Joachim von Kortzfleisch
Joachim von Kortzfleisch | |
---|---|
Born | Braunschweig, Duchy of Brunswick, German Empire | 3 January 1890
Died | 20 April 1945 Wulwesort, Sauerland, Province of Westphalia, Free State of Prussia, Nazi Germany | (aged 55)
Allegiance | German Empire (to 1918) Weimar Republic (to 1933) Nazi Germany |
Service | Heer |
Rank | General der Infanterie |
Commands | 1st Infantry Division Defense group III (Berlin) |
Battles / wars | World War I
World War II |
Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross |
Joachim Otto August Achatius Kortzfleisch (3 January 1890 – 20 April 1945) was a German army general who was the commander of the defense group III (Berlin) and had a role in ensuring the failure of the attempted coup after the July 20 Plot attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
Biography
Joachim von Kortzfleisch was born into an aristocratic Westphalian family in Braunschweig, Duchy of Brunswick, the son of the Prussian Major General Gustav von Kortzfleisch (1854 – 1910) and Elsbeth Oppermann (1862 – 1937). He joined the army in 1907 and after service in World War I in a machine gun battalion he was an officer in the Reichswehr, reaching the rank of Generalmajor by 1937. He was a generalleutnant and commander of the 1st Infantry Division at the outbreak of World War II and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 1 September 1940 as commander of the XI Army Corps of the Wehrmacht.
On 20 July 1944 as the commander of the defense group III (Berlin) he was summoned to the Bendlerstrasse where he angrily refused to obey Operation Valkyrie orders issued by one of the leading conspirators General of the Infantry Friedrich Olbricht and kept shouting ‘the Führer is not dead’ and referring to the oath of loyalty to Hitler.[1] He was arrested and put under guard by the plotters and said that he was not willing to take part in a coup as he was just a soldier interested only in going home and pulling weeds in his garden.[2] He was replaced in his command by General Karl Freiherr von Thüngen and was later allowed to leave the Bendlerblock. He subsequently interrogated Major Hans-Ulrich von Oertzen who was a supporter of the plot.
In March 1945 he was the commander of the Rhine Bridgehead in Army Group B under Field Marshal Walter Model. He was shot dead by soldiers of the 737th Tank Battalion of the United States Army on 20 April 1945. Kortzfleisch and a handful of soldiers had tried to get to Berleburg, moving behind the enemy lines. A US patrol encountered them at Schmallenberg-Wulwesort, Sauerland. The general defended himself with a machine pistol, as he was surrounded by US soldiers and was told "Hands up" he answered "no" and a US soldier shot him in the left chest.
Awards and decorations
- Iron Cross (1914)
- 2nd Class
- 1st Class
- Wound Badge (1914)
- in Black
- in Silver
- Cross for Faithful Service (Schaumburg-Lippe)
- Military Merit Cross, 3rd class with War Decoration (Austria-Hungary)
- Knight of Honour of the Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg)
- Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918
- Wehrmacht Long Service Award, 4th to 1st class
- Memel Medal
- Iron Cross (1939)
- 2nd Class
- 1st Class
- War Merit Cross with Swords
- 2nd Class
- 1st Class
- Order of Michael the Brave, 3rd Class (19 September 1941)
- German Cross in Silver (30 December 1943)
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 4 September 1940 as General der Infanterie and commander of XI. Armeekorps[3][4]
Depiction in media
- In Bryan Singer's 2008 film Valkyrie, based on the 20 July plot, a character representing von Kortzfleisch (but credited only as "Pompous General") is portrayed by English actor Ian McNeice.
References
Citations
- ^ Michael C Thomsett (1997). The German Opposition to Hitler: The Resistance, the Underground, and Assassination Plots, 1938-1945. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0372-1.
- ^ Joachim Fest (1994). Plotting Hitler's Death: The German Resistance to Hitler, 1933-1945. Weidenfield & Nicholson. ISBN 0-297-81774-4.
- ^ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 270.
- ^ Scherzer 2007, p. 467.
Bibliography
- 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.
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- 1890 births
- 1945 deaths
- People from Braunschweig
- German military personnel of World War I
- Generals of Infantry (Wehrmacht)
- Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 1st class
- Recipients of the Silver German Cross
- Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
- Recipients of the Order of Michael the Brave, 3rd class
- Recipients of the War Merit Cross, 1st class
- Westphalian nobility
- German military personnel killed in World War II
- Reichswehr personnel