Erich Hoepner
Erich Hoepner | |
---|---|
Born | Frankfurt (Oder), Brandenburg, Prussia, German Empire | 14 September 1886
Died | 8 August 1944 Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, Nazi Germany | (aged 57)
Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
Allegiance |
|
Service/ | Army |
Years of service | 1905–42 |
Rank | Generaloberst |
Commands held |
|
Battles/wars | World War I
|
Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross |
Erich Kurt Richard Hoepner (14 September 1886 – 8 August 1944) was a German general during World War II. An early proponent of mechanisation and armoured warfare, he was a Wehrmacht army corps commander at the beginning of the war, leading his troops during the invasion of Poland and the Battle of France.
Hoepner commanded the
Dismissed from the Wehrmacht after the failure of the 1941 campaign, Hoepner restored his pension rights through a lawsuit. He was implicated in the failed 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler and executed in 1944.
Early years and World War I
Hoepner was born in
Interwar period
Hoepner remained in the
World War II
Invasion of Poland and Battle of France
Hoepner commanded the XVI Army Corps in the
Three days later troops from the SS Division Totenkopf killed almost a hundred British prisoners in the Le Paradis massacre. When word of the massacre reached Hoepner he ordered an investigation into the allegations, demanding that the SS division commander, Theodor Eicke be dismissed if evidence could be found that British prisoners had been mistreated or killed by SS forces. Eicke made an excuse to Himmler that the British had used dum-dum bullets against his forces. He and the Totenkopf unit suffered no consequences and the matter was officially forgotten.[7] However, Hoepner continued to hold a personal and professional dislike of Eicke, calling him a "butcher" for his disregard of casualties. He also maintained his existing low opinion of the Waffen-SS.[8]
War against the Soviet Union
After the conclusion of the fighting in France, Hoepner was promoted to the rank of
The war against Russia is an important chapter in the struggle for existence of the German nation. It is the old battle of Germanic against Slav peoples, of the defence of European culture against Muscovite-Asiatic inundation, and the repulse of Jewish-Bolshevism. The objective of this battle must be the destruction of present-day Russia and it must therefore be conducted with unprecedented severity. Every military action must be guided in planning and execution by an iron will to exterminate the enemy mercilessly and totally. In particular, no adherents of the present Russian-Bolshevik system are to be spared.
— 2 May 1941[12]
The order was transmitted to the troops on Hoepner's initiative, ahead of the official
Advance on Leningrad
The 4th Panzer Group consisted of the
After Reinhardt's corps closed in, the two corps were ordered to encircle the Soviet formations around
During his command on the Eastern Front, Hoepner demanded "ruthless and complete destruction of the enemy."[20] On 6 July 1941, Hoepner issued an order to his troops instructing them to treat the "loyal population" fairly, adding that "individual acts of sabotage should simply be charged to communists and Jews".[21] As with all German armies on the Eastern Front, Hoepner's Panzer Group implemented the Commissar Order that directed Wehrmacht troops to execute Red Army political officers immediately upon capture, contravening the accepted laws of war.[22] Between 2 July and 8 July, the 4th Panzer Group shot 101 Red Army political commissars, with the bulk of the executions coming from the XLI Panzer Corps.[21] By 19 July, 172 executions of commissars had been reported.[23]
By mid-July, the 4th Panzer Group seized the
By late July, Army Group North positioned 4th Panzer Group's units south and east of
On 29 August, Leeb issued orders for the blockade of Leningrad in anticipation that the city would soon be abandoned by the Soviets. On September 5, Hitler ordered Hoepner's 4th Panzer Group and an air corps transferred to
Battle of Moscow
As part of
Once the Vyazma pocket was eliminated, other units were able to advance on 14 October. Heavy rains and onset of the rasputitsa (roadlessness) caused frequent damage to tracked vehicles and motor transport further hampering the advance.[30] By early November, Hoepner's forces were depleted from earlier fighting and the weather but he, along with other Panzer Group commanders and Fedor von Bock, commander of Army Group Center, was impatient to resume the offensive. In a letter home, Hoepner stated that just two weeks of the frozen ground would allow his troops to surround Moscow, not taking into account the stiffening Soviet resistance and the condition of his units.[31] David Stahel wrote that Hoepner displayed "steadfast determination, and often excessive confidence" during that period.[32]
