Walter von Unruh (Major General)

Walter von Unruh (born May 3, 1875 in Klein Münche ; † August 4, 1945 in Berlin ) was a German officer , most recently major general in World War II .

Life

Walter was the son of the manor owner Eugen von Unruh and his wife Emma, ​​née Freytag.

On November 5, 1894, Unruh joined the Infantry Regiment "Graf Kirchbach" (1st Lower Silesian) No. 46 of the Prussian Army as a flag junior . There he was promoted to second lieutenant on August 4, 1896 . Another promotion to lieutenant took place in 1906, to captain in 1911. Unruh left the army twice to serve in the protection force of the Cameroon colony . He worked in Africa from June 30, 1900 to November 22, 1902 and from November 19, 1912 to August 12, 1914.

During the First World War he was first company commander in the infantry regiment “Grand Duke of Saxony” (5th Thuringian) No. 94 , and later battalion commander. Here he was promoted to major in 1916 . On December 31, 1920, he resigned from the Reichswehr , conferring the character of a lieutenant colonel , in order to work for the right-wing extremist paramilitary organization Escherich until March 31, 1922 .

On October 1, 1933, Unruh was reactivated as an E-officer for the Reichswehr and headed the Wehr-Bezirkskommando II in Bremen. Promoted to colonel on May 15, 1934 , Unruh resigned from service on September 30, 1935.

At the beginning of the Second World War, Unruh was used again as a second officer and, from 23 September 1939, was initially employed as quartermaster for Ober-Feld-Kommandantur 581. On February 6, 1940 he became First General Staff Officer of the Warsaw Command , shortly afterwards, on March 1, 1940, Commander of the Upper Field Command and City Commandant. He held this post until his transfer to the Führerreserve on April 25, 1942. He had previously been promoted to major general on July 1, 1941.

Unruh's mobilization provision was lifted on June 30, 1942. He died shortly after the end of the war on August 4, 1945 in Berlin-Zehlendorf of cancer and malnutrition .

Remarks

1. ↑ Due to the identical name with the two years younger general of the infantry Walter von Unruh , who was city commander of Brest (Belarus) in the summer of 1941 , there are sometimes confusions in the literature. For example in Christopher Browning: Judenmord. Nazi politics, forced labor and the behavior of the perpetrators. Frankfurt 2001, p. 187.
2. ↑ Death register of the Zehlendorf registry office in Berlin No. 2249/1945.

literature

• Wolf Keilig : The army generals and the medical officers with the rank of general. Podzun-Pallas-Verlag GmbH. Friedberg 1983. ISBN 3-7909-0202-0 . P. 352.