Karl-Theodor Molinari

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karl-Theodor Molinari (born February 7, 1915 in Bonn ; † December 11, 1993 in Dortmund ) was a German officer, most recently major general of the Army of the German Armed Forces and founding chairman of the German Armed Forces Association .

He is the namesake of the Karl Theodor Molinari Foundation .

Life

Wehrmacht

Promotions

Military background

Molinari joined the Wehrmacht in 1935 . He was trained in the reconnaissance department (motorized) 8 in Potsdam . Afterwards he was group leader , platoon leader and department adjutant . In May 1941 he became a teaching officer at the School for Rapid Troops in Potsdam-Krampnitz. In March 1942 he came to the 36th Panzer Regiment as a company commander , where he later became the commander of the 1st division and leader. Most recently he was commander of Fahnenjunkerschule 3 of the armored forces in Königsbrück .

In 1939 he received the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st Class, on February 3, 1944 the German Cross in Gold and on November 3, 1944 the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on November 15, 1944.

Events in the Ardennes

On June 13, 1944, shortly after the invasion of Normandy , soldiers from Molinari's Panzer Division shot and killed 106 French Resistance fighters captured in a forest near Les Hauts Buttés in the Ardennes .

After him, the French regional newspaper L'Ardennais brought on 5 April 1951, the events of 1944 in connection sentenced him on 13 April 1951, a French military tribunal in Metz after five minutes of deliberation without death , without the accused by the prosecution learned.

Over the years, an alleged personal involvement of Molinari in the " Tulle Massacre " of 1944, especially by the GDR, has repeatedly been discussed and exploited; his name was listed in the Brown Book of War and Nazi Criminals at the end of the 1960s without any further details . An official inspection in the Federal Republic of 1957 revealed no listing of Molinari on war crimes lists. In June 1970, preliminary proceedings against Molinari were suspended in Hagen. The file review by the public prosecutor's office showed that Molinari was “no significant burden”. On the other hand, however, he could not be legally rehabilitated because the provisions of the Paris Treaties (1955) opposed a process . In November 1970, the proceedings against Molinari were finally dropped by the competent public prosecutor at the Hamm Higher Regional Court . That same month this led to a controversial debate in the French National Assembly .

armed forces

Promotions

In January 1956 he joined the newly established Bundeswehr ; he was first briefed and prepared. Molinari became the commander of the Panzerlehrbataillon 93 in Munster in April 1956 . In 1957 he was appointed professional soldier . From 1958 to 1960 he was department head of the armored force in the troop office in Cologne . From 1960 to 1961 he was a staff officer in the 5th Panzer Division in Grafenwoehr . From 1961 to 1963 he was the commander of the 14th Panzer Brigade in Koblenz . From October 1963 he served as sub-department head P III (Army officers) in the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn . He then commanded the 7th Panzer Grenadier Division in Unna from 1966 to 1969 . Then he was used as a commander in Defense Area  IV, Mainz . On December 31, 1970, Molinari took temporary retirement.

Others

After the war he ran a sawmill in the Eifel, was CDU district chairman and from 1952 to 1954 district administrator in Schleiden .

In 1956 he was the founding chairman of the Bundeswehr Association, which he headed until 1963.

He was married and had three children.

Karl Theodor Molinari Foundation

In 1988 the Bundeswehr Association's educational facility was named after Molinari ( Karl Theodor Molinari Foundation ).

Movies

  • A man of honor goes . Short documentary film, DEFA , GDR 1970.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Clemens Range : The Generals and Admirals of the Bundeswehr . ES Mittler, Herford 1990, ISBN 3-8132-0350-6 , p. 256.
  2. ↑ a b Molinari. Karl-Theodor , in: Documentation of Time (1969), p. 18.
  3. ↑ a b c d Here or not? In: Der Spiegel . No. 42 , 1969, p. 120 ( online ).
  4. ^ A b c Bernhard Brunner: The France complex. The National Socialist Crimes in France and the Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany . Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89244-693-8 , p. 274 (= Modern Time, Volume 6).
  5. ↑ Norbert Podewin (Ed.): Brown book: War and Nazi criminals in the Federal Republic . 3rd edition, Staatsverlag der DDR, Berlin 1968, p. 302.
  6. ↑ a b c What a bummer . In: Der Spiegel , No. 31, 1970, p. 34 ( online ).
  7. ↑ Dieter E. Kilian : Kai-Uwe von Hassel and his family: Between the Baltic Sea and East Africa. Military-biographical mosaic. Hartmann, Miles-Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-937885-63-6 , p. 246.
  8. ↑ Still inside . In: Der Spiegel . No. 29 , 1970, pp. 32 ( online ).
  9. ^ Clemens Range: The tolerated army: 50 years of the Bundeswehr . Translimes Media, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-00-015382-9 , p. 282.
  10. ^ Clemens Range: The tolerated army: 50 years of the Bundeswehr . Translimes Media, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-00-015382-9 , p. 153.
  11. ↑ A gentleman goes. In: filmportal.de . German Film Institute , accessed on September 26, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Molinari, Karl-Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German general
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn
DATE OF DEATH December 11, 1993
Place of death Dortmund