Heinz Karst

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heinrich "Heinz" Karst (born December 1, 1914 in Aachen ; † January 13, 2002 on the island of Reichenau ) was a German officer , most recently a brigadier general in the Bundeswehr .

Career

Origin and military service

After graduating from the Realgymnasium Bielefeld and Reich Labor Service , Karst studied German, French and English as well as history and philosophy at the Universities of Cologne and Würzburg . In 1936 he was drafted into the MG-Bataillon (mot) 6 in Coburg . He liked it there so much that he trained as a reserve officer and took up active duty in 1938. He was promoted to lieutenant on April 1, 1939.

He experienced the beginning of the Second World War as a platoon leader in Poland , where he was seriously wounded. After convalescence, Karst was a company commander in the 3rd / Motorcyclist Battalion 10 and trained here as a reconnaissance aircraft. As an orderly officer of the 10th Infantry Division in the Soviet Union , he received the Iron Cross 1st Class. Most recently he was the commander of Panzer Reconnaissance Division 120 on the Eastern Front.

In the meantime, he gained educational and training experience as head of inspection in the training and teaching department for tank grenadiers in Weimar, as commander of the tank reconnaissance courses for trainers of the reserve army in Luschtieniz and finally as commander of the army non-commissioned officer school for tank reconnaissance in Sondershausen. At the end of the war, Karst was a captain and fell into American captivity .

Federal Republic of Germany

He passed the English interpreting exam and earned a living for the family as a private teacher, as a German teacher for British officers, as an interpreter and translator and, from 1947, as a lecturer at the school for booksellers and publishers in Cologne.

At the beginning of the 1950s, Karst was employed in the Blank Office as an assistant in Section IV B 2, responsible for internal management , and became the deputy head of the division Wolf Graf Baudissin .

On November 1, 1955, Heinz Karst was taken on as one of the first soldiers in the Bundeswehr as a major in Division IV B 2. On March 1, 1957, he went to the School for Inner Leadership in Koblenz, first as a subject teacher, then as a teaching group commander. From February 1, 1958 to April 30, 1959, Karst led the 11th Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion in Munster, then he became Head of Education (Fü BI 4) in the Federal Ministry of Defense and commanded the 32nd Panzer Grenadier Brigade from 1963 to 1967 .

Karst was considered to be an exponent of a traditionalist group in the Bundeswehr leadership that was still strong at the time and was skeptical or even strictly negative about the model of Inner Leadership (“Citizens in Uniform”) advocated by Baudissin : Instead of democratization, it relied on traditional concepts of command, obedience and education Willingness to die, forbade any criticism of the Wehrmacht and did not want trade union work behind barracks walls . Karst expressed his ideas of the soldier's profession in the programmatic publication “The Soldier's Image” from 1964. He is presumed to be the author of the so-called Schnez study , which is based on the right-wing and which met with fierce public resistance after it became known in 1969/70.

Most recently, Karst was employed in the rank of brigadier general as general of education and training in the army , assigned to the troop office in Cologne. On October 1, 1970, at his own request, after differences with the political leadership of the Defense Ministry under Minister Helmut Schmidt, he was put into temporary retirement.

Heinz Karst was a recipient of the Great Federal Cross of Merit . Heinz Karst was an officer with a wide range of training, at a time when studies were not yet part of the regular training course for Bundeswehr officers.

After his service, he was chairman of the Germany Foundation from 1973 to 1977 . In 1993, he was also one of the initiators of the Hans Filbinger Foundation, which was supposed to promote the new right Study Center in Weikersheim .

Position on the Afghanistan deployment of the Bundeswehr

Shortly before his death, Karst took a position on the Bundeswehr's engagement in Afghanistan in an interview . The general a. D. declared that he was against German soldiers being sent on an adventure in Afghanistan or the Middle East. That is why he must stand up against Chancellor Schröder if he expects unconditional allegiance for the "provision" of German soldiers to Afghanistan. Finally, there is the oath of service of the German soldiers, in which they vow to valiantly defend the rights and freedom of the German people.

Whether one bravely defends the law and freedom of the German people in the hunt for bin Laden or the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan is a question that the German government has not yet answered. Does Chancellor Schröder know what that can mean when he speaks of 'unlimited solidarity'? Has he wondered what that could mean when it really becomes a long war? (...) With astonishment, said General Karst, he viewed the American warfare in Afghanistan. The Russians have shown that they could not break the resistance of the Afghans - despite the huge army they deployed there and which, militarily speaking, did not do badly. Now volunteers from Pakistan want to fight the Americans. There is a growing belief in the Islamic world that the Americans cannot make it in Afghanistan. At the same time, anti-Americanism is increasing and popularity is growing.

If, in view of this situation, the US forces the Bundeswehr to be requested, it would be irresponsible for the federal government to give in to this request. Not only because of the questionable nature of the causal chain that led to this requirement (...). It is irresponsible that this requirement is granted at a time when the Bundeswehr is in the process of being restructured. In other, sharper words: The Bundeswehr is in one of the worst crises in its history. In a situation where it is being rebuilt and scaled down, parts of it are meant to be pushed into a war for which we are not prepared. Most red-green politicians have precious little idea about military matters .

Fonts (selection)

  • with Bruno Mohr: Unterführer lesson. A primer for all subordinates of the Bundeswehr and those who want to become one, edited on the basis of the applicable regulations . Open Words Verlag, Bonn 1958.
  • with Karl Helmut Schnell, Hansdieter Seidel: Pocket book for military training . 27th edition, Walhalla, Regensburg a. a. 1968.
  • The image of the soldier. Attempt at an outline . 3rd edition, Boldt, Boppard, 1969.
  • ed. with Hans Filbinger : Identity and Future of the Germans. Klaus Hornung on his 65th birthday (= European Forum , Volume 8). Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1992, ISBN 3-631-44939-9 .
  • The Bundeswehr in crisis. Alternating leadership structures, changing tasks, outdated technology, demotivation of volunteers, controversial military service, public discrediting . Universitas, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-8004-1350-7 .

literature

  • Walter Habel (Ed.): Who is who? The German Who's Who . 43rd edition 2004/2005, Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 2004, ISBN 978-3-7950-2038-5 , p. 894.
  • Klaus Hornung (Ed.): Heinz Karst: In the service of the fatherland. Contributions from four decades in honor of the author . Busse Seewald, Herford u. a. 1994, ISBN 3-512-03137-4 .

Obituaries:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Der Panzerspähtrupp, newsletter of the Freundeskreis Panzeraufklärer, No. 32, July 2002, p. 4.
  2. ↑ Martin Kutz: German soldiers. A history of culture and mentality. Darmstadt 2006, p. 206/07.
  3. ↑ Der Panzerspähtrupp, newsletter of the Freundeskreis Panzeraufklärer, No. 32, July 2002, p. 4.
  4. ↑ Ludwig Elm , Liebe zu Deutschland , Jungle World, No. 20, May 16, 2007.
  5. ^ From New Solidarity No. 46/2001, A conversation with General Karst.
personal data
SURNAME Karst, Heinz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Karst, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently Brigadier General of the Bundeswehr
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 2002
Place of death Reichenau Island