Otto Korfes

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Otto Korfes (born November 23, 1889 in Wenzen ; † August 24, 1964 in Potsdam ) was a German officer and one of seven former generals of the Wehrmacht who were used in the GDR to build up the armed forces. As division commander of the 295th Infantry Division near Stalingrad with the rank of major general, Korfes was captured by the Soviets . In 1952 he became Major General of the Barracked People's Police in the GDR .

Life

Korfes was the son of a pastor. He attended high school in Blankenburg / Harz and joined the 3rd Magdeburg Infantry Regiment 66 on March 17, 1909 as a flag junior . There he was on 18 October 1909. Ensign and on August 22, 1910. Lieutenant promoted. With the outbreak of World War I , he was initially used as a platoon leader in his regiment and was involved in the conquest of the Liège fortress . In the further course of the war he fought exclusively on the Western Front . On February 25, 1915 he was promoted to first lieutenant and as such regimental adjutant and battalion leader. As a captain (since December 18, 1917), he was transferred to the 7th Division staff on April 11, 1918 . Korfes remained in this position after the end of the war. He resigned on September 30, 1920 from active service of the Reichswehr and was awarded the character as Major awarded.

Then Korfes studied at the Philosophical Faculty of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin . In 1923 he received his doctorate in political science under Max Sering and Werner Sombart . From April 1920 to June 1, 1937 he was employed at the Reichsarchiv in Potsdam , most recently as a senior government councilor at the military history research institute of the army . In 1929 he married Gudrun Mertz von Quirnheim (1907–1979), the daughter of Lieutenant General and President of the Reich Archives, Hermann Mertz von Quirnheim . In 1933 his daughter Sigrid was born, another daughter was the later sociologist Gunhild Korfes.

As a major in the reserve, Korfes was assigned to the 66th Infantry Regiment by the Wehrmacht on June 1, 1935 . With the takeover in the active relationship followed at the same time on October 1, 1937, the appointment as commander of the 1st battalion . After a year, Korfes , who had meanwhile been promoted to lieutenant colonel on February 1, 1938 , was then appointed as regimental commander. Korfes kept this position from the beginning of the Second World War until February 5, 1940, then took over the 518 Infantry Regiment and was promoted to colonel on January 1, 1941 . On November 2, 1942, he gave up command and was temporarily transferred to the Führerreserve until November 16, 1942 . He was then assigned to lead the 295th Infantry Division until January 1, 1943 . At the same time he was appointed major general, he was appointed division commander on January 1, 1943. In the Battle of Stalingrad he fell into Soviet on 31 January 1943 a prisoner of war in 5110/48 Woikowo POW camp . He then became involved in the National Committee Free Germany (NKFD) to call on the German soldiers at the front to surrender and thus put an end to the war. As an NKFD member, he worked closely with Walter Ulbricht in the Soviet Union . As a result, his family members were subject to so-called clan liability and were deported to prisons and concentration camps by the Gestapo .

Korfes was a co-founder of the Association of German Officers . His brother-in-law Colonel Albrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim was part of the core of the military resistance around Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and the conspirators of July 20, 1944. His other brother-in-law Wilhelm Dieckmann was also a captain of the reserve in the military resistance against Hitler and National Socialism and after brutal interrogation was shot dead by the Gestapo on September 13, 1944 in the Lehrter Strasse cell prison in Berlin .

Korfes returned to Potsdam from captivity in 1948. As head of the Potsdam State Archives (1948 to 1952) and the main archive department in the Ministry of the Interior (1949 to 1952), he laid the foundations for the GDR archives. In the GDR he became an active member of the National Democratic Party of Germany and took over the leadership of the People's Police . But the State Security was suspicious of him. From 1952 to 1956, as major general of the barracked people's police, he was head of the historical department of the MdI and deputy head of the staff of the operational department of the barracked people's police. He supported the Museum of German History in terms of scientific content . Since the founding of the National Council of the National Front in February 1950, he was a member of the National Council and chairman of the Potsdam district committee, member of the history section of the Academy of Sciences and from 1958 until his death chairman of the working group of former officers .

His urn was buried in the New Cemetery in Potsdam (Heinrich-Mann-Allee).

Awards

literature

  • Sigrid Wegner-Korfes: "Weimar - Stalingrad - Berlin", The life of the German general Otto Korfes ; Verlag der Nation: Berlin 1994, ISBN 978-3-373-00463-9 .
  • Dieter Lent: Korfes, Otto . In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon: 19th and 20th centuries. Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 341 f.
  • Roland Thimme: Red flags over Potsdam 1933–1989. Paths of life and diaries . Verlag Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-938485-40-8 .
  • Dermot Bradley : The Generals of the Army 1921–1945 Volume 7: Knabe-Luz ; Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2004; ISBN 3-7648-2902-8 , pp. 118-119.
  • Short biography for:  Korfes, Otto . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary notice in Märkische Volksstimme from February 23, 1979
  2. ↑ Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach : "We went through hell". In: Der Spiegel from August 29, 1977
  3. ↑ Marc Zirlewagen:  DIECKMANN, Wilhelm. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 24, Bautz, Nordhausen 2005, ISBN 3-88309-247-9 , Sp. 501-504.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  4. ↑ Cf. Dieter Lent: Korfes, Otto . In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon: 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung Verlag, Hanover 1996, p. 341f.
  5. ^ Der Tagesspiegel : Red flags over Potsdam April 21, 2008
  6. ↑ Klaus Froh & Rüdiger Wenzke, (ed.): The generals and admirals of the NVA: A biographical manual. 5th, through. Edition. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86153-438-9
  7. ↑ Otto Korfes , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 29/1965 of July 12, 1965, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of the article freely available)
  8. ^ Deutsches Historisches Museum: Building a new collection
  9. ^ New Germany of February 4, 1950
  10. ↑ http://www.uni-magdeburg.de/mbl/Biografien/0315.htm .
  11. ^ New Germany of September 15, 1964
  12. ↑ a b Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 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. 466.
  13. ^ New Germany of July 13, 1957
  14. ^ Obituary notice in Neues Deutschland from August 28, 1964
personal data
SURNAME Korfes, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently major general of the People's Police and archivist
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Wenzen
DATE OF DEATH August 24, 1964
Place of death Potsdam