Karl Kitzinger

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Karl Kitzinger at the awarding of Iron Crosses to paratroopers in Norway (1940)

Karl Kitzinger (born April 18, 1886 in Neu-Ulm ; † April 14, 1962 in Stuttgart ) was a German officer , most recently General der Flieger in World War II and between 1941 and 1942 the Wehrmacht commander in the Reich Commissariat in Ukraine , where in particular hundreds of thousands of Jews were both were systematically exterminated by the civil administration as well as the military administration . In this position, Kitzinger himself issued orders for individual murders. In July 1944, he was used by Hitler as military commander in France .

Military career

Kitzinger served in the Württemberg Army first as a flag junior , then between July 5, 1904 and March 21, 1911 as platoon leader in the Württemberg Pioneer Battalion No. 13 . Between January 1 and September 1, 1905, he attended the Hanover War School . Then from October 1, 1907 to July 15, 1909, the United Artillery and Engineering School in Berlin. Between August 1 and August 21, 1909, Kitzinger was assigned to the Erfurt rifle factory . From March 22, 1911 to August 6, 1914, he served as an adjutant in his main battalion. Here he was also used as a court officer from March 22 to October 1, 1912.

With the beginning of World War I , Kitzinger was initially adjutant to the pioneer commander of the XIII between August 7, 1914 and February 10, 1915 . Army Corps . During the same period from October 1 to November 1, 1914, he was briefly company commander in the infantry regiment "Kaiser Friedrich, König von Preußen" (7th Württembergisches) No. 125 . Then between February 11, 1915 and February 24, 1916 Adjutant to the General of the Pioneers of the 9th Army . And from February 25 to October 16, 1916 he was chief of the mine thrower division 26. In October 1916 he was wounded. After that he was employed as a general staff officer in the Carpathian Corps until March 4, 1917 ; in the meantime also as adjutant of the 1st division . Between March 5 and August 1, 1917, he was General Staff Officer in the 46th Reserve Division , briefly also General Staff Officer in the 113th Division . And between August 2, 1917 and January 31, 1918 he was on the General Staff of the Carpathian Corps; also meanwhile in the 5th General Staff in Sedan . At the end of the First World War, he was first labor inspector in the General Staff (February 1 to July 10, 1918), then Chief of Staff of the 35th Division (August 16, 1918 to September 1, 1919).

Weimar Republic

In the Weimar Republic he initially served in the Reichswehr from September 2, 1919 to February 28, 1922 as an advisor to the training department in the Reichswehr Ministry . Then he became a captain in the staff of the 1st Battalion of the 13th (Württemberg) Infantry Regiment (March 1, 1922 to January 22, 1923). In 1923 he was employed as a signal officer in the regimental staff until he became company commander of the same regiment on October 10, 1923 (until November 20, 1925).

Between December 1, 1925 and September 20, 1930 he worked on the staff of the 5th Division . And between February 1, 1928 and April 1, 1930, he was also a sports officer. In late 1930 to early 1931 he was again used in the staff of the 1st Battalion of the 13th Infantry Regiment. In the spring of 1931 he took over the management and was appointed battalion commander from April 1, 1931, where he held this position until January 31, 1933.

National Socialism

Fortress inspector

In the course of the seizure of power by National Socialism , Kitzinger was in command of the Ulm Fortress between February 1 and August 31, 1933 . In September 1933 he worked again in the training department of the Reichswehr Ministry.

Between October 1, 1933 and February 28, 1934 he worked as a lecturer for military science at the University of Cologne . Then between March 1 and September 20, 1934 as fortress inspector II and in October 1934 as inspector of the western fortifications.

General of the Aviators

On November 1, 1934, he was transferred to the Air Force , where he was employed as chief of the Air Force Accessory Service in the Reich Ministry of Aviation (RLM). Here he worked until July 31, 1936. On August 14, he was also assigned to the pilot school in Braunschweig for reconnaissance training , where he worked until October 11, 1935. After he received a power of attorney to manage the material supply office of the RLM in July 1936, he became the boss there on August 1st. He held this position until May 31, 1938.

