Siegfried Thomaschki

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Siegfried Paul Leonhard Thomaschki (born March 20, 1894 in Miswalde, district of Mohrungen , † May 31, 1967 in Bad Neuenahr ) was a German officer , most recently general of the artillery in World War II .

Life

Siegfried was the son of the Protestant pastor Paul Thomaschki and his wife Elisabeth, née Schucht. After graduating from the Collegium Fridericianum , he joined the 2nd East Prussian Field Artillery Regiment No. 52 on March 4, 1913 as a flag junior . Many members of the Corps Masovia served in the regiment , to which his father also belonged.

First World War

Promotions

As an orderly officer of the 1st division of his regiment, he went to the First World War in 1914 . From August 10, 1915, he commanded the staff guards in the Bug Army . On March 3, 1916, he returned to his regular regiment with which he fought in the Battle of Verdun . From December 13, 1916 he was a department adjutant and at the beginning of May 1917 an orderly and court officer at the regimental staff. On September 1, 1917 leader of the 1st battery of his regiment. After marching back from Flanders to Königsberg , he became a regimental adjutant on December 27, 1918.

After the war he was regimental adjutant of the volunteer field artillery regiment 52 in the East Prussian volunteer corps from February 23, 1919 , which put down the uprising of the Spartakusbund in Königsberg on March 8, 1919. On May 7, 1919 Thomaschki became an artillery brigade adjutant in Graudenz in the 172nd Infantry Brigade under Erich von Tschischwitz . After demobilization , at the time of the workers 'and soldiers' councils , he also received his officers 'salary of 158.33 marks plus 45M boys' money plus 75M demobilization money and 30M housing money .

Reichswehr

Since October 15, 1919, he became adjutant of the Reichswehr Artillery Regiment 1 in the 200,000-man transitional army on October 1, 1920, in the second division in Königsberg. When the 100,000-man army was formed, he was taken over as a department adjutant in the 1st (Prussian) artillery regiment in Königsberg. On October 1, 1923, he became Second General Staff Officer (Ib) of the Königsberg Fortress. At the Hindenburg Days in August 1924 Thomaschki was commanded to lead Paul von Hindenburg through Königsberg. Since August 1, 1925, he became a regimental adjutant, and in February 1928 he became chief of the 5th battery. With her he was posted to the guard regiment for three months . When the Allied occupation of the Rhineland ended, a salute shot on July 1, 1930 in the Lustgarten (Berlin) .

On November 1, 1932, he was transferred to the regimental staff in Königsberg. On October 1, 1933, he came to Küstrin fortress as an artillery officer and adjutant . When the Reichswehr was expanded, on October 1, 1934, he was appointed commander of the 2nd Division of the Allenstein Artillery Regiment (AR 11) in Lötzen . There he later became an honorary member of the Masovia sailing club in Lötzen .

Wehrmacht and World War II

Accepted into the Wehrmacht , he was assigned to the Army and Air Force Intelligence School in Halle (Saale) on October 16, 1935 . Since November 10, 1938 regiment commander of the 3rd Artillery Regiment in Frankfurt (Oder) , he attended an artillery course with Walter Petzel and a training course with Heinrich Himmler in April 1939 . On May 2, 1939 , he paraded in front of Paul of Yugoslavia .

At the beginning of the Second World War , Thomaschki led his regiment in the attack on Poland . The Pomorska Brygada Kawalerii and Polish volunteer organizations were broken up. After crossing the Vistula near Płock , 40,000 Poles were taken prisoner of war in the Battle of the Bzura .

Relocated from Bromberg via the Saar Palatinate to the Belgian border, his troops embarked on the six-week campaign in France . On July 7, 1940 Thomaschki became city commander of Autun . In September 1940 he was sent to Rotterdam for three days, where the Sea Lion operation was to be prepared. Then back in Frankfurt / Oder, he was ordered to Neuruppin in December 1940 , where his regiment was motorized. After attending a course for artillery commanders in Munich, his regiment was hiking on the firing range in May 1941 . The Barbarossa company relocated to East Prussia in mid-June 1941 . At the beginning of the German-Soviet War , the Artillery Regiment (mot.) 3 belonged to the conquerors of Dünaburg and its strategically important bridge over the Danube .

