Karl Schnell (General)

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Karl Schnell with Gustav Heinemann , 1973

Karl Schnell (born December 18, 1916 in Sprendlingen , † February 13, 2008 ) was a general in the Bundeswehr and a permanent state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defense .

Life

Karl Schnell was the son of a primary school teacher who had settled in Sprendlingen. After passing high school, Schnell decided to become a career officer. He was married to Gisela Witte. After his retirement he retired to Baden-Baden and dealt with military and war history. He wrote books about the " Battle of Wörth 1870 " and dealt with archeology and color photography.

Service in the armed forces

Quickly took a battery commander on the western campaign in part in 1940 and then had a teacher at the Artillery School Jüterbog held. From late summer 1942 to spring 1943 he was in command as a captain as part of his general staff training for Army Group Center on the Eastern Front . As quartermaster , he was responsible for replenishing the 330th Infantry Division . The next job he found, who had a good command of the Italian language, was promoted to major i. G. with the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division south of Monte Cassino in Italy . In July 1944 he took over the role of First General Staff Officer (Ia) of the LXXVI. Panzer Corps in Rimini and was responsible for seven subordinate divisions of the Wehrmacht . He was last used during the war as an Ia in the 90th Panzer Grenadier Division . With this he got into American captivity on April 24, 1945. After his release from captivity, he was “ denazified ” in Germany in 1946 and released on May 17, 1947 after being in two camps.

Civil career

He finished his banking apprenticeship - which he had started in Karlsruhe - to study business administration and public law in Hamburg . He completed his studies in 1951 with the grade "Good" and took on the position of assistant director in Cologne as a business graduate . His dissertation "The principles of work preparation in industrial companies" was rated "cum laude" and earned him the Dr. rer. pole.

Service in the Bundeswehr

Karl Schnell 1976 with Walter Scheel

On September 3, 1956, he took up his service in the newly established Bundeswehr and became an assistant officer in the department of the command staff of the army , which was responsible for logistics for the field army. From February 1959 he was employed as an army attaché at the German embassy in Rome and later as head of the military attaché staff. Back in Germany, Schnell took over the duties as colonel with the staff and later as deputy commander of the 2nd Panzer Grenadier Division in Marburg . The then inspector of the army, Lieutenant General Alfred Zerbel, brought him back to the command staff of the army, where he took over the management of the logistics subdivision. He was promoted to brigadier general on September 30, 1965 and Zerbel's successor Lieutenant General Josef Moll entrusted him with the merging of the field army and territorial defense . On November 4, 1968, he took over command of the 6th Panzer Grenadier Division in Neumünster , followed by his first NATO assignment as Deputy Chief of Staff for Planning and Operations at NATO Headquarters. Schnell, who had now risen to Lieutenant General , was originally intended to take over from Lieutenant General Ernst Ferber , but the Defense Minister handed him the position of Deputy Inspector General of the Bundeswehr and was now responsible for equipping the entire armed forces. On October 1, 1975, General Schnell took over the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces Central Europe (CINCENT), replacing his predecessor General Ferber.

State Secretary

Contrary to all other customs, Defense Minister Georg Leber decided that General Schnell should succeed Secretary of State for Armaments Siegfried Mann. Despite all discussions and objections, the minister prevailed and on January 11, 1977 Schnell took over the post of State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense and became a political official . In the wake of the defense-political disputes, the defense minister changed. The new minister, Hans Apel , who had a somewhat sloppy management style, did not have a good working relationship with his state secretary and so there were disagreements that ultimately led Schnell to retire from active service in 1980.

Honors

literature

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Ernst Ferber Commander in Chief, Allied Forces Central Europe
1975–1977 		Franz-Joseph Schulze
personal data
SURNAME Quick, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military, General of the Bundeswehr and State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Jumpers
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 2008