Nikolaus von Falkenhorst
Paul Nikolaus von Falkenhorst (born January 17, 1885 in Breslau , † June 18, 1968 in Holzminden ) was a German army officer (since 1940 colonel general ). During the Second World War he was the commander of various major formations of the army and the Wehrmacht commander of occupied Norway . After the war, he was charged and convicted of war crimes. Falkenhorst was a legal knight of the Order of St. John .
Life
Empire and First World War
He was born under the name Nikolaus von Jastrzembski as a descendant of an old Silesian noble family. He received the Prussian approval to change his name to "von Falkenhorst" with recognition of the nobility and coat of arms that had previously been in charge as a lieutenant in Grenadier Regiment No. 7 on June 6, 1911 in the New Palace near Potsdam. On October 8, 1908, von Falkenhorst married Margarete Dorette Elise Ulrich (born March 14, 1885 in Holzminden).
After his cadet training , he came on March 22, 1903 as an ensign to the Grenadier Regiment "King Wilhelm I" (2nd West Prussian) No. 7 in Liegnitz . In the summer of 1903 he was sent to the war school in Potsdam and then promoted to lieutenant on April 24, 1904 . At the beginning of February 1911 he was appointed adjutant of the Fusilier Battalion and in mid-April 1913 he was promoted to first lieutenant . In the First World War he held various front and staff assignments. On December 24, 1914, he was promoted to captain . From the summer of 1918 until the end of the war he was First General Staff Officer with the German General in Finland . Falkenhorst received both classes of the Iron Cross .
Weimar Republic
After the end of the war he was with the Eastern Border Guard from December 1918 to January 1920 . From February 1920 he was part of the staff of the Reichswehr Brigade 6. On October 1, 1920, the Reichswehr took over him . There he belonged to the staff of the 8th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment . On March 1, 1922, he was transferred to the Reichswehr Ministry and promoted to major on February 1, 1925 . On February 1, 1928, he took command of the 1st Battalion of the 1st (Prussian) Infantry Regiment . On January 1, 1930, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel . On October 1, 1931, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the 4th Division and promoted to Colonel on October 1, 1932 .
time of the nationalsocialism
Pre-war period
From 1933 to 1935, von Falkenhorst was a military attaché responsible for the countries of Czechoslovakia , Yugoslavia and Romania , based in Prague . After that he was from the time of formation in 1935 until October 1936 chief of the general staff of group command 3, from which the 8th Army was later formed. From 1936 until shortly before the outbreak of war he commanded the 32nd Infantry Division , before joining the XXI. Army Corps took over.
Second World War
During the attack on Poland , von Falkenhorst commanded the XXI. Army Corps and was promoted to General of the Infantry on October 1, 1939 . With the instruction for the "Weser Exercise Case" of March 1, 1940, Adolf Hitler appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the ground troops ( Group XXI ) to be used in the occupation of Norway . The operation started on April 9th and ended on June 10th with the surrender of the last Norwegian troops. After Falkenhorst had already been awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on April 30 , he was promoted to Colonel General on July 19, 1940.
On July 25th he was appointed Wehrmacht Commander in Norway, as which he worked with the Reich Commissioner Josef Terboven . Towards the end of the year, Falkenhorst set up the Norwegian Army High Command from his staff . As its commander in 1941, he was responsible for planning the Silberfuchs company . The leadership of the troops on the Lapland front was later transferred to the AOK Lapland . Falkenhorst was replaced as Wehrmacht commander in chief on December 18, 1944 by Lothar Rendulic , whose troops had previously had to withdraw from Finland. In January 1945 he was transferred to the Führerreserve and was taken prisoner by the British at the end of the war.
post war period
After the 3rd Senate of the Reich Court Martial in Berlin the ten Norwegians Sigurd Jakobsen , Gunnar Hellesen , Helge Børseth , Siegmund Brommeland , Peter Andree Hjelmervik , Siegmund Rasmussen , Gunnar Carlsen , Knud Gjerstad , Christian Oftedahl and Frithiof Lund on February 24, 1941 for alleged espionage was sentenced to death, sat Sven Hedin with the help of Colonel General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst with Adolf Hitler successfully for their pardon one. On June 17, 1941, Adolf Hitler commuted the death penalty to ten years of forced labor . The Norwegians Carl W. Mueller , Knud Naerum , Peder Fagerland , Ottar Ryan , Tor Gerrard Rydland , Hans Bernhard Risanger and Arne Sørvag , who had been sentenced to forced labor for the same charge , received reduced sentences from Adolf Hitler on June 17, 1941 at Sven Hedin's request. However, Hans Bernhard Risanger died in prison a few days before his release.
When Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, for his part, was sentenced to death by shooting by a British-Norwegian military tribunal on August 2, 1946 for war crimes (forwarding of the command order and surrender of Allied commando troops in seven cases to the SS for execution) , Sven Hedin obtained his pardon on December 4, 1946 with the reference that von Falkenhorst had also campaigned for the pardon of the ten Norwegians sentenced to death. On December 4, 1946, the English military tribunal replaced the death penalty with 20 years imprisonment. Von Falkenhorst was finally released prematurely from the Werl war crimes prison on July 13, 1953 due to his state of health ( angina pectoris ) . He then spent his old age in Holzminden an der Weser with his wife Margarete Dorette Elise Ulrich, where he died on June 18, 1968. He was buried in the Holzminden cemetery.
literature
- Law-Reports of Trials of War Criminals, Selected and prepared by The United Nations War Crimes Commission, Volume XI, London, HMSO. 1948. TRIAL OF GENERALOBERST NICKOLAUS VON FALKENHORST. BRITISH MILITARY COURT, BRUNSWICK (29TH JULy-2ND AUGUST, 1946), PDF
- Eric Wennerholm: Sven Hedin 1865–1952. FA Brockhaus Verlag, Wiesbaden 1978.
- Johannes Hürter : Hitler's military leader. The German commanders-in-chief in the war against the Soviet Union in 1941/42. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-57982-6 , pp. 626f. (Short biography)
Web links
- Search for "Nikolaus von Falkenhorst" in the German Digital Library
- Search for "Nikolaus von Falkenhorst" in the SPK digital portal of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
- Newspaper article about Nikolaus von Falkenhorst in the press kit of the 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Also on the following orders Johannes Hürter : Hitler's Army Leader. The German commanders-in-chief in the war against the Soviet Union in 1941/42. Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-57982-6 , p. 627 (accessed from De Gruyter Online).
- ↑ Sven Hedin's German Diary 1935–1942. Dublin 1951, pp. 204-217.
- ^ Wennerholm, Eric: Sven Hedin 1865-1952. FA Brockhaus Verlag Wiesbaden 1978, pp. 229-230.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Falkenhorst, Nikolaus von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Falkenhorst, Paul Nikolaus von (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Colonel General in World War II; Wehrmacht commander in Norway (1942–1944) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 17, 1885 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wroclaw |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 18, 1968 |
| Place of death | Holzminden |