Gotthard Heinrici

Gotthard Heinrici
Birth name	Feodor August Gotthard Heinrici
Nickname	Unser Giftzwerg
Birth date	25 December 1886(1886-12-25)
Place of birth	Gumbinnen, Kreis Gumbinnen, Province of East Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Death date	13 December 1971 (aged 84)
Place of death	Waiblingen near Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
Resting place	Bergäcker Cemetery (Freiburg-Littenweiler)
Allegiance	German Empire Weimar Republic National Socialist Germany
Service/branch	Prussian Army Imperial German Army Reichswehr Heer
Years of service	1905–1945
Rank	Generaloberst
Commands held	XII Army Corps XXXXIII Army Corps 4th Army 1st Panzer Army Army Group Vistula
Battles/wars	World War I Western Front Belgium Campaign (1914) Battle of Verdun Eastern Front Russian invasion of East Prussia (1914) First Battle of the Masurian Lakes Battle of Łódź (1914) World War II Western Front Battle of France Eastern Front Operation Barbarossa Battle of Białystok-Minsk Battle of Kiev (1941) Battle of Moscow Orsha offensives (1943) Battle of the Dukla Pass Defence of the Reich (Reichsverteidigung) Battle of Berlin Battle of the Oder-Neisse Battle of the Seelow Heights
Awards	Iron Cross Saxe-Ernestine House Order Order of the White Falcon Carl Eduard War Cross Hanseatic Cross House Order of Hohenzollern Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
Relations	∞ 1920 Gertrude Strupp

Feodor August Gotthard Heinrici (25 December 1886 – 13 December 1971) was a German officer, finally Generaloberst and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords in World War II. He was one of the calmest, most intelligent, most prudent, and most steadfast generals in the Wehrmacht. Thanks to his 4th Army, the entire central front of the Eastern Campaign held firm.

Heinrici was nicknamed unser Giftzwerg ("our tough / venomous / spiteful dwarf") by his soldiers because of his strict, often perceived as malicious manner and his uncompromising leadership, especially in battles. This nickname referred to his small stature and sharp, venomous tongue. He built up a reputation as one of the best defensive tacticians in the Wehrmacht and was renowned for his tenacity. Post-war, Heinrici helped create the Operational History (German) Section of the United States Army Center of Military History, established to harness the operational knowledge and experience of German commanders during WWII.

Life

Gotthard Heinrici was born in December 1886 in Gumbinnen, the son of the Protestant clergyman Paul Heinrici. After graduating from the Royal Friedrich Gymnasium, where he achieved his Abitur, he left his East Prussian hometown to join the 6th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 95 (Gotha, Coburg, and Hildburghausen) as an officer candidate on 8 March 1905. He was sworn-in on 25 March 1905. After company training and attending war school, he was commissioned in August 1906.

The First World War brought the young 1st Lieutenant to a wide variety of positions in front-line, rear-echelon, and staff service. Initially, he gained two years of front-line experience in both mobile and trench warfare as a battalion, regimental and brigade adjutant. Heinrici participated in the fighting in Belgium (August/September 1914), East Prussia and Poland (September 1914 to September 1915), and Northern France (September 1915 to September 1916), including at Verdun (Hill 304), and received both classes of the Iron Cross for his service on the Eastern Front.

After these front-line assignments, he began his General Staff training as a quartermaster at front-line and rear-echelon posts in Poland, Hungary, Romania, and on the Western Front, before successfully completing the "Sedan Course," the wartime short training course for General Staff officers, and being appointed First General Staff Officer of the 203rd Division on the Western Front on 28 February 1918. In this staff, he experienced the dramatic military development from the peripeteia of the war in the "Great Battle of France" through the defensive battles to the capitulation and demobilization.

Returning to East Prussia at the beginning of 1919, Heinrici was reassigned as a staff officer in General Command I in Königsberg from 18 February 1919. On 3 and 4 March 1919, after heavy fighting with communist sailors and insurgents, order was restored and the city secured in Königsberg by the East Prussian Volunteer Corps, which was part of the nationwide March battles of 1919 in the course of the insurrection, in which the future of Germany was at stake.

