Theodor Groppe

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Theodor Groppe , also called the Black General , (born August 16, 1882 in Trier ; † April 28, 1973 ibid) was a German officer , most recently lieutenant general in World War II . Due to his dissident attitude, he was dismissed from the Wehrmacht in 1933, 1939 and at the end of 1941 .

Life

youth

Theodor Groppe came from a family of landowners, lawyers, doctors and officers from the prince-bishopric of Paderborn , where she provided guild masters and tithe masters. Theodor attended the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Trier and then became an officer. He was strongly influenced by Catholicism .

First World War and Reichswehr

Groppe joined the 2nd Lorraine Infantry Regiment No. 131 in Metz in 1900 . He was the only Roman Catholic officer there. He attended the Anklam War School and the Prussian War Academy , which gave him excellent marks. During the First World War he distinguished himself as a frontline officer and became a brigade and division adjutant. On August 31, 1914, he received the Iron Cross, 2nd class. He always attached great importance to the fact that the field services could be held. In 1918 he led a battalion as a captain and received the order Pour le Mérite .

Weimar Republic

In 1919 he prevented a French cruiser from landing in the port of Pillau and from bringing support for the Spartacists ashore in Königsberg . This resistance to one of the victorious powers caused some outraged expressions in politics. Reichswehr Minister Gustav Noske declared in the Reichstag that Captain Groppe's behavior was not to be blamed. In Königsberg he also met his future wife, Irma Schwarz. In the Reichswehr he went through the career of general staff officer. From 1928 he was in command of the 1st Battalion of the 18th Infantry Regiment in Paderborn . Groppe was then in command of the fortifications near Lötzen from 1930 to 1933 .

During the Nazi dictatorship

Pre-war phase

Immediately after the " seizure of power " by the NSDAP , Groppe - at that time a colonel - was dismissed by the new Reichswehr Minister von Blomberg , previously his immediate superior, on the grounds that he "appeared to be unsuitable for the army of the future National Socialist state according to his entire worldview". When the decisions he received the character as a major general .

Just two months later, Groppe was taken back to the Reichsheer as an employee, as the Nazi government needed experienced officers in its policy of arming the Wehrmacht . He initially worked for the border guard in Opole , and from October 1933 in Gleiwitz . Here, too, he actively resisted attacks by the National Socialists on the Roman Catholic Church and against the Nazi regime itself. For example, he moved into a house inhabited by Jews and attended the service in uniform. At that time, he was warned from church circles that the National Socialists were planning an assassination attempt on him.

In 1935 Groppe was appointed supplementary officer and transferred to Köslin . When he was noticed here, too, he was made an active officer and transferred to Hanau as Landwehr commander, where the NSDAP was rated as particularly strong. Here, too, he did not abandon his Roman Catholic position and his contempt for the regime, for example refusing to give the Hitler salute . Of course he was spied on by the Gestapo . His planned second release on October 1, 1939 was no longer carried out due to the war.

Second World War

Rather took over bullhead at the beginning of the Second World War, the command of the 214th Infantry Division , which in the autumn of 1939 between Merzig and Dillingen on the West Wall was. There, the locally responsible district leader of the NSDAP had ordered “spontaneous rallies” against the Jews for a village in the front area. The major general thereupon issued a divisional order that riots against the Jewish population, if necessary, were to be prevented by force of arms. This was reported to the Commander-in-Chief of the 1st Army , Colonel General Erwin von Witzleben , via the corps . The future General Field Marshal not only approved of Groppe's measures, but also ordered the entire army to prevent riots against Jews by all means. Again Groppe made sure that field services could take place in sufficient numbers. He stood protectively in front of clergymen. Against Heinrich Himmler's order to the SS and the police on October 28, 1939, which made it obligatory for their members to father children at all costs - even outside of wedlock - he raised angry protests at the General Command and others. Covered by Colonel General Erwin von Witzleben and Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb , he was promoted to Lieutenant General on November 1, 1939, but was initially transferred to the Führer Reserve on January 21, 1940 . When his two advocates fell out of favor in late 1941, Groppe was also dismissed.

There were several leading men in the Wehrmacht who refused to bow to pressure from the party and the SS. Colonel-General von Witzleben and Ritter von Leeb threatened to resign immediately if Groppe should be tried. Leeb wrote to the Commander in Chief of the Army :

"I present myself with my whole person before Lieutenant General Groppe, even if he misappropriated the wording of his speech in justified indignation at the order of the Reichsführer SS."

The head of the army justice department, Karl Sack (most recently the general staff judge ), courageously stood up for General Groppe. Von Witzleben and Sack were executed after July 20, 1944 . With a letter dated May 3, 1942, Groppe was given the title “Lieutenant General a. D. “revoked; he was also forbidden to wear uniform. He worked as a works and air raid protection manager at Heraeus , but was also used to dig fragmentation trenches.

