Heinz Trettner

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heinrich Trettner as Colonel i. G. of the Luftwaffe (around 1941/1942)

Heinrich "Heinz" Trettner (born September 19, 1907 in Minden ; † September 18, 2006 in Mönchengladbach - Rheydt ) was a German officer , with the rank of general , and from 1964 to 1966 inspector general of the Bundeswehr .

Life until 1945

Heinz Trettner was born as the son of the Prussian officer Ludwig Trettner, who shot the Kaiserpreis in 1902 and 1904 with his company of the infantry regiment "Prince Friedrich of the Netherlands" (2nd Westphalian) No. 15 . He passed his Abitur in 1925 at the humanistic Hohenzollern-Gymnasium in Düsseldorf, today Görres-Gymnasium .

Heinz Trettner then joined the 18th cavalry regiment in Stuttgart-Cannstatt as a flag junior , completed his officer training and was appointed lieutenant in 1929 .

On September 30, 1932, Trettner resigned de jure from the Reichswehr in order to complete his pilot training as a civilian at the Braunschweig Aviation School, in compliance with the prohibitions of the Versailles Treaty. Under a secret agreement with the Soviet Union, he was temporarily also at the secret flying school and testing facility of the army in Lipetsk in the Soviet Union for pilots trained. On May 1, 1933, he joined the secret air force of the Reichswehr. On June 1, 1933, he was reactivated and promoted to first lieutenant. For further training, Trettner was assigned to the Berlin Aviation Radio School, Lufthansa and the Italian Air Force. From October 1, 1933, Trettner was employed in the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) in Berlin to inspect schools. On May 1, 1934, he was appointed adjutant at the Kitzingen Aviation School. After his promotion to captain on June 1, 1935, he became an adjutant at the Magdeburg Aviation School on August 1, 1935. On April 1, 1936, he was transferred as an adjutant to the staff of the Senior Aviation Commander II in Dresden, and on October 5, 1936, he was assigned to the Air War School II in Berlin. On November 22, 1936, he was transferred to the staff of the Condor Legion as adjutant and 2nd general staff officer and took part in the Spanish Civil War. From September 15, 1937, he took over the 1st squadron of the K / 88 (bomber) of the Condor Legion as squadron captain . On January 14, 1938, he was sent to the Air War Academy in Berlin-Gatow for general staff training.

On July 1, 1938, he took over the post of 1st General Staff Officer in the staff of the 7th Air Division . This association was set up under Lieutenant General Kurt Student to form a closed paratrooper unit.

On August 1, 1939, he was promoted to major

Second World War

During the Second World War , as Chief of Staff, he planned the deployment of paratroopers in 1940 to conquer "Fortress Holland" and received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross .

On December 15, 1940, he took over the task of 1st General Staff Officer in the XI. Fliegerkorps and was thus significantly involved in the planning of the Merkur company , the airborne battle for Crete, which the corps was responsible for carrying out.

On October 1, 1941, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and on December 1, 1941, Chief of Staff of the XI. Air Corps appointed. There he was promoted to colonel on March 1, 1943.

From October 4, 1943, he took over the formation of the 4th Paratrooper Division , whose first commander he was from January 1, 1944. After the Allied landing in Italy, the division was deployed there and operated in central and northern Italy until 1944.

On July 1, 1944, he was promoted to major general and on September 17, 1944, after the battles for Rome, he was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . He continued to lead the paratrooper division as division commander and was promoted to lieutenant general on April 1, 1945. In May 1945, after the surrender, he was taken prisoner by the Americans near Modena. On July 25, 1946, he was transferred to English captivity in Bridgend, where he remained until his release in April 1948.

After 1945

After his release from captivity in 1948, the devout Catholic initially worked for the Diocesan Caritas Association. From May 1949 he completed a commercial apprenticeship at the company "Vaupel Sohn", a glass wholesaler in Düsseldorf. Then Trettner worked as a textile salesman and later as an independent textile merchant. From November 10, 1951 to December 31, 1956, he was employed as a consultant at the Association of German Soldiers (VdS) founded by Amt Blank in the Bonn headquarters, from May 1, 1956 until he joined the Bundeswehr on November 2 1956 worked as an expert advisor at VdS.

