Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch

Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch (1943)

Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch (born June 12, 1888 in Kalkberge-Rüdersdorf ; † January 29, 1971 in Bielefeld ) was a German officer and inspector general of the police schools, SS-Obergruppenführer and general of the Waffen-SS as well as general of the police in the National Socialist German Reich .

Life

First World War

Pfeffer-Wildenbruch joined the 2nd Westphalian Field Artillery Regiment No. 22 of the Prussian Army in Münster on March 7, 1907 as a flag junior and was promoted to lieutenant on August 1, 1908 . In 1911 he was assigned to the Military Technical Academy in Berlin . With the outbreak of the First World War he was a battery officer and regimental adjutant. This was followed by a position in the German military mission in Turkey as a general staff officer in the staff of Field Marshal Colmar von der Goltz , who commanded the Ottoman 1st Army in Baghdad. From May to November 1917 he was Ia in the German military mission in Constantinople . At the end of 1917 he returned to Germany, where he became a general staff officer in the 11th Infantry Division . Until the end of the war he was employed in the staff of the General Command z. b. V. 55 and with the XXIV. Reserve Corps .

Between the world wars

In August 1919 he joined the police force and shortly afterwards he became a consultant in the Reich Ministry of the Interior and department commander in Osnabrück and Magdeburg . From 1928 to 1930 he was inspector of the Chilean Carabineros in Santiago de Chile . Then he returned to Germany.

In the time of National Socialism

on November 1, 1932, he joined the NSDAP (membership number 1,364,387). In June 1933, Pfeffer-Wildenbruch became a lieutenant colonel in command of the state police regiment in Frankfurt an der Oder . From May 1936 he was inspector general of the police schools and was promoted to major general of the police on May 1, 1937 . On March 12, 1939, he joined the General SS (membership number 292.713) and joined the staff of the Reichsführer SS . On April 20, 1939, he was promoted to SS Brigade Leader . At the end of 1939 he set up the 4th SS Police Panzer Grenadier Division and, on April 20, 1940, promoted to SS Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen SS and Lieutenant General of the Police, took part in the campaign in the west . From November 1940 Pfeffer-Wildenbruch was again on the staff of the Reichsführer SS. From 1941 to 1943 he was head of the Colonial Police Office in the Reich Ministry of the Interior and on October 8, 1943, took over the VI as commanding general . (Lat.) SS volunteer army corps . On November 9, 1943, he was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS and Police. At the beginning of December 1944 he was appointed Commanding General of the IX. SS Mountain Corps in Hungary and Commander of Budapest . As combat commander, he defended the Hungarian capital after it had been enclosed by Soviet troops on December 24, 1944 until February 11, 1945. The siege of Budapest was one of the longest and bloodiest urban battles of World War II and lasted 102 days (see Battle of Budapest ). For the defense of the city, Pfeffer-Wildenbruch was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on January 11, 1945 and the Oak Leaves on February 1, 1945 (723rd award). When his group of around 500 people failed to break out of Budapest, he fled to a nearby villa in Buda on February 12, 1945 and surrendered without a fight (see Breakout from Budapest for details ).

In 1949 he was sentenced to 25 years of forced labor in the Soviet Union and released in October 1955 from the prisoner-of-war camp 5110/48 Woikowo to Germany when the ten thousand returned.

Awards

• Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st class
• Medal in memory of March 13, 1938
• Medal in memory of October 1, 1938
• Clasp for the Iron Cross, 2nd and 1st class
• Honorary sword of the Reichsführer SS
• SS skull ring

See also

• List of generals of the Waffen SS

literature

• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
• Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: The generals of the Waffen SS and the police. Volume 3: Lammerding-Plesch. Biblio-Verlag, 2003, ISBN 978-3-7648-2375-7 .

Web links

Commons : Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ Manfred Zeidler: Stalin Justice contra Nazi crimes. The war crimes trials against German prisoners of war in the USSR from 1943 to 1952. State of knowledge and research problems. Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism, Dresden 1996. ISBN 3-93164-808-7 , p. 70 "Transport list for returnees from October 1955 with those released from the Vojkovo general camp."