Walter von Reichenau

Walter von Reichenau
Birth name	Walter Karl Ernst August von Reichenau
Birth date	8 October 1884(1884-10-08)
Place of birth	Karlsruhe, Grand Duchy of Baden, German Empire
Death date	17 January 1942 (aged 57)
Place of death	Between Poltawa and Lemberg, Soviet Union
Resting place	Invalidenfriedhof Cemetery in Berlin
Allegiance	German Empire Weimar Republic National Socialist Germany
Service/branch	Prussian Army Imperial German Army Freikorps Reichswehr Heer
Years of service	1903–1942
Rank	Generalfeldmarschall
Commands held	10th Army 6th Army
Battles/wars	World War I World War II Poland Campaign Battle of France Operation Barbarossa
Awards	Iron Cross Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Walter Gustav Karl August Ernst von Reichenau (often written wrongly as Walther; 8 October 1884 17 January 1942) was a German officer of the Prussian Army, the Imperial German Army, the Freikorps, the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht, finally Generalfeldmarschall and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in WWII.

Life

Birth certificate

Generalmajor Cranz briefs Adolf Hitler in 1939, to the left Walter von Reichenau.

Generalfeldmarschall Walter von Reichenau, cause of death (batman Feldwebel Hain)

Walter was born in the Grand Duchy of Baden in the German Empire in 1884. His father was a Prussian General. On 14 March 1903, Reichenau enlisted in the German Army (1. Garde-Feldartillerie-Regiment/1. Garde-Infanterie-Division/Garde-Korps) and served in the First World War. By 1918, he had been awarded the Iron Cross and attained the rank of Hauptmann (Captain).

After the war Walter stayed enlisted in the Army in the Weimar Republic until 1932 when his uncle introduced him to Hitler, in which he became a supporter and joined the NSDAP, which was in violation, forbidding Army personnel to join political parties. In 1933, Hitler appointed him to act as a liaison between the Army and the NSDAP.

Von Reichenau was instrumental in voicing the concerns about the Army working with the Party, and was a leading figure in convincing Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler that in order for the two to work together, the SA had to be abolished. This opinion may have contributed to what is commonly known as The Night of the Long Knives.

Role in sports

Until the First World War, von Reichenau was an active athlete, later he played tennis and skied. As an athletics coach in Münster, he discovered Hans Hoffmeister, the German discus champion in 1926, 1930 and 1931 and an Olympic participant in 1928. He was also an enthusiastic soccer player. In 1909, he organized a soccer championship in the Prussian Guard Corps (Garde-Korps). As a member of the Berliner SC, he met Carl Diem, with whom he remained friends. Together, the two men developed the concept of the sports badge, which was awarded from 1913 onward, and were the first two graduates.

He was a member of the organizing committee of the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin and Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and subsequently, at Diem's ​​instigation, became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as successor to Dr. Otto Friedrich Theodor Lewald in 1938. For Reichenau, sport was a means to an end – preparation for military training with popular sport, because "a good sportsman is a good soldier." He attached particular importance to team sports, as they promoted the "subordination of the individual will to the collective will." His ideal was to level out class differences through sport. But even as a "sports general," as he was called, he was unable to push through his ideas in the still traditional Wehrmacht.

Chronological career (excerpt)

