Wolfram von Richthofen

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Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen (right) and Alexander Löhr (left) in conversation, 1942

Wolfram (called Ulf) Karl Ludwig Moritz Hermann Freiherr von Richthofen (born October 10, 1895 in Barzdorf in the Striegau district , † July 12, 1945 in Bad Ischl ) was a German army and air force soldier. As chief of staff of the Condor Legion , he was responsible for the illegal destruction of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War . During the Second World War he was temporarily in command of Luftflotte 4 and Luftflotte 2 and from 1943 General Field Marshal of the Air Force of the German Reich.

Life

Empire and First World War

His parents were Wolfram von Richthofen († 1922) and Therese Götz von Olenhusen . Ulf became the adoptive son of his uncle, the cavalry general Manfred von Richthofen . In 1913, at the age of 18, Ulf joined the Hussar Regiment "von Schill" (1st Silesian) No. 4 of the Prussian Army as an ensign . In 1914 he was after visiting the war Kassel to lieutenant promoted. By 1917, he took the regiment at the First World War, in part, in which he is the leader of a squadron brought. He then switched to the air force and completed training as a pilot in the air replacement department in Halle . After completing it, Richthofen went back to the front in March 1918 as a pilot in Jagdstaffel 11 , which was led by his famous cousin Manfred von Richthofen , the "Red Baron". By the end of the war, Richthofen had eight aerial victories.

Weimar Republic

Richthofen retired from active military service at the beginning of 1920 as first lieutenant . In 1920 he married Jutta von Selchow (1896–1991) in Breslau. He then studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Hanover until 1923 and graduated with a degree in engineering .

In 1922 his first son, Wolfram (missing in 1944) was born.

In November 1923, Richthofen joined the 11th (Prussian) cavalry regiment of the Reichswehr as a lieutenant in Ohlau . He only stayed there for a short time, because Richthofen was already involved in the preparations for the covert construction of a future air force. Officially, he worked for the Berlin city command, in fact he worked for the Army Weapons Office . From 1925 Richthofen again carried the rank of first lieutenant . On November 1, 1928 he was promoted to company commander in the 5th Motor Vehicle Department and on February 1, 1929 to captain . During this time , Richthofen received his doctorate with a study on the "Influence of aircraft types on the economic efficiency of flight operations" at the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg as a Dr.-Ing. The findings of this study, which aimed to optimize high-quality aircraft types for certain air warfare tasks, were later applied and further tested by Richthofen in the air raids on Gernika and Wieluń .

In April 1929, Richthofen was transferred to the German embassy in Rome as an attaché for two and a half years , where - still unofficially - he got to know the Italian air forces . After he returned to Germany, he was again used as a company commander, this time in the 6th (Prussian) Motor Department.

time of the nationalsocialism

Beginnings

On October 1, 1933, Richthofen joined the newly established German Air Force . At this he was initially head of the development department in the Reich Aviation Ministry . In 1934 he was promoted to major and in 1936 to lieutenant colonel .

Spanish Civil War

Wolfram von Richthofen (background) with Hugo Sperrle in Spain, 1936

From 1936 Richthofen was used as a member of the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Falangists in the fight against the democratically elected republican government . Richthofen saw his assignment to Spain as an opportunity to test new types of aircraft and bombs under war conditions.

Richthofen was chief of staff of the Condor Legion during their well-known air raid on Gernika in April 1937. This attack, in which the religious capital of the Basque Country was almost completely destroyed and hundreds of civilians were killed, was the first area bombing in history and the first major violation by the Germans Air force against international martial law . Richthofen noted his assessment of the attack in his war diary: “The 250s knocked over a number of houses and destroyed the water pipe. The incendiary bombs now had time to unfold and take effect. The construction of the houses: tiled roofs, wooden gallery and timber frame houses, led to the complete destruction. (..) You can still see bomb holes on the streets, just great. "

After returning from Spain in October 1937, Richthofen was promoted to Colonel in January 1938 and took over Combat Wing 257 in Lüneburg on April 1, 1938 . On November 1, 1938, he was appointed major general and commander of the Condor Legion, which he remained until the end of the civil war in spring 1939.

