Some of the soldiers were only poorly trained. There were only a few heavy weapons in the city. The construction of field fortifications, which began in August 1944, was also not completed. On January 31, the Red Army succeeded in encircling Schneidemühl.

According to Himmler's assessment, Remlinger's advantage over the “defeatist” general staff officers was his “ruthless energy”. In accordance with Himmler's instructions, the fortress commander Remlinger concentrated in a rigid defensive position on the unconditional holding of the Schneidemühl fortress. Himmler demonstratively proposed him at the end of January 1945 to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and to be promoted to colonel. The reason given was that Remlinger had retreated soldiers "shot them down with a gun" and had put a sign "This is how it is all cowards" on them. Both proposals were approved on January 30, 1945.

Remlinger wanted to escape from the pocket around Schneidemühl by breaking out on the evening of February 13, 1945. A request for the encircled troops to break out from Remlinger was previously rejected by Himmler. Nevertheless, Remlinger ordered the breakout at his own risk. With around 15,000 soldiers still operational, an attempt was made to break out with several columns. The outbreak turned into a disaster , as the outbreak lay without heavy weapons in front of positions of Soviet and Polish troops. Many German soldiers were killed and most were captured. Only a few Germans reached the German lines. Together with his chief of staff, Major Karl-Günther von Hase , Remlinger was also taken prisoner by the Soviets.

Remlinger died in 1951 in a prison camp in Brjanka.

Others

His father was Major General Heinrich Remlinger , who was executed in 1946 for war crimes against the Soviet population .

Awards (selection)

Tank destruction badge

literature

Peter Longerich : Heinrich Himmler. Biography. Siedler, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-859-5 (on Himmler's service as Commander-in-Chief of the Vistula Army Group, pp. 736-739)
Friedrich Kellner: "All brains are fogged, darkened": Diaries 1939–1945 , Wallstein, Göttingen 2011, p. 920 ISBN 978-3-8353-2123-6 google online propaganda report on the award
Friedrich-Wilhelm von Hase: Hitler's revenge: the Stauffenberg assassination attempt and its consequences for the families of the conspirators , Hänssler 2017 ISBN 978-3-7751-5537-3 google online
Karl Boese: History of the city of Schneidemühl. 2nd Edition. Holzner, Würzburg 1965

Single receipts

↑ Wolfgang Keilig (Ed.): Ranking list of the German army 1944/1945. Seniority lists T. u. S. d. Generals u. Staff officers d. Army from May 1, 1944 with officially verifiable nights until the end of the war and Staffing d. higher command authorities u. Divisions d. German Army on June 10, 1944 . Podzun-Pallas, Friedberg 1979, ISBN 3-7909-0113-X , p. 160
↑ Helmut Lindenblatt: Pomerania 1945: one of the last chapters in the history of the fall of the Third Reich . G. Rautenberg, 1984, ISBN 978-3-7921-0286-2 , pp. 33 ( google.de [accessed March 30, 2019]).
^ Karl Boese: History of the city of Schneidemühl. 2nd Edition. Holzner, Würzburg 1965, pp. 203ff
^ Peter Longerich: Heinrich Himmler. Biography . Siedler, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-859-5 , p. 738 f . This is proven by a telex from Himmler to Fegelein , and Hitler reacted immediately.
^ Karl Boese: History of the city of Schneidemühl. 2nd Edition. Holzner, Würzburg 1965, p. 206ff

personal data
SURNAME	Remlinger, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Remlinger, Heinrich Gottlob (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German colonel in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH	September 27, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ulm
DATE OF DEATH	July 23, 1951
Place of death	Bryanka

[1] Wolfgang Keilig (Ed.): Ranking list of the German army 1944/1945. Seniority lists T. u. S. d. Generals u. Staff officers d. Army from May 1, 1944 with officially verifiable nights until the end of the war and Staffing d. higher command authorities u. Divisions d. German Army on June 10, 1944 . Podzun-Pallas, Friedberg 1979, ISBN 3-7909-0113-X , p. 160

[2] Helmut Lindenblatt: Pomerania 1945: one of the last chapters in the history of the fall of the Third Reich . G. Rautenberg, 1984, ISBN 978-3-7921-0286-2 , pp. 33 ( google.de [accessed March 30, 2019]).

[3] Karl Boese: History of the city of Schneidemühl. 2nd Edition. Holzner, Würzburg 1965, pp. 203ff

[4] Peter Longerich: Heinrich Himmler. Biography . Siedler, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-859-5 , p. 738 f . This is proven by a telex from Himmler to Fegelein , and Hitler reacted immediately.

[5] Karl Boese: History of the city of Schneidemühl. 2nd Edition. Holzner, Würzburg 1965, p. 206ff