Wehrmacht commander

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Command flag for a Wehrmacht commander

An army commander (WBF, letters and isolated with joint-s as a Wehrmacht s commander ) was the Second World War, a territorial commander of military sovereignty in the Wehrmacht occupied countries, a civil administration had.

The areas occupied by the German Reich were either under a military administration or a civil administration. Wehrmacht commanders only existed in countries that were subject to German civil administration, i.e. were administered by a Reich Commissioner or a Chief of Civil Administration (CdZ). The Wehrmacht commanders had no civil administrative tasks, the executive power lay with the chief of civil administration. Wehrmacht commanders based themselves on a network of command offices. Their competencies mostly corresponded to those of a commanding general or commander in a military district . Their subordination was not uniformly regulated. Some of them were directly subordinate to Adolf Hitler , and some of them received their instructions from the High Command of the Wehrmacht . The armed forces commanders commanded the troops of all parts of the armed forces (army, air force, navy) in their area of ​​command and, in addition to the police, were responsible for security tasks and the exploitation of the country for supplying the armed forces.

Wehrmacht commanders represented military interests vis-à-vis the Reich Commissioners or other civil administration heads. If civil areas were affected, however, they took on the implementation of the military demands on their own responsibility. Wehrmacht commanders were only authorized to issue orders in the civilian sector in exceptional military cases.

Wehrmacht commander in chief in the occupied territories

Denmark

From April 1940 the position of the "Commander of the German troops in Denmark" existed, who from July 1940 was subordinate to the commander of the substitute army . On November 14, 1943, the OKW ordered the renaming of this position to "Wehrmacht Commanders in Denmark" with immediate effect.

The commanders of the German troops and the Wehrmacht commanders in Denmark were:

Norway

Similar to Denmark, after the German invasion of Norway in April 1940, the commander of the troops deployed there, General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst , was appointed “Commander of the German troops in Norway”. In July 1940, by order of the chief OKW, the name was changed to "Wehrmachtbefehlshaber in Norway". From December 1940 he was also Commander-in-Chief of the Army High Command in Norway . After the AOK Norway was dissolved in December 1944, the position of Wehrmacht commander in chief was transferred to the respective commander in chief of the Gebirgs-AOK 20 .

The commanders of the German troops and the Wehrmacht commanders in Norway were:

Netherlands

In the Netherlands , after the appointment of a Reich Commissioner in May 1940, the position of Wehrmacht Commander in Chief was created. With an order of May 17, 1942, he was given the position and powers of an army commander in chief. In November 1944 the 25th Army was formed from the staff of the Wehrmacht commander .

Wehrmacht commander in chief in the Netherlands was:

Balkans

After the Balkan campaign, the Commander-in-Chief of the 12th Army was referred to as the "Commander-in-Chief of the German Forces in the Balkans", later as the "Wehrmacht Commander Southeast". An exception was made for the Wehrmacht Commander in Chief Southeast. In addition to the supreme command for all combat and occupation troops in Serbia, he also had the function of a military administration chief with executive power (see under military commanders ). As a troop commander he was subordinate to the OKW, as the owner of the executive power to the commander-in-chief of the army . The reason for this consolidation of the tasks in one hand was the strong armed resistance by the Tito partisans in Yugoslavia .

With the conversion of Army High Command 12 to Army Group Command E on January 1, 1943, the name changed to "Commander-in-Chief Southeast".

Wehrmacht commanders in the southeast were:

Ukraine

Wehrmacht commanders in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine were:

Ostland

Wehrmacht commanders in the Reichskommissariat Ostland were:

  • General of the Cavalry zV Walter Braemer (1941 to April 1944)
  • General of the Panzer Troop Werner Kempf (April to September 1944)

White Ruthenia

Wehrmacht commander in chief in Belarus was:

Belgium and Northern France

With the appointment of Josef Grohé as " Reich Commissioner for the Occupied Territories in Belgium and Northern France " in July 1944, the previous position of Military Commander in Belgium and Northern France was changed to that of Wehrmacht Commander. Due to the occupation of the area by the Allies shortly afterwards, the command post was closed again after a short time.

Wehrmacht Commander-in-Chief Belgium-Northern France was:

Sardinia and Corsica

Wehrmacht commander in chief in Sardinia and Corsica was:

Military district commander

There were military district commanders only in areas that were formally or factually annexed. Separate military districts were set up in these countries, for example in Austria (the Danube and Alpenreichsgauen ), Danzig-West Prussia , the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia or in the Wartheland , or the country was incorporated into a neighboring military district such as Luxembourg . They were subordinate to the OKH / commander of the reserve army.

See also

literature

  • Federal Archives (Ed.): Europe under the swastika. The occupation policy of German fascism , eight-volume document edition, Heidelberg, ISBN 3-326-00411-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Wehrmacht commander Ukraine was a General Henrici until October 1942 and then General der Flieger Kitzinger." According to Justice and Nazi Crimes, No. 683 (excerpt), judgment of the Hanover Regional Court of June 27, 1968, Ks 1 / 68 ( Memento from August 31, 2006 in the Internet Archive )