Max von Viebahn

Max Rudolf Fritz Gustav von Viebahn (born March 27, 1888 in Detmold , † November 7, 1980 in Stuttgart ) was a German officer. Viebahn was, among other things, head of the administrative group management staff in the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) in the run-up to the Second World War with the rank of general .

Life and activity

Early career

Viebahn was a grandson of Georg von Viebahn and the older brother of Johann-Albert von Viebahn (1889–1977). Viebahn joined the Prussian army on February 14, 1906 as a flag junior , in which he was initially assigned to the Emperor Alexander Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 1 . On August 16, 1907 he was promoted to lieutenant with a patent from February 14, 1906 .

During the First World War , Viebahn belonged to the German Crown Prince Army Group , with which he was deployed on the Western Front . After being wounded, he joined the staff service as an officer. At this time he came into close contact with numerous leading military officers from the 1920s to 1940s, in particular with Kurt von Schleicher , Kurt von Hammerstein, who was Chief of Army Command from 1930 to 1934, and with the later Chief of Staff Ludwig Beck . On October 18, 1915, he was promoted to captain . He also received various awards (Knight's Cross of the Royal Prussian House Order of Hohenzollern with swords, Iron Cross of both classes).

Career in the Weimar Republic

In the interwar period , Viebahn was employed as a captain in the staff of Reichswehr Group Command 1 in Berlin. From autumn 1921 he then served as a member of a battalion staff of the 9th Infantry Regiment . In autumn 1923 or spring 1924 Viebahn was assigned to the staff of the 2nd Division of the Reichswehr in Stettin . During this time he was promoted to major on October 1, 1926 . In 1929 he was posted to the Reichswehr Ministry in Berlin. In this he worked until 1932 in the army training department or as head of the army personnel department in the army personnel office. On October 1, 1929, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in this position (the patent was dated April 1, 1930).

On October 1, 1932, Viebahn succeeded Curt von Eine in command of the 5th Infantry Regiment in Stettin. In this position he was promoted to colonel on February 1, 1933 .

Career in the time of National Socialism

Around 1935, Viebahn was appointed as the successor to Hermann Geyer as Chief of Staff of Group Command 2 in Kassel. In this position he was promoted to major general on November 1, 1935 . On October 1, 1937, he moved to succeed Erich Lüdke as commander of the 34th Infantry Division in Koblenz.

On January 1, 1938, Viebahn was promoted to lieutenant general. Shortly afterwards, on February 5, 1938, he was posted to the High Command of the Wehrmacht (order of February 4, 1938), where he was to take over the management of the "Fuehrungsstab" (Wehrmacht leadership staff). However, he initially took a few weeks' leave to arrange the handover of his division. He did not actually take up service until February 21, 1938.

Viebahn's appointment as Chief of the Wehrmacht Command Staff in Berlin came at the instigation of his old friend Ludwig Beck, who in the meantime had advanced to Chief of the General Staff of the Army. Beck had chosen Viebahn, who was known to be skeptical of the regime, for the important position of Chief of Staff, because he hoped that this would provide an additional brake within the army leadership against the course of foreign policy aggression that he regarded as too risky and pursued by the Reich government led by Adolf Hitler and which had become recognizable in the army command at the end of 1937.

Beck was correct in his assessment of Viebahn as a man who shied away from military adventures. However, the plan failed very quickly to include Viebahn in a front of high officers who were supposed to prevent Hitler as commander-in-chief from military action. During the crisis that unfolded in the first half of March 1938 over the Nazi government's demand to annex the Republic of Austria and incorporate it into the German Reich as a new province, Viebahn suffered a nervous breakdown because he feared that the Austrian crisis would become a general one could wage a European war that would have to end in catastrophe for the German Reich, which was not up to it. He referred in particular to the Treaty of Saint Germain from 1919, in which the victorious powers of the First World War expressly forbade the unification of Austria with the German Empire. His despair over the “game with fire” undertaken by the political and military leadership of the empire went so far that he suffered crying fits and locked himself in his office. Hitler and the head of the Wehrmacht High Command, Wilhelm Keitel , reacted to this by relieving Viebahn of his post, having him temporarily sent to a mental hospital and replacing him with Alfred Jodl , who subsequently proved to be more daring as a willing supporter of Hitler's course foreign policy aggression at the conscious acceptance of a new armed clash between the great European powers.

After his recovery, Viebahn was appointed commander of the 257th Infantry Division . This unit was no longer used during the attack on Poland . Therefore, he first led the division into battle in the western campaign .

On March 1, 1941, Viebahn gave up the leadership of his division. He was in favor with the leadership of the higher commands LX entrusted. On April 1, 1941 he was promoted to General of the Infantry and in this position appointed General Command of the Higher Command LX. With this he was used on the Channel coast in France. He gave up this command in mid-December 1941. On September 30, 1942, he was finally retired from the Wehrmacht.

After the end of the war, Viebahn was taken prisoner by the Allies, in which he remained until around 1948. During this time he was repeatedly questioned as a witness in the context of the Nuremberg trials and other investigative proceedings. After his release he lived with his wife in a village at the northeastern end of the Black Forest .

Promotions

• August 16, 1907: Lieutenant
• October 18, 1915: Captain
• October 1, 1926: Major
• February 1, 1933: Colonel
• November 1, 1935: Major General
• March 1, 1938: Lieutenant General
• April 1, 1941: General of the Infantry

Fonts

• Colonel General Ludwig Beck June 29, 1880 - July 20, 1944. no place, June 29, 1948. (unpublished)
• The path of the German army from 1918–1939.

Web links

• Minutes of some of Viebahn's interrogations from 1947/1948

Individual evidence

1. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham Jr. , Gene Mueller, Hitler's Commanders: Officers of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, and the Waffen-SS. 2012, p. 9; Correlli Barnett: Hitler's Generals. New York 1989, p. 157.