Josef Prentl (politician, 1916)

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Josef Prentl (born October 14, 1916 in Rosenheim ; † July 16, 1994 in Mittenwald ) was a German Air Force officer in World War II and an army officer in the Bundeswehr . From 1974 to 1978 he was a member of the Bavarian State Parliament for the CSU .

military service

After graduating from high school, Prentl became a member of the Air Force on October 1, 1936 as a flag boy . First he came to the Wildpark-Werder Air War School and was transferred to the anti-aircraft cartillery in December 1936 after completing his training there . On 1 September 1939 he was promoted to lieutenant and appointed platoon commander in the 5th battery of flak - Regiment 29. In November 1938, he Battery officer and in March 1940 adjutant in the III./Flak-Regiment 29. In this position, Prentl took part in the western campaign.

Prentl was promoted to first lieutenant on August 1, 1940 . On November 5, 1940, he was transferred to Luftkriegsschule 8 in Göppingen , where he worked as a tactics and weapons teacher. In June 1941 he was transferred to Brest to 3./Reserve-Flak-Abteilung 391, where he was battery manager . In May 1942, Prentl was transferred to the 2nd battery of Flak Regiment 231, with which he took part in the war against the Soviet Union . During the battles for the Voronezh bridgehead on July 24 and 25, 1942, 25 tanks and three aircraft were shot down by its battery. He was to receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on October 21, 1942 .

On August 1, 1942, Prentl was transferred to the staff of the 10th Flak Division and promoted to captain on February 1, 1943 . In the period from January 14 to February 15, 1943, he was in command of the so-called combat group "Prentl" , which operated northeast of Starobelsk in the Don region . The combat group was mainly active in the context of retreat skirmishes on the retreat to Kharkov and destroyed several Soviet tanks and artillery. In June 1943 he became a teaching group leader at the ground combat school of the I. Flak Corps and was then used in September 1943 in the disarming of Italian units.

On October 1, 1943, Prentl became head of the Flak-Erdkampfschule Süd in Italy. From January to March 1944 he was in command of a combat group fighting the Allied troops landed as part of Operation Shingle in the Nettuno area . He then took over the management of the South Earth Combat School again. From May to October 1944 he was then used in the fighting in central Italy and was awarded the German Cross in Gold on August 20, 1944 . Prentl was appointed commander of II./Flak-Regiment 37 on October 19, 1944 and promoted to major on November 1, 1944 . On February 15, 1945 he became the commander of the Flak Regiment 116 and took part in the fighting for Heiligenbeil . On April 5, 1945, he was awarded the close combat clasp and on April 28, 1945 with the oak leaves for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, before he was taken prisoner of war near Kiel on May 13, 1945 .

Josef Prentl later joined the German Armed Forces , from which he was retired in 1973 as Colonel of the Mountain Infantry. His last position in the Bundeswehr was the command of the Defense District Command of Upper Bavaria .

politics

After his military service from 1974 to 1978 he was a member of the state parliament for the CSU. Prentl was also the founder of the Defense Policy Working Group in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district association. As a politician, he was noticed, among other things, with the plan to use Bundeswehr reservists for civil defense in the event of a crisis. The armed reservists in the hinterland were supposed to protect important civil and military objects from the outbreak of war and serve as a “deterrent also against subversive forces” such as terrorists . He also campaigned effectively against a demolition order from the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen , which was aimed at the removal of buildings in the Alps used as second homes .

From 1978 he was also managing director of the Bavarian-Togo Society , whose chairman was Franz Josef Strauss and the Togolese dictator Gnassingbé Eyadéma .

In 1978 he published the book Flak-Kampfgruppe Prentl - an experience report in the right-wing extremist Schild-Verlag .

Fonts

  • Josef Prentl: Flak-Kampfgruppe Prentl: an experience report . Schild, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-88014-067-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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. 603.
  2. ↑ Home Guard: Sleeping Giant . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 1978, p. 36 ( online ).
  3. ↑ Alps: “I never drive for sure, never nei” . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1977, pp. 62 ( online ).
  4. ↑ Soft as a pear . In: Der Spiegel . No. 15 , 1983, pp. 76-78 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Richard Kiessler: Josef is the greatest . In: Der Spiegel . No. 21 , 1983, p. 23-24 ( online ).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Prentl, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Prentl, Sepp
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and politician (CSU), MdL
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Rosenheim
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 1994
Place of death Mittenwald