Wolfgang von Kluge

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Wolfgang von Kluge (born May 5, 1892 in Stettin ; † October 30, 1976 in Wahlstedt ) was a German officer , most recently Lieutenant General of the Army in World War II . He was the brother of the later General Field Marshal Günther von Kluge .

Life

Promotions

Early years and World War I

Wolfgang Kluge was the son of the later major general Max Kluge , who was raised to hereditary nobility in 1913. On March 22, 1912, Kluge joined the 1st Kurhessian Field Artillery Regiment No. 11 in Kassel as a lieutenant . In April 1914 he was transferred to the 2nd Guards Field Artillery Regiment in Potsdam . In this he acted as a battalion adjutant during the First World War and from 1917 as battery chief . During the last months of the war he served in the General Staff of the I. Reserve Corps until its demobilization in February 1919. Subsequently, he was assigned to the General Command of the XVII. Army Corps , where he stayed until September 1919.

Weimar Republic

After his takeover in the Reichswehr , Kluge was assigned to the Reichswehr Artillery Regiment 15, where he remained until January 1, 1921. Then he came to the III. Division of the 3rd (Prussian) Artillery Regiment to Jüterbog , where he became chief of the 8th battery . From October 1924 to April 1928 he completed general staff training and after his return was reinstated as battery chief until August 1931.

Period of National Socialism and World War II

Until April 1934 he served as an adjutant on the staff of the Wroclaw commandant . Subsequently, Kluge was with the artillery training staff until the end of September 1935. On October 1, 1935, Kluge moved to the Reich Ministry of War in Berlin , where he was employed as a consultant in Department F until October 5, 1936 . On October 6, 1936, he rose to head of department there; most recently he served in the Wehrmacht High Command until November 9, 1938 .

On November 10, 1938, Kluge was appointed chief of staff at the field witness inspection under Theodor Geib . On October 1, 1940, he was appointed commander of Artillery Regiment 31. On October 1, 1941, Kluge was appointed artillery commander 107 to succeed Colonel Otto-Thiele von Kalm . In this position he advanced in the area of Army Group Center to Moscow. After the winter battle, he went back to the Gschatsk area with the 3rd Panzer Army . Effective October 1, 1942, Kluge was appointed commander of the 292nd Infantry Division . He led them back to Orel via Vyazma by July 20, 1943 , had already been appointed lieutenant general on April 1, 1943 and had received several awards in this position. After being wounded that day and spending several months in the hospital, Kluge returned to field service on November 1, 1943. First he was transferred to the Führerreserve .

On December 1, 1943, Kluge was appointed commander of the newly established 357th Infantry Division , which was first used in March 1944 near Tarnopol . On June 15, 1944, Kluge gave up this command and was appointed commander of Division No. 408 , which at that time was only used for training purposes, whose command he gave up on July 1, 1944. On July 6, 1944, Kluge was appointed commander of the newly formed 226th Infantry Division and at the same time fortress commander Dunkirk . The division was only set up in Silesia on June 26th and then concentrated at Dunkirk. In the fighting for Calais , Kluge's troops suffered considerable losses and had to retreat to Dunkirk itself by August 26, 1944.

After Kluge's older brother, General Field Marshal Günther von Kluge , committed suicide on August 19, 1944 , his brother's political reliability was also questioned in Berlin. At the beginning of September the sea ​​commander Pas-de-Calais, Rear Admiral Friedrich Frisius , arrived with his headquarters in Dunkirk, to whom Kluge handed over command of the division after his recall on 19 September. He and other staff officers left the port city on a few speedboats . Kluge received no further employment, but was discharged from the Wehrmacht on December 31, 1944 and also lost his position as fortress commander Dunkirk.

Kluge lived in Kiel after the war . He worked as the state chairman of the Association of German Soldiers in Schleswig-Holstein.

Awards (selection)

literature

  • Dermot Bradley: The Generals of the Army 1921-1945 Volume 6: Hochbaum-Klutmann , Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2002, ISBN 3-7648-2582-0 , pp. 552-553
  • Wolfgang Keilig: Die Generale des Heeres 1939–1945 , Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg 1983, ISBN 3-7909-0202-0 , p. 174

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 451.
  2. ↑ a b c Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 4 ( google.de [accessed on August 4, 2019]).
  3. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 66 ( google.de [accessed on August 4, 2019]).
  4. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham : German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II , page 278
  5. ^ A b Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 , pp. 279 ( google.de [accessed on August 4, 2019]).
  6. ↑ Jacques Mordal: The Last Bastions , pp. 32–34.
  7. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham: Rommel's desert commanders: The men who served the Desert Fox, North Africa, 1941-1942 , p. 201
  8. ^ Wolfgang von Kluge . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 1956, pp. 64 ( Online - Apr. 25, 1956 ).
  9. ↑ Carmen Smiatacz: A legal “line of closure ”? LIT Verlag Münster, 2015, ISBN 978-3-643-13120-1 , p. 376 ( google.de [accessed on August 4, 2019]).
  10. ↑ a b Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1924, p. 72
personal data
SURNAME Kluge, Wolfgang von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently lieutenant general in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH May 5, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 1976
Place of death Kiel