Karl Mehnert (General)

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Karl Mehnert as a Lusatian Fox (1906)

Karl Mehnert (born October 2, 1883 in Striesen , † March 22, 1957 in Wiesbaden ) was a German officer , most recently lieutenant general and city ​​commander of Dresden in World War II .

Life

Mehnert attended the Dresden High School for the Holy Cross . After graduating from high school, he served in Riesa as a one-year volunteer with the 6th Field Artillery Regiment No. 68 of the Saxon Army . Starting in the winter semester of 1905/06, he studied law at the University of Leipzig and was active in the Corps Lusatia Leipzig . As a senior , he represented the corps at the 100th Foundation Festival. He fought four of his eight lengths as a “leftist”. Several times on leave for military exercises and inactivated on November 12, 1907 , he joined the Saxon Army. As a lieutenant (from July 24, 1906) he initially served in his old regiment until he was assigned to Telegraph Battalion No. 1 in Berlin in 1911 . During the First World War , Mehnert fought as a first lieutenant in 1915 on the Eastern Front . In 1916 he led radio units of the 5th Cavalry Division as captain . After serving in the west as commander of the radio troops with the staff of the 3rd Army , he was appointed general of communications at the headquarters in 1918 .

Promotions

Taken over by the Reichswehr in the Weimar Republic , he came to teach at the infantry school in Albertstadt . As a major in 1932 he became the commander of the 4th (Saxon) news department in Dresden. Since 1933 lieutenant colonel , in 1935 he became colonel in the Wehrmacht and commander of the intelligence forces of the IV Army Corps .

See also

City Commandant of Dresden

Promoted to major general eight months before the attack on Poland , he was no longer entrusted with the management of an active troop due to his age, but was appointed city ​​commander of his hometown Dresden until March 1945 . Characterized lieutenant general since November 1940 , he was very popular with the population. He also looked after the members of the Leipzig student companies in the Corps Misnia IV .

Due to the air raids on Dresden on 13./14. February 1945 Mehnert lost his apartment and his property. As city commander, he was supposed to organize the rescue of the dead, the rapid repair of traffic routes and the construction of defenses on the outskirts. He had to improvise due to illness, overload and lack of staff. In order to justify failures and delays in carrying out his orders, he claimed to other agencies and acquaintances such as Max Funfack that the number of victims was far too high, up to 140,000 in the air raids. Mehnert was released from his job on February 18, 1945 and placed under General Hans Wolfgang Reinhard .

Mehnert even got in the Wehrmacht's unconditional surrender in Soviet captivity from which he was released in October 1949 after Dresden. He and his wife lived there in poor conditions until the German Democratic Republic allowed them to travel to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955 . His son had died as a lieutenant. Seriously ill with lungs, he spent a short retirement in Wiesbaden until his death. The urn was buried in Dresden.

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 3/752.
  2. ↑ Erich Bauer : History of the Corps Lusatia in Leipzig 1807-1932 . Zeulenroda 1932, p. 384.
  3. ^ Personnel files in the Corps Lusatia archive.
  4. ^ Egbert Weiß : Leipziger Corpsleben in World War II . Once and Now 21 (1976), p. 137.
  5. ↑ The actual number of victims was at most 25,000: Rolf-Dieter Müller, Nicole Schönherr, Thomas Widera (eds.): The Destruction of Dresden, February 13th to 15th, 1945: Expert opinion and results of the Dresden Historical Commission to determine the number of victims. Dresden 2010, p. 49 ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.books.google.de
  6. ↑ Rolf-Dieter Müller, Nicole Schönherr, Thomas Widera (eds.): The Destruction of Dresden, February 13th to 15th, 1945: Expert opinion and results of the Dresden Historical Commission to determine the number of victims. V&R unipress GmbH, Dresden 2010, p. 88 to p. 91 .
  7. ^ Advertisement of the wife in the archives of the Corps Lusatia.
  8. ↑ a b c Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1931, p. 123.
personal data
SURNAME Mehnert, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mehnert, Karl Leopold Johannes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently lieutenant general of the Wehrmacht and city commander of Dresden
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Striesen
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 1957
Place of death Wiesbaden