His further postings in the Reichswehr were: tactics instructor in the "Führergehilfen-", i.e. disguised General Staff training in Königsberg (January 1921 to September 1924), company commander in Schwäbisch Gmünd (September 1924 to September 1927), advisor in the organizational department of the Reichswehr Ministry (October 1927 to September 1930), battalion commander in Osterode/East Prussia (October 1930 to September 1932), 1st General Staff Officer at Group Command I in Berlin (October 1932 to January 1933) and finally head of department in the Reichswehr Ministry or Reich War Ministry (February 1933 to October 1937). During these years, characterized by the typical rotation of troop, staff, and ministerial duties for a general staff officer, he rose from captain to colonel.

During the rearmament and wartime periods, the promotion intervals shortened considerably – a respectable, if not spectacular, career, which, however, suffered from the "stigma" of limited combat experience during over two years of the war. The 16th Infantry Division, stationed in Münster, which Heinrici had commanded since 12 October 1937, was kept in Germany during the Polish Campaign to secure the western border. After a brief period as acting commander of the VII Army Corps (12 February 1940), Heinrici also took over the XII Army Corps on 8 April 1940, which then broke through the Maginot Line south of Saarbrücken during the Western Campaign.

On 18 June 1940, Heinrici became Commanding General of the XXXXIII Army Corps, which advanced almost without resistance to southern France (Bourges) and, after the armistice of 22 June, prepared for Operation Sea Lion, the German conquest of England, in the Le Havre-Bayeux area (later extending to Mont Saint-Michel). In April 1941, the General Command moved from the Channel coast to Poland to participate in the attack on the Soviet Union. This campaign became a major test for Heinrici and his unit.

During Operation Barbarossa, the swift advance of the XXXXIII. Armee-Korps meant that it was able to reach the Berezina river at Schazilki on 10 August 1941 with all its divisions a full three days earlier than expected. The next day, the corps crossed the Dnieper at Strechnin and succeeded in interdicting the Gomel—Shlobin railway line. Because of this, the Soviets were no longer able to prevent the encirclement and destruction of the 21st Soviet Army, despite dispatching truck-borne reinforcements from Gomel. This success, of major importance for the successful conclusion of the Gomel—Shlobin pocket battle, was largely on account of Heinrici’s aggressive leadership and he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross in recognition. On 6 January 1942, he wrote to his wife:

"The last few days have once again been filled with immense effort. Yesterday, everything looked particularly dire. Today, the situation appears somewhat calmer. But despite everything, it's still unpleasant enough. This unbelievable roller-coaster of emotions has been going on for 30 days now. For 30 days, it's been tugging and straining at our nerves. For 30 days, we've hoped, waited, and seen only the slightest signs of change. But it would all be much worse if the troops hadn't overcome all the hardships of combat, the weather, and the supply difficulties with such unimaginable tenacity and heroism. In the summer and autumn, we believed we were accomplishing the impossible. All of that pales in comparison to what's happening now. Since yesterday, the -30 to -40°C cold has stopped. But now it's snowing and windy, making the roads difficult to traverse. Nothing is working for us, everything is against us. The only way to move forward is by sled. All other means of transport are either failing or severely hampered."

On 20 January 1942, Heinrici was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 4th Army. All defensive successes in the "rolling-track battles" could only delay, not prevent, the end of the 4th Army. In June 1944, it was destroyed along with Army Group Center. Heinrici had fallen ill shortly before, so he could not personally lead his army in its final battle.

On 16 August 1944, the recovered General was appointed commander-in-chief of the 1st Panzer Army and proved himself in the protracted defensive battles in Hungary and Moravia. Due to his many years of defensive experience, he was entrusted on 20 March 1945 with the command of Army Group Vistula, which was tasked with halting the Red Army's attack on Berlin via the Oder River.

On 16 April 1945, the Soviets launched an assault on Berlin. Heinrici defended his position at the Oder Front (Oderfront) from the Seelow Heights. He temporarily withdrew his men from their lines before the invading Red Army unleashed their usual gigantic preparatory artillery barrage on the German defensive positions. When the Soviets finally launched their assault, the German lines were fully manned. Despite an advantage of 10 to 1 in manpower over the Germans, it took the Red Army three days and 30,000 dead to finally break the deadlock. Heinrici even managed to withdraw his men west of Berlin before the Soviet troops finally managed to surround the German capital. Heinrici then started maneuvering north of Berlin in order to stabilize the front there and avoid a total collapse of the German lines.

