Hubert Wingelbauer

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Hubert Wingelbauer (born March 25, 1915 in Vienna ; † December 9, 1987 ibid) was an Austrian infantry general and the fourth general troop inspector of the Federal Army in the Second Republic.

Life

Hubert Wingelbauer, the son of a high school professor, joined the army of the First Republic as a volunteer after passing his Matura with distinction . From 1934 to 1937 he graduated from the Theresian Military Academy . On April 1, 1937 , he was retired as a lieutenant in the truck battalion No. 1 in Neusiedl am See , and after the annexation of Austria in March 1938, he was transferred to the Wehrmacht . Soon afterwards - like most of the young officers - he was transferred to Germany for "retraining" and served with the 12th Rifle Regiment in Meiningen . The officer, who had meanwhile been promoted to first lieutenant and appointed company commander , was suddenly dismissed from military service in April 1939. It did not meet the racist requirements of the “ Nuremberg Laws ”. After returning home, Wingelbauer joined the “Austrian freedom movement”, but was arrested by the Gestapo in the fall of 1940 along with around a hundred like-minded people . 31 months in prisons and camps followed. In April 1943 he was released and placed under police surveillance, recently arrested in November 1944 and the " People's Court " to two years in prison convicted. In April 1945, he managed to escape from a labor camp for political convicts who had to work on the construction of the “Südostwall” in Styria.

As early as May he reported to the State Chancellery-Army Office of the newly established republic for duty. Since the Allies did not tolerate this institution, he had to transfer to the civil service. Soon, however, he was able to take part in building up the preliminary stage of the current federal army , the " B-Gendarmerie ". As a gendarmerie major in 1954, he became the “right hand” of the court counselor - and later general - Emil Liebitzky , with whom he was able to lay the foundations for the later expansion of the army. After the establishment of complete independence of Austria in 1955, the transfer to the new armed forces took place. The officer, promoted to lieutenant colonel on January 1, 1957 , was sent to the "Ecole Supérieure de Guerre" in Paris in September of that year for general staff training . After studying for two years in France, he worked as Chief of Staff of the 2nd Brigade in Vienna. In 1960 he became head of the Central Department of the General Troop Inspector. General Fussenegger , who held this position at the time, was by no means unreservedly meeting the "man without war experience". But his realistic judgments, his advocacy of military values, his ability to get in touch with politics and his way of presenting things straightforwardly impressed the general.

In early 1966 he went to Paris as a military attaché . After four years of attachment in France, he was again in leading positions in the Federal Ministry of Defense from 1969 to 1971 . 1971-1976 he served as a defense attaché in Great Britain. On July 1, 1976, he was appointed Head of Section III of the Ministry of Defense and promoted to General of the Infantry . When the army command was to be integrated into the ministry on January 1, 1978, Wingelbauer was appointed General Troop Inspector. With the new structure of the General Troop Inspectorate with two General Staff Groups for planning and operation, he laid one of the foundations for the future development of the General Troop Inspector to Chief of Staff. With his experience as a defense attaché in two important capitals, he made suggestions that were not unimportant for the later international orientation of the army.

Retired on December 31, 1980, he succumbed to a serious illness seven years later.

literature

  • Stefan Bader, At the highest point, The Generals of the Federal Army of the Second Republic, Vienna 2004, p. 366 ff. (With further references)

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Colonel dG Heinrich Jordis von Lohausen Austrian defense attaché in France
1967–1969 		Colonel dG Ernest Bernadiner
Colonel dG Hans Buttlar-Elberberg Austrian Defense Attaché in the United Kingdom
1972–1976 		Colonel dG Lothar Brósch-Fohraheim
personal data
SURNAME Wingelbauer, Hubert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian General Troop Inspector of the Austrian Armed Forces
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1987
Place of death Vienna