On 17 November the 4th Panzer Group attacked again towards Moscow alongside the V Army Corps of the 4th Army, as part of the continuation of Operation Typhoon by Army Group Centre. The Panzer Group and the army corps represented Kluge's best forces, most ready for a continued offensive. In two weeks' fighting, Hoepner's forces advanced 60 km (37 mi) (4 km (2.5 mi) per day).[33] Lacking strength and mobility to conduct battles of encirclement, the Group undertook frontal assaults which proved increasingly costly.[34] A lack of tanks, insufficient motor transport and a precarious supply situation, along with tenacious Red Army resistance and the air superiority achieved by Soviet fighters hampered the attack.[35]
The
As late as 2 December, Hoepner urged his troops forward stating that "the goal [the encirclement of Moscow] can still be achieved". The next day, he warned Kluge that failure to break off the attack would "bleed white" his formations and make them incapable of defence. Kluge was sympathetic since the south flank of the 4th Army had already had to retreat under Red Army pressure and was on the defensive.[39] Hoepner was ordered to pause his attack, with the goal of resuming it on 6 December. In a letter home, Hoepner blamed Kluge for the inability to seize Moscow, "I alone came to within thirty kilometres to Moscow ... It's very bitter ... in the deciding moment to be left in the lurch and forced to resignation". Such "blinkered thinking" on Hoepner's part was common among the German commanders in charge of the operation, which in Stahel's opinion "even before it began, made little practical sense".[40] On 5 December 1941, with orders to attack the next day, Hoepner called a conference of chiefs-of-staff of his five corps. The reports were grim: only four divisions were deemed capable of attack, three of these with limited objectives. The attack was called off; the Red Army launched its winter counter-offensive on the same day.[41]
Dismissal and 20 July plot
In January 1942, Hoepner requested permission from Kluge, the new commander of Army Group Centre, to withdraw his over-extended forces. Kluge advised him that he would discuss the matter with Hitler and ordered Hoepner to get ready. Assuming that Hitler's permission was on the way and not wanting to risk the matter any longer, Hoepner ordered his troops to withdraw on 8 January 1942. Afraid of what Hitler might think, Kluge immediately reported Hoepner, causing Hitler's fury. Hoepner was dismissed from the Wehrmacht on the same day.[42] Hitler directed that Hoepner be deprived of his pension and denied the right to wear his uniform and medals, contravening the law and Wehrmacht regulations.[43] Hoepner filed a lawsuit against the Reich to reclaim his pension. Judges at the time could not be dismissed, even by Hitler, and Hoepner won his case.[44]
Hoepner was a participant in the 20 July plot against Hitler in 1944 and after the coup failed he was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo. He refused an opportunity to commit suicide and demanded a trial. A summary trial was conducted by the Volksgerichtshof and Hoepner was verbally attacked and sentenced to death. Like other defendants, including Erwin von Witzleben, Hoepner was humiliated during the trial by being made to wear ill-fitting clothes, and not being allowed to have his false teeth. Judge Roland Freisler berated Hoepner, but, in an extremely unusual move given his very aggressive personality, he objected to him being made to dress in such a way.[45] Hoepner was hanged by wire mounted from meat hooks on 8 August, at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.[46]
Under the Nazi practice of Sippenhaft (collective punishment) Hoepner's wife, daughter, son (a major in the army), brother and sister were arrested.[47] The women were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. His sister was soon released but Frau Hoepner and her daughter were placed in the notorious Strafblock for four weeks' additional punishment.[48][49] Hoepner's son was first held at a specially created camp at Küstrin (now Kostrzyn nad Odrą) and then sent to Buchenwald concentration camp.[50]
Commemoration
In 1956, a school in Berlin was named after Hoepner because he had joined the 20 July plot and was executed by the Nazi regime. The school voted to drop the name in 2008. In 2009, the school director attested to the fact that "the name had been controversial from the start and was repeatedly debated".[51]
Awards
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 27 October 1939 as General of the Cavalry and commander of XVI. Armee-Korps[52]
Citations
- ^ a b c Tucker 2016, p. 793.
- ^ a b Zabecki 2014, p. 615.
- ^ Mitcham 2006, p. 76.
- ^ Fest 1997, p. 68.
- ^ Tucker 2016, pp. 793–794.
- ^ English 2011, p. 14.
- ^ Sydnor 1977, pp. 108–109.