Thomaschki's regiment fought on the Volkhov and Novgorod . When he was appointed artillery commander (Arko 123) in northern Russia on August 7, 1941 , he was subordinate to nine regimental staffs , 35 divisions and 108 batteries . In the autumn of 1941 he led the "Brigade Thomaschki" against Schlüsselburg and the "Kampfgruppe Thomaschki" in the breakthrough to the 11th Infantry Division . In Walther von Brauchitsch's forced resignation , Thomaschki saw the “end of a victorious war”.

Since January 1942 commander of the 11th Infantry Division, he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on November 1, 1942 for his achievements in the First Ladoga Battle and the Battle of Volkhov . When he had to hand in his “eleventh” in September 1943, soldiers of all branches honored him with a kilometer-long trellis and a gun salute . On September 10, 1943, appointed Higher Artillery Commander 303 (HArko 303) of the 18th Army , he fought on a war front that was twice as long as the Western Front in World War I. He bombarded the besieged Leningrad and secured the withdrawal movements in the battle for the bridgehead of Narva . On April 18, 1944, he gave up his command.

From November 22, 1944, he led the Thomaschki Corps Group , which prevented the Soviet 4th Shock Army from breaking through on Frombork . In the Army Group North Thomaschki was with the leadership of from December 27, 1944 X Army Corps in Kurland commissioned. On March 1, 1945, he was appointed commanding general , but on the day the Wehrmacht surrendered in the Kurland basin , he was taken prisoner by the Soviets . At the end of May 1945 he obtained permission to speak to his soldiers again: "Whatever may come - stay upright and decent."

Siberia and homecoming

Sentenced to 25 years in a labor camp in 1949 , he was sent to the Vorkuta labor camp , to Brianka in eastern Ukraine , Krasnopolje, Gondurowka, Maximowka and Asbestos . The soldiers of his old elk head division saved up in the post-war period to enable him to survive. He was only released in 1955 with Adenauer's "Return of the Ten Thousand" . When he returned home, the old comrades waited at the train stations from the Friedland camp to Hamburg to welcome their “Uncle Thom” to freedom. In Hamburg he lived with his family. Prince Louis Ferdinand visited him.

For years he led the traditional association of the 11th Division and took an active part in the work of the East Prussian newspaper . When asked about his worldview, he said: “I am East Prussian - that's probably enough!” After he died in 1967 during a cure in Bad Neuenahr, he was buried on June 9, 1967 in the Ohlsdorf cemetery. He left his wife Herta, daughter of Major General Arthur Schulz-Heyn , daughter Urte (1923–2017) and sons Claus-Jürgen-Siegfried (1927–1987) and Wilhelm.

Awards

literature

  • Werner Buxa : Path and fate of the 11th Infantry Division. Comrades of the members of the former 11th Inf. Division. ISBN 389555183X .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhard Stumpf : The Wehrmacht Elite. Structure of rank and origin of the German generals and admirals 1933–1945. (Military history studies). Harald Boldt Verlag. Boppard am Rhein 1982. ISBN 3-7646-1815-9 . P. 264.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Obituary in the Ostpreußenblatt (PDF; 12.0 MB)
  3. ^ The Ostpreußenblatt (March 14, 1964) (PDF; 12.1 MB)
  4. ↑ The first name of his daughter Urte , who lives in Hamburg, comes from the Baltic States and means whoever is familiar with the sword
  5. ↑ a b c d Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1930. p. 141.
  6. ↑ a b c 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. 743.
personal data
SURNAME Thomaschki, Siegfried
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thomaschki, Siegfried Paul Leonhard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently general of the artillery in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Miswalde, district of Mohrungen
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1967
Place of death Bad Neuenahr