Oberkommando der Luftwaffe
| Air Force High Command | |
|---|---|
.png) Flag for the Supreme Commander of the German Air Force (RdL und ObdL) from 1938 to 1945 | |
| Founded | 26 February 1935 |
| Country |  National Socialist Germany
|
| Branch | Air Force (Luftwaffe) |
| Part of | High Command of the Armed forces (OKW) |
| Disbanded | 23 May 1945 |
| Commanders | |
| Chief of the OKL | See list |
| Chief of the General Staff | See list |
The Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (German: Luftwaffe High Command; OKL) was the supreme command authority of the German Air Force before and during World War II.
Contents
History
The Luftwaffe High Command (OKL) was the supreme command authority of the German Air Force during World War II. It was introduced in February 1935 in analogy to the Army High Command (OKH) and dissolved with the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht in 1945. Previously, the air force, which was established by Adolf Hitler on 26 February 1935 as a separate branch of the armed forces, was directly subordinate to the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM), which was founded in 1933. The OKL was based in what is now the Henning von Tresckow barracks near Potsdam. The operational headquarters was located in the Kurfürst bunker complex in Potsdam.
Early history and structure
After the First World War, civil and military aviation in Germany was banned under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. Although civil aviation was later permitted again, military flying remained banned. The interests of aviation in the Weimar Republic were therefore represented, in a strictly disguised manner, in the Reich Army's Troop Office and the Air Defense Office. For example, the Reichswehr's secret flying school and test site in the Soviet Union (Flying-School Lipezk) was subordinate to the Reichswehr's Troop Office (Truppenamt).
After 1933, the injustice of the Treaty of Versailles was gradually eliminated. The "Ordinance on the Reich Commissioner for Aviation" was issued on 2 February 1933. This appointed a "Reich Commissioner for Aviation" who was responsible, among other things, for the planning and development of aviation. He was directly subordinate to the Reich Chancellor and received all powers relating to civil aviation and air defense from the Reich Ministry of the Interior and the Reich Ministry of Transport. The Prussian Minister of the Interior, Hermann Göring, became Reich Commissioner. In April 1933, the authority was then given the rank of a Reich Ministry and in May 1933, Hermann Göring became Reich Minister.
In March 1935, Göring also became Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe. A huge office building with 2,000 offices was built on Wilhelmstraße in Berlin to house the Reich Aviation Ministry. During the war, up until 1943, there were only minor reorganizations of the Reich Ministry of the Luftwaffe (RLM) after it was recognized that the top-level war structure was inadequate for a longer war and needed to be reorganized. In 1943, the personal union of the Chief of the General Staff and the Chief of the Luftwaffe Command Staff was dissolved.
The Chief of the Air Force Staff was given the same status as a Commanding General. On 5 February 1944, the division of the Reich Minister of Aviation and Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force into the departments of the "High Command of the Air Force" and "Reich Minister of Aviation" was ordered. The High Command of the Air Force (OKL) was created as the leadership organization of the Air Force, analogous to the High Command of the Heer (OKH). Further reorganizations followed until the end of the war, most of which only lasted a few months.
Flag of the Reich Minister of Aviation
The first command flag was introduced on 5 May 1933 and featured the Reich Eagle in the center, which was used until 1935. Below the laurel wreath is the Blue Max (Pour le Merite). Starting from the center of the laurel wreath, there are a total of four stylized airplane propeller blades on the flag pointing to the corners. The flag was used until April 1935, when only the following alternative version came into use.
The new model featured the Luftwaffe symbol, a gold-colored, flying eagle in the four corners of the flag, in the center of which was a gold-colored swastika standing on its tip. The flag was lined on all four sides with a two-cm-wide, gold-colored border, on which there were a total of 76 small swastikas standing on their tips.
The third and final model was introduced on 28 April 1938 and featured the new version of the right side of the flag, which was otherwise identical to the previous version, plus two crossed Luftwaffe marshal's batons placed between the swastika and the Pour le Merite order. This change occurred at the same time as Göring was promoted to Generalfeldmarschall.
From 19 July 1940 and the victorious Western Campaign, the command flag, which was valid until 1945, was hardly used anymore, as the Reich Marshal's personal standard with the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross was introduced on that day, and was redesigned again in February 1941.
Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM)
The Reich Aviation Ministry (Reichsluftfahrtministerium; RLM, also RLFM) was the highest authority responsible for aviation in the German Reich from 1933 to 1945. It was established on the basis of a cabinet decision on 25 April 1933. Its headquarters were initially in Behrenstraße in Berlin, then from autumn 1935 in Wilhelmstraße. From 1933 to 1945, Hermann Göring was Reich Minister of Aviation (from February he was Reich Commissioner for Aviation, from April he was Reich Minister of Aviation), Erhard Milch was State Secretary (also Inspector General of the Luftwaffe and from 1941 to 1945 also General Aircraft Master), and Bruno Loerzer, also a Knight of the “Pour le Merite”, was Commissioner for Airships.
Arno Breker produced several designs for a monumental sculpture on the forecourt of the main entrance to the planned new building complex on Leipziger Straße. The idea is a figure on a pedestal, around six metres high, whose hem of the garment, as if lifted by a gust of wind, swings out to the back to form a wing-like shape. It carries a torch.
From 1946 to 1948, the Soviet military administration used the building for its own purposes and, in the course of the barbarism it generally displayed, removed the sculptural works, such as a gallery of generals' heads, bronze eagles, iron crosses and national emblems. The large ballroom was changed in 1946/47.
On7 October 1949, the members of the so-called "German People's Council" adopted the "constitution" for the occupation construct of the GDR in the ballroom. From then on, the GDR used the building as the "House of Ministries". A few years later, the redesign of the vestibule facing Leipziger Straße was completed. Between 1950 and 1953, the beautiful stone relief “Flag Company” (Fahnenkompanie) created by Arnold Waldschmidt was replaced by a euphoric, kitschy communist mural called “Building the Republic”.
List of commanders
Commander-in-Chief of the OKL
- Reich Marshal Hermann Göring from 1935 to 1945
- until his expulsion from the Wehrmacht and NSDAP by Hitler on 23 April 1945. Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe (ObdL) Göring was also the first Reich Aviation Minister (Reichsministers der Luftfahrt; RdL).
- Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim from 26 April 1945 to 8 May 1945
- until his capture by American troops
- Generaloberst Hans-Jürgen Stumpff (1889–1968): Acting 8 May 1945 to 23 May 1945
- With the capture of Robert Ritter von Greim, Stumpff was authorized to sign the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht on 9 May 1945 in Berlin-Karlshorst by the (last) Reich President Karl Dönitz as Chief of General Staff and representative of the Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe.
Chief of General Staff of the OKL
- Generalleutnant Walther Wever (1887–1936): 1 March 1935 to 3 June 1936
- General der Flieger Albert Kesselring (1885–1960): 5 June 1936 to 31 May 1937
- General der Flieger Hans-Jürgen Stumpff (1889–1968): 1 June 1937 to 31 January 1939
- Generaloberst Hans Jeschonnek (1899–1943): 1 February 1939 to 18 August 1943
- General der Flieger Günther Korten (1898–1944): 25 August 1943 to 22 July 1944
- General der Flieger Werner Kreipe (1904–1967): Acting 2 August 1944 to 28 October 1944
- General der Flieger Karl Koller (1898–1951): 12 November 1944 to 8 May 1945
External links
In German
- Luftkriegsakademie Berlin-Gatow (LKA)
- Haus der Flieger – although smaller than the New Reich Chancellery, Görings representative Luftwaffe palast was also considered an architectural masterpiece
