Rudolf Konrad (General)
Rudolf Karl Peter Georg Konrad (born March 7, 1891 in Kulmbach ; † June 10, 1964 in Munich ) was a general in the mountain troops of the Wehrmacht . He was the founding father of the comrades group of the mountain troops .
Career
On July 10, 1910 Konrad resigned as officer candidates to the 1st Field Artillery Regiment "Prince Regent Luitpold" the Bavarian army in and took as an officer in the First World War in part. On June 18, 1917, he was slightly wounded. During the war, Konrad received both classes of the Iron Cross , the Military Merit Order IV. Class with war decorations and swords, and the wound badge in black.
In the interwar period he continued his career without interruption due to the dissolution of the Bavarian Army in various positions, mainly within the 7th (Bavarian) Division of the Reichswehr and in the Reichswehr Ministry. After the formation of the Wehrmacht , he set up the Mountain Infantry Regiment 100 as a colonel in October 1935 . A year later he moved to the group command 2 in Kassel as first general staff officer (Ia). After the " Anschluss " He was on April 1, 1938 Chief of General Staff of the in Salzburg newly formed XVIII. Army corps, with which he took part in the attack on Poland as major general (since April 1, 1939) at the beginning of World War II . In February 1940 he became Chief of the General Staff of the 2nd Army, led by General Maximilian von Weichs' cavalry, and took part in the Western campaign with them.
From November 5, 1940, Konrad held the post of Army Liaison Officer to Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force , Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring , and was promoted to Lieutenant General on December 1, 1940.
On December 1, 1941, he briefly took over the 7th Mountain Division, which had been newly formed from the 99th Light Infantry Division . On December 19, 1941, during the winter crisis , Konrad von Hitler personally became the commanding general of XXXXIX in southern Russia . Mountain Corps appointed, which up until this point had been commanded by Ludwig Kübler , who was promoted to army commander in the central section. At the turn of the year 1941/42 Konrad issued an order to his troops in which it was u. a. was called:
“Our entire dedication belongs to the Führer and his work. We want to guard it and carry it victoriously through the New Year to the healing of Germany. "
On April 20, 1942, at a ceremony on the occasion of Hitler's birthday (“ Führer birthday ”), Konrad praised the “commander's genius of the Führer” in front of his assembled staff:
“It was the general genius of the Führer who made the German armies hurry from victory to victory. It was his merit to recognize the intrusion of the Bolshevik hordes into Europe at the right moment and to parry the blow at lightning speed. To emulate this indomitable will in the utmost fulfillment of duty, whatever may come, be our vow on today's birthday of the Führer. "
On August 1, 1942, Konrad received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . With his mountain corps he then took part as part of the 17th Army in the Battle of the Caucasus , where the heaviest and costly battles had to be held. In 1943, successful defensive battles followed in the so-called Kuban bridgehead before the army was withdrawn to the Crimea in autumn . In the appendix to an instruction from the general dated March 7, 1943, it says:
“The Jews are our misfortune. The Jews are the misery of the peoples of Russia. Why we wage war (fight against the world enemy - Judaism). "
In his area of command in the Crimea from the end of October 1943 he cracked down on partisans and completely destroyed entire villages south of the Karassubasar - Suja line . The anti-Semite Konrad also worked willingly with SS and police leaders. (see also Crimes of the Wehrmacht ).
As commanding general of the XXXXIX. From autumn 1943 Konrad had the mountain corps in command of the northern part of the peninsula with the particularly endangered isthmus of Perekop . This is where the Soviets launched their major attack, which began on April 8, 1944. Konrad succeeded in bringing the bulk of his troops back to the Sevastopol fortress , not least because he had had such a retreat prepared as a precaution. A few days before the end of the battle of the German and Romanian troops for Sevastopol, Konrad was recalled on May 10, 1944 on Hitler's orders as commanding general and soon afterwards had to face a court martial . However, Konrad was acquitted and rehabilitated.
In October Konrad lost his son Eberhard, born in 1923, who fell as a lieutenant on the Murmansk front.
From December 4, 1944, Konrad was used again and was given command of the expansion of the so-called " Margarethen position " in the Army Group South, which was now fighting in Hungary . On January 27, 1945 Konrad became the commanding general of the LXVIII. Army corps of the 2nd Panzer Army , which held its front line between Lake Balaton and Drava. He led the corps in Austria until the surrender in May 1945. On May 8, 1945, he was taken prisoner by the English in Carinthia , from which he was released in 1947.
Maintenance of tradition
In 1952 Konrad called the “ Comrades Group of the Mountain Troops ” into being. In the same year the “comrades circle” invited to the Whitsun meeting for the first time. Since then, the former mountaineers have been gathering every year to commemorate their fallen comrades. At the beginning they met in front of the Feldherrnhalle in Munich for the “Day of Loyalty”, and since 1957 at a war memorial erected by the “Kameradenkreis” for this purpose on the Hohe Brendten near Mittenwald for the “ Brendten celebration ”.
Already two years before the founding of the Bundeswehr , on the “Day of Loyalty” in May 1953, people were looking forward to rearming and spoke of a “new Wehrmacht”. In front of the 10,000 mountain soldiers in Munich, Konrad hoped (sic!) That "the same men, the old soldiers who were once the strength and glory of the German army and the pride of the German people, are in the new shell."
On June 13, 1966, the Bundeswehr barracks in Bad Reichenhall was named after the mountain troop general Rudolf Konrad. In the commemorative publication " 25 years of the Bad Reichenhall Mountain Infantry Battalion on the Day of the Mountain Hunters on July 4, 1982 " it says:
"With the naming a man was honored who excellently united the virtues in his person that make the soldier leader: high personality, comprehensive spirit, military ability and deep humanity."
In April 2012, however, the Federal Ministry of Defense announced a renaming. The barracks have been called Hochstaufen barracks since August 1, 2012 to emphasize the mountain troops' ties to the region.
publication
Battle for the Caucasus , Copress-Verlag Hoffmann & Hess, Munich, no.
literature
- Hermann Frank Meyer : Bloody edelweiss. The 1st Mountain Division in World War II . 3rd, revised edition. Ch.links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-447-1 , p. 76, 83–84, 268, 668, 691 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- Wolfgang Keilig : The generals of the army. Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg 1983, p. 181.
- Jakob Knab : “Timeless military virtues” - maintaining tradition in the Bundeswehr . In: Die Zeit , No. 46/2005.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Jakob Knab : "Timeless Soldier Virtues" To this day, the Bundeswehr has not succeeded in breaking the fetters of a fatal cultivation of tradition. In: Die Zeit , No. 46/2005.
- ^ Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv Freiburg, holdings: RH 24-49-102.
- ^ Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv Freiburg, holdings: RH 24-49-219.
- ↑ Bad Reichenhall: Renaming of the "General Konrad barracks" and the "Artillery barracks" to "Hochstaufen barracks" . Press release from July 31, 2012
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Konrad, Rudolf |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Konrad, Rudolf Karl Peter Georg (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German general of the mountain troops in World War II, founding father of the comrades group of the mountain troops in the Third Reich |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 7, 1891 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kulmbach |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 10, 1964 |
| Place of death | Munich |