Otto Hitzfeld

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Colonel Otto Hitzfeld in January 1942

Otto Maximilian Hitzfeld (born May 7, 1898 in Schluchsee ; † December 6, 1990 in Dossenheim ) was a German infantry general in World War II .

Life

First World War

During the First World War , Hitzfeld joined the replacement battalion of the 7th Baden Infantry Regiment No. 142 on January 18, 1915 as a volunteer . From July 10, 1915, he was deployed as a flag boy at the front. From May 28 to June 11, 1916, he completed a company and platoon leader course in the 29th Division, and from May 5 to 20, 1917, he served as an orderly and court officer in his main regiment. Then he rose to the adjutant of the III. Battalions. During the fighting on the Western Front , Hitzfeld was seriously wounded on May 11, 1918 and was in the hospital until June 26, 1918 . He was then assigned to the replacement battalion as a company commander, before being used again in his old position as an adjutant from July 29, 1918 until the end of the war. In addition to both classes of the Iron Cross , he received the Knight's Cross, 2nd class of the Order of the Tough Lion, for his work during the war .

Interwar years

After his regiment was returned home, Hitzfeld temporarily served as regimental adjutant from mid-December 1918 to mid-January 1919. After demobilization , he served briefly as an adjutant in the 2nd Baden Volunteer Battalion, formed from the remains of his former regular regiment. This went up in October 1919 in the Reichswehr Rifle Regiment 113 and Hitzfeld was thus taken over into the Reichswehr . On January 1, 1921, he was transferred to the 14th (Baden) Infantry Regiment . He stayed there until the end of September 1931, where he was last assigned to the regimental staff as an intelligence officer. On October 1, 1931, Hitzfeld was transferred to the 6th (Prussian) Artillery Regiment , where he was posted as adjutant of the teaching regiment to the infantry school in Dresden . In April 1932, Hitzfeld was transferred to the 3rd (Prussian) cavalry regiment in Rathenow , with unchanged official employment . He then returned to the infantry school in Dresden in May 1933. On October 1, 1934, he was transferred to the Tübingen Infantry Regiment as a company commander , but on October 15, 1935 he was appointed chief of the 4th ( MG ) company of the 35th Infantry Regiment. From 1936 to 1938 he made up his Abitur , which he had abandoned before the war, and then studied six semesters of history , philosophy and religious studies at the universities of Tübingen , Marburg and Heidelberg . In addition, he worked from January 1937 to November 1938 as a tactics teacher at the Dresden War School and, after the annexation of Austria , at the Wiener Neustadt War School . During his service in Wiener Neustadt at the end of 1938 he was also deployed as first general staff officer on the staff of Major General Hans Wolfgang Reinhard for the invasion of the Sudetenland . On March 11, 1939, Hitzfeld moved to the staff of Major General Erwin Engelbrecht in the same position , where he worked until the beginning of April 1939. Until August 1939, Hitzfeld was employed there at Heeresdienststelle 30 in Krems at Army Group Command 5 in the area of XVII. Army Corps . This command was u. a. responsible for the manning of officers in the corps.

Second World War

Promotions

With the mobilization regulations at the end of August 1939, Hitzfeld was appointed commander of the III on August 26, 1939. Battalion of the 158th Infantry Regiment (as part of the 82nd Infantry Division ), a role he held until November 14, 1940. The following day he rose to the command of the 593 Infantry Regiment (as part of the 323rd Infantry Division ), which he led until July 4, 1941. He then took over the leadership of Infantry Regiment 213 (as part of the 73rd Infantry Division ), which was deployed in the greater Belgrade area after the Balkan campaign ended in June 1941 . In the subsequent Eastern campaign , Hitzfeld led the regiment in the battles on the Bug and the Dnepr and in the Crimea . For his tactical leadership of the regiment during the breakthrough through the Isthmus of Perekop , he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on October 30, 1941 and the Oak Leaves of the Knight's Cross as Colonel on January 17, 1942 (65th award). On August 15, 1942, Hitzfeld was wounded for the fifth time near Krasnodar , for which he was awarded the Wound Badge in Gold. In his next hospital stay, he in Berlin and Baden Weiler spent, he was on 19 August 1942 in the leader Reserve of the Army High Command added, and only on 20 January 1943, the leadership of the 102nd Infantry Division in charge. He became its commander on April 1, 1943 while being appointed major general . At this point in time (after the " Buffalo Movement ") the division was part of the 2nd Army in the area of Army Group Center in the fighting in the Orel , Desna and Gomel areas . On November 5, 1943, Hitzfeld handed over the command to his successor, Major General Werner von Bercken , and until November 1943 rejoined the Führerreserve.

On November 20, 1943, Hitzfeld was appointed commander of the Döberitz Infantry School, which he headed until the end of October 1944. Relocated to the Führerreserve in November 1944, Hitzfeld was assigned to Commander-in-Chief West , General Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt , in December 1944 , for training as a commanding general . Here he was already on December 1, 1944, the deputy leadership of the LXVII. Army corps , whose commanding general he was on March 1, 1945 while being promoted to General of the Infantry . The corps was subordinate to Army Group B in the Roer area and was in the Kassel area and in the Harz at the end of the war . During his time there, Hitzfeld briefly led the 11th Army from April 2 to 8, 1945 and declared the city of Göttingen, overcrowded with refugees, an open city .

On April 19, 1945 he was taken prisoner by the United States , from which he was released on May 12, 1947.

Post-war years

After his release from American captivity, Hitzfeld initially worked as a laborer . He later rose to become a department director in a chemical factory; he held this position until he retired.

Others

Ottmar Hitzfeld (* 1949) is his nephew.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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. 141.
  2. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 , pp. 165 ( google.de [accessed on August 17, 2019]).
  3. ↑ Dermot Bradley: Soldier Fates of the 20th Century. Volume 4: Otto Maximilian Hitzfeld. An infantryman in two world wars. Memories of the General of the Infantry a. D. 1898-1980. Biblio-Verlag 1983, ISBN 3-7648-1269-9 .
personal data
SURNAME Hitzfeld, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hitzfeld, Otto Maximilian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German infantry general in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Schluchsee
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1990
Place of death Dossenheim