Wilhelm Haehnelt

Wilhelm Haehnelt (born March 12, 1875 in Posen ; † March 10, 1946 in the Sachsenhausen special camp ) was a German officer , most recently General of the Air Force Aviators in World War II .

Life

Haehnelt joined the 4th Lower Silesian Infantry Regiment No. 51 of the Prussian Army in Brieg on February 14, 1895 as an ensign . There he was promoted to lieutenant on January 27, 1896 , subsequently served as a battalion adjutant and graduated from the military academy in 1905/08 . From October 1908 to February 1909 he was in command of the Luftschiffer Battalion, where he obtained his diploma as a balloon pilot. From April 1, 1909 to September 30, 1911, Haehnelt was assigned to the General Staff . This was followed by his appointment as a company commander as a captain . After a temporary assignment to the air force , where he trained as a pilot , Haehnelt was transferred to the staff of the Aviation Battalion No. 4 in Strasbourg on October 1, 1913 .

With the outbreak of the First World War , Haehnelt took over the leadership of Field Aviation Department 4 on the Western Front . From September 26, 1914 to March 1917, Haehnelt was active as a staff officer of the aviators in the general staff of the 5th Army and then served until the end of 1917 in the staff of the commander of the aviators of the 2nd Army and in the inspection of the air force as well as the chief of intelligence of the Supreme Army Command . In January 1918 he was assigned to the staff of the commanding general of the air force. This was followed from February 1, 1918 as a major as a commander of the fliers of the 2nd Army. He spent the last months of the war entrusted with special tasks with the inspector of the aviation troops and from September 15 to December 14, 1918 as commander of the aviators in home area 8 and all aviation schools. For his achievements he was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross .

After the war , Haehnelt was appointed inspector of the air force on December 15, 1918. On January 1, 1920 he was accepted into the Reichswehr as an officer for special use in the Reichswehr Ministry . He then held the same function from May to December 1920 with Military District Command III and with the staff of the 3rd Division . On December 31, 1920, Haehnelt resigned from active military service as a result of the Peace Treaty of Versailles and the associated ban on air forces in Germany. He was still the most Jan. 21, 1921 character as Lt. Col. granted.

From 1919 to 1935 Haehnelt was vice president of the German Aero Club . At the same time he acted from 1926 to 1928 as Vice President of the German Air Sports Association , from 1929 to 1933 as regional leader of the German Air Sports Association of Berlin, the province of Brandenburg and Grenzmark and from 1926 to 1933 as a board member of the Reich Air Protection Association . In 1933 he became head of the war science department of the Reich Aviation Ministry and was from June 1, 1935 to March 31, 1936 head of the war science department of the air war there (1914-1918).

Haehnelt was then taken on as an E-Officer and Colonel in the Air Force, taken over into active employment on July 1, 1938 and acted as head of the war science department in the Reich Aviation Ministry. In the meantime he had been promoted to major general on January 1, 1939 and lieutenant general on December 1, 1940 . On March 1, 1942, Haehnelt was promoted to General der Flieger and at the end of the month he was retired from active service.

After the end of the war, Haehnelt was arrested by the Soviet occupying forces in May 1945 and interned in the Sachsenhausen camp. He died there on March 10, 1946.

literature

• Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Part II, Volume 2: Habermehl – ​​Nuber. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1991, ISBN 3-7648-1701-1 , pp. 7-8.