Paul Schultheiss

Paul Schultheiss (born August 17, 1893 in Sonthofen ; † May 26, 1944 near Bayerisch Eisenstein ) was a German Lieutenant General in the Air Force in World War II .

Life

Early career and World War I

Schultheiss joined the Imperial Army on July 3, 1912 and served in the infantry . Until August 2, 1914 he was employed in the infantry regiment "Kaiser Wilhelm, King of Prussia" (2nd Württembergisches) No. 120 , from February 25, 1914 as a lieutenant (patent on February 21). Until February 1915 he then served in Brigade Replacement Battalion 53 and was then commanded as an adjutant of the replacement battalion of the 120 Infantry Regiment. He switched to the air force and completed from May 29, 1915 to April 29, 1916 the pilot training with the pilot replacement department 1. He then became an pilot in Combat Squadron 5 of the Supreme Army Command . From June 30, 1916, Schultheiss was then a pilot in the "Fliegerabteilung 300", which was nicknamed " Pascha " and was deployed from 1916 to 1918 in Palestine . In the theater of war there , Schultheiss and Lieutenant Richard Falke carried out a long-distance flight from Be'er Scheva to Cairo on November 13, 1916, with a stopover in al-Arish , where bombs were dropped on the city and pictures were taken. On April 15, 1917 he was transferred to Kampfstaffel 43, where he was promoted to first lieutenant on April 18, 1917 . On June 19, 1917, he came to the Air Force Replacement Department 10 in Böblingen and from September 26, 1917, he was employed in the Feldzeugmeistererei. On April 24, 1918, he was assigned to Army Flight Park 18 on the Western Front , from where he was transferred to Fliegerabteilung 206 (artillery) just two days later. On October 4, 1918 he came to Flieger Ersatzabteilung 3 in Altenburg , where he saw the end of the war, and on December 16, 1918, he went to Flieger Ersatzabteilung 10, where he was demobilized on January 2, 1919.

In the Reichswehr

After the end of the war there was no more air force and Schultheiss returned on January 3, 1919 as a company officer to the 120 Infantry Regiment. After its dissolution, he initially served at the Böblingen air base from May 25, 1919 and joined the light motor vehicle column 5 on October 1, 1919. On October 1, 1920, Schultheiss became a regimental adjutant for the 18 cavalry regiment . There he was promoted to Rittmeister on November 1, 1924 . He was squadron chief with the 18 rider regiment from October 1, 1926 and on June 1, 1929 initially with the staff of the 3 rider regiment, then from October 1, 1930 with the staff of the 6 rider regiment . On July 15, 1931, he took over the position of a consultant in the air protection office of the Reichswehr Ministry (RWM) and on May 3, 1933 a department head in the RWM combined with promotion to major on February 1, 1934.

At the time of National Socialism

On April 1, 1934, Schultheiss became group commander of the 1st group of Kampfgeschwader 152 . At this point in time there was no official air force, as this was forbidden to the German Reich due to the provisions of the Versailles Treaty . Because of this, his office was given the code name Verkehrsinspektion der DLH . On October 1, 1934, he moved to the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) as an officer z. b. V. before becoming an air attaché in the German embassy in Hungary in Budapest on January 1, 1935 . There took place on 1 January 1936, was promoted to lieutenant colonel and on 1 April 1938 , Colonel . On June 1, 1938, he returned to the RLM, before temporarily taking over duties in the staff of Kampfgeschwader 158 on October 1, 1938 . He then went back to the RLM on February 1, 1939, and took on the task of inspecting the dive fighter pilots . From May 1, 1939, he also took over as a squad commodore of Kampfgeschwader 76 and led it during the attack on Poland . The squadron, which was equipped with the twin-engine Dornier Do 17 , was subordinate to Luftflotte 4 in the southern section of the front. This task ended on November 15, 1939 and he returned to his post in the RLM until he led the inspection of combat and dive-fighting aircraft on January 30, 1940 . On October 22, 1940, he took over the post of higher commander of the Stuka pilot schools , where he was promoted to major general on January 1, 1941 . He was then in 1942 Commander of Higher Flieger-Training-Kommando 4 and on January 1, 1943 he was promoted to Lieutenant General. On March 15, 1943, he went back to the RLM as inspector of education and training in the Air Force and then as senior commander of the air war schools . He died on May 26, 1944 as a result of an accident near Bayerisch-Eisenstein.

literature

• Karl Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück, 1992. Volume 3: “Odebrecht - Zoch”. ISBN 3-7648-1701-1 . Pages 254-255.

Web links

• Henry L. deZeng IV, Douglas G. Stankey: Air Force Officer Career Summaries, Section S – Z. (PDF) 2017, p. 201 , accessed on April 14, 2018 (English).