Karl Hetz (engineer)

Karl Hetz (born October 30, 1906 in Erlangen , † June 23, 1985 in Halle ) was a German government building officer , major in the Wehrmacht , vice-president of the National Committee for Free Germany (NKFD) and president of the Reich Railway Directorate in Halle .

Life

Hetz comes from an educated middle-class family. His father was a teacher . After attending elementary school , he graduated from high school . In Kaiserslautern he learned the trade of a locksmith . With this theoretical and practical knowledge, Hetz completed a degree in traffic sciences at the technical universities of Munich and Darmstadt , which he completed in 1927 with the title of graduate engineer. From 1932 he was a production engineer at the municipal transport company of Wiesbaden . From 1933 he worked as a site manager for the Deutsche Reichsbahn . After further training, he passed his state examination as a government builder in 1936 . As such, he was placed in Tapiau in East Prussia , where he worked as a government building officer. In 1937 he joined the NSDAP .

With the beginning of the Second World War he was used as a major in the Wehrmacht and in 1942 in the fighting for Stalingrad . Here he was taken prisoner by the Soviets in January 1943 . As a prisoner he attended an anti-fascist school and developed a new political orientation there. Out of captivity, as one of 50 captured generals as part of the Federation of German Officers in the National Committee Free Germany (NKFD), he made an appeal to their comrades who were still in the Wehrmacht. This appeal was written by Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus and signed by them as the “Appeal of the 50 Generals to the People and the Wehrmacht”. Hetz was elected one of the vice presidents of the NKFD.

Three years after the Nazi rule was eliminated, Hetz returned to Germany from captivity and settled in the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ). In 1948 he joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). His professional path led him to the Deutsche Reichsbahn , in which he soon became a leader. For twenty years he served as President of the Reich Railway Directorate in Halle .

Karl Hetz received numerous awards in the GDR, including the Order of Labor Banner in 1971, the Gold Medal of Honor for the Patriotic Order of Merit in 1976 and the Silver Star of Friendship in 1981 .

literature

• Bodo Scheurig : Free Germany. The National Committee and the Association of German Officers in the Soviet Union 1943–1945 . Cologne 1984.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Harry Waibel : Servants of many masters. Former Nazi functionaries in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1 , p. 137.
2. ↑ Text online at pkgodzik.de (PDF; 53 kB)
3. ^ Karl Hetz in the DRAFD Wiki.Retrieved August 4, 2011
4. ↑ Neues Deutschland , September 16, 1971, p. 3
5. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , October 7, 1976
6. ↑ Neues Deutschland, October 6, 1981, p. 2