On September 10, 1950, Trettner made himself available in writing for possible re-use as a soldier in the then planned European Defense Community (EVG). In a letter dated November 27, 1952, it was offered the prospect of reuse if an EVG contract was ratified.

In the summer of 1953 Trettner began studying economics and law at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn , which he completed on November 13, 1956 - shortly after he had been reintegrated into the German Armed Forces - with an economics degree.

During the establishment of the Bundeswehr in 1956, Trettner was asked to present himself to the personnel appraisal committee like any interested officer (from the colonel up). In addition to positive references, the committee only received a negative assessment from a witness dated September 20, 1954. His statement Trettner had shown no understanding of the "devastating consequences of the Nazi regime" was resolutely contradicted in a personal letter from Colonel Scupin to the then head of the personnel department of the Defense Ministry on April 10, 1956. Literally it says u. a. therein: "Trettner was never a Nazi in his life, we were often worried about him when he made his frank statements and he was often warned". As a committed opponent of the Nazi regime, Trettner was also characterized by his Ic of his division in Italy.

He could as a major general in the army to enter and was until 1959 head of logistics at European NATO - Headquarters ( SHAPE ) in Rocquencourt in Paris . In February 1960 he became the third commanding general of the 1st Corps of the Bundeswehr (his adjutant was Johannes Poeppel , among others ) and was promoted to lieutenant general on October 14, 1960. On January 1, 1964, he was promoted to general.

After it became known that Trettner was to be the inspector general, a member of the Bundestag at the time received the records of the historian Hans-Adolf Jacobsen , at that time director of the research institute of the German Society for Foreign Policy from July 12, 1963, about a discussion on the occasion of a lecture in Münster on April 6, 1962. Jacobsen claimed that Trettner et al. a. expressed: "Hitler was one of the very few who correctly assessed the danger of Bolshevism and acted accordingly." Anyone who advocates something like this is not acceptable as one of the highest superiors for the Bundeswehr. According to Trettner's response, there were no concerns about his appointment as General Inspector on January 1, 1964.

In February 1964, the GDR put together a "white book" that provided information on alleged "war crimes committed by the General Inspector of the Bundeswehr, General Heinz Trettner". This white paper was written on March 5, 1964 by the management staff (FüB) u. a. forwarded to department head P. In it, the Bundeswehr headquarters announced a detailed statement, "which will be disseminated in the Federal Republic, in western foreign countries and in the Soviet zone". This counter-documentation "The Communist Defamation Campaign Against General Trettner" was published and distributed accordingly by the federal government on March 20, 1964.

In 1965 there were differences of opinion with his colleague Ernst Wirmer (Head of Department III Administrative Affairs ) and the then Defense Minister Kai-Uwe von Hassel due to organizational issues (including the top level of the ministry) . In August 1966 he asked for his departure in connection with the trade union decree because he considered "the elimination of the military leadership on this fundamental issue" to be intolerable. "On August 25, 1966, he was put into temporary retirement as requested. Major General Günther also showed solidarity Pape resigned and was succeeded by Ulrich de Maizière as Inspector General .

Trettner's name is linked to the concept of nuclear mines on the then inner-German border . This is a false report from December 16, 1964 in the FAZ, as recent research has shown. As early as 1960, Trettner had a negative basic attitude towards the use of tactical nuclear weapons (ADM), because he is convinced that such a use would exceed people's physical capacity and include their own destruction: "You can't duel with hand grenades in closed rooms". Trettner belonged like General Graf Kielmannsegg as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces Central Europe and de Maizière, then Inspector of the Army, to the group of officers critical of nuclear power. Thus, under Trettner, there was a change of perspective in the image of war, away from a nuclear strike to predominantly conventional warfare.

Trettner had been a member of the Association of German Soldiers since 1951. Since June 7, 1958 Trettner was an honorary member of the Catholic student union KDStV Hercynia Freiburg in the CV .

He published in 1969 a. a. also in the national conservative Deutschlandmagazin , where he represented the thesis against the citizen soldier provided with his own rights according to Baudissinian understanding. In contrast, he used the image of military leaders who are able to independently take responsibility for politically relevant actions.

