Lothar Debes

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Lothar Debes in uniform

Lothar Debes (born June 21, 1890 in Eichstätt , † July 14, 1960 in Bergisch Gladbach ) was a German officer, most recently in the rank of lieutenant general of the Waffen SS and SS group leader .

Life

The son of a magistrate switched to a Bamberg grammar school after attending primary school. At the age of 14 he chose the career of a professional soldier and entered the Bavarian Cadet Corps in Munich , where he passed his Abitur in July 1910 . He then served in the 18th Infantry Regiment "Prince Ludwig Ferdinand" . In January 1911 he transferred from the Bavarian Army to the Prussian Army and served with the rank of ensign in the 2nd Nassau Infantry Regiment No. 88 . After attending the war school in Gdansk , he became a company commander in this regiment, where he initially took command of a combined engineer battalion and then of the 5th Company during the First World War . After a war injury in June 1916 he worked at the XVIII. Army Corps in Frankfurt am Main as a deputy adjutant and then as an orderly officer with the reorganization of units for the Romanian theater of war . From September 27, 1917 he was a member of the staff of the 223rd Infantry Division and was immediately assigned to the Military Directorate-General of the Railways in Brussels , where he was responsible for organizing supplies at the Military Canal Directorate (MKD) was.

In mid-November 1918 he was commissioned by the head of the field railways to negotiate with the French side and shortly afterwards took part in the armistice negotiations in Spa . After the end of the war he was involved in the dissolution of the military canal directorate in Berlin and at the end of March 1920 resigned from the army as a captain at his own request.

Debes was married to Irmgard Meinhard (* 1890), widowed Eger, since November 1920. He completed a commercial apprenticeship and then worked for several companies in the commercial sector until 1937. Debes was deputy to the local group leader of the Reich Association of German Officers in Cologne .

Debes' SS ranks
date rank
March 1937 SS-Sturmbannführer
September 1938 SS-Obersturmbannführer
January 1940 SS standard leader
November 1940 SS-Oberführer
June 1942 SS Brigadefuhrer and Major General of the Waffen SS
January 1944 SS group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS

Debes joined the NSDAP ( membership number 240.110) in early May 1930 before power was handed over to the National Socialists . On March 1, 1937, Debes was accepted into the Schutzstaffel (SS) with the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer (SS-No. 278.953) and worked full-time for the SS. From March 1937, Debes took over teaching activities as a tactics instructor at the SS Junk School in Braunschweig , of which he was in command from the beginning of January 1940. In January / February 1942, during the German-Soviet War, he took command of a unit of the 2nd Motorized Infantry Brigade and then, until August 1942, of the SS Infantry Regiment 9. In August 1942, he took over the management of the SS Junker School in Bad Tölz and in February 1943 completed an apprenticeship as a division leader at the armored troop school in Wünsdorf . From mid-February 1943 to mid-November 1943, he commanded the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg", which was finally designated . He was then transferred to the 6th SS Mountain Division "North" , which he commanded from mid-December 1943 to mid-June 1944. After a one-week interlude as commander of the Waffen-SS Ost in the Generalgouvernement with its official seat in Cracow , he was in command of the Waffen-SS in Italy from June 21, 1944 until the end of the war in May 1945 . Through this post he is jointly responsible for war crimes committed by units subordinate to him, such as B. Massacre of the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS" . At the end of January 1944 he was promoted to SS group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS. Debes was a participant in the group leader conference on October 4, 1943 in Posen , where Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler had given his Posen speech .

After the end of the war, Debes resigned as a lieutenant general. D. in the Bundestag constituency Remscheid - Solingen (No. 74) unsuccessfully for the DRP for the Bundestag election 1957 .

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Life data according to Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann: The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police. Volume 1, Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 2003, p. 206. Alternatively, Osnabrück is also mentioned as the place of death .
  2. ↑ Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann: The generals of the Waffen SS and the police. Volume 1, Bissendorf 2003, p. 207 f.
  3. ↑ Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann: The generals of the Waffen SS and the police. Volume 1, Bissendorf 2003, p. 208.
  4. ↑ Information from Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann: Die Generale der Waffen-SS and the police. Volume 1, Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 2003, p. 206.
  5. ^ Stefan Klemp: Concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim. The story of a manhunt. Münster / Berlin 2010, p. 56 f.
  6. ↑ Debes, Lothar . In: Martin Schumacher (Ed.): MdB - The People's Representation 1946–1972. - [Daecke bis Dziekan] (=  KGParl online publications ). Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties e. V., Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-020703-7 , pp. 203 , urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-2014070812574 ( kgparl.de [PDF; 212 kB ; accessed on June 19, 2017]).
  7. ↑ a b c d Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann: The generals of the Waffen SS and the police. Volume 1, Bissendorf 2003, p. 206 f
personal data
SURNAME Debes, Lothar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and SS group leader
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Eichstatt
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1960
Place of death Bergisch Gladbach