Helmuth Weidling
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Helmuth Weidling | |
|---|---|
 Weidling as Generalmajor in 1943 | |
| Commander of the Berlin Defence Area | |
| In office 23 April 1945 – 2 May 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Ernst Kaether |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 2 November 1891 XLI Panzer Corps |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords |
Helmuth Otto Ludwig Weidling (2 November 1891 – 17 November 1955) was a German general during the
Military career
Born in
In January 1942, still on the Eastern Front, Weidling was appointed commander of the 86th Infantry Division.
Corps commander
On 15 October 1943, Weidling became the commander of the
While Weidling was in command, XLI Panzer Corps was responsible for an atrocity committed by the Wehrmacht in the Soviet Union during the war. Up to 50,000 civilians were deliberately infected with typhus, and placed in a "typhus camp" in the area of
The XLI Panzer Corps was rebuilt as part of the
The LVI Panzer Corps was part of Gotthard Heinrici's Army Group Vistula. As commander of that corps, Weidling began his involvement with the Battle of Berlin.[citation needed]
On 16 April 1945, Weidling prepared to take part in the
During the middle of the Battle of Berlin, the leader of the Hitler Youth, Artur Axmann, visited Weidling's headquarters and told him that the youngsters of the Hitler Youth were ready to fight and were even now manning the roads in the 56th rear. Weidling argued it was futile for the teenage boys to be thrown into the battle. He told Axmann that it was "the sacrifice of children for an already doomed cause".[3] Axmann did not withdraw them from the battle.[3]
By 19 April, with Schörner's Army Group Centre collapsing, Weidling's corps was forced to retreat west into Berlin. The German forces's retreat from Seelow Heights during the 19th and 20th left no front line remaining.[4]
Commander of the Berlin Defence Area
On 22 April, Hitler ordered for Weidling to be executed by
On 23 April, Hitler appointed Weidling as the commander of the Berlin Defence Area. Weidling replaced Lieutenant General (Generalleutnant)
The forces available to Weidling for the city's defence included roughly 45,000 soldiers in several severely-depleted German Army and
Weidling organised the defences into eight sectors designated "A" through to "H". Each sector was commanded by a colonel or a general, but most of the colonels and generals had no combat experience.
Bendlerblock headquarters
Sometime around 26 April, Weidling chose as his base of operations the old army headquarters on the Bendlerstrasse, the Bendlerblock. The location had well-equipped air-raid shelters and was close to the Reich Chancellery. In the depths of the Bendlerblock, Weidling's staff did not know whether it was day or night.[12]
Around noon on 26 April, Weidling relieved Colonel Hans-Oscar Wöhlermann of command, and Major General Werner Mummert was reinstated as commander of the Müncheberg Panzer Division. Later that evening, Weidling presented Hitler with a detailed proposal for a breakout from Berlin. When Weidling finished, Hitler shook his head and said: "Your proposal is perfectly all right. But what is the point of it all? I have no intentions of wandering around in the woods. I am staying here and I will fall at the head of my troops. You, for your part, will carry on with your defence."[12]
By the end of the day on 27 April, the encirclement of Berlin had been completed. The Soviet Information Bureau announced that Soviet troops of the 1st Belorussian Front had broken through strong German defences around Berlin and, approaching from the east and from the south, had linked up in Berlin and northwest of Potsdam and that the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front took Gartenstadt, Siemenstadt and the Goerlitzer Railway Station in eastern Berlin.[13]
When Weidling discovered that a major part of the last line of the German defences in Berlin were manned by Hitler Youth, he ordered Artur Axmann to disband the Hitler Youth combat formations in the city. However, in the confusion, his order was never carried out.[14]
Soviet advance
On 29 April, the Soviet Information Bureau announced that troops of the 1st Belorussian Front continued to clear the streets of Berlin, occupied the northwest sector of Charlottenburg as far as Bismarck Street, the west half of Moabit, and the eastern part of Schoeneberg. Soviet troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front occupied Friedenau and Grunewald in north and west Berlin.[15]
During the evening of 29 April, Weidling's headquarters in the Bendlerblock was now within metres of the front line. Weidling discussed with his divisional commanders the possibility of breaking out to the southwest to link up with General Walther Wenck's 12th Army. Wenck's spearhead had reached the village of Ferch on the banks of the Schwielowsee near Potsdam. The breakout was planned to start the next night at 22:00.[16]
On 30 April, the Soviet Information Bureau announced that Soviet troops of the 1st Belorussian Front had captured Moabit, Anhalter Railway Station,
The Führerbunker
