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== External Links == |
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*[https://www.bundesarchiv.de/oeffentlichkeitsarbeit/bilder_dokumente/03385/index-49.html.de Preserved copy of Strecker's final communication at the Bundesarchiv, possibly modified before archival]. |
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Revision as of 19:22, 7 October 2017
 | This is not a Wikipedia article: This is a workpage, a collection of material and work in progress that may or may not be incorporated into an article. It should not necessarily be considered factual or authoritative. |
Karl Strecker | |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 September 1884 Radmannsdorf, West Prussia |
| Died | 10 April 1973 (aged 88) Riezlern, Austria |
| Allegiance |  German Empire (to 1918) Weimar Republic (to 1920) Nazi Germany |
| Service |  Prussian Army Heer |
| Years of service |
|
| Rank |  General der Infanterie |
| Commands |  79th Infantry Division XI Army Corps |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards | Awards[1]
|
| Spouse(s) | Hedwig (née Born) |
| Police career | |
| Department | Sicherheitspolizei |
| Service years | 1920-1935 |
| Rank | Generalmajor |
Karl Strecker was a German Wehrmacht general and police commander. He fought on both the Western and Eastern Fronts of both World Wars. A member of the Prussian military class, he spent more than forty years in either the military or the para-military Security Police. He commanded the Heer's 11th Corps at the Battle of Stalingrad and was the last German General to surrender their command in the city.
Early life and World War I
He was born in Radmannsdorf, West Prussia to a Prussian officer in 1905. A lifelong Christian, Strecker wanted to follow in his grandfather's footsteps and become a priest but the financial hardship that followed his father's suicide forced him to instead attend a state-funded military school in Koeslin at the age of 12. He excelled there and upon graduation joined the 152nd Infantry Regiment of the 41st Division as a Lieutenant in May of 1905. He was promoted quickly and served as both the battalion and regimental adjutant.[2][3][4]
With the outbreak of the First World War he participated in the battles of Tannenberg and Marsurian Lakes. He remained with the regiment as it subsequently invaded Poland and Russia before turning south, to conduct operations in Romania in 1916. A highly successful staff officer, and by then a Hauptmann, Strecker was transferred to the railway department of the German General Staff in December of 1916 and then again to the artillery staff of the 52nd Infantry Division on the Western Front, fighting at the Second Battle of the Aisne. He briefly served in two other units before being seriously injured in an automobile accident. After recovering he fought in Belgium with the 30th Division and eventually returned to the 152nd after the Armistice. While back in Prussia he fought in the First Silesian uprising before being discharged in 1920.[2]
Interwar period and police service
Despite not being selected for retention in the radically down-sized Reichswehr he was preemptively commissioned as a Major in the police force of the pre-Nazi Prussian Sicherheitspolizei. He married Hedwig Bonn, the daughter of the Mayor of Marienburg, having two children with her. Strecker openly held anti-democratic and anti-socialist positions which inhibited his career in the Weimar government's national police. He was a Lieutenant Colonel by the time the Weimar Republic collapsed and Hitler came to power. Although he had reservations about Hitler and his party para-military forces, Strecker helped the SA to suppress communists and had a generally favorable view of the Nazis, quickly finding favor and promotion to Majorgeneral in under the new regime.[5] His concerns with the growing power of the SS were put aside when he was permitted to rejoin the Army in 1935. As with many officers of senior rank being incorporated in the rapidly expanding Wehrmacht, Strecker was given a command below his nominal rank in order to prepare him for larger combat commands. Also similar to some senior Army officers of the time, he openly supported his Jewish friends' shops while in uniform and, being a devout Christian, defended a Lutheran clergyman who used the pulpit to object to Nazi policy. Despite this, and his abhorrence of antisemitism, his ethics as a Prussian military officer prevented him from joining any organized German resistance. In spite of his lack of political support for the Nazis, he was made Deputy Commander of the 34th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht) in November of 1938 and then given command of the 79th Infantry Division which was formed by expanding the 34th Division in the summer of 1939.[4][6]
World War II
Strecker's new division was a reserve unit and was assigned to the border with France during the invasion of Poland. Although the division's posting opposite the Maginot Line in Saarland was not as heavily active as other fronts, Strecker distinguished himself there as a very capable combat commander during assaults on the Maginot's fortifications. He was noted for praise by his superiors, including Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben and promoted to Generalleutnant in June of 1940. He remained in France until early 1941 when his division was transferred Austria and then to the Eastern Front to participate in Operation Barbarossa as part of the 6th Army in Army Group South.[7]
