Johann von Ravenstein

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Johann von Ravenstein

Johann "Hans" Theodor von Ravenstein (born January 1, 1889 in Strehlen , † March 26, 1962 in Duisburg ) was a German lieutenant general and commander of the 21st Panzer Division in World War II . He was the first German general to be captured during World War II.

Life

origin

Ravenstein came from a family of soldiers. His father was the Prussian major Johann Friedrich August von Ravenstein (born September 16, 1863 in Berlin ; † December 28, 1905 there), who married Margarete von Maltzan Freiin zu Wartenberg and Penzlin on October 26, 1886 in Kummelwitz . The marriage was divorced on February 9, 1897.

The first of this family to join the Prussian Army was the major of the great-grandfather Johann Friedrich August von Ravenstein (1792–1874) , who was ennobled in 1857. He fought against Napoleon and received the Iron Cross 1st class for it. He was also adjutant to Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher and fought at his side in the Battle of Waterloo .

Military career

Ravenstein joined the cadet corps at the age of ten and was then transferred on March 24, 1909 as a lieutenant to the Grenadier Regiment "King Wilhelm I" (2nd West Prussian) No. 7 of the Prussian Army in Liegnitz . On October 1, 1902, he was transferred to Ostrowo to the 7th West Prussian Infantry Regiment No. 155 , where on April 1, 1914 he was appointed adjutant of the 1st Battalion.

With the outbreak of the First World War , his regiment mobilized and was deployed on the Western Front . It was there that Ravenstein, near Longwy , first came against the enemy on August 22, 1914. Before Verdun , the regiment entered the trench warfare, where Ravenstein was used as a leader of the 9th Company. On June 18, 1915, he was promoted to lieutenant . After fighting in front of Fort Vaux , the regiment was transferred to Champagne . Here he took over on July 18, 1916, the leadership of the storm company of the 10th Reserve Division . It was then used on the Somme , where Ravenstein was wounded by an artillery shell in October 1916 while exploring the St. Pierre Vaast Forest. After a stay in a hospital he was back at the front on Christmas Eve and on December 28, 1916 participated in the removal of a French section of the trench in front of the height 295 "Toter Mann". After he had already received both classes of the Iron Cross, Ravenstein was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords on February 26, 1917 .

During the spring offensive of 1918 , Ravenstein was commissioned from March 30, 1918 to lead the 1st battalion in the fusilier regiment "von Steinmetz" (West Prussian) No. 37 . On May 27, 1918, he and the battalion broke through the opposing front line east of Soissons together with other German units. After he had crossed the German positions at Chemin des Dames , lost in the Battle of the Aisne in 1917 , he and initially 6 other officers managed to cross the Aisne bridge at Bourg unharmed and hold it until the battalion arrived. His battalion took 1,500 prisoners, including 14 officers, and captured 32 artillery pieces, 33 machine guns and 9 motor vehicles. On June 23, 1918, Ravenstein received the highest award for bravery in Prussia, the order Pour le Mérite . He had been promoted to captain three days earlier . During the war he was wounded three times.

After the end of the war, Ravenstein returned home with his regiment and, after demobilization , was the leader of a detachment at the Eastern Border Guard until his departure on March 31, 1920 .

He then went to university to study law and political science. Later he was director of the municipal traffic and press office of the city of Duisburg . As an L-officer , Ravenstein was active from December 1, 1933 to April 30, 1934 and was then employed as an active officer with the rank of major in the staff of the 2nd Battalion of the 18th Infantry Regiment. On October 1, 1936 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and on August 1, 1939 to colonel .

Ravenstein was involved in the attack on Poland at the beginning of the Second World War and a little later in the western campaign , whereupon he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on June 3, 1940 . After the invasion of Greece in April 1941, he was promoted to major general. In the period from May 20 to November 29, 1941, he commanded the 21st Panzer Division in North Africa . On November 29, 1941, he was captured by New Zealand troops near Tobruk . He was the first German general who during the Second World War Allied prisoner of war came. From 1941 to 1947 he was in various prison camps in Egypt, South Africa, Canada and Great Britain. On October 1, 1943, he was promoted to lieutenant general in absentia.

After his return to Germany in 1948 he worked in Duisburg as traffic director until his retirement in 1954.

family

On February 8, 1918, Ravenstein married Elisabeth Marie von Oriola (* May 17, 1891 on the manor Ober-Eisersdorf near Glatz ; † May 2, 1982 in Koblenz ). She was a daughter of Fernando Joachim Alfons von Oriola (1855-1925) and Lory Countess von Wengersky (1861-1934).

literature

  • Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volume II: M-Z. Bernard & Graefe publishing house, Berlin 1935, pp. 174-176.
  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 3: P-Z. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2011, ISBN 3-7648-2586-3 , pp. 94-96.
  • Rowland Ryder: Ravenstein: Portrait of a German General. Hamilton, New York 1978, ISBN 0241899575 .
  • Erhard Wittek: breakthrough in eighteen. Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1938.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Altmann: The Fusilier Regiment "von Steinmetz" (West Prussian) No. 37 in the World Wars 1914-1918
  2. ↑ 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. 615.
  3. ^ Peter M. Quadflieg: Gerhard Graf von Schwerin (1899-1980): Wehrmacht general - chancellor advisor - lobbyist. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh 2016, ISBN 3-657-7822-9X , p. 169.
  4. ↑ Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the count's houses . Justus Perthes., Gotha 1922, p. 682 ( google.de [accessed December 19, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Ravenstein, Johann von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ravenstein, Johann Theodor von; Ravenstein, Hans von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lieutenant General in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Chasing
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 1962
Place of death Duisburg