Walter Hertel

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Lieutenant Hertel (1920)

Walter Hertel (born February 26, 1898 in Großörner ; † July 8, 1983 in Stuttgart ) was a German officer, most recently a general engineer in the Air Force (Wehrmacht) .

Life

Walter Hertel attended elementary school, higher boys' school in Hettstedt and the humanistic Martin Luther Gymnasium in Eisleben from 1904 to 1916 . In 1916 he joined the Count Kirchbach Infantry Regiment No. 46 as a flag junior. Between 1917 and 1918 Hertel took part in the fighting in Flanders and northern France and was wounded three times. After his promotion to lieutenant on January 16, 1918, Hertel served from 1919 to 1920 in the border guard of the Reichswehr in Silesia near Küstrin and in Frankfurt (Oder) .

In the years 1921 to 1924, after doing a practical job, Hertel began studying general mechanical engineering, especially automotive and aircraft construction, at the TH Stuttgart . He finished his studies with a degree in engineering . From 1924 to 1926 Hertel worked as a research assistant at the chair for automotive and aircraft construction. This was followed by assistant positions at the chairs of factory organization, machine drawing, and aircraft and vehicle construction. Further positions: Aviation school at Sportflug GmbH in Böblingen, Rechlin test center and Berlin-Staaken commercial aviation school . In 1928 he was transferred to the Heereswaffenamt Berlin, department of flight technology, aircraft development and then to aircraft procurement and industrial expansion.

Access badge for the L-Flakturm Zoo in Berlin, November 1944

In the period from 1933 to 1945, Hertel initially served in the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) as a group leader for aircraft procurement, and later as a department head to represent the interests of the Technical Office in the Aviation Ministry at the ammunition ministry. During this time he was appointed senior staff engineer in the newly established engineer corps of the Air Force in 1936 and promoted to senior engineer in 1938. From 1942 Hertel held the rank of general engineer . In his area of ​​responsibility, the procurement of the entire technical equipment, as head of the official group in the Reich Aviation Ministry, lay with the General Aircraft Master . From 1944 until the end of the war in 1945 , Hertel was entrusted with special tasks in the staff of Field Marshal Erhard Milch and u. a. appointed as a member of the supervisory board of Junkers Luftverkehr AG . After the end of the war, Hertel became an American prisoner of war . After several intermediate camps , he was finally taken to the Garmisch-Partenkirchen internment camp . In 1947 he was questioned as a witness in the Nuremberg Milk Trial . In the following years until 1949, after illness and unemployment, he worked as a carpenter in Fürth. From 1949 he was able to work again as an engineer and later also as a department head in the machine factory and iron foundry Albert Stotz AG. At the age of 71 he left there. From 1969 he worked as a freelancer at the Military History Research Office in Freiburg.

Honors

Works

  • Aircraft procurement in the German Air Force , Military History Research Office Freiburg, 2 vol. Unpublished manuscript, in MGFA Lw 16/1 and 2. GoogleBooks

literature

personal data
SURNAME Hertel, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, general engineer in the Air Force
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Großörner , Mansfelder Land
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1983
Place of death Stuttgart