As part of the debate about the first Wehrmacht exhibition , the Bonner General-Anzeiger published a letter to the editor from Trettner on March 11, 1997. In it he propagates the preventive war thesis : "It should be proven today that the war against the Soviet Union - contrary to what the re-education propaganda claims - was primarily an imposed preventive war that began with a heavy heart."

In 2005 Trettner signed the controversial appeal “Against forgetting” by the Institute for State Policy . This was directed against the cancellation of the name of the fighter pilot Werner Mölders and the handling of the Bundeswehr with tradition and soldiers' associations. So he demonstratively stayed away from the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Bundeswehr.

Trettner died the day before his 99th birthday. He was the last living general in the Wehrmacht.

Awards

Spanish Civil War

Second World War

After 1945

Works (selection)

  • Defense and security - the task of the Bundeswehr . Germany Magazine , 1, 1969.
  • Nuclear giants secure their power. Germany Magazine, 3, 1969.
  • The military security of the Federal Republic. Hochland , volume 2, Munich and Kempten 1969, pp. 133 + 134.
  • The Holy See and Disarmament. Notes on a Roman Document . International Catholic Journal Communio , Volume 7, No. 2, 1978, p. 151 ff.

literature

Web links

Commons : Heinz Trettner  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 288 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ^ Trettner personnel files, Federal Archives, Military Archives Department. In the following referred to as BArch
  3. ↑ BArch and Lexicon of the Wehrmacht
  4. ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV, Douglas G. Stankey: Air Force Officer Career Summaries, Section S-Z. (PDF) 2016, p. 595 , accessed on February 12, 2019 (English).
  5. ↑ Lexicon of the Wehrmacht
  6. ↑ a b Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 287 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  7. ↑ BArch
  8. ↑ Heinz Trettner “God can stand on both sides” in “Christians in War”, Catholic Military Bishop's Office , Pattloch Verlag 2001, pp. 261–264
  9. ↑ a b Clemens Range: Brave and energetic to the end . Article, Junge Freiheit 40/2006, p. 5.
  10. ↑ BArch
  11. ↑ BArch
  12. ↑ a b c d BONN / BUNDESWEHR: Be iron . In: Spiegel Online . tape 36 , August 29, 1966 ( spiegel.de [accessed May 2, 2019]).
  13. ↑ Stefanie Schüler-Springorum : War and Flies. The Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War . Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2010, p. 237.
  14. ↑ BArch
  15. ^ Fides Krause-Brewer “From Brahmsee to Shanghai. Encounters with people of stature ”. Knaus Verlag, 1987, p. 121
  16. ↑ Hans Booms: The Cabinet Protocols of the Federal Government: 1963 . Boldt, 1982, ISBN 3-486-57918-5 , pp. 468 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  17. ↑ BArch
  18. ↑ BArch
  19. ↑ Telegram to v. Hassel of August 24, 1966 in John Zimmermann "Ulrich de Maizière", p. 315, Oldenbourg 2012 and Ulrich de Maizière "In derpflicht", Mittler & Sohn, 1989, p. 278
  20. ↑ BONN / ARMY: Trettners Mines game . In: Der Spiegel . No. 1 , 1965 ( online ).
  21. ↑ Reiner Pommerin “General Trettner and the Atomic Mines” in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 39 (1991) 4th issue, pp. 637–654
  22. ↑ Pommerin s. o. p. 640 f and Florian Reichenberger “The thought war”, Center for Military History and Social Sciences, vol. 13, p. 297, de Gruyter 2018
  23. ↑ Reichenberger s. o., p. 427
  24. ^ Sheets for German and international politics . Paul-Rugenstein Verlag., 1969, p. 808 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  25. ↑ Trettner “Yorck and the personal responsibility of the military leadership today”, contribution to the “Cappenberg Conversation”, Vol. 2 Grote'sche Verlagbuchhandlung 1969 and “The political prerequisites for a military defense!
  26. ↑ Quoted from Walter Kolbow : Speech in the German Bundestag on March 13, 1997 on the Wehrmacht Exhibition, here p. 14724 (accessed on December 18, 2014). See also Hans-Erich Volkmann : The legend of preventive war , in: Die Zeit , June 13, 1997.
personal data
SURNAME Trettner, Heinz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Trettner, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lieutenant general
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Minden
DATE OF DEATH September 18, 2006
Place of death Mönchengladbach