On June 1, 1938, Kitzinger was promoted to commander of the West Air Defense Zone ( Westwall ) and on October 1, one month after the outbreak of World War II , to inspector of all air defense zones and at the same time promoted to General der Flieger . From 1940 to April 14, 1941, he was also the inspector of the Luftwaffe construction troops and between April 15, 1940 and June 26, 1941, Kitzinger was the commanding general of the Air Force and the commander in charge of the Norwegian airspace .

Wehrmacht Commander in Chief Ukraine

On July 1, 1941, a few days after the war of aggression by the German Wehrmacht on the Soviet Union , Kitzinger took over the post of Wehrmacht commander in the Reich Commissariat in Ukraine . He held this post until July 21, 1944.

On June 26, 1942, Kitzinger gave the order with regard to the fight against so-called partisans that “if there is any doubt about the choice of the measures to be taken, the harder procedure would be the right one”.

In October / November 1942 he gave the commandant of the main camp (Stalag) for prisoners of war 305, Lieutenant Colonel Hiltrop, the order to send around 200 Jewish prisoners of war to " special treatment ".

Military Commander France

On July 21, 1944, Kitzinger ended his work in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. On July 23, 1944, Hitler appointed him as the successor to Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel (a participant in the Hitler assassination attempt) as military commander in France . According to Peter Lieb , Kitzinger took up his position with the firm intention of overcoming "the difficult situation caused by the hardship and combating the lethargy in the staffs". A few days later he asked to be included in the meetings of OB West with the commanders-in-chief of the Navy and Air Force; because he did not want to be seen as a "pure territorial administrator" himself, as he put it. Otherwise he would want to resign. In fact, Kitzinger only held the post of military commander in France until October 4, 1944.

On August 2, 1944, the Wehrmacht High Command ordered Kitzinger to prepare or develop defensive positions along the Somme , Marne and Saône rivers .

Commander in chief in the fortress area west

Between October 5, 1944 and May 8, 1945 he was again Commander- in -Chief in the fortress area West (Westwall). Since September 11th, the command had been transferred from the local military district commanders to OB West . The fortress department of OB West was upgraded to the 'High Command West fortress area'.

post war period

On May 8, 1945, Kitzinger became a British prisoner of war , from which he was released in 1947. He never had to answer for his actions under National Socialism. All that is known about his life in the post-war period until his death in 1962 is that he worked as a commercial clerk in Stuttgart.

Awards

literature

  • Gerhard Granier: Kitzinger, Karl. in: Baden-Württemberg biographies. Volume 2. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-17-014117-1 , pp. 267-268.
  • Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945. Volume 2: Habermehl-Nuber. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1991, ISBN 3-7648-1701-1 .
  • Frank Raberg : Biographical Lexicon for Ulm and Neu-Ulm 1802-2009 . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft im Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7995-8040-3 , p. 201 .
  • Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators - helpers - free riders. Nazi victims from the Ulm / Neu-Ulm area (=  perpetrators - helpers - free riders . Volume 2 ). 1st edition. Klemm + Oelschläger, Münster / Ulm 2013, ISBN 978-3-86281-062-8 , p. 97 ff .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Timm C. Richter: "Herrenmensch" and "Bandit". German warfare and occupation policy as the context of the Soviet partisan war (1941-44). Münster 1998, p. 65, ISBN 3-8258-3680-0 . Google Books
  2. ↑ a b c Peter Lieb: Conventional war or Nazi ideological war? Warfare and the fight against partisans in France 1943/44. Munich 2007, p. 54f. ISBN 3-486-57992-4 . Google Books (source: IfZ -Archiv, MA 487.); for the exact date cf. Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945, 2nd edition, Frankfurt a. M. 2007, p. 71.
  3. ^ US Army in World War II (European Theater of Operations): Breakout and Pursuit. Cape. XXIX: The Liberation of Paris : p. 592
  4. ↑ Chris McNab: Hitler's Fortresses: German Fortifications and Defences 1939-45 , p. 107 . Osprey publishing 2014, ISBN 978-1782008286 .
  5. ↑ Erich Riedl: "Two people from Neu-Ulm and their way to fly" Article in the Südwest Presse on April 23, 2015
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h Ranking list of the German Imperial Army. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin, p. 122.
personal data
SURNAME Kitzinger, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently General der Flieger in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH New Ulm
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 1962
Place of death Stuttgart