Theodor Spiess

Theodor Spieß (born April 2, 1890 in Berlin , † January 30, 1962 in Hamburg ) was a German Lieutenant General in the Air Force during World War II .

Military biography

Early years and World War I

On June 12, 1909, Spieß joined the Pioneer Battalion No. 3 of the Prussian Army as a flag boy . There he was promoted to private on December 1, 1909 , to non-commissioned officer on December 16, 1909 and to ensign on January 27, 1910 . On November 16, 1910, he became a lieutenant and company officer. After the beginning of the First World War , Spieß was first platoon commander and later company commander in his battalion . On February 28, 1916, he was appointed leader of Mine Throwing Company 5. On March 22, 1916, he was promoted to first lieutenant and appointed chief of his company. From August 15 to September 12, 1918, Spieß served as an orderly officer in the staff of the 5th Infantry Division . He then returned to his main regiment, where he served until it was demobilized in January 1919. During the war he was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords and the Hamburg Hanseatic Cross.

Interwar years

On January 19, 1919, Spieß was appointed to the staff of the Freikorps 1st Marine Brigade and later the Marine Brigade Ehrhardt (2nd Marine Brigade) as an orderly officer . On August 21, 1919 he was accepted into the provisional Reichswehr and assigned to the 18th Reichswehr Rifle Regiment as a battalion adjutant. From October 1, 1920 to September 14, 1922, he was transferred to the 6th Infantry Regiment , where he was used as a platoon leader. At the same time Spieß was in command of the 2nd Division from January 3 to September 3, 1921 . On September 15, 1922, Spieß was appointed chief of the mine thrower company and promoted to captain on October 1, 1922 . In June 1928 he was transferred to the training battalion of the 12th Infantry Regiment in Halberstadt , where he temporarily served as a company commander and temporarily in the staff before joining the III. Battalion of the 16th Infantry Regiment moved to Oldenburg . Here he found use as the chief of the 12th MG Company. On January 1, 1932, Spieß was transferred to the staff of Infantry Leader I in Allenstein , then assigned to the II Marine Artillery Department until the end of September 1934 and in the meantime promoted to major on April 1, 1933 .

On October 1, 1934, Spieß joined the Luftwaffe , where he served as the commander of the Brandenburg flak machine gun department until the end of September 1935 . On October 1, 1935 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed commander of the light flak division II / 22. From October 1936 to March 1937 he was in command of the Flak Regiment 26. Subsequently he was 1st General Staff Officer (Ib) at Luftkreis-Kommando V in Munich , where he was promoted to Colonel on March 1, 1938 . After the Anschluss of Austria , Spieß was assigned to the staff of the Commanding General of the Air Force in Austria on April 1, 1938 , where he served until the end of June 1938.

Second World War

On July 1, 1938, Spieß was appointed commander of Flak Regiment 6 in Hamburg . On August 1, 1939, he was promoted to major general. From December 1939 to the end of February 1940 he then commanded the 6th Flak Brigade in the Mönchengladbach area . On February 29, 1940, he was appointed commander of Air Defense Command 3 in Hamburg, which was named 3rd Flak Division in September 1941 . He was promoted to lieutenant general on August 1, 1941. On July 1, 1942, he was commander of the 13th Flak Division , which he commanded until March 10, 1944 in France . On March 11, 1944, Spieß was transferred to the Führerreserve , where he was available at Luftgaukommando XI in Hamburg until the end of July 1944. On July 31, 1944, Spieß retired from military service and was no longer used until the end of the war. A prisoner of war did not follow.

Works

• Mine throwers in large-scale combat - with the support of war comrades according to the official war diaries. Lehmann Verlag, Munich 1933.

literature

• Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945. Part II, Volume 3: Odebrecht – Zoch. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1992, ISBN 3-7648-2207-4 , pp. 332-333.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1930, p. 136.