Leopold Count Fugger von Babenhausen

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Leopold Graf Fugger von Babenhausen (born July 18, 1893 in Ödenburg ( Hungary ), † July 8, 1966 in Hamburg ) was a German officer , most recently Major General of the Wehrmacht Air Force .

Life

He was the son of Prince Carl Georg Fugger von Babenhausen (1861–1925), Colonel and Chamberlain to Franz Joseph I , and the Viennese Salonnière Eleonora Fugger von Babenhausen .

Fugger joined the 26th Dragoon Regiment of the Württemberg Army on January 27, 1913 . In this he served, beyond the outbreak of the First World War , as a squadron officer and platoon leader on the western front . In July 1915 he switched to the air force , where he was trained as an observer. In this capacity he served until the beginning of January 1919. In 1916 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords. On January 2, 1919, Fugger resigned from military service.

In 1924 Fugger married Vera Czernin (1904–1959; born and until 1919 as Czernin von Chudenitz and Morzin) in Vienna , with whom he had four children. This marriage was divorced in 1936 and church annulled in 1937 . In June 1938 Vera Czernin married the former Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg, who was imprisoned by the National Socialists at the time .

On October 1, 1935, Fugger was reactivated for the Air Force , while being appointed captain . First he attended a course at the Hildesheim aerial photography school until the end of the year . He then served from January 1936 to January 1938 as a picture officer with the staff of Luftgau Command III in Berlin . During this time he was deployed from July to the end of October 1937 on the staff of the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War. From January 1938 to the end of August 1939, Fugger served again on the staff of the Condor Legion. On his return to Germany he was transferred to the central department of the Reich Aviation Ministry, where he worked as a consultant until the end of August 1939. In 1939, Fugger worked as a military advisor on the Nazi propaganda film In the Fight Against the World Enemy by director Karl Ritter .

With the outbreak of the Second World War , Fugger received the status of an officer for special use on September 1, 1939 and was assigned to the Neustadt airport area until mid-1940 . From January 19, 1940 to July 1942, he was second general staff officer (Ib) of the quartermaster with Luftflotte 4 ; in this position he was promoted to colonel on August 1, 1941 . From July 1942 to January 1943 he was Airport Area Commander 1 in Military District XVII ( Vienna ), then until July 1943 Airport Area Commander in Military District VIII ( Breslau ) and finally until the beginning of May 1945 Airport Area Commander 6 in the Military District IV ( Saxony ). On January 30, 1945 he was promoted to major general . In the last days of the war Fugger was chief of the anti-tank staff at Luftgau Command VIII. On May 7, 1945 he was taken prisoner by the Soviets in POW camp 5110/48 Woikowo .

Fugger was released from captivity on June 25, 1955 and returned to Germany with the last of the returnees . He died on July 8, 1966 in Hamburg.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dieter A. Binder (Ed.): Destroy immediately. The confidential letters of Kurt and Vera von Schuschnigg 1938–1945 . Verlag Amalthea, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-85002-393-1 , p. 72; Anton Hopfgartner: Kurt Schuschnigg. One man against Hitler . Verlag Styria, Graz / Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-222-11911-2 , p. 235.
  2. ^ Daniel Gethmann: The Narvik Project: Film and War. Literature and reality. Bouvier, 1998, ISBN 3-416-02778-7 , pp. 109 and 274.
  3. ^ Karl Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945 , Part II, Volume 1: Abernetty – v.Gyldenfeldt, Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-1701-1 , pp. 333–334.
  4. ^ Karl Giese : Generalsfeme. The revenge of the late comers. In: Der Spiegel from November 27, 1957
  5. ^ Died: Leopold Graf Fugger-Babenhausen In: Der Spiegel , 30/1966.
personal data
SURNAME Fugger von Babenhausen, Count Leopold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently Major General of the Air Force of the Wehrmacht
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Ödenburg ( Hungary )
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1966
Place of death Hamburg