Late in the morning of 30 April, with the Soviets less than 500 m from the bunker, Hitler had a meeting with Weidling, who informed him that the Berlin garrison would probably run out of ammunition that night. Weidling asked Hitler for permission to break out, a request that he had earlier made unsuccessfully. Hitler did not answer at first, and Weidling went back to his headquarters in the Bendlerblock, where at about 13:00, he received Hitler's permission to try a breakout that night.[17]
After Hitler and Braun's suicides, Weidling reached the Führerbunker and was met by Joseph Goebbels, Reichsleiter Martin Bormann and General Hans Krebs. They took him to Hitler's room, where the couple had committed suicide. They told him that their bodies had been burned and buried in a shell crater in the Reich Chancellery garden above.[18] Weidling was forced to swear that he would not repeat this news to anybody. The only person in the outside world who was to be informed was Joseph Stalin. An attempt would be made that night to arrange an armistice, and General Krebs would inform the Soviet commander so that he could inform the Kremlin.[19]
Weidling soon rang Colonel Hans Refior, his civil chief-of-staff, in the Bendlerblock headquarters soon afterward. Weidling said that he could not tell him what had happened, but he needed various members of his staff to join him immediately, including Colonel Theodor von Dufving, his military chief-of-staff.[19]
The meeting on 1 May between Krebs, who had been sent by Goebbels, and Soviet Lieutenant General Vasily Chuikov ended with no agreement.[20] According to Hitler's personal secretary Traudl Junge, Krebs returned to the bunker complex looking "worn out, exhausted". The surrender of Berlin was thus delayed until Goebbels committed suicide,[20] after which it was then left up to Weidling to negotiate with the Soviets.[21]
Surrender to Chuikov
_Berliner_Kapitulation.JPG)
On 2 May, Weidling had his Chief-of-Staff, Theodor von Dufving, arrange a meeting with Chuikov. Weidling told the Soviets about the suicides of Hitler and Goebbels, and Chuikov demanded complete capitulation.[22]
Pursuant to Chuikov and Vasily Sokolovsky's direction, Weidling put his surrender order in writing. The document, written by Weidling, read as follows:
On 30 April 1945, the Führer committed suicide, and thus abandoned those who had sworn loyalty to him. According to the Führer's order, you German soldiers would have had to go on fighting for Berlin despite the fact that our ammunition has run out and despite the general situation which makes our further resistance meaningless. I order the immediate cessation of resistance. Every hour you keep on fighting prolongs the suffering of the civilians in Berlin and of our wounded. Together with the commander-in-chief of the Soviet forces I order you to stop fighting immediately. WEIDLING, General of Artillery, former District Commandant in the defence of Berlin[22]
The meeting between Weidling and Chuikov ended at 8:23 am on 2 May 1945.[23]
Post-war
The Soviet forces took Weidling into custody and flew him to the Soviet Union. Initially, he was held in the
Awards
- German Cross in Gold on 23 June 1942 as Generalmajor and commander of 86. Infanterie Division[27]
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
References
Citations
- ^ Jones 2015, p. unspecified.
- ^ Hamilton 2020, p. 81.
- ^ a b c Beevor 2002, p. 225.
- ^ Beevor 2002, pp. 244–246, 256.
- ^ Beevor 2002, p. 286.
- ^ Beevor 2002, pp. 176, 177, 268, 286.
- ^ a b c d e Beevor 2002, p. 287.
- ^ Fischer 2008, pp. 42–43.
- ^ Beevor 2002, p. 223.
- ^ Beevor 2002, p. 243.
- ^ Ziemke 1969, p. 93.
- ^ a b Beevor 2002, p. 320.
- ^ Dollinger 1997, p. 233.
- ^ Dollinger 1997.
- ^ a b Dollinger 1997, p. 238.
- ^ Beevor 2002, p. 352.
- ^ Beevor 2002, p. 358.
- ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 956.
- ^ a b Beevor 2002, p. 364.
- ^ a b Dollinger 1997, p. 239.
- ^ Beevor 2002, p. 406.
- ^ a b Dollinger 1997, p. 240.
- ^ Beevor 2002, p. 386.
- ^ Обвинительное заключение по следственному делу №5125 в отношении генерала артиллерии Г. Вейдлинга. 11 декабря 1951 г. | Документы XX века
- ^ "Helmuth Weidling". www.liberationroute.com. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
- ^ "Заключение Главной военной прокуратуры РФ № 5уд-1758-95 об отказе в реабилитации Г. Вейдлингу. 16 апреля 1996 г." docs.historyrussia.org. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
- ^ Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 501.
- ^ a b c Scherzer 2007, p. 773.
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-670-03041-5.
- Dollinger, Hans (1997). The Decline and Fall of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 67-27047. ISBN 978-0-7537-0009-9.
- Fischer, Thomas (2008). Soldiers of the Leibstandarte. ISBN 978-0-921991-91-5.
- Hamilton, A. Stephan (2020) [2008]. Bloody Streets: The Soviet Assault on Berlin, April 1945. Helion & Co. ISBN 978-1912866137.
- Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06757-6.
- Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.
- Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
- Ziemke, Earl F. (1969). Battle for Berlin End of the Third Reich Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II (Battle Book #6). Ballantine Books.
- Jones, Michael (2015). After Hitler: The Last Days of the Second World War in Europe. John Murray Books. ISBN 978-1848544949.
External links
Media related to Helmuth Weidling at Wikimedia Commons
