Kurt von Geitner

Kurt Geitner , from 1916 Ritter von Geitner (born May 3, 1884 in Troppacher Hof , Contwig , † September 6, 1968 in Munich ) was a German officer , most recently major general in World War II .

Life

Geitner was the son of a landlord. He married Hedwig Kollmar in 1909, with whom he had four children. However, one of them died as a child.

Geitner joined the 5th Field Artillery Regiment of the Bavarian Army in Landau in the Palatinate on July 19, 1902, as a squire . After his appointment as ensign on January 29, 1903 , he was assigned to the Munich War School from March 1, 1903 to February 3, 1904. After graduation, he was promoted to lieutenant on March 9, 1904 . Geitner spent the next two and a half years in troop service with his regiment, and from October 1, 1906 to July 31, 1907, he was assigned to the artillery and engineering school . From October 1, 1909, Geitner was used initially for one year as a departmental and then for two years as a regimental adjutant . As a first lieutenant (from March 7, 1913) he was assigned to the Bavarian War Academy . However, he had to break off his training with the beginning of the First World War and the associated closure of the War Academy.

With the outbreak of World War I , Geitner was deployed as platoon leader in his main regiment and was deployed with him on the western front . From May 16, 1915, he acted as a battery leader and on August 9, 1915, he became a captain . For his services he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Max Joseph Order by the Bavarian King on September 27, 1916 and was allowed to call himself Knight von Geitner from this point on due to the associated elevation into the personal nobility . This was followed on September 13, 1916, his transfer to the General Staff of the XV. Reserve Corps. Geitner stayed here for a year, then joined the General Staff of the Southern Army and, from February 14, 1918, the General Staff of the 19th Army , where he was to remain until the end of the war. After his return to Germany and demobilization , Geitner was dismissed from the army on June 16, 1919 .

He then studied chemistry at the Technical University of Munich and worked for the following years as a businessman in Schneeberg / Saxony . From October 1, 1935, he joined the Army Reserve and from that time held the rank of majors in the reserve in the 31st Infantry Regiment in Plauen .

After the beginning of the Second World War, Geitner was drafted into this relationship and acted as the commander of the Infantry Replacement Regiment 209 from September 8, 1939. On February 16, 1940, he joined the General Staff of the Deputy General Command of the IV Army Corps in as First General Staff Officer Dresden and shortly afterwards on April 11, 1940 in the same function as the Deputy General Command of the VIII Army Corps in Breslau . After his appointment on October 25, 1940 as Chief of the General Staff of the Higher Command z. b. V. XXXXV he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the reserve shortly afterwards on November 1, 1940. Geitner then acted as chief of the general staff of the Frankfurt (Oder) staff from June 18, 1941 and two months later as chief of the general staff of the general staff group z. b. V. at the Army Group Center . From February 16 to July 4, 1942 he was transferred to the Führerreserve and in the meantime promoted to colonel of the reserve on June 1, 1942 . As such, he was then Chief of the General Staff of the Commanding General and Commander Serbia. After the post had been regrouped to Military Commander Southeast on August 26, 1943, he remained at his post and was promoted to Major General of the Reserve on April 1, 1944. He was reassigned to the Führer Reserve on November 1, 1944. Thereupon Geitner was assigned to the Wehrmacht command staff on January 29, 1945 at the disposal of the head of the transport order command group. On April 12, 1945 he was commanded to the advance command to establish what would later become the OKW headquarters in the south. From April 16, 1945, he worked here as a representative of the OKW.

With the unconditional surrender , Geitner became a US prisoner of war . From mid-May 1947 he had to answer before the International Military Tribunal in the Generals Trial in Southeast Europe . The trial ended in Geitner's acquittal and he was released on February 19, 1948.

literature

• Dermot Bradley (Ed.): The Generals of the Army 1921-1945. Volume 4: Fleck-Gyldenfeldt. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1996, ISBN 3-7648-2488-3 , pp. 223-224.
• Othmar Hackl : The Bavarian War Academy (1867-1914). CH Beck´sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-10490-8 , p. 445.
• Rudolf von Kramer, Otto Freiherr von Waldenfels: VIRTUTI PRO PATRIA. The Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order. Acts of War and Book of Honor 1914–1918. Self-published by the Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order, Munich 1966.