Otto Haas (officer)

Otto Haas (born August 14, 1864 in Ludwigsburg , † December 31, 1930 in Stuttgart ) was a German lieutenant general in the Reichswehr . After the end of the First World War , he participated as commander of the Haas volunteer department in the overthrow of the Munich Soviet Republic and, as commander of the Reichswehr troops deployed in the eastern Ruhr area, in the suppression of the Ruhr uprising of March 1920.

Life

origin

Haas came from a family of officers. His father had commanded a company in the Franco-German War in 1870/71 and ended his military career as a colonel on the Hoher Asperg .

Military career

He attended the lyceum in his home town and then, like his brother Otto (* 1861), the Oranienstein cadet house and the main cadet institute in Groß-Lichterfelde . On May 4, 1882, Haas was sworn in as Portepeefähnrich in the Grenadier Regiment "King Karl" (5th Württembergisches) No. 123 of the Württemberg Army . Here, on November 6, 1882, he was promoted to second lieutenant . From May 23, 1887 he served in the 8th Württemberg Infantry Regiment No. 126 and was commanded from October 1, 1891 to June 30, 1894 for further training at the Prussian War Academy in Berlin. As Prime Lieutenant Haas was assigned to the 53rd Infantry Brigade in mid-March 1896 and was transferred to the infantry regiment "Kaiser Friedrich, King of Prussia" (7th Württembergisches) on April 18, 1896 while simultaneously being promoted to captain and remaining in this command. No. 125 offset. On February 24, 1898, Haas was appointed company commander in the Grenadier Regiment "King Karl" (5th Württembergisches) No. 123. On August 18, 1901, he was placed à la suite of this regiment and until June 14, 1905, Haas was commanded as a company commander at the Marienwerder NCO School . Then promoted to major , he was adjutant at the General Command of the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps . In 1908 he was commander of the 2nd Battalion in the Grenadier Regiment "Queen Olga" (1st Württembergisches) No. 119 in the Weingarten garrison and in April 1912 was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1913/14 he was on the staff of the fusilier regiment "Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, King of Hungary" (4th Württembergisches) No. 122 . Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War , he took command of the infantry regiment "King Wilhelm I" (6th Württembergisches) No. 124 as a colonel .

First World War

During the First World War, Haas and his regiment were initially deployed on the western front in the Argonne and Flanders . In April 1916 he took command of the 54th Infantry Brigade and in July 1916 of the 51st Reserve Infantry Brigade. With his brigade , Haas took part in the Battle of the Somme , the Battle of Arras and the fighting in Flanders, and on the Italian front in the Twelfth Battle of Isonzo . He was promoted to major general on September 16, 1917 and appointed commander of the 44th Reserve Division on March 16, 1918 , which he also commanded during the German spring offensive of 1918 . He was considered an energetic and successful, but also tough commander.

Weimar Republic

Munich Soviet Republic and Ruhr uprising

After the end of the war, Haas returned to Weingarten. In February 1919 he was appointed commander of newly established border guards . On behalf of the Stuttgart government , he called for the establishment of a volunteer department from Württemberg, which was stationed in Münsingen . After the proclamation of the Munich soviet republic , the Haas volunteer division in regimental strength (approx. 2300 men) was combined with other units from the Württemberg security forces and free corps. Under the command of Haas and Lieutenant Colonel Erich Wöllwarth , the Württemberg troops advanced from Ulm via Memmingen , Kempten and Landshut to Pasing .

During the crackdown on the Soviet Republic, Haas, as the leader of the West Group of the government troops, ordered on May 1, 1919 that prisoners who confronted the government troops with weapons in hand were to be shot immediately. The troop commanders were to form field courts over the other prisoners, who would have to rule on executions under civil law . For the historian Heinrich Hillmayr, these field courts were “a pure farce”. Shootings were often carried out without their decision, and no noteworthy records of their verdicts were also not discovered. After it became known that prisoners were being shot by supporters of the Soviet Republic in Munich's Luitpold-Gymnasium, all Russians who were found in German uniforms or with guns in hand were outlawed. On the basis of Haas' ordinance, 52 Russians, among others, who had been arrested unarmed but in German uniform by Württemberg troops at the Pasing train station , were shot on May 2, 1919 in a sand pit in Graefelfing . The establishment of field courts violated the military penal code , which provided for such field courts only against foreigners during a state of war . Proceedings were initiated against Haas, which were discontinued in March 1920. Haas' way of acting, so the reason for the attitude, was explained by the great urgency with which the action against Munich had to be prepared and carried out, the prevailing unrest and the great bitterness of the government troops towards the enemy within.

