Heinz Scharff

Heinz Scharff (born December 17, 1920 in Leoben ; † November 24, 2014 in Vienna ) was an Austrian general and the fifth general inspector of the armed forces in the Second Republic .

Life

After attending the lower level of the Realgymnasium in Graz , he entered the military secondary school in Graz-Liebenau in 1935 to become an Austrian officer. Since March 1938, the occupation of Austria was done, he was immediately after graduation in March 1939 to the German Reich Labor Service and in the fall for Wehrmacht convened. As a flag boy of the infantry , he suffered a serious wound in the French campaign. After a six-month stay in hospital, he completed officer training at the Potsdam War School in the spring of 1941 and became a lieutenant . He took part in the war against the Soviet Union as an infantry front officer from platoon leader to company commander and was wounded three times. Promoted to first lieutenant in February 1943 , he acquired the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in August of this year near Vetitnevo (approx. 120 km east of Smolensk ) as a 22-year-old in Grenadier Regiment 109 of the 35th Infantry Division - at his lower rank at the time nothing common. Most recently as captain on the staff of the 35th Infantry Division operates, he got 1,945 eastward Gdansk in Soviet captivity . It lasted eight years.

After his return home, he soon put himself in the service of the B gendarmerie . Now it was the Austrian uniform that he wore and here it was also where he could devote himself to training young Austrians to become officers. Because from May 1954 he served in the Gendarmerie Department K in Enns , the forerunner of the Theresian Military Academy . After their re-establishment, he became their first chief of staff on January 1, 1957 . Promoted to captain of the general staff after completing the 1st general staff course , he served at the armored troop school as chief of staff and also as commander of the armored infantry school battalion in Großmittel . On October 1, 1960, he was appointed to the training department of the Federal Ministry for National Defense , where he - among other things - was responsible for founding the training magazine Truppendienst .

From March 11, 1963 to January 19, 1966 he was the deputy head of the operations department . On January 20, 1966, he was promoted to head of the General Staff Department and Colonel of the General Staff. He was the closest advisor to the General Troop Inspector, General of the Infantry Erwin Fussenegger . In this position he was also responsible for the Austrian UN - quotas , and in the construction, expansion and consolidation, he had a decisive role. At that time, the first dispatch of observer officers to UNTSO ( United Nations Truce Supervision Organization ) on the Suez Canal (1967), the first deployment of an Austrian battalion to Cyprus (1972) and, above all, the transfer of parts of the Cyprus battalion to UNEF ( United Nations Emergency Force ) to the Suez Canal, which finally led to the formation of two UN battalions (1973), one of which was at UNFICYP ( United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus ) in the Larnaka section and one from 1974 at UNDOF ( United Nations Disengagement Observer Force ) on the Golan Heights was used. In 1970 he was promoted to brigadier and also served under Fussenegger's successors, General of the Artillery Otto Seitz and General of the Infantry Anton Leeb . On December 1, 1976, Minister Karl Lütgendorf made him his head of cabinet. After the departure of this minister, he was also taken over by the next head of department, Federal Minister Otto Rösch .

After the retirement of General of the Infantry Hubert Wingelbauer , he was appointed fifth General Troop Inspector of the Second Federal Army on January 1, 1981 with simultaneous promotion to General. The second half of his term of office fell in the era of Federal Minister Friedhelm Frischenschlager . For Heinz Scharff, solid military planning continued to be in the foreground, which should enable the most sensible use of the meager resources that were granted to the army. He has set out many of his thoughts and goals in a series of essays published throughout his career.

In 1985 he retired.

Essays

• Scharff, Heinz, Hptm, education and training at the military academy, "Alma Mater Theresiana", yearbook 1957, ed. Kdo d. MilAk, Enns 1957, p. 41 f.
• Scharff, Heinz, Obst dG, The UN operations of the armed forces, troop service, issue 4/1969, p. 301 ff.
• Scharff, Heinz, Gen, 20 years of training magazine Truppendienst, Truppendienst, issue 3/1982, p. 225.
• Scharff, Heinz, Gen, comments on training in the armed forces, troop service, issue 2/1983, p. 115 ff.
• Scharff, Heinz, Gen, Das Bundesheer - a peacekeeping factor, issue 5/1983, p. 487 ff.
• Scharff, Heinz, Gen i. R., idea and creation of the training magazine Truppendienst, Truppendienst, issue 3/1987, p. 204 f.

literature

• Georg Possanner, “A loyal Schwarzseher”, in: “Die Presse”, 3./4. January 1981
• Karl Liko, retired General Heinz Scharff, on his 75th birthday, troop service, issue 6/1995, p. 511 ff.
• Stefan Bader, At the highest point, The Generals of the Federal Army of the Second Republic, Vienna 2004, p. 299 ff.