Joachim Rohleder

Joachim Rohleder (* 29. April 1892 in Szczecin , † 5. December 1973 in Taunus ) was a German officer of the defense , last Colonel (from April 1, 1941) in World War II .

Life

Rohleder was born the son of a Stettin merchant and attended the cadet school in Oranienstein in 1905/10 . Then he was transferred with a patent from June 1, 1910 as a lieutenant in the Leib Grenadier Regiment "King Friedrich Wilhelm III." (1st Brandenburg) No. 8 of the Prussian Army in Frankfurt (Oder) . In the First World War 1914/18 he took part as platoon and company commander as well as regimental adjutant . Most recently he had the rank of first lieutenant . For his achievements he was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , the Wound Badge in Black and the Mecklenburg Military Merit Cross, 2nd class.

After the end of the war and a brief activity in the border guards at Beuthen , Rohleder was accepted into the provisional Reichswehr , served in the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 10 and then joined the Infantry Regiment 8 of the Reichswehr . In 1930 he left the Reichswehr and was a military advisor and instruction officer at the military academy in Argentina in 1931/34 .

In 1935 Rohleder was employed as an E-officer with the rank of major in the army of the Wehrmacht and initially assistant under the department head Franz Eccard von Bentivegni , in 1938 head of Group III F for counter-espionage in the German intelligence service , the so-called "Abwehr" in the Foreign Office / Defense . During the Spanish Civil War he worked in Spain for a year, where, according to Bentivegni, he proved himself very well. As group leader III F in the Foreign / Defense Office, he had to investigate the treason of the department head Hans Oster in 1943 , but his results were initially suppressed by his superiors Bentivegni and Canaris . From spring 1944 he worked in the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) Amt IV E (responsibility: cases of high and state treason) under SS-Standartenführer Walter Huppenkothen . According to his own statements to a special commission, he "went to the front in 1945".

On August 6, 1963, Rohleder confirmed his membership in the following National Socialist organizations in a document that is in the Berlin Document Center: SS , SA , Propagandakompanie (PK), Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt (RUSHA), Supreme Party Court (OPG), Return migration center (PWZ) and immigration center (EWZ).

After 1945 he became deputy head of the general agency in Munich for the Gehlen organization .

personality

Due to his high level of education and intelligence, Rohleder was able to link the information he received from the various defense agencies in Germany and all of Europe about the activities of foreign espionage networks and to make it available to Canaris. As an officer in a Prussian elite regiment, the fulfillment of duty and military obedience to his superiors were the focus. In the case of Hans Oster, circumventing his superiors was unthinkable for him.

He was just as unable to cope with the loss of his hometown Stettin after 1945 as he could not cope with the ever-waning enthusiasm for a national ethos. He spent the last years of his life withdrawn and - in his own words - as a “stranger among people”.

literature

• In Memoriam Joachim Rohleder. In: The rearguard . 29/30 (1974), pp. 14-18.
• Heinz Hähne: We'll hang on the gallows! General Oster's resistance group. In: Der Spiegel. 23/1969. ( online )
• Heinz Höhne : Secret assignment for Guillermo. Hitler's chief espionage Wilhelm Canaris (IV). In: Der Spiegel 37/1976. ( online )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1929. p. 137.
2. ↑ Mader, Julius: Hitler's spy antagonists testify . Berlin 1970, pp. 404-405.
3. ↑ In detail, Heinz Höhne: Canaris. Patriot im Zwielicht , Munich 1976, pp. 398-401.
4. ↑ See the characterization of Rohleders by Heinz Höhne ( Canaris. Patriot im Zwielicht , Munich 1976, pp. 389-390).
5. ↑ In Memoriem Joachim Rohleder.