Kurt Agricola

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Kurt Agricola (born August 15, 1889 in Döbeln , † December 27, 1955 in Bad Godesberg ) was a German lieutenant general in World War II .

Life

origin

He was the son of Rudolf Ernst Bernard Agricola and his wife Elisabeth Emilie Anna, née von Drenkmann. His father was a lieutenant colonel in the Saxon Army, his mother a daughter of the Prussian Supreme Court President and Crown Syndic Edwin von Drenkmann senior.

Military career

After attending the Royal Gymnasium in Leipzig and Dresden Agricola came on 1 April 1908 as an ensign in the 12th Infantry Regiment. 177 of the Saxon army and was there on August 19, 1909. Lieutenant promoted. From October 1, 1911, he served as regimental adjutant and court officer. From November 10 to 29, 1913, he was briefly commanded to train in weapons repairs.

With the outbreak of World War I and the mobilization , Agricola became a battalion adjutant in his main regiment. With this he was then used in conjunction with the 32nd Division (3rd Royal Saxon) on the western front and fought, among other things, in the Battle of the Marne . On December 1, 1914, he was promoted to first lieutenant and a month later was appointed regimental adjutant. During the Battle of the Somme he was able to distinguish himself several times, for which he was given on January 31, 1917 by Friedrich August III. the highest award of the Kingdom of Saxony , the Military Order of St. Henry was awarded. On January 9, 1917, Agricola had been transferred to the staff of the 219th Division (10th Royal Saxon) and promoted to captain on the 27th of the same month . With the division that had just been established, it was in a quieter section near Domevre-Hameau d'Ancerviller in Lorraine . Before the division moved to Flanders , Agricola was transferred to the General Command of the XII on May 25, 1917 . (I. Royal Saxon) Army Corps . From there, Agricola was commanded in January 1918 to attend the one-month 6th General Staff Course. He experienced the end of the war on the western front. For his behavior during the war he had been awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , the Knight's Cross 2nd Class of the Saxon Order of Merit with Swords and the Knight's Cross 1st Class of the Albrecht Order with Swords.

After the armistice and the return home, he was accepted into the Reichswehr in October 1919 . First he was used as a company commander in the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 24, then in the same function in the 10th (Saxon) Infantry Regiment . From October 1, 1921, Agricola was on the staff of the 4th Division in Dresden for three years and was then transferred to the staff of Group Command 1 in Berlin . Here he served until October 1, 1927 and then resumed his previous position as company commander. From October 11th to November 8th, 1927 he completed a course for heavy machine guns . As a major (since May 1, 1928) Agricola returned to the staff of Group Command 1 on February 1, 1930. From there followed on October 1, a three-year assignment in the staff of the 4th Division as well as his interim promotions to lieutenant colonel on April 1, 1932 and to colonel on July 1, 1934. As such, Agricola came for two months to military district command IV and was then on December 1, 1934 appointed commander of the Breslau Infantry Regiment. He continued to command the association after it was renamed the 49th Infantry Regiment. On October 12, 1937, he was relieved of his position and taken over as commander of Army Service 3 in Opole . After his promotion to major general on January 1, 1938, Agricola was also in command of the fortifications at Opole until he was retired. On January 31, 1938 Agricola resigned under presentation of the character as a lieutenant general from active service.

With the beginning of the Second World War, Agricola was reactivated on September 1, 1939 and used as the commandant of Opole. He held this position until December 19, 1941. Subsequently Agricola acted as commander of the rear army area , Korück for short, and field commander 580 of the 2nd Army in the Soviet Union. Agricola was responsible for securing the supply routes and "pacifying" the occupied area. On August 1, 1943, he was appointed Lieutenant General zV (available). For his service as Körück he received the German Cross in Gold on December 15, 1943 . At the same time he was also governor of Kursk from August 1 to October 30, 1943 . On April 18, 1945, he was transferred to the Führerreserve without any further use until the end of the war. In June 1945 Agricola was taken prisoner by the Soviets , which he spent in the labor camps in Karaganda , Kazakhstan and Vorkuta , Komi Republic . On October 8, 1955, he was released from prison in 5110/48 Woikowo prisoner of war camp in Chernzy, Ivanovo Oblast .

family

Kurt Agricola married Martha Hahn. Her parents were the civil servant lawyer Johannes Paul (Hans) Hahn and Rosa Maria Sobernheim, both of whom were of Jewish origin and had joined the Protestant Church. Members of the Hahn family were industrialists and scientists. Your grandfather Albert Hahn founded the Hahn'schen Werke. The best known family member is her cousin Kurt Hahn .

The Agricola couple had two sons. On January 1st 1939 Kurt Agricola was dismissed from the Wehrmacht because of this marriage and forced to divorce. At the beginning of the war in September 1939 it was reactivated. Martha Agricola fled through the Soviet Union via the port of Vladivostok to Brazil in autumn 1940 . Other members of her family had already escaped there, such as her brother Albert Hahn, former district judge in Berlin, with his wife Angela Nernst, a daughter of the chemist and Nobel Prize winner Walter Nernst . Martha Agricola had only her son Wilhelm can take with their two children, the other son was Kurt Agricola to Bethel in the custody of the Bodelschwingh Institutions given to protect him like that. In 1955, after being released from captivity, he immediately remarried his wife, but died a few months later.

Fonts

  • The red marshal. Tukhachevsky's rise and fall. Publishing house "Die Wehrmacht", Berlin 1939.

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (Ed.): The Generals of the Army 1921-1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 1: Abberger – Bitthorn. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1993, ISBN 3-7648-2423-9 , pp. 23-24.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ König Albert-Gymnasium (Royal High School until 1900) in Leipzig: Student album 1880-1904 / 05. Friedrich Grober, Leipzig 1905.
  2. ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736-1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, p. 123.
  3. ↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1930, p. 124.
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Keilig: The Generals of the Army 1939-1945. Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg 1983, p. 9.
  5. ↑ Klaus D. Patzwall , Veit Scherzer : The German Cross 1941-1945. History and owner. Volume II. Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall, Norderstedt 2001, ISBN 3-931533-45-X , p. 11.
  6. ↑ Irina V. Bezborodova: Generals of the Third Reich in Soviet hands 1943–1956. Association for the promotion of research into the consequences of conflicts and wars, Graz / Moscow 1998, ISBN 3-90166-103-4 , p. 26
  7. ↑ Manfred Zeidler: Stalin Justice contra Nazi crimes. The war crimes trials against German prisoners of war in the USSR in 1943–1952. State of knowledge and research problems. Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism, Dresden 1996, ISBN 3-93164-808-7 , p. 70 Returning transport list from October 1955 with those released from the general camp Vojkovo.
  8. ^ Christian Hartmann: Wehrmacht in the Eastern War. Front and military hinterland 1941/42. Munich 2010, p. 165.
personal data
SURNAME Agricola, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lieutenant General in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Chub
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1955
Place of death bad Godesberg