Kurt Zeitzler

Kurt Zeitzler
Birth name	Kurt Paul Robert Zeitzler
Nickname	Kugelblitz (Ball of Lightning; spirited, determined and physically squat)
Birth date	9 June 1895(1895-06-09)
Place of birth	Goßmar near Luckau, Lower Lusatia, Province of Brandenburg, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Death date	25 September 1963 (aged 68)
Place of death	Hohenaschau (Chiemgau), Upper Bavaria, West Germany
Resting place	Aschau community cemetery (Bavaria)
Allegiance	German Empire Weimar Republic National Socialist Germany
Service/branch	Prussian Army Imperial German Army Freikorps Reichswehr Heer
Years of service	1914–1945
Rank	Generaloberst
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Iron Cross Wound Badge (1918) Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Kurt Paul Robert Zeitzler (9 June 1895 – 25 September 1963) was a German officer of the Imperial German Army, the Freikorps, the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht, finally Generaloberst and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in World War II. Although retired, Zeitzler was arrested by the British in March 1946 and served as a POW until late February 1947. He appeared as a defense witness at the Nuremberg Show Trials and subsequently made himself available to the Operational History (German) Section of the Historical Division of the US Army as an author.

Life

Zeitzler as a Captain of the Reichswehr

The Führer during a meeting with officers in March 1943. Above the map from the left: Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein, Generaloberst Richard Ruoff, Adolf Hitler, General der Infanterie Kurt Zeitzler and Generalfeldmarschall Ewald von Kleist.

Prime Minister Ion Antonescu at a briefing at Salzburg with the German High Command in 1944; From left: Admiral Karl Dönitz, General Kurt Zeitzler, Antonescu, Hitler; behind Antonescu: Dr. Paul Schmidt, Dr. Otto Meissner, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and General Wilhelm Keitel.

After passing the Abitur examination at the humanistic Gymnasium in Luckau, Kurt Zeitzler joined the 4th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 72 (4. Thüringisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 72) in Torgau as an officer candidate on 23 March 1914, with which he went into the First World War shortly afterwards. As a second lieutenant (since December 1914), he commanded, among other things, a pioneer company. At the end of the war he was a first lieutenant and regimental adjutant.

Post-WWI

After the war, he became a member of the Freikorps and served with the Freiwilliges Landesjäger-Korps under Major General Georg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker.

He served with various units of the Reichswehr. On 1 October 1927, he was transferred to the staff of the 4th Division of the Reichswehr in Dresden. There he completed the second year of secret general staff training (Führergehilfenausbildung). Colonel Ludwig Beck was chief of staff at the time. On 1 January 1928, he was promoted to captain. On 1 October 1928, he was sent to Berlin for the Reinhardt course (Reinhardt-Kurs). From autumn 1929, he was deployed to the staff of the 3rd Division of the Reichswehr in Berlin for three years. From February 1932, Lieutenant General Gerd von Rundstedt was appointed division commander. On 1 October 1932, he was appointed commander of the 8th (Machine Gun) Company of the 9th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment in Berlin-Lichterfelde.

• 1.2.1934 In the national defense department of the Wehrmacht Office in Berlin
• 10.11.1938 In the national defense department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) in Berlin
• 1.4.1939 Commander of the Infanterie-Regiment 60 in Lüdenscheid
• 26.8.1939 Chief of the General Staff of the XXII. Army Corps
• 16.11.1940 Chief of the General Staff of Panzer Group 1 under Generaloberst Ewald von Kleist
• 5.10.1941 Chief of the General Staff of the 1st Panzer Army
• 24.4.1942 Chief of the General Staff of the Commander-in-Chief West and Army Group D
• 24.9.1942 Chief of the Army General Staff (Chef des Generalstabes des Heeres) as successor to Franz Halder
  • November 1942: Helmuth von Pannwitz received approval from Zeitzler to set up the large unit of the 1st Cossack Division (1. Kosaken-Division)
• 30.6.1944 On leave (sick report)
  • The head of the Operations Department of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Adolf Heusinger, acted as his representative until he was injured in the assassination attempt on 20 July 1944. Generaloberst Heinz Guderian was then commissioned to take over as Acting-Chief of the General Staff of the Army.
• 15.8.1944 Führerreserve OKH (III)
• 31.1.1945 Retired

Family

Kurt Zeitzler comes from a family of pastors in the Spreewald. His father was the protestant pastor Hermann Wilhelm August Zeitzler, his mother Elise, née Ullrich. Pastor, responsible for the Krugau parish church and its branch church in Kuschkow, came to Krugau from Goßmar near Luckau in October 1900 and held this pastor's position until his retirement in 1930 (at the same time as a local school inspector until 1919).

Promotions

• 23.3.1914 Fahnenjunker (Officer Candidate)
• 24.12.1914 Leutnant (1st Lieutenant) with Patent from 23.6.1913
• 18.10.1918 Oberleutnant (2nd Lieutenant)
  • 1.7.1922 received new Rank Seniority (RDA) from 20.6.1918

Reichswehr

• 1.1.1928 Hauptmann (Captain)
• 1.7.1934 Major

Wehrmacht

• 1.1.1937 Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel)
  • 20.3.1939 received new Rank Seniority (RDA) from 1.10.1936
• 1.6.1939 Oberst i. G. (Colonel in General Staff)
  • later received new Rank Seniority (RDA) from 1.1.1939
• 1.2.1942 Generalmajor (Major General) without RDA
  • 16.3.1942 received Rank Seniority (RDA) from 1.4.1942
• 24.9.1942 General der Infanterie (General of the Infantry), whereby he skipped Lieutenant General
• 30.1.1944 Generaloberst with Rank Seniority (RDA) from 1.2.1944

Awards and decorations (excerpt)

WWI

• Iron Cross (1914), 2nd and 1st Class
• Ducal Anhalt Friedrich Cross (Herzoglich Anhaltisches Friedrichkreuz; AF/AK)
• Order of Military Merit (Bulgaria), Knight's Cross (BO5)
• Wound Badge (1918) in Black

Between wars

• Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 with Swords
• Bulgarian War Commemorative Medal 1915–1918 (Kriegserinnerungsmedaille 1915/1918) with Swords
• Wehrmacht Long Service Award (Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung), 4th to 1st Class

WWII

• Repetition Clasp 1939 to the Iron Cross 1914, 2nd and 1st Class
• Winter Battle in the East 1941–42 Medal
• Romanian Order of Michael the Brave, 3rd and 2nd Class by Royal Decree No. 1012 on 12 April 1943
• Order of the Cross of Liberty, 1st Class with Star and Swords on 18 December 1943
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 18 May 1941 as Oberst i. G. and Chief of the General Staff of the Panzergruppe 1

Writings

Zeitzler wrote an essay in Krugau on the “History of the Krugau-Kuschkow Parish” (Aus der Geschichte der Kirchengemeinde Krugau-Kuschkow; Archive) and published it in the Lübben District Calendar in 1928 as an author and first lieutenant. Between 1940 and 1959, Zeitzler wrote numerous war historical treatises, including about his time as Chief of the Army General Staff, but also works on Kleist's Panzer Group, Panzer Group 1, the 1st Panzer Army and other German units. This estate and extensive correspondence up to 1963 are now in the possession of the German Federal Archives in Freiburg.

Gallery

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Further reading

Friedrich-Christian Stahl: Generaloberst Kurt Zeitzler, in "Hitlers militärische Elite", Volume 2, Darmstadt 1998, pp. 283–292

External links

• GO Kurt Zeitzler, Axis History Forum
• Kurt Zeitzler, www.ritterkreuztraeger.info