Being an experienced veteran of the Eastern Front in the First World War, Strecker was strongly opposed to the invasion of the Soviet Union, believing that it would cost Germany the war. Nonetheless he led his division in the invasion of Ukraine and participated in the Battle of Kiev and the First Battle of Kharkov. Sometime time January he was sent on convalescent leave for three months. The commander of Army Group South, Freidrich Paulus, had been so impressed with Strecker's performance at Kharkov that, upon his return to active duty and promotion to General der Infanterie in April, Paulus had him transferred to his staff and made him the acting commander of XVII Corps, in place of the temporarily absent Karl-Adolf Hollidt. On 1 June Paulus appointed him as the commander of XI Corps.[7]
By late January the strategic situation was hopeless and the 6th Army was starving. Strecker issued an order to his officers in the final days of that month that any soldier seen breaking away from their unit and moving toward Soviet positions was to be shot and that any soldier caught taking airdropped supplies for himself or who disobeyed orders was to be immediately court-martialed.[8] As a last ditch effort to find a point where his Corps could attempt a breakout, he authorized final reconnaissance of the Volga on 29 December but the entire west bank of the river was occupied by entrenched Soviet forces.[9] On 1 February, having confirmed that Paulus and all other combat formations had surrendered, Strecker gathered his staff and told them that additional the military situation was hopeless and that all troops under his command had the freedom to act as their conscious saw fit.[10] The next morning Strecker surrendered his 11th Corps to Soviet troops.[11] He and his Chief of Staff, Helmuth Groscurth, drafted the final transmission sent by the 6th Army at Stalingrad, telling the OKW that the XI Corps had done its duty. AS a final gesture they ommited the customary "Heil Hitler" and instead used "Long live Germany".[12] Strecker later said that he was promoted to Generaloberst via radio message on the last day of the battle but this was not able to be substantiated after the war.[13][5][14]
He was held in captivity, first in Krasnoyarsk and then in Camp 48 in Voikovo. Like most senior officers of the Wehrmacht he received reasonable treatment. He was put before a show trial and sentenced to 25 years confinement.[5] Along with Carl Rodenburg, Heinrich Sixt von Armin(de), Walter Heitz, and the 6th Army's Chief of Staff Arthur Schmidt, he was part of the "anti-communist" faction of officers in his camp who refused to cooperate with the Soviets while confined. He and Rodenburg were in the last group of Germans to be repatriated, in October of 1955.[15] After arriving back in West Germany he took an extended convalescence and retired to Idar-Oberstein where he wrote a memoir. In his later years he came to reject his anti-democratic views and expressed regret at not more aggressively opposing Hitler's regime.[5][14]
Published works
- Von Hannibal zu Hindenburg : Studien über Hindenburgs Strategie u. ihre Vorläufer m. Skizzen d. Schlachten bei Cannä, Kunersdorf, Sedan, Tannenberg, an d. Masurischen Seen. Erscheinungsdatum, 1915[1]
- Das Deutsch-Ordens-Infanterie-Regiment Nr 152 im Weltkriege : Nach d. amtl. u. privaten Kriegstagebüchern, Berichten, Feldpostbriefen u. Zuschriften. Berlin-Charlottenburg: Bernard & Graefe, 1933. ID 362836647
- Lieutenant General Karl Strecker: the life and thought of a German military man, Praeger, 1994. ISBN 9780275945824 (Collected diaries and notes, with Uli Haller)
References
- ^ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 336.
- ^ a b Mitcham, pp. 78–81.
- ^ Busch 2014, p. 84.
- ^ a b Lucas 2014.
- ^ a b c d Mitcham, p. 100.
- ^ Mitcham, pp. 78–80.
- ^ a b Mitcham 2012, p. 80.
- ^ Hellbeck, 2015 & Hütler, Max, pp. 402–404.
- ^ Busch, 2014 & , Schwarz, Karl H, p. 232.
- ^ Busch, 2014 & Schwarz, Karl H, p. 234.
- ^ Adam 2015, p. 215.
- ^ Mitcham, p. 93.
- ^ Scherzer 2007.
- ^ a b Hellbeck 2015, p. 400.
- ^ Mitcham, p. 101.
Bibliography
- Adam, Wilhelm; Ruhle, Otto (2015). With Paulus at Stalingrad. Translated by Tony Le Tissier. Barnsley, U.K.: Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781473833869.
- Busch, Reinhold (2014). Survivors of Stalingrad: Eyewitness Accounts from the 6th Army, 1942-43. Barnsley, U.K.: Frontline Books. ISBN 9781848327665.
- Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|trans_title=ignored (|trans-title=suggested) (help) - Hellbeck, Jochen (2015). Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich. New York City, New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 9781610394970.
- Lucas, James (2014). Hitler s Commanders: German Bravery in the Field, 1939 1945. Barnsley, U.K.: Frontline. ISBN 9781473815124.
- Mitcham Jr., Samuel W.; Mueller, Gene (2012). Hitler's Commanders: Officers of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, and the Waffen-SS. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442211544.
- Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|trans_title=ignored (|trans-title=suggested) (help) - Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939... (in German). Vol. 1993 and 1994. Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
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{{cite book}}: Empty citation (help)
External Links
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- Wikipedia workpages
- 1884 births
- 1973 deaths
- People from Chełmno County
- People from West Prussia
- Generals of Infantry (Wehrmacht)
- German military personnel of World War I
- Prussian Army personnel
- German commanders at the Battle of Stalingrad
- Recipients of the Gold German Cross
- Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
- German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union
- Recipients of the Order of Michael the Brave
- German police officers