• 1893 Attended Gymnasiums in Berlin, Karlsruhe and Allenstein (Olsztyn/Poland), Royal High School in Düsseldorf
• 1903 Abitur
• 14.3.1903 Joined the 1st Guards Field Artillery Regiment, Berlin
• 1903/1904 Assigned to the Metz War School
• Adjutant of the 1st Division of the 1st Guards Field Artillery Regiment
• 1910 Visited South America, saved a man from drowning on the Rio de la Plata
• October 1910 to July 1913 Assigned to the War Academy, Berlin.
  • co-founder of the officers' department of the Berlin Sports Club (BSC)
  • initiative for the Guards Corps football championship
  • boxes as an opponent of Carl Diem
  • member of the first victorious officers' squadron
  • record holder for discus throwing among officers
  • also cross-country runner, horse rider and tennis player
• 1913 Study trip with Dr. Carl Diem to the USA (in preparation for the 1916 Olympics in Berlin)
• July 1914 Commanded to the 1st Leib-Hussar Regiment No. 1, Danzig-Langfuhr
• 2.8.1914 Regimental Adjutant of the 1st Guard Reserve Field Artillery Regiment
• December 1914 Commander of the 1st Battery of the 1st Guard Reserve Field Artillery Regiment
• April 1915 Commanded to the General Staff of the 47th Reserve Division as Ib
• 1917 Officer in the General Staff of the 119th Infantry Division
• 4.5.1918 Chief of Operations (Ia) of the 7th Cavalry Rifle Division
• 25.11.1918 General Staff of the Border Guard Command at the VI. Army Corps, Breslau
• 11.8.1919 General Staff of the Border Protection Command IV, Kolberg
• 1.10.1919 General Staff of the Military District VI, Dresden
• 1.10.1920 General Staff of the Artillery Commander VI, Dresden
• 1.10.1921 Commander of the 8th (Machinegun) Company of the 18th Infantry Regiment, Münster
• 1.10.1923 General Staff of the 3rd Division of the Reichswehr, Berlin
• 1.10.1926 General Staff of the Group Command I, Berlin
• 1.10.1927 Commander of the 5th Signals Battalion (5. Nachrichten-Abteilung) in Stuttgart-Cannstatt; his successor was Percy Baron von Ascheberg
• 1.10.1929 - 31.01.1931 Chief of the Staff of the Inspection of the Signal Troops (In 7)
• 1.02.1931 - 31.01.1933 Chief of Staff of the 1st Division, Königsberg under Lieutenant General Werner von Blomberg (de)
• 1932 His uncle, who was president of the “Association for Nationality Abroad”, introduces him to Adolf Hitler
• 1.2.1933 Head of the Ministerial Office in the Reich Defense Ministry as successor to Colonel von Bredow
• 1.2.1934 Head of the Wehrmacht Office in the Reichswehr Ministry (by renaming)
• 30.6.1934 Major General Reichenau supports the monopoly position of the Wehrmacht as the only “arms bearer of the nation”
• 3.8.1934 One day after Paul von Hindenburg’s death, the oath to the “Führer and Reich Chancellor” is reformulated by von Reichenau at von Blomberg’s instigation
• 1.10.1935 to 4.2.1938 Commanding General of the VII Army Corps, Munich
  • 1936 Foreign trip to China
• 4.2.1938 (effective from 1.3.1938) Commander-in-Chief of Army Group (motorized) 4 in Leipzig as successor to Walter von Brauchitsch
  • 10.3.1938 Participant in the IOC session in Cairo
• 1.10.1938 During the liberation of the Sudetenland, commander in the 3rd area (Egerland)

WWII

By 1939, Reichenau was commanding the 10th Army during the Poland campaign and in 1940, after renaming, commanded the 6th Army during the Western Campaign 1940 in Belgium and France. He also commanded the 6th Army during the Operation Barbarossa, winning victories in both Kiev and Kharkov. His chief of the general staff (Chef des Generalstabes) was Friedrich Paulus from 26 August 1939 until 3 September 1940.

Death

On 15 January 1942, von Reichenau, a habitual cross-country runner, suffered a stroke / heart attack during a forest run (other sources state during a breakfast concluding an early morning hunt) in the Soviet Union and died on 17 January 1942 en route to a German hospital in Leipzig (Professor Dr. Hochreins) due to brain hemorrhage on the plane between Poltawa and Lemberg.

