Karl Ullrich

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Karl Ullrich (born December 1, 1910 in Saargemünd ; † May 8, 1996 in Bad Reichenhall ) was a German SS-Oberführer and commander of various divisions of the Waffen-SS .

Life

Karl Ullrich was born in Saargemünd in Lorraine, the son of a tax official. After attending school, he initially worked as an apprentice at companies for machines and electrics in Augsburg , Nuremberg and Bad Kissingen and then began studying at a technical university in winter 1929 , which he successfully completed as a mechanical engineer on February 18, 1933 .

Ullrich joined the NSDAP in 1931 ( membership number 715.727) and on April 1, 1932 the SS (membership number 31.438), where he came to the 3rd storm of the second storm of the 56th SS standard in Bamberg (see organizational structure of the SS ). From June to September 1933 he received military training with the 9th Infantry Regiment of the Reichswehr and then transferred to the state police , of which he was a member until June 1934. At the beginning of July of that year, Ullrich was transferred to the SS disposal force , where he was assigned to the 3rd storm of SS-Standarte 1 and served as a subordinate . Promoted to SS-Scharführer on January 30, 1934 and to SS-Oberscharführer on October 1, 1934 , he was selected in March 1935 for the first cadet class at the SS Junker School in Braunschweig . After he had left this as SS-Standartenoberjunker , he was assigned to the SS-Pioniersturmbann in Dresden on February 25, 1936 as platoon leader . On April 20, 1936 he was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer and on September 1, 1937 to SS-Obersturmführer and at the same time chief of the 3rd storm of the SS-Pioniersturmbann (later SS-Pionier-Battalion). In this position he was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer on November 1, 1938 and took part in the Polish and Western campaigns, where he was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross in the latter . Ullrich kept his post as company commander in the SS pioneer battalion of the SS disposal division until February 1941 and then served in the battalion's staff until May.

In May 1941 Ullrich was transferred to the pioneer battalion of the SS-Totenkopfdivision and took over this from June 1941 to June 1942. During this time he was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer on November 1, 1941 . On February 19, 1942, he was awarded the Knight's Cross for his services with the battalion during the Battle of Demyansk .

With the formation of the SS Panzer Corps (later II. SS Panzer Corps), Ullrich became a corps pioneer leader on July 2, 1942 and took part in this function, among other things, in the third battle of Kharkov until he was replaced by Max Seela on March 18, 1943 was and first the III. Battalion of the 5th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment. For the services of the battalion during the fighting in the Kharkov - Bjelgorod area and the Citadel company , Ullrich, meanwhile SS-Obersturmbannführer , received the oak leaves for the Knight's Cross on May 14, 1944 as the 480th soldier.

On November 9, 1943, Ullrich Hellmuth Becker replaced " Theodor Eicke " as commander of the SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 6 and was promoted to SS-Standartenführer on July 29, 1944 , after temporarily serving the Totenkopf from June 20 to July 13, 1944 -Division had commanded.

Most recently, Ullrich became commander of the 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" on October 9, 1944 , with which he took part in the "Spring Awakening" operation and was promoted to SS-Oberführer on April 20, 1945 at the suggestion of Herbert Otto Gille he went into American captivity on May 12, 1945, from which he was released in September 1948.

In 1984 and 1987 Ullrich published a two-volume story of the Totenkopfdivision under the title Wie ein Fels in der Brandung , which was published by Munin-Verlag of the mutual aid community of members of the former Waffen-SS (HIAG). The history of the division emerged as a reaction to a publication by Wolfgang Vopersal , which was controversial within HIAG. According to HIAG documents, Ullrich “deliberately […] chose a different strategy than Vopersal and kept quiet instead of denying it.” Historian Niels Weise counts Ullrich's division history among the publications of HIAG, which “due to its apologetic, revisionist and sometimes manipulative content for a scientific investigation is not necessary ”.

Ullrich died on May 8, 1996 in Bad Reichenhall.

Awards

literature

  • Mark C. Yerger : Waffen-SS Commanders: The Army, Corps and Divisional Leaders of a Legend: Krüger to Zimmermann (v. 2) , Schiffer Military History, Atglen, PA 1999, ISBN 978-0764307690 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Niels Weise: Eicke. An SS career between a mental hospital, concentration camp system and Waffen-SS. Schöningh, Paderborn 2013, ISBN 978-3-506-77705-8 , p. 20.
  2. ↑ Mark C. Yerger: Waffen-SS Commanders: The Army, Corps and Divisional Leaders of a Legend: Krüger to Zimmermann (v. 2) , Schiffer Military History, Atglen, PA 1999, ISBN 978-0764307690 , p. 302 f.
  3. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 .
personal data
SURNAME Ullrich, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, SS-Oberführer
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Sarreguemines
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1996
Place of death Bad Reichenhall