Horst Hildebrandt

Horst Hildebrandt (born January 2, 1919 in Neustettin ; † May 16, 1989 in Rheinbach ) was a lieutenant general in the Army of the German Armed Forces and last served from 1973 to 1979 as inspector of the army .

Military career

After graduating from high school Hildebrandt joined in November 1937 as a cadet at the service of Infantry - Regiment 3 of 21 Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht in German-Eylau in East Prussia . From 1938 he attended the war school in Hanover . He then served as platoon leader , battalion adjutant , company commander , regimental adjutant , battalion and regiment commander in the 21st Infantry Division during World War II . After a short period of imprisonment, he worked from November 1946 as technical and organizational manager at “ Planten un Blomen ” (exhibition park) in Hamburg .

After founding the Bundeswehr in 1955, Hildebrandt was reactivated as a major a year later . In 1959 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and in 1963 to colonel . During this time Hildebrandt taught tactics at the Army Officer School I and the Army Officer School II and completed the first general staff course at the command academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg. This was followed by other assignments as assistant and advisor in the command staff of the Army (FüH) in the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn . Hildebrandt was then transferred to Marburg , where he assumed the post of Chief of Staff of the 2nd Panzer Grenadier Division .

He then served as a department head of the Bundeswehr study group and then took over the post of chief of staff of the III. Corps under the command of Lieutenant General Albert Schnez . From October 1, 1966 to March 31, 1968 Hildebrandt commanded the 8th Panzer Brigade in Lüneburg. On April 1, 1968 he was appointed brigadier general and transferred to Bonn, where he worked as sub-department head II in the command staff of the army.

On April 1, 1970 he took over again a troop command - with the appointment of major general - this time the 1st Panzer Division in Hanover. He handed this command over to Klaus Schubert on December 14, 1972 , as he was supposed to take over a NATO post. On January 1, 1973 Hildebrandt was appointed lieutenant general and took over command of the Allied Land Forces Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland in Rendsburg .

Ten months later, on October 1, 1973, he gave up this command again and took over the post of inspector of the army in Bonn from Ernst Ferber . Hildebrandt held this position until his retirement on March 31, 1979.

Controversy

In May 1975 Hildebrandt took part in a military parade in Madrid on the occasion of the 36th anniversary of the victory of the Franco fascists in the Spanish civil war. He wore decorations of the Wehrmacht . Despite criticism from politicians and trade unions , the incident ultimately had no personal consequences.

Honors

• 1973: Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1976: Great Cross of Merit of the FRG
• 1979: Great Cross of Merit with Star of the FRG

Web links

• Official biography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DIE ZEIT (archive): The grandstand became a faux pas . In: The time . June 6, 1975, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed October 25, 2019]).
2. ↑ PERSONNEL: Hans-Josef Kapellmann, Horst Hildebrandt, Villaescusa Quilis, Alfred Dregger, Alexander Soplschenizyn, Ludwig Kerscher, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Carl Bernstein, Robert Woodward . In: Spiegel Online . tape June 23 , 1975 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 25, 2019]).
3. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 25, No. 71, April 11, 1973.