Hermann Niehoff (General)

Hermann Niehoff (born April 3, 1897 in Papenburg , † November 5, 1980 in Riegsee ) was a German officer , most recently general of the infantry and fortress commander of Breslau during World War II .

Life

After completing his high school diploma , Niehoff joined the infantry regiment "Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig" (8th Westphalian) No. 57 on June 12, 1915 as a flag junior and came directly with his regiment to the western front . Here he was promoted to lieutenant on January 27, 1916 and ended the First World War as a company commander .

After the end of the war he was in the Freikorps Wesel and was then accepted into the Reichswehr . There he first served in the 17th Infantry Regiment , was promoted to first lieutenant on April 1, 1925 and then transferred to the 1st Battalion of the 16th Infantry Regiment in Bremen .

During the Second World War he was, among other things, commander of the Infantry / Grenadier Regiment 464 of the 253rd Infantry Division from 1940 to 1943 and of the 371st Infantry Division from April 1943 to the beginning of March 1945 . His troops were trapped in the Kamenez-Podolski pocket for several weeks in March 1944 . On March 7, 1945, he succeeded Major General von Ahlfen during the Battle of Breslau as commander of the "Fortress" Breslau. He was promoted to General of the Infantry on April 1st. On May 6, 1945 Niehoff surrendered and surrendered Breslau to the Red Army after leading representatives of the churches from Breslau had urged him to do so. Niehoff was sentenced to death by the Soviet judiciary for war crimes , but was subsequently pardoned to 25 years in prison. He returned to Germany from Soviet captivity at the end of 1955.

After the war, Niehoff worked in industry and wrote numerous articles on the fall of Wroclaw. In 1959, together with Hans von Ahlfen, he published the book So fought Breslau (Verlag Graefe und Unzer , 1959), which was a great commercial success and was followed by a second, expanded edition just a year later. He moved to Leichlingen an der Wupper and then to Riegsee in Bavaria.

reception

The right-wing National-Zeitung portrayed Niehoff in July 1999 in its series “Great German Soldiers - Immortal Heroes”. According to the National-Zeitung, Niehoff was an "adornment of the German soldiery"; he had already stood in the "Freikorps Wesel in death-defying struggle", was one of the "heroic defenders of Breslau" and had fended off "all attacks by the Bolsheviks". In the series, only soldiers loyal to the Nazi regime were honored, sometimes using the linguistic formulas of the Wehrmacht and Nazi propaganda. The political scientist Fabian Virchow classifies the series in “the imagination of the extreme right of the men who are oriented towards the deed and who shape the course of events / history in the interest of the 'national' or ' folkish ' collective”. The characterizations referred “at the same time to a conceptualization of masculinity , the profile of which - very unified - would be marked by characteristics such as 'hardness', 'willingness to sacrifice', 'courage to death', 'bravery', 'tenacity', 'cutting' or 'standing qualities' ".

Awards

Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st class
Hanseatic Cross Hamburg
Clasp for the Iron Cross, 2nd and 1st class
Honorary sheet of the army on September 29, 1941
German cross in gold on January 6, 1942
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with oak leaves
- Knight's Cross on June 15, 1944
- Oak leaves on March 5, 1945 ( 764th award )

literature

Wolfgang Keilig: The Generals of the Army 1939–1945 . Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg 1983, ISBN 3-7909-0202-0 , p. 242.

Individual evidence

↑ National-Zeitung 29/1999 (July 16, 1999), p. 10. Quoted in: Fabian Virchow: Against civilism. International relations and the military in the political conceptions of the extreme right. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 978-3-531-15007-9 , p. 396.
↑ Virchow, civilism . P. 347.
↑ Virchow, civilism . P. 394.
↑ ^a ^b Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Berlin 1930, p. 45
↑ ^a ^b ^c Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 569.

personal data
SURNAME	Niehoff, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German officer, most recently General of the Infantry in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH	April 3, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH	Papenburg
DATE OF DEATH	5th November 1980
Place of death	Riegsee

[1] National-Zeitung 29/1999 (July 16, 1999), p. 10. Quoted in: Fabian Virchow: Against civilism. International relations and the military in the political conceptions of the extreme right. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 978-3-531-15007-9 , p. 396.

[2] Virchow, civilism . P. 347.

[3] Virchow, civilism . P. 394.

[Rangliste-4] Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Berlin 1930, p. 45

[Scherzer-5] Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 569.