Heinz Gaedcke

Ludwig Heinrich "Heinz" Gaedcke (born January 16, 1905 in Guben ; † December 21, 1992 in Waldesch ) was a German officer. He last served as a major general in the army of the Wehrmacht and later as a lieutenant general in the Bundeswehr .

Origin and family

Gaedcke was born the son of a lawyer and notary and his wife in Guben in the Prussian province of Brandenburg . His stepfather, Gaedcke's class teacher, was a Protestant pastor and holds a PhD in philology. He first attended a humanistic grammar school in Guben and passed his Abitur in 1924 at the state grammar school (former Latin school) in Luckau .

He was married and the father of four children (1 stepdaughter).

Career

Reichswehr

Promotions

• 1925 flag boy
• 1926 ensign
• 1927 lieutenant
• 1930 first lieutenant

On August 1, 1925 he joined as a cadet in the training battalion of the 8th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment of the Reichswehr in Luebben (Spreewald) a. Later he was transferred to the field battalion in Frankfurt / Oder. He attended the infantry school of the Reichswehr in Ohrdruf, Thuringia, which at the time was housed at the military training area there, and later in Dresden. In 1926 he was promoted to ensign .

After the lieutenant (later first lieutenant) promotion he went through the following stations: 1927/28 he was a recruit officer in Lübben, from 1928 to 1933 platoon leader , 1933/34 orderly officer and 1934/35 battalion adjutant in Frankfurt / Oder.

Wehrmacht

Promotions

• 1935 captain
• 1940 major
• 1942 Lieutenant Colonel
• 1943 Colonel
• 1944 major general

From 1935 to 1937 he completed the general staff course at the War Academy in Berlin. It followed u. a. a job as a clerk in the operations department in the Army General Staff .

From June 1940 to January 1943 he was first general staff officer (Ia) of the 25th Infantry Division (motorized from November 1940). In February he was first transferred to the Führerreserve in the High Command of the Army (OKH) and from March to October he gave tactics lessons as a lecture hall director at the War Academy. In October / November he kept the business of the chief of staff at the XXIV. Panzer Corps and from December 1943 to February 1944 of the XI. Army corps with which he was also included in the Cherkassy pocket .

From February to July 1944 he was transferred to the Führerreserve . From July 1944 he represented the Chief of the General Staff of the 4th Army , which at the time had been led by General der Infanterie Friedrich Hoßbach , and in August 1944 he became Chief of the General Staff of the 6th Army . During this deployment, Gaedcke was among the officers who, together with the Commander in Chief General of the Artillery Maximilian Fretter-Pico, managed to break out of the pocket after the army was broken up by Soviet forces.

In May 1945 he was taken prisoner by the Americans , from which he was released in November 1947.

post war period

From 1948 to 1956 he was purchasing manager at Bürkle in Stuttgart and at Bahlsen in Hanover.

armed forces

Promotions

• 1956 Brigadier General
• 1958 Major General
• 1961 Lieutenant General

In 1956 he completed a fitness exercise and finally joined the newly established army of the German Armed Forces . After he headed the Army Officer School I (HOS I) in Hanover with the rank of Brigadier General , he was commander of the Bundeswehr Leadership Academy (FüAkBw) in Hamburg from August 1, 1957 to September 30, 1959 . Until December 31, 1960, Gaedcke was in command of the 11th Panzer Grenadier Division in Oldenburg. From January 1, 1961 to March 31, 1965 he was in his last military assignment Commanding General of the III. Corps in Koblenz. After that, the lieutenant general retired.

Awards

1933-1945

• Iron Cross

• 1940: 2nd class
• 1940: 1st class
• 1944: Knight's Cross

• 1942: German cross in gold
• 1943: Order of the Crown of Romania III. class
• 1944: Hungarian Order of Merit (Commander's Cross with swords on war ribbon)

after 1945

• 1965: Large Federal Cross of Merit with a star
• 1965: Legion of Merit

Fonts (selection)

• Gerhard Brugmann (ed.): Paths of a soldier - Heinz Gaedcke . Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2005, ISBN 3-8334-2624-1 . (Autobiography 1911-1947)

literature

• Dermot Bradley , Karl Friedrich Hildebrand, Markus Brockmann: The Generals of the Army 1921-1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials in the general rank (= Germany's generals and admirals . Part 4). Volume 4: Fleck - Gyldenfeldt . Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1996, ISBN 3-7648-2488-3 , 164-165.
• Dermot Bradley, Heinz-Peter Würzenthal, Hansgeorg Model (eds.): The Generals and Admirals of the Bundeswehr (1955-1999). The military careers (= Germany's generals and admirals . Part 6b). Volume 2, 1: Gaedcke - Hoff . Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 2000, ISBN 3-7648-2562-6 , 3–5.

Web links

• Literature by and about Heinz Gaedcke in the catalog of the German National Library
• Heinz Gaedcke , in Internationales Biographisches Archiv 16/1966 of April 11, 1966, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ludwig Heinz Gaedcke , Der Spiegel 39/1962, September 26, 1962.
2. ↑ Heinz Gaedcke in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
3. ^ Overtaken and encircled , AG Friedensforschung .
4. ↑ Historical calendar of the city of Guben ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Niederlausitzer Verlag.  
5. ^ The Bundeswehr 1955 to 2005: Flashbacks, Insights, Perspectives , Military History Research Office .
6. ↑ Former commanders of the command academy , command academy of the Bundeswehr.
7. ↑ 11th Panzer Grenadier Division BH 8-11 1958-1994. Federal Archives , accessed on August 8, 2020 . .  
8. ↑ III. Corps BH 7-3 1957-1992. Federal Archives, accessed on August 8, 2020 . .