The popular view, that Germany's last battle of World War II was a deliberate, yet fatalistic, defense of Berlin planned and conducted by Hitler, is largely a historically inaccurate depiction that fits a popularized characterization of the Third Reich's end. Germany's final battle began when Generaloberst Gotthard Heinrici took command of Heeresgruppe Weichsel (Army Group Vistula) on 20 March 1945, not when the massive Soviet offensive intended to capture Berlin was launched on 16 April. Heinrici, not Hitler, decided that there was only one strategic course left for Germany: hold the Soviets back along the Oder Front long enough to entice the Western Allies across the Elbe River. Heinrici knew two things: the war was lost and what remained of Germany was destined for postwar Soviet occupation. His intent was that a protracted defense along the Oder Front would force General Eisenhower to order the Western Allies into the postwar Soviet Zone of Occupation outlined in the Top Secret Allied Plan known as 'Eclipse', thereby sparing millions of Germans in the east the dismal fate of Soviet vengeance everyone knew was at hand. Berlin, Heinrici ordered, would not be defended. The capital of Germany would not become another 'Stalingrad' as Heinrici told his subordinates. A decision by the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW) on 23 April to defend Berlin in a final decisive battle forced Heinrici into direct conflict with his superiors over the conduct of operations along the Oder Front – a conflict that undermined his capability to defend against the Soviets and ultimately cost Heinrici his command. In a companion volume to his successful and highly-regarded study of the Soviet assault on the city of Berlin, "Bloody Streets: The Soviet Assault on Berlin, April 1945", author A. Stephan Hamilton describes the planning and execution of the defense of the Oder Front, reconstructing it day-by-day using previously unpublished personal diaries, postwar interviews, Heeresgruppe Weichsel's war diary and daily command phone logs. Operations of the 3. Panzer-Armee, 9. Armee, 12. Armee, and 21. Armee are covered in detail, with their unit movements depicted on over 60 wartime operational maps. The narrative is supported by an extensive selection of appendices, including translations of postwar narratives relating to Heeresgruppe Weichsel penned by senior German officers, biographical notes on notable officers of the Heeresgruppe, and highly detailed orders of battles. In addition to a number of b/w photographs, this study features 64 pages of operational maps reproduced in full color.

After the collapse of the Oder Front and disagreements with the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW) and Wilhelm Keitel (who had ordered him to liberate Berlin, an impossible task, a suicide mission), he was relieved of his post at his own request on 29 April 1945 and transferred to the Führerreserve (Officer Reserve) on 30 April 1945. Heinrici and his men retreated to Schleswig-Holstein and were taken prisoner of war by the British near Flensburg on 28 May 1945, from which Heinrici was repatriated to Germany on 19 May 1948. Together with Hasso von Manteuffel (de), Heinrici had organized the transfer of approximately 250,000 German soldiers to American captivity near Schwerin. Otherwise, they would have been taken prisoner by the Russians.

Death

Generaloberst (Ret.) Heinrici spent his final years in Waiblingen (Lenaustraße 6, possibly also Endersbacher Straße), where he was hospitalized and died at the Waiblingen District Hospital (restructured and relocated to the new Rems-Murr-Klinikum Winnenden in 2014) on 13 December 1971. Several, especially older sources, state, he died on 10 December 1971 in Karlsruhe. The official death register entry (Standesamt Waiblingen, Sterberegister 1971, Nr. 468/1971) also records the death on 13 December 1971 in Waiblingen.

Family

Gotthard was the son of Lutheran superintendent Paul Ferdinand Constantin Heinrici (b. 1859; d. 22 October 1937) and his wife Gisela Henriette Elisabeth, née von Rauchhaupt (1846–1939). Father Paul received his first position as a clergyman of the Provincial Association for Inner Mission in 1884, from 1885 to 1902, he was second preacher in Gumbinnen in East Prussia, before becoming chief pastor (Oberpfarrer) and superintendent in Goldap and later in Königsberg (Haberberg Trinity Church). Gotthard's mother came from a Prussian noble family, and she was related to the von Rundstedt family. Gerd von Rundstedt was therefore Gotthard's (more or less distant) cousin.