After several interrogations - the main point was his resistance to Himmler's reproduction order of October 28, 1939 - he was arrested on August 10, 1944 and taken to Küstrin Fortress , a military prison of the Wehrmacht, in January 1945 . There he was together with Ernst Wirmer , the brother of the Reich Interior Minister Josef Wirmer († September 8, 1944, executed in Berlin-Plötzensee), with the commander of the Dutch army, General Willem Röell (1873-1958), and Lieutenant General Hans Speidel imprisoned. After the group escaped to southern Germany at the end of January with the help of the commandant of the fortress detention center , Major Leussing , they first found shelter in Hersberg Castle. On April 26, 1945, immediately before the shooting, which was planned by Himmler's personal order, the prisoners were able to flee with the help of a priest and go into hiding in the Lake Constance area; in Urnau they were liberated by French troops in the last days of the war.

post war period

Groppe was rehabilitated on January 17, 1952 by the German federal government. On the occasion of his 70th birthday he received from Pope Pius XII. awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Gregorius . In 1947 he published his work A Struggle for Law and Morality . For the US military government, he worked as an expert witness in lawsuits against generals and general staff officers. From 1955 he lived in Trier again. a. the "Franco-German Society".

family

Theodor Groppe's father, Eduard Groppe , was first an officer, then a publisher and bookseller.

Theodor Groppe was married to Anna Adelina Irma, b. Black, and had four children with her. One son was the Jesuit priest and writer Lothar Groppe .

Awards and honors

The Bundeswehr honored Groppe in 1990 by naming a troop accommodation in the Rommel barracks in Augustdorf . In Hanau, where Groppe lived with his family from 1936 to 1954, a street is named after him.

Fonts

  • A struggle for law and custom. Experiences with the Wehrmacht, the party, the Gestapo . 2. revised Edition, Trier 1959.

literature

  • Martin J. Gräßler: Theodor Groppe. General and Christian in the 20th century . In: Military History. Journal for Historical Education, 2019, Issue 1, pp. 10–13.
  • Lothar Groppe: Theodor Groppe (1882–1973) - The "Black General". A German soldier fighting for justice and morals. Vienna 1977 (Reprinted in: Thomas Marin (Ed.): Theodor Groppe, the "Black General" - a Catholic soldier fighting for law and morals. Bad Schussenried 2008, ISBN 978-3-87336-909-2 )
  • Lothar Groppe: Theodor Groppe, the "black general" as a resistance fighter. Vienna 1985.
  • Lothar Groppe, The "black general" struggle for law and custom. In: New Magazine for Hanau History , 2008, pp. 193–222.
  • Horst Mühleisen: Theodor Groppe. A general in the resistance against National Socialism. In: Kurtrierisches Jahrbuch, Volume 27, 1987, pp. 145–210.
  • Thomas Marin (Ed.): Theodor Groppe, the "Black General" - a Catholic soldier fighting for law and morals. Bad Schussenried 2008, ISBN 978-3-87336-909-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Walter Habel (Ed.): Who is who? The German who's who. XII. Edition of Degeners who is it ?, Berlin 1955, p. 368.
  2. ↑ The visit to the academy took place together with Kurt von Schleicher .
  3. ↑ “An indestructible soldier nature of ravishing freshness and a willingness to take responsibility”. (Lothar Groppe: The fight of the “black general”. P. 193).
  4. ^ Theodor Groppe: A fight , newspaper reports from the 1950s. And Lothar Groppe: The “black general” fight.
  5. ↑ a b Felizitas Küble: A general in the fight for the life of the Jews and the dignity of women. Christian Forum, June 14, 2011, accessed June 27, 2017 .
  6. ↑ See: Writings; Complete reprint of the 2nd edition. In: Thomas Marin (Ed.): Theodor Groppe, the “Black General” - a Catholic soldier fighting for law and morality. Bad Schussenried 2008, ISBN 978-3-87336-909-2 .
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g h Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Berlin 1930, p. 115.
  8. ↑ a b c Thomas Marin (ed.): Theodor Groppe, the "Black General" - a Catholic soldier fighting for law and morals , Bad Schussenried 2008, ISBN 978-3-87336-909-2 , p. 175 f.
  9. ↑ Hans-Michael Müller: Resistance fighter and role model. Long misunderstood and honored late: On December 12, 1939, General Theodor Groppe issued a courageous shooting order to protect the Jewish population. In: Hanauer Anzeiger , December 13, 2014, p. C1 ( magazine for the weekend )
personal data
SURNAME Bullhead, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently lieutenant general in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH trier
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1973
Place of death trier