Second World War

When the attack on Poland at the beginning of the Second World War , Richthofen was assigned as “pilot at special disposal” to support the 10th Army . On September 1, 1939, before the war officially began, he commanded an air raid on the Polish city of Wieluń . Their extensive destruction by 87 German dive bombers (several air strikes from 4:35 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) resulted in the deaths of up to 1,200 of the 16,000 residents. According to the military historian Hans-Erich Volkmann , Richthofen selected Wieluń as a military exercise target close to the border in order to test the operational capability and functionality of the dive bombers without any losses, but did not intend a terrorist attack. Since it was an attack on a non-military target, the bombing should be regarded as a war crime. The military historian Rolf-Dieter Müller , on the other hand, emphasizes that the attack was aimed at military goals, as a Polish division and a cavalry brigade were deployed in Wieluń. Because of the fog, these goals were largely missed. Despite the devastating effect, the attack was therefore not an intended terrorist attack.

At the beginning of the western campaign , Richthofen was the commanding general of the 8th Air Corps and received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on May 18, 1940 . In the Balkan campaign , Richthofen commanded the units in the airborne battle for Crete . In the war against the Soviet Union , Richthofen's Fliegerkorps was initially used to support Panzer Group 3. On July 17, 1941, he was decorated with the oak leaves for a knight's cross.

On February 1, 1942 Richthofen was appointed Colonel-General conveyed in July of that year he took over from Alexander Loehr the leadership of the Air Fleet 4 , he with the at the Battle of Stalingrad took part. On February 16, 1943 he was appointed Field Marshal General, making him the youngest holder of this rank in the Air Force and in the Wehrmacht, apart from Göring. At the end of June 1943 he also took over the management of Luftflotte 2 from Albert Kesselring , of which he was appointed in September. In mid-1944, a brain tumor was discovered near Richthofen that had to be surgically removed. He then gave up his command.

On July 12, 1945 he died in American captivity in the air force hospital in Bad Ischl .

Fonts

  • Influence of aircraft types on the profitability of flight operations. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, dissertation, Berlin 1929.

literature

Web links

Commons : Wolfram von Richthofen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Erich Volkmann: Wolfram von Richthofen, the destruction of Wieluń and the international law of war. In: Military History Journal . 70 (2011), issue 2, pp. 287–328, here p. 316 ff.
  2. ↑ Hans-Erich Volkmann: Wolfram von Richthofen, the destruction of Wieluń and the international law of war . In: Military History Journal 70 (2011), p. 316.
  3. ↑ Klaus A. Maier: The Destruction of Gernika on April 26, 1937. (PDF; 2.2 MB), In: Military History Research Office (ed.): Military history. Historical Education Journal. Issue 1/2007, pp. 18-22.
  4. ↑ Wolfram von Richthofen's diary, quoted from Hubert Brieden, Heidi Dettinger, Marion Hirschfeld: A complete success of the Luftwaffe. The destruction of Guernica and maintenance of German tradition. , Nördlingen, 1997, p. 72.
  5. ↑ Hans-Erich Volkmann: Wolfram von Richthofen, the destruction of Wieluń and the international law of war. In: Military History Journal. 70 (2011), pp. 287–328, in particular p. 290 (on the number of victims), p. 314 ff. (Wieluń as a military exercise target) and others. P. 326 ff. (War crimes).
  6. ↑ Joachim Trenkner: Destroyed target. In: The time. Edition 7/2003.
  7. ^ Rolf-Dieter Müller : The bombing war 1939-1945. Ch. Links Verlag , Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-86153-317-7 , p. 54; Horst Boog : Legends of the bombing war. in: Military history contributions. 9/1995, p. 22.
personal data
SURNAME Richthofen, Wolfram von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Richthofen, Wolfram Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Field Marshal General in the Third Reich
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Barzdorf, Striegau district
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1945
Place of death Bad Ischl