Marriage

On 16 October 1920 in Königsberg, Captain Heinrici married his fiancée Gertrude Theophile Elma Strupp (b. 26 June 1897 in Libau; d. 22 May 1981 in Reutlingen), daughter of the late factory owner Constantin Ludwig Strupp and his wife Alice Heinriette Auguste, née Ehlert. They would have two children:

• Paul Walter Constantin Ernst Hartmut (b. 6 August 1921 in Königsberg; d. 28 December 1993 in Betzingen); ∞ Henriette Seeger (b. 1923)
  • Hartmut was a Wehrmacht officer, military chaplain, Protestant theologian and dean (Dekan)
• Gisela (b. 1 January 1926 in Königsberg)

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Promotions

Prussian / Imperial Army

• 8 March 1905 Fahnenjunker (Officer Candidate)
• 19 July 1905 Fahnenjunker-Unteroffizier (Officer Candidate with Corporal/NCO/Junior Sergeant rank)
• 19 December 1905 Fähnrich (Officer Cadet)
• 18 August 1906 Leutnant (2nd Lieutenant) with Patent from 15 February 1905
• 17 February 1914 Oberleutnant (1st Lieutenant)
• 18 June 1915 Hauptmann (Captain)
  • 1922 received Reichswehr Rank Seniority (RDA) from 18 June 1915 (13)

Reichswehr

• 1 February 1926 Major (6)
• 1 August 1930 Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel)
• 1 March 1933 Oberst (Colonel)

Wehrmacht

• 18 January 1936 Generalmajor (Major General) with effect and RDA from 1 January 1936 (3)
• 28 February 1938 Generalleutnant (Lieutenant General) with effect and RDA from 1 March 1938 (1)
• 17 May 1940 General der Infanterie (General of the Infantry) with effect and RDA from 1 June 1940 (1/1a)
  • when Hans von Obstfelder was promoted to General of the Infantry on 17 June 1940 with effect and RDA from 1 June, he received the order number "1", Heinrici then received the superior order number "1a"
• 21 January 1943 Generaloberst with effect and RDA from 1 January 1943 (1)

Awards and decorations

• Iron Cross (1914), 2nd and 1st Class
  • 2nd Class on 27 September 1914
  • 1st Class on 24 July 1915
• Saxe-Ernestine House Order (Herzoglich Sachsen-Ernestinischer Hausorden), Knights Cross 2nd Class with Swords (HSEH3b⚔/HSH3b⚔/EH3b⚔) on 4 November 1914
• Austrian Military Merit Cross, 3rd Class with War Decoration (ÖM3K) on 10 December 1914
• Order of the White Falcon (Hausorden vom Weißen Falken), Knight's Cross 2nd Class with Swords (GSF3b⚔/SF3b⚔) in May 1915
• Princely Schwarzburg Honor Cross (Fürstlich Schwarzburgisches Ehrenkreuz), III. Class with Swords on (SEK3⚔/SE3⚔) in May 1915
• Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Carl Eduard War Cross (CK) on 9 April 1916 as Captain and Adjutant of the 83. Infanterie-Brigade
• Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Duke Carl Eduard Medal, 2nd Class with Swords (HSCC2⚔/CM2⚔) on 20 January 1917
• Hamburg Hanseatic Cross (HH) on 23 July 1918
• Prussian Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, Knight's Cross with Swords (HOH3⚔) on 9 August 1918
• Princely Reuss Honour Cross, 3rd Class with Swords (REK3⚔/RE3⚔)
• Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 with Swords
• Wehrmacht Long Service Award (Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung), 4th to 1st Class on 2 October 1936

WWII

• Repetition Clasp 1939 to the Iron Cross 1914, 2nd and 1st Class
  • 2nd Class on 13 May 1940
  • 1st Class on 16 June 1940
• Winter Battle in the East 1941–42 Medal on 1 August 1942
• Mentioned twice by name in the Wehrmacht Report (Namentliche Nennung im Wehrmachtbericht) on 23 November 1943 and 8 October 1944
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
  • 510th Knight's Cross on 18 September 1941 as General der Infanterie and Commanding General of XXXXIII Army Corps
  • 333rd Oak Leaves on 24 November 1943 as Generaloberst and Commander-in-Chief of the 4th Army
    • Awarded for his Armee’s prevention of every Soviet breakthrough attempt east of Orsha while fighting along the Panther line.
  • 136th Swords on 3 March 1945 as Generaloberst and Commander-in-Chief of the 1st Panzer Army
    • Awarded for his leadership of the 1. Panzer-Armee in February 1945, during which time the armoured and motorized army succeeded in halting the Soviet offensive arrayed against it before they overran the last still intact coalfield of Mährisch Ostrau.

Gallery

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Sources

• German Federal Archives: BArch PERS 6/30 and PERS 6/299823