Robert Knauss

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Robert Knauss as Lieutenant General

Robert Knauss (born June 14, 1892 in Stuttgart , † February 14, 1955 in Ronco sopra Ascona near Locarno ) was a German officer , most recently General der Flieger in World War II .

Life

Knauss joined the infantry regiment "Kaiser Friedrich, King of Prussia" (7th Württembergisches) No. 125 in his hometown on July 1, 1910 as a flag junior . On February 25, 1911, he was appointed ensign and on November 18, 1911, he was promoted to lieutenant . When the First World War broke out , Knauss and his regiment were deployed as platoon leader on the western front . In May 1915 he switched to field pilots , was employed as an observer and on September 18, 1915 was promoted to first lieutenant . On June 1, 1918, he joined the staff of the 52nd Reserve Division and was promoted to captain in October . Knauss received both classes of the Iron Cross for his military achievements .

After the end of the war he remained with the division staff until January 1919 and then worked in the Reichswehr Ministry until he left military service on January 20, 1920 . He then studied economics and constitutional law at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin and obtained his doctorate. In the following years he worked for Deutsche Lufthansa AG (DLH), among others , and rose to become a board member there. "The terrorization of hostile capitals or industrial areas by bombing ..." he already approved in 1933 as director of the DLH in a memorandum on air warfare. On April 1, 1935, he joined the Air Force as a major . On October 1, 1937, Knauss was given command of the Greifswald training squadron, from which the training squadron 1 was formed on November 1, 1938 , which he was to lead during the attack on Poland after the start of the Second World War . From April 10 to May 9, 1940 Knauss was Chief of Staff at the Commander of the Air Force Norway and then until October 4, 1940 in the same position with Air Fleet 1 . As such, he had been appointed major general on August 1, 1940 .

From October 5, 1940, Knauss acted as commandant of the Air War Academy in Berlin-Gatow and in this function became Lieutenant General on August 1, 1942 and General der Flieger on March 1, 1944. He was transferred from June 19, 1944 to January 31, 1945 to the Führerreserve and then put at the disposal of Luftgau Command V (Stuttgart). With the total German surrender , Knauss fell into French captivity on May 8, 1945 , from which he was released on December 28, 1945.

In 1950, Knauss belonged to the Himmeroder group of experts , which developed the basis for rearming the Federal Republic of Germany .

literature

  • Dermot Bradley / Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand (eds.): The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945. Volume 2: H-N. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1992, ISBN 978-3-7648-2208-8 .
  • Hans-Jürgen Rautenberg / Norbert Wiggershaus : The "Himmeroder Memorandum" from October 1950. Political and military considerations for a contribution by the Federal Republic of Germany to Western European defense , Karlsruhe 1985, ISBN 3-7650-0850-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marian Zgórniak: Europe on the Abyss-1938 . In: European Academy (Hrsg.): Documents and writings of the European Academy Otzenhausen . tape 100 . LIT Verlag Münster, 2002, ISBN 3-8258-6062-0 , ISSN  0944-7431 , p. 57 (374 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ↑ Der Spiegel, April 1, 2003
  3. ↑ See Hans-Jürgen Rautenberg / Norbert Wiggershaus: The “Himmeroder Memorandum” from October 1950, pp. 3–34.
personal data
SURNAME Knauss, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently General der Flieger in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1955
Place of death Ronco sopra Ascona