Heinrich von Prittwitz and Gaffron

The coat of arms of the von Prittwitz and Gaffron family

Heinrich Constantin von Prittwitz and Gaffron (born September 4, 1889 at Gut Sitzmannsdorf, Ohlau district ; † April 10, 1941 near Tobruk , Libya ) was a German lieutenant general and commander of the 15th Panzer Division in World War II .

family

He came from the old and widely branched Silesian noble family von Prittwitz and was the son of the German admiral à la suite Curt von Prittwitz and Gaffron , member of the Prussian manor house , and his first wife Luise, née von Schönberg .

Prittwitz married on December 2, 1915 in Berlin Renata von Zastrow (born January 14, 1894 on Gut Schadewalde, Lauban district ; † December 31, 1974 in Düsseldorf-Benrath ), the daughter of the state elder and landowner Erwin von Zastrow (1863-1915) , Gentleman of the Schadewalde and Hartmannsdorf estates, and the gourly of hair man (1816–1901). After the death of her husband, she married the second marriage on October 3, 1943 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf to the divorced landowner Joachim von Burgsdorff (* 1892), until 1945 he was the owner of the Hohenjesar, Treplin and Alt Zeschdorf estates, all in the Lebus district near Frankfurt (Oder) .

Military career

youth

When Prittwitz was born, his father was in the South Seas as the corvette captain and in command of the cruiser corvette Alexandrine . After his return, the family moved to Wilhelmshaven in 1890 . After his father was again transferred to Berlin in 1894 , he went to a private school there. In 1896 he went back to Wilhelmshaven, in 1898 to Danzig , where he attended grammar school, in 1901 to Kiel and in 1902 back to Wilhelmshaven. As early as 1903 the family returned to Kiel, where the father had been transferred again. Here his mother died when Prittwitz was just 14 years old and his father had just set out on the high seas for East Asia as head of the cruiser squadron stationed in East Asia with the flagship Fürst Bismarck . Prince Heinrich of Prussia had offered to have both children, but the siblings were taken care of by a younger maritime officer couple. The father did not return from China until 1905 . In 1907 Prittwitz graduated from high school.

Prittwitz had always wanted to become an officer, but the sea officer 's father advised him against, which is why Heinrich von Prittwitz decided to go with the cavalry and on August 19, 1908, joined the Uhlan regiment "Emperor Alexander II of Russia" (1st Brandenburg) No. 3 entered Fürstenwalde / Spree . On November 19, 1908 he was an ensign , and on Aug. 19, 1909 lieutenant . In order to be able to pursue language studies, he took a leave of absence to England, where he passed his interpreting exam.

First World War

After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Prittwitz moved with his Uhlan regiment to the eastern theater of war . He became a first lieutenant on January 27, 1915 and was a regimental adjutant . Because of his good language skills, he was transferred to the staff of Field Marshal Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz in the Orient on November 30, 1915 . While still in Berlin , Prittwitz married on December 2, 1915, but left for Constantinople after the wedding . From there he went to Iraq and Persia and took part in the operation from Baghdad to Kermanshah . On December 18, 1916 he was Rittmeister .

After returning from the Orient in March 1917, he was employed in Galicia as a company commander in the Leibregiment. From autumn 1917 to autumn 1918 he was in General Staff positions on the Western Front , most recently at the General Command of the VII Reserve Corps . In addition to both classes of the Iron Cross , Prittwitz received the Iron Crescent for his achievements .

Meanwhile

After the First World War he joined the border guard to secure the province of Poznan and Upper Silesia . In January 1920, he came as a squadron leader for the ninth Reiter Regiment of the Reichswehr in Fürstenwalde / Spree, which continued the tradition of his old 3rd Lancers. In 1928 he joined the regimental staff and was promoted to major on February 1, 1930 . On February 1, 1932, he was transferred to the staff of the 7th (Prussian) Cavalry Regiment in Breslau, where he became a lieutenant colonel on March 1, 1934 .

In 1935 the riders had to “dismount” and were “retrained” to use tanks : On October 1, 1935, Prittwitz was given command of Panzer Regiment 2 in Eisenach , where he was promoted to colonel on January 1, 1936 . Prittwitz was one of the first tank commanders to be one of the teachers of this troop during the reconstruction of the Wehrmacht . As a commander, Prittwitz was very popular and revered in Eisenach, which is why the tank barracks bore his name until the end of the war in 1945.

Second World War

On November 10, 1938, he was given command of Panzer Brigade 2 of the 2nd Panzer Division , which was moved to Vienna . These included Panzer Regiments 3 and 4. On August 21, 1939, Prittwitz and his brigade were deployed and attacked during the campaign against Poland over the Jablunka Pass in the direction of Cracow and Lemberg . The tanks covered up to 2,000 km, partly in the mountains, the last fighting was on September 24, 1939 in Lemberg and Tomaszów . For his bravery he was awarded the Iron Cross of both classes, was promoted to major general on October 1, 1939 , and received the tank combat badge .

His armored troops were transferred to Germany for repairs for seven weeks and then to the Western Front on December 1, 1939 . In France he broke through the Belgian border fortifications with his brigade as part of the Kleist tank group and forced the Meuse crossing at Sedan with other troops . His troops later took the city of Boulogne , took part in the enclosure of the Anglo-French army in the Battle of Dunkirk and took part in further battles in France in June 1940, with marching performances of more than 100 km per day. At the beginning of July the brigade was moved to Vienna for repairs.

On October 1, 1940 Prittwitz was appointed commander of the 14th Panzer Division , which was located at the Königsbrück and Milowitz military training areas near Prague . On March 22, 1941, in exchange with Major General Friedrich Kühn , he took over command of the 15th Panzer Division, which was immediately subordinated to the German Africa Corps under Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel and shipped to Libya.

On April 9, Prittwitz led an advance against the Tobruk fortress. To further explore the terrain and the enemy, he drove his car on April 10, 1941, beyond his own foremost positions towards Tobruk. Here his vehicle was hit by an English anti- tank missile and Prittwitz and his driver were fatally wounded. Prittwitz was buried in the military cemetery in the port city of Derna . General Italo Gariboldi , Governor General of Libya (March – July 1941) and commander of the Italian armed forces, presented the silver medal for bravery in the name of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy at the memorial service . Prittwitz was subsequently promoted to lieutenant general with effect from April 1 .

Prittwitz was a legal knight of the Order of St. John .

literature

• Genealogical manual of the nobility . Noble houses A Volume VI, p. 363, Volume 29 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1962, ISSN  0435-2408 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1929, p. 131.