Roland von Hößlin

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Commemorative plaque in Bamberg Cathedral

Roland Richard Ernst Balthasar von Hößlin (born February 21, 1915 in Munich ; † October 13, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German officer and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Hößlin came from an old family of cavalry officers ; he was the son of Major General Hubert von Hößlin and his wife Rosa nee Rist.

Roland von Hößlin graduated from the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich in 1934 , then joined the Reichswehr and became a flag junior in the 17th (Bavarian) cavalry regiment in Bamberg . On April 1, 1936, he was promoted to lieutenant . 1939 during the Second World War, he took over as lieutenant and adjutant in the reconnaissance unit 10 at the invasion of Poland in part. He later became an instructor at the tank troop school in Krampnitz near Potsdam . From March to July 1941 he served as an orderly officer with the staff of the German Africa Corps in Libya under the later Field Marshal Erwin Rommel . On August 20, 1941 he was appointed chief of the 3rd Company of Panzer Reconnaissance Department 33 , in February 1942 he was promoted to captain and after the failure of his commander he took over the management of Reconnaissance Department 33. On July 12, 1942 Hößlin was appointed leader of the reconnaissance department 33 seriously wounded in the fight against parts of the 5th Indian Division in the right arm and was operated on in Berlin by the surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch . On July 23, 1942, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . In March 1943, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg visited him , who obtained information from Hößlin on the African theater of war before he was transferred to Tunis. In autumn 1943 Hößlin took part in a commanding course.

In February 1944 Hößlin became the commander of the officer applicant school (tank reconnaissance training department for officer applicants) in Insterburg (East Prussia). In April 1944, while visiting his former regimental comrade Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg in Berlin, he was initiated into the conspirators' plans to overthrow Adolf Hitler . At the beginning of June 1944 it was agreed in Berlin that in the event of a successful coup he would march with the staff of his department, an armored company and a company on wood gas trucks in East Prussia ( Military District I ) from Insterburg to Königsberg and there the Gauleitung, the government, the public Should occupy the building, the telegraph office and other facilities. For this, Hößlein calculated a journey time of around six hours to Königsberg. On July 15, 1944, Stauffenberg wanted to trigger the coup for the first time and the planned units of the reserve army were already alerted. Hößlin put his department on the march to Koenigsberg , but canceled the operation when the alarm was lifted. The assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler took place on July 20, 1944 and surprised Hößlin, who did not receive the first telex from the Bendler block until 6 p.m. , i.e. at a time when it was already known that Hitler had survived the assassination attempt.

On August 1, 1944, the department was relocated to Meiningen and Hößlin was promoted to major . On August 23, 1944, Hößlin was arrested by the Gestapo in Meiningen and taken to Berlin to the prison on Lehrter Strasse, later to the prison in Tegel, where he was dishonorably released from the Wehrmacht with other conspirators . In a farewell letter to his parents, Roland wrote: "The impetus for my actions was only my duty". On October 13, 1944, the People's Court under President Roland Freisler, together with the defendants Georg Schulze-Büttger and Hans-Jürgen Graf von Blumenthal, tried Hößlin and he was sentenced to death for the most serious treason and hanged in Plötzensee on the afternoon of the same day .

In Bamberg Cathedral , a plaque commemorates the five "Bamberger Reiter", which in the fight against the Nazi regime who lost their lives, among them Roland von Hößlin.

literature

  • August von Kageneck : Between oath and conscience: Roland von Hößlin, a German officer. Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-550-07805-6 .
  • Hartmut von Hösslin: Hösslin. Data from 5 centuries. Wißner, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-89639-087-2 .
  • Hartmut von Hösslin: Two brothers in the storm of their years.
  • Linda von Keyserlingk-Rehbein: Just a "very small clique"? The Nazi investigation via the network of July 20, 1944. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86732-303-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Annual report on the Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Munich. ZDB ID 12448436 , 1933/34
  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. 144.
personal data
SURNAME Hößlin, Roland von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hößlin, Roland Richard Ernst Balthasar von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1944
Place of death Berlin-Plötzensee