Richard Ruoff

Richard Ruoff (left), November 1941

Richard Ruoff (born August 18, 1883 in Meßbach / Württemberg ; † March 30, 1967 in Tübingen ) was a Colonel General during World War II .

Life

family

Richard was a son of the Württemberg bailiff and domain tenant Fritz Ruoff and his wife Maria, née Thomm. Ruoff married Martha Fuchs in 1909, with whom he had four children Elfriede (* 1919), Gerhard (* 1921), Irmgard (* 1922) and Arnold (* 1930).

Military career

After Ruoff had graduated from high school in Heilbronn , he joined the 10th Württemberg Infantry Regiment No. 180 of the Württemberg Army in Tübingen on April 15, 1903 as a flagjunker . He was promoted to lieutenant in mid-August 1904 , was a battalion adjutant in 1910 and was promoted to regimental adjutant as a first lieutenant in February 1913.

With the outbreak of World War I , Ruoff was promoted to captain at the end of November 1914 and was employed as a company commander several times. During the course of the war he was adjutant of the 51st Reserve Infantry Brigade and commanded to the General Staff of the 26th Reserve Division . For his achievements, Ruoff was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , the Knight's Cross of the Order of Military Merit , the Knight's Cross of the First Class of the Frederick Order and the Wound Badge in black.

After the armistice of Compiègne served Ruoff from December 1918 as a company commander in his tribe Regiment and was up to from January 1919 demobilization of his association commander of III. Battalions. When he was accepted into the Reichswehr , he was initially adjutant and general staff officer in the staff of the 5th Division in Stuttgart . In 1923 he became chief of the 11th company of the 14th (Baden) Infantry Regiment in Constance . In 1926 he was promoted to major and in 1931 to lieutenant colonel and commander of the III. Battalion of the 13th (Württemberg) Infantry Regiment in Ulm . In 1933, now promoted to colonel , he became regimental commander in Ludwigsburg . As early as 1934 Ruoff was again General Staff member, this time as Chief of the General Staff of the 5th Army Corps in Stuttgart and then as Major General in 1936 Chief of the General Staff of Army Group 3 in Dresden and finally in 1938 as Lieutenant General Chief of the General Staff of Army Group 5 in Vienna .

On May 1, 1939, while being promoted to General of the Infantry , he took over as Commanding General of the V Army Corps and at the same time became Commander in Military District V in Stuttgart . With this corps Ruoff went to war, first on the Siegfried Line , later the corps u. a. the Meuse crossings and penetrated south over the Aisne section.

In the eastern campaign, his corps penetrated via Suwalki , in the area of Army Group Center , from the northwest to the Moscow Ring Railway . On June 30, 1941, Ruoff was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross , and on January 8, 1942, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 4th Panzer Army deployed in the central section . On June 1, 1942, now promoted to Colonel General, he took over Army High Command 17 and at the end of July led the army from the Don bridgeheads into the Caucasus .

In June 1943, Ruoff was transferred to the Führer Reserve as Colonel General and was no longer used. At the end of the war he lived on Lake Constance . He died on March 20, 1967 in Tübingen.

literature

• 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. 658 f. (Short biography)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1930, p. 120.
2. ↑ 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. 646.