Shalva Maglakelidze

Shalva Maglakelidze ( Georgian შალვა მაღლაკელიძე ; * 1893 ; † 1976 in Rustavi , Georgia ) was a Georgian politician and commander of the Georgian Legion of the Wehrmacht .

Life

He completed a law degree at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin and received his doctorate there. In the First Republic of Georgia , he was governor of the capital Tbilisi from 1919 to 1920 .

After the Soviet occupation of Georgia by the Red Army , he left his homeland in March 1921 and settled in Germany . In 1924 he became a co-founder and first chairman of the resistance organization Georgian Committee White Georg in Germany.

In 1929 he founded the Iveria Society (later Caucasian Society ) in Riga , which looked after stranded emigrants. In 1933 the company split. Maglakelidze founded the Georgian Society of Latvia , which had close ties to Georgian emigration in France .

In 1942 he became a co-founder of the Union of Georgian Traditionalists in exile and the Georgian National Committee in Berlin. At the same time he took over the chairmanship of the Caucasian Committee based in Germany .

During the Second World War , Maglakelidze took part in the formation of the Georgian Legion of the Wehrmacht, became a general and its commander. He was supported by a German management staff, which was subordinate to the command of the Eastern Legions . In 1941 he created the order of Queen Tamara as the Legion's highest honor. In 1944 he was promoted to major general in the Wehrmacht .

After 1945 he lived in western Germany. From 1949 to 1952 he was a military advisor to Konrad Adenauer . On January 26, 1954 , he founded the Organization of Georgian Soldiers Abroad in Munich . In August of the same year he was kidnapped by agents of the Soviet secret service KGB .

He spent his last years in Rustavi, Georgian SSR , separated from his family who had remained in Western Europe.

Fonts

• Chalva Maglakelidze: Vers la restauration du Royaume de Georgie . In: Tetri Giorgi , No: 99, Paris 1936