Wilhelm Burgdorf
Wilhelm Burgdorf | |
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File:Burgdorfphoto.jpg
Wilhelm Burgdorf
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Born | Fürstenwalde |
15 February 1895
Died | 2 May 1945 Berlin |
(aged 50)
Allegiance |
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Service/branch | Heer |
Rank | General der Infanterie |
Commands held | Infanterie-Regiment 529 |
Battles/wars |
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Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross |
Wilhelm Emanuel Burgdorf (15 February 1895 – 1/2 May 1945) was a German general.[1][lower-alpha 1] Born in Fürstenwalde, Burgdorf served as a commander and staff officer in the German Army during World War II.
Contents
Military career
Burgdorf joined the German Army (Reichsheer) at the outbreak of World War I as an officer cadet and was commissioned as an infantry officer in Grenadier Regiment 12 in 1915. Between the wars he served in the Reichswehr and was promoted to captain in 1930. In 1935 he became an instructor in tactics at the military academy in Dresden with the rank of major and was appointed an adjutant on the staff of the IX corps in 1937. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1938 and served as the commander of the 529th Infantry Regiment from May 1940 to April 1942. In May 1942, he became Chief of Department 2 of the Army Personnel Office. Burgdorf became the Deputy Chief in October 1942, when he was promoted to Generalmajor. Burgdorf was promoted to Chief of the Army Personnel Office (Heerespersonalamt) and Chief Adjutant to Adolf Hitler in October 1944. At that time, he was further promoted in rank to Generalleutnant, and one month later (on 1 November 1944), to the rank of General der Infanterie. Burgdorf retained that rank and position until his death.[2]
In 1944 Burgdorf decreed: Every officer and every judge of the Wehrmacht have to act with strongest measures against doubters in the German victory. "An officer who expresses himself disparaging about the state leadership is intolerable in the Nazi state."[3]
Erwin Rommel
As part of Burgdorf's function as Hitler's chief adjutant, he played a key role in the death of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Rommel had been implicated as having a peripheral role in the bomb plot of 20 July 1944, in which an attempt was made to assassinate Hitler. Hitler recognised that to haul the most popular general in Germany before a People's Court would cause a scandal throughout Germany[4] and accordingly arranged a face-saving maneuver.
On 14 October 1944, Burgdorf, with General Ernst Maisel, arrived at the Rommel household. Burgdorf had been instructed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel to offer Rommel a choice – take poison, receive a state funeral, and obtain immunity for his family and staff, or face a trial for treason.[5] Rommel drove away with Burgdorf and Maisel. Rommel's family received a telephone call 10 minutes later informing them that Rommel had committed suicide.
Berlin
Shortly before the Battle of Berlin, Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager overheard Burgdorf say: "When the war is over, we will have to purge, after the Jews, the Catholic officers in the army."[6] Boeselager was a Roman Catholic Wehrmacht officer and vocally objected, citing his own decorations for heroism in combat. He left before Burgdorf answered.
Burgdorf joined Hitler in the Führerbunker when the Soviets assaulted Berlin. On 28 April, Hitler discovered that Heinrich Himmler tried to negotiate a surrender to the western Allies via Count Folke Bernadotte. Burgdorf took part in Hitler's court-martial of Hermann Fegelein, Himmler's SS liaison officer and Eva Braun's brother-in-law. SS-General Wilhelm Mohnke presided over the tribunal, which included SS-General Johann Rattenhuber and General Hans Krebs. Fegelein was so drunk that he was crying, vomiting and unable to stand up; he even urinated on the floor. It was the opinion of the judges that he was in no condition to stand trial. Therefore, Mohnke closed the proceedings and turned Fegelein over to Rattenhuber and his security squad.[7]
On 29 April 1945, Burgdorf, Krebs, Joseph Goebbels, and Martin Bormann witnessed and signed Hitler's last will and testament.[8] After midnight, in the early hours of 2 May 1945, following the earlier suicides of Hitler and Goebbels, Burgdorf and his colleague Chief of Staff Hans Krebs committed suicide by gunshot to the head.[1] Soviet personnel found the bodies of Krebs and Burgdorf in the bunker complex.[9]
Awards and decorations
- Iron Cross (1914)
- Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords (27 August 1917)[10]
- Military Merit Cross, 3rd class with war decoration (Austria-Hungary, 27 February 1918)[10]
- Knight's Cross, 2nd class of the Friedrich Order with Swords (18 July 1918)[10]
- Hanseatic Cross of Hamburg (18 October 1918)[10]
- The Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 (20 December 1934)[10]
- Wehrmacht Long Service Award 2nd Class (2 October 1936)[10]
- Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939)
- Eastern Front Medal
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 29 September 1941 as Oberst and commander of Infanterie-Regiment 529[11][12]
Dates of ranks
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See also
References
Explanatory notes
- ↑ Burgdorf apparently committed suicide after midnight on 2 May, although some other sources state it occurred before midnight on 1 May. See Kershaw 2008, p. 960, Beevor 2002, p. 387.