After the conclusion of the Versailles Treaty , the volunteer department was dissolved and in August 1919 partially integrated into the new Reichswehr Brigade 13 under the command of Haas. Haas was also appointed state commander of Württemberg . During the Kapp putsch, he behaved ambiguously. So he let his officer corps vote on whether they were for or against the new government. While all but two of the officers wanted to take Kapp's side , the teams declared themselves against the putschists. Tensions arose between the Reichswehr and the state government because the state government refused to comply with Haas' demand for a state of emergency , which would have given him the executive.

With the Reichswehr-Brigade 13 Haas was on March 20, 1920, striking down the Ruhr uprising in the Ruhr posted. The brigade was reinforced by volunteers from the University of Tübingen and the Technical University of Stuttgart, as well as by the detachment from Oven to the Haas division . Haas also took command of the troops of the Epp division , which were also approaching the Ruhr area from the east. The troops were combined as a group division Haas . Haas had his staff prepared a briefing for the troops, which declared that the uprising had been prepared for a long time and claimed that the decision in the Ruhr area was now being made as to whether Bolshevism would win in Germany or not.

Retirement from military service

In May 1920, Haas was appointed commander of Reichswehr Brigade 5 in Frankfurt an der Oder . On December 1, 1920, he was promoted to Lieutenant General with seniority from October 1, 1920 , and on this date was appointed Infantry Leader VI based in Hanover . Haas asked to leave, presumably because he was close to General Walther Reinhardt , who represented a different conception of the future Reichswehr than Wilhelm Groener and Hans von Seeckt . On August 2, 1921, the application was approved and Haas retired.

Civil life

As a retiree, Haas joined the German People's Party and was elected chairman of the Stuttgart local group in 1926. From 1926 to 1928 he was deputy state chairman of the DVP in Württemberg . He died after a long illness.

literature

• Gerhart Binder: Otto Haas - a "Prussian Swabian". In: Schwäbische Heimat 39 (1988), 227-238.
• Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Markus Brockmann: Die Generale des Heeres 1921-1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 5: v. Haack-Hitzfeld. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1999. ISBN 3-7648-2538-3 . Pp. 12-13.
• Wolfgang Mährle: Haas, Otto, Lieutenant General (1864-1930). In: Maria Magdalena Rückert (Ed.): Württembergische biographies including Hohenzollern personalities. Volume II. On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-17-021530-6 , pp. 95-96.
• Hermann Niethammer: The officer corps of the infantry regiment "Kaiser Friedrich, King of Prussia" (7th Württ.) No. 125. 1809–1909. Stuttgart 1909. p. 114.

Web links

• Works by and about Otto Haas  in the German Digital Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Harold J. Gordon Jr .: The Reichswehr and the Weimar Republic. Defense Publishing House Bernard & Graefe. Frankfurt am Main 1959. p. 414.
2. ^ Heinrich Hillmayr: Red and White Terror in Bavaria after 1918. Causes, manifestations and consequences of the violence in the course of the revolutionary events after the end of the First World War. Nusser Verlag, Munich 1974, p. 94.
3. ^ Heinrich Hillmayr: Red and White Terror in Bavaria after 1918. Causes, manifestations and consequences of the violence in the course of the revolutionary events after the end of the First World War. Nusser Verlag, Munich 1974, p. 80.
4. ↑ Erhard Lucas: March Revolution 1920. Vol. 2. The armed workers' uprising in the Ruhr area in its internal structure and in its relationship to the class struggles in the various regions of the empire. Verlag Roter Stern, Frankfurt am Main 1973, p. 99; Heinrich Hillmayr: Red and White Terror in Bavaria after 1918. Causes, manifestations and consequences of the violence in the course of the revolutionary events after the end of the First World War. Nusser Verlag, Munich 1974, pp. 136-138.
5. ↑ Erhard Lucas: March Revolution 1920. Vol. 2. The armed workers' uprising in the Ruhr area in its internal structure and in its relationship to the class struggles in the various regions of the empire. Verlag Roter Stern, Frankfurt am Main 1973, p. 99f.
6. ^ Heinrich Hillmayr: Red and White Terror in Bavaria after 1918. Causes, manifestations and consequences of the violence in the course of the revolutionary events after the end of the First World War. Nusser Verlag, Munich 1974, p. 156.
7. ↑ Erhard Lucas: March Revolution 1920. Vol. 2. The armed workers' uprising in the Ruhr area in its internal structure and in its relationship to the class struggles in the various regions of the empire. Verlag Roter Stern. Frankfurt am Main 1973. p. 157.
8. ↑ Erhard Lucas: March Revolution 1920. Volume 3. Negotiation attempts and their failure; Counter-strategies of government and military; the defeat of the insurrectionary movement; the white terror. Verl. Red Star. Frankfurt am Main 1978. ISBN 3878770855 . P. 107.
9. ↑ Gerhart Binder: Otto Haas - a "Prussian Swabian". In: Schwäbische Heimat 39 (1988). P. 235.