During a stopover in Lemberg, an accident occurred, the landing airplane crashed into a building. Von Reichenau sustained serious head injuries and the marshal's baton broke in two. It remained unclear for a long time whether he had already died in the aircraft at that point, or only as a result of the accident. In any case, his death was officially confirmed on 17 January 1942 in the Leipzig military hospital. His batman (or orderly) Hain, who then was appointed batman of Friedrich Paulus and survived the Battle of Stalingrad, later testified while in Russian captivity that the field marshal had died during the flight.

A state ceremony was held for von Reichenau in the courtyard of the Berlin Armory, and the burial took place in the Invalids' Cemetery. Hermann Göring gave the memorial speech. In Hitler's official obituary, the Generalfeldmarschall was honored as a "standard-bearer of the ideas of a new era." In 1944, Hitler decided to give the survivors an additional 1.01 million Reichsmarks to purchase an estate in the East.

Family

Walter was the son of Major in the 1. Badisches Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 14 and later Generalleutnant Ernst August Friedrich Ludwig Nikolaus Wilhelm von Reichenau (1841–1919) and his wife Elisabeth "Elisa" Bernhardine, née Greve (b. 13 December 1853 in Flatow, Kremmen, Brandenburg).

Marriage

Hauptmann von Reichenau married in April 1919 his fiancée Alexandrine "Alix" Charlotte Marie Gräfin Maltzan, Freiin zu Wartenberg und Penzlin (1895–1984), the daughter of Andreas Joachim Mortimer Reichsgraf von Maltzan, Freiherr zu Wartenberg und Penzlin (1863–1921) and his wife Elisabeth, née Gräfin von der Schulenburg-Oefte (1869–1934). They had four children: Karl Friedrich (b. 1921), Joachim (b. 1925), Erika (b. 1928) and Britta (b. 1932).

Promotions

• 14.3.1903 Fahnenjunker (Officer Candidate)
• 18.10.1903 Fähnrich (Officer Cadet)
• 18.8.1904 Leutnant (2nd Lieutenant) with Patent from 19 August 1903
• 18.8.1912 Oberleutnant (1st Lieutenant)
• 28.11.1914 Hauptmann (Captain)
• 1.6.1924 Major with Patent from 1 July 1923
• 1.4.1929 Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel)
• 1.2.1932 Oberst (Colonel)
• 18.1.1934 Generalmajor (Major General) with Rank Seniority (RDA) from 1 January 1934
• 1.10.1935 Generalleutnant (Lieutenant General)
• 1.10.1936 General der Artillerie (General of the Artillery)
• 1.10.1939 Generaloberst
• 19.7.1940 Generalfeldmarschall

Awards and decorations

• Prussian Lifesaving Medal (Rettungsmedaille am Band) in 1910
• German Sport Badge in Bronze on 7 September 1913
  • Auszeichnung für vielfältige Leistung auf dem Gebiet der Leibesübungen, predecessor of the Deutsches Sportabzeichen
• Order of the Crown (Prussia), 4th Class
• Iron Cross (1914), 1st and 2nd Class
• House Order of Hohenzollern, Knight's Cross with Swords (HOH3⚔)
• Friedrich Order, Knight 1st Class with Swords (WF3a⚔)
• Hanseatic Cross of Hamburg (HH)
• Military Merit Cross (Austria-Hungary), 3rd Class with War Decoration (ÖM3K)
• Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 with Swords (FEK)
• Wehrmacht Long Service Award (Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung), 4th to 1st Class for 25 years
• Sudetenland Medal
• Repetition Clasp 1939 to the Iron Cross 1914, 2nd and 1st Class
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 30 September 1939 as General der Artillerie and Commander-in-Chief of the 10. Armee
• Mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht on 21 September 1941 (other sources state he was mentioned multiple times)

Further reading

• Walther-Peer Fellgiebel: Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile (in German), Podzun-Pallas, Wölfersheim 2000, ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6
  • English: The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches, expanded edition, 2000

External links

• Generalfeldmarschall Walter von Reichenau
• von Reichenau, Walter, Lexikon der Wehrmacht
• Reichenau, von, Walter Karl Ernst August, Traces of War