Citations
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Beevor 2002, p. 387.
- ↑ Joachimsthaler 1999, p. 286.
- ↑ Der Spiegel 28/1978
- ↑ Wilhelm Keitel, Nuremberg testimony
- ↑ Manfred Rommel, Nuremberg testimony
- ↑ von Boeselager 2009, p. 177.
- ↑ O'Donnell 1978, pp. 182–183.
- ↑ Bullock 1962, p. 795.
- ↑ Ryan 1966, p. 398.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 10.9 Thomas & Wegmann 1993, p. 292.
- ↑ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 150.
- ↑ Scherzer 2007, p. 254.
- ↑ 13.00 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 13.05 13.06 13.07 13.08 13.09 13.10 13.11 13.12 13.13 13.14 13.15 13.16 Thomas & Wegmann 1993, p. 293.
Bibliography
- Beevor, Antony (2002). Berlin: The Downfall 1945. London: Viking-Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-670-03041-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- von Boeselager, Philipp Freiherr (2009). Valkyrie: The Story of the Plot to Kill Hitler by its Last Member. Vintage. ISBN 0-307-45497-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- Bullock, Alan (1962). Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-013564-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000). 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. Unknown parameter
|trans_title=
ignored (help)CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles> - Joachimsthaler, Anton (1999) [1995]. The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, the Evidence, the Truth. Trans. Helmut Bögler. London: Brockhampton Press. ISBN 978-1-86019-902-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06757-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- O'Donnell, James (1978). The Bunker. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-25719-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- Ryan, Cornelius (1966). The Last Battle. London: Collins. ISBN 0-00-613267-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- 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 (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Miltaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2. Unknown parameter
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ignored (help)CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles> - Thomas, Franz; Wegmann, Günter (1993). Die Ritterkreuzträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht 1939–1945 Teil III: Infanterie Band 3: Br–Bu (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7648-1734-3. Unknown parameter
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Further reading
- Lehrer, Steven (2002). Hitler Sites: A City-By-City Guidebook (Austria, Germany, France, United States). McFarland. p. 224. ISBN 0-7864-1045-0.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- Lehrer, Steven (2006). The Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker Complex: An Illustrated History of the Seat of the Nazi Regime. McFarland. p. 214. ISBN 0-7864-2393-5.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
External links
- "Wilhelm Burgdorf". Lexikon der Wehrmacht (in German). Retrieved 16 June 2015.CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- "Der Kerl gehört gehängt!—Die deutschen Militärrichter im Zweiten Weltkrieg". Der Spiegel (in German). 1978. Retrieved 17 June 2015.CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
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- 1895 births
- 1945 deaths
- Critics of the Catholic Church
- People from Fürstenwalde
- People from the Province of Brandenburg
- Nazis who served in World War I
- Prussian Army personnel
- Wehrmacht generals
- Recipients of the Hanseatic Cross (Hamburg)
- Recipients of The Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918
- Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
- Knights of the House Order of Hohenzollern
- Knights 2nd class of the Friedrich Order
- Nazis who committed suicide by firearm in Germany
- German Protestants
- Nazis who committed suicide in Berlin
- Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 1st class
- Adjutants of Adolf Hitler