- ^ English 2011, pp. 11–12.
- ^ Evans 2008, p. 160.
- ^ Förster 1998, pp. 496–497.
- ^ Crowe 2013, p. 90.
- ^ Burleigh 1997, p. 76.
- ^ see also www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de
- ^ a b Förster 1998, pp. 519–521.
- ^ Melvin 2010, pp. 198–199.
- ^ Melvin 2010, pp. 205.
- ^ Melvin 2010, pp. 209–210.
- ^ Melvin 2010, pp. 217–218.
- ^ Glantz 2012.
- ^ Friedmann, Jan (4 February 2009). "Dubious Role Models: Study Reveals Many German Schools Still Named After Nazis". Spiegel.de. Archived from the original on 20 September 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
- ^ a b Stein 2007, p. 301.
- ^ Stahel 2015, p. 28.
- ^ Lemay 2010, p. 252.
- ^ Jones 2008, p. 35.
- ^ Stahel 2015, p. 37.
- ^ Megargee 2006, pp. 104–106.
- ^ Megargee 2006, pp. 115–116.
- ^ Stahel 2013, pp. 74–75, 95.
- ^ Stahel 2013, p. 95.
- ^ Stahel 2013, pp. 173–174.
- ^ Stahel 2015, pp. 78–80.
- ^ Stahel 2015, p. 77.
- ^ Stahel 2015, p. 228.
- ^ Stahel 2015, p. 223.
- ^ Stahel 2015, pp. 240–244.
- ^ Stahel 2015, p. 186−189, 228.
- ^ Stahel 2015, pp. 229–230.
- ^ Stahel 2015, pp. 235–237, 250.
- ^ Stahel 2015, pp. 295–296.
- ^ Stahel 2015, pp. 304–305.
- ^ Stahel 2015, pp. 306–307.
- ^ Evans 2008, p. 206.
- ^ Lemay 2010, p. 219.
- ^ Kershaw 2009, pp. 837, 899.
- ^ Gill 1994, p. 256.
- ^ Tucker 2016, p. 794.
- ^ Loeffel 2012, p. 130.
- ^ Ravensbruck: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women by Sarah Helm
- ^ Helm 2015, pp. 396–397.
- ^ Loeffel 2012, pp. 162–164.
- ^ Crossland, David (16 February 2009). "Nazi era lives on in German schools". thenational.ae. Archived from the original on 23 December 2017.
- ^ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 230.
References
- ISBN 9780521582117.
- ISBN 978-1-317-98681-2.
- ISBN 978-0-8117-4437-9.
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- Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
- ISBN 978-0-8050-5648-8.
- ISBN 978-0-19-822886-8.
- ISBN 978-0-7493-1457-6.
- ISBN 978-0-7524-6070-3.
- ISBN 978-1-4087-0538-4.
- Jones, Michael (2008). Leningrad: State of Siege. ISBN 978-0-465-01153-7.
- ISBN 978-0-14-103588-8.
- Lemay, Benoit (2010). Erich Von Manstein: Hitler's Master Strategist. Philadelphia, PA: Casemate. ISBN 978-1-935149-55-2.
- Loeffel, Robert (2012). Family Punishment in Nazi Germany: Sippenhaft, Terror and Myth. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ]
- ISBN 978-0-7425-4482-6.
- ISBN 978-0-297-84561-4.
- Mitcham, Samuel W. (2006). Panzer Legions: A Guide to the German Army Tank Divisions of World War II and Their Commanders. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-1-4617-5143-4.
- Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941–1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941–1945 History and Recipients] (in German). Vol. 2. Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.
- ISBN 978-1-107-08760-6.
- ISBN 978-1-107-03512-6.
- Stein, Marcel (2007). Field Marshal von Manstein: The Janushead – A Portrait. Helion & Company. ISBN 978-1-906033-02-6.
- Sydnor, Charles (1977). Soldiers of Destruction: The SS Death's Head Division, 1933–1945. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ASIN B001Y18PZ6.
- ISBN 978-1-85109-969-6.
- ISBN 978-1-59884-981-3.
External links
- Operation Typhoon on YouTube, lecture by the historian David Stahel discussing operations of the 4th Panzer Group; via the official channel of USS Silversides Museum
- Biography at the German Historical Museum of Berlin (in German)
- Umstrittener Patron, article in Der Tagesspiegel (in German)