Matthias Kleinheisterkamp

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Kleinheisterkamp as commander of the 6th SS Mountain Division "North", gift dedication for the Yule Festival in 1942

Matthias Kleinheisterkamp (born June 22, 1893 in Elberfeld , † May 2, 1945 at Halbe ) was a German officer , most recently SS-Obergruppenführer and general of the Waffen-SS in World War II .

Life

Matthias Kleinheisterkamp was the son of the railway secretary of the same name and his wife Anna.

After he had passed his Abitur at the municipal high school in Elberfeld, Kleinheisterkamp joined the 1st Westphalian Pioneer Battalion No. 7 of the Prussian Army at the beginning of the First World War on August 2, 1914 as a flagjunker . In October 1914 he was then briefly transferred to the 1st Lorraine Infantry Regiment No. 130 before he came to the Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 219. Here he was used as a platoon leader , battalion and regimental adjutant as well as a company officer and was seriously wounded in the head by a splinter of mine.

After the armistice and the return of his troops to their homeland, Kleinheisterkamp was head of the demobilization command of Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 55. From February to October 1919 he joined the Freikorps Lichtschlag as an adjutant and was then in III. Battalion of the 7th Rifle Regiment in the Freikorps Voluntary Guards Landess Rifle Corps of Neufville.

On January 1, 1921, he was accepted into the Reichswehr and served as platoon leader in the 1st Battalion of the 17th Infantry Regiment . He later served as a machine gun officer in the 2nd Battalion in Göttingen. With the promotion to captain on October 1, 1929, he was appointed chief of the 5th company. From October 1, 1933 to February 1, 1934, Kleinheisterkamp was with the staff of the 6th Infantry Regiment before he left military service at his own request.

On November 1, 1933, Kleinheisterkamp had already joined the General SS (SS No. 132.399). After leaving the Reichswehr, he held various advisory posts at SS Section XIII and SS Upper Section North. On April 1, 1935, he was transferred to the SS disposal force and was until April 1936 as a tactics teacher with the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer, then SS-Sturmbannführer at the SS-Führerschule Braunschweig. Then Kleinheisterkamp became chief of the staff of the inspections of the SS disposable troops under Paul Hausser .

On May 1, 1937, he was accepted into the NSDAP ( membership number 4,158,838).

In October 1937, an SS court case was brought about by Kleinheisterkamp for "getting into debt and not complying with economic obligations", "going on a long business trip without providing the family with the funds necessary to support themselves" and "rumor about a relationship with another woman" opened. He had also said several times that “any coachman” could become a leader in the General SS. The proceedings ended with the termination of the employment relationship with the SS disposable troops on June 1, 1938 due to a lack of suitability. On August 4, 1938, the resignation was reversed and Kleinheisterkamp was assigned to the staff of the SS standard "Germany" in Munich.

From December 1, 1938 he commanded the III. Assault of the SS standard "Germany", which he also commanded after the beginning of the Second World War during the attack on Poland and Holland in 1940. In June 1940 he took over the SS Totenkopf Infantry Regiment 3 of the SS Totenkopf Division and commanded it first in France, then during the attack on the Soviet Union . After Theodor Eicke was wounded , Kleinheisterkamp was charged with running the SS division “Totenkopf” from July 7 to 15, 1941. On December 31, 1941, Kleinheisterkamp replaced Wilhelm Bittrich as commander of the SS division “Reich” and from April 1942 to December 1943 commanded the 6th SS mountain division “North” .

On October 9, 1942, he received a letter of reprimand from the Reichsführer SS for his excessive consumption of alcohol and the harassment of subordinates. Literally wrote Himmler u. a .: "I expect you to stop drinking alcohol for the next two years after you are not yet able to handle it at the age of 49." Although Kleinheisterkamp was close to being replaced, he remained division commander.

From December 15, 1943 to May 1, 1944 Kleinheisterkamp was in the leadership reserve of the Waffen SS in the SS Leadership Main Office. At the same time he was commissioned from January 1 to April 30, 1944 with the formation of the VII. SS Panzer Corps and from February 25 to April 16, 1944 representative of the commanding general of III. (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps Felix Steiner . From August 1944 until the end of the war he was commanding general of the XI. SS Army Corps. On May 2, 1945 Kleinheisterkamp died in Halbe by suicide .

Awards

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (ed.), Andreas Schulz , Günter Wegmann: The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 2: Hachtel – Kutschera. Biblio Publishing House. Bissendorf 2005. ISBN 3-7648-2592-8 . Pp. 511-517.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann: The generals of the Waffen SS and the police 1939-1945. Volume 2 (Hachtel - Kutschera) . Bissendorf 2006, ISBN 978-3-7648-2592-8 .
  2. ↑ a b Ranking list of the German Imperial Army. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1930, p. 151.
  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 , p. 447.
personal data
SURNAME Kleinheisterkamp, ​​Matthias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, SS-Obergruppenführer and general of the Waffen-SS in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1945
Place of death at half