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Walter von Reichenau | |
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 Reichenau in 1941 | |
| Birth name | Walter Karl Gustav August Ernst von Reichenau |
| Born | (1884-10-08)8 October 1884 |
| Died | 17 January 1942(1942-01-17) (aged 57) |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | |
| Branch | German Army |
| Years of service | 1903–1942 |
| Rank | Generalfeldmarschall |
| Commands | 10th Army 6th Army |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross Iron Cross 2nd and 1st Class |
| Signature |  |
Walter Karl Gustav August Ernst von Reichenau (8 October 1884 – 17 January 1942) was a GermanGeneralfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) in theHeer (Army) ofNazi Germany duringWorld War II. He was nicknamed "The Bull" (German:Der Bulle).[1] Reichenau commanded the6th Army, during the invasions ofBelgium andFrance. DuringOperation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, he continued to command the 6th Army as part ofArmy Group South as it captured Ukraine and advanced deep into theUSSR.
While in command of the 6th Army during Operation Barbarossa in 1941, he issued the notoriousSeverity Order which encouraged German soldiers to murder Jewish civilians on the Eastern Front. Reichenau's troops cooperated with theSSEinsatzgruppen in the commission of the massacre of over 33,000 Jews atBabi Yar, and assisted with othercrimes against humanity that occurred in areas under his command during theHolocaust.
The son of PrussianLieutenant General Ernst August von Reichenau (1841–1919), Walter von Reichenau was born in 1884, inKarlsruhe. One of his brothers was Ernst von Reichenau. Walter joined the Prussian Army as an artillery officer cadet on 14 March 1903. He then attended thePrussian War Academy, going on to serve as a staff officer toMax Hoffmann in theFirst World War. At the beginning of the war, Reichenau was Adjutant of the 1st Guards Field Artillery Regiment and in this position he was promoted to Captain on 28 November 1914 and awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class and 1st Class over the course of the year. The following year he was transferred to theGerman General Staff and in the course of 1915 he served as Second Staff Officer (Ib) of the47th Reserve Division and then as First Staff Officer (Ia) of the7th Cavalry Division.
Reichenau's early years are described in conflicting terms, as both progressively minded but also brutal, with a history of executing soldiers who wereAWOL, even in times of peace. Greatly unconventional, he was an avid outdoors man, spoke English at home and, in contrast to his later activities in Russia, insisted on supporting World War I Jewish veterans' events in full military uniform, even after Hitler came to power.[2] In April 1919 he married the Silesian aristocrat Alexandrine Gräfin Maltzan Freiin zu Wartenberg und Penzlin (1895–1984), whose sister,Maria von Maltzan, was part of theGerman Resistance.
After the war, he joined theGrenzschutz OstFreikorps as a General Staff officer, serving in Silesia and Pomerania. In 1919 Reichenau joined in the newly establishedReichswehr of theWeimar Republic. The officer corps of the new armed forces' was limited to 4,000, and there was to be no General Staff. Reichenau took a post in theTruppenamt, which was the "underground" equivalent of the General Staff formed byHans von Seeckt. He was promoted to Major in 1924, to Lieutenant Colonel on 1 April 1929 and Colonel on 1 February 1932. In 1930, Reichenau was appointed Chief of Staff to the Inspector of Signals at theMinistry of the Reichswehr. He was later introduced to Hitler in April 1932 by his uncle, a diplomat. Extremely ambitious, he saw the Nazi Party as a revolutionary vessel in which he could propel his career and so broke with the pro-Monarchist politics of the Prussian military caste and became a devoted Nazi.[3]
As an outspoken ally and advocate of Hitler and the Nazi Party, Reichenau soon ran afoul of cabinet member and eventual ChancellorKurt von Schleicher, who used his authority to have him transferred out of his prestigious posting in Berlin to the headquarters of the military district of East Prussia, a relative backwater. In East Prussia Reichenau served under GeneralWerner von Blomberg, a fellow exile of Schleicher's. Reichenau and Blomberg became political allies within the army and it was Reichenau who introduced Blomberg to Hitler. Blomberg, who had a reputation of being manipulated by Reichenau, was captivated by Hitler and both men soon used their connections with the Nazi party to advance. When Hitler came to power in January 1933, Blomberg became Minister of War. One of his first acts was to promote Reichenau to head the powerful Ministerial Office, acting as liaison officer between the Army and the Nazi Party. He played a leading role in persuading Nazi leaders such asGöring andHimmler that the power ofErnst Röhm and theSA must be broken if the army was to support the Nazi-led government. This led directly to the "Night of the Long Knives" of 30 June 1934.
In 1935, Reichenau was promoted tolieutenant general (Generalleutnant) and was also appointed to command the 7th Army Corps inMunich.[4] Reichenau was one of Hitler's favorite generals and his first choice for commander-in-chief of theHeer in 1934, but was overruled by Presidentvon Hindenburg who put in GeneralWerner von Fritsch instead.[5][6]
Reflecting Reichenau's preference for assignments of political matter, Blomberg sent Reichenau toChina in May 1934 to support GeneralAlexander von Falkenhausen's existingmilitary assistance mission.Konstantin von Neurath, the Foreign Minister, and German ambassador to JapanHerbert von Dirksen, raised objections to Reichenau's posting, fearing that the assignment of an officer of his stature could imperil Germany's relationship with Japan.
In 1938, after theBlomberg–Fritsch affair, in which Fritsch was forced out of the Army command, Reichenau was again Hitler's first choice for head of theHeer, but older leaders such asGerd von Rundstedt andLudwig Beck refused to serve under Reichenau, and Hitler again backed down.[7] Von Reichenau was given Group Command at Leipzig, seen as a "jumping off place to the top jobs in the Army." But von Reichenau is supposed to have opposed the invasion of Austria in March of 1938 and injured his standing with Hitler.[8]
In September 1939, Reichenau commanded the10th Army during the Germaninvasion of Poland and was the first German to cross theVistula river, which he swam across, pushing his clothes ahead of him in a raft.[9][7] After the campaign he was awarded theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his role as commander of the 10th Army.[10]
In 1940 he led the6th Army during the invasion ofBelgium andFrance and later that year Hitler promoted him toGeneralfeldmarschall (field marshal) during the1940 Field Marshal Ceremony.
During theGerman invasion of theSoviet Union, as commander of the 6th Army, he led his army into the heart of Russia during the summer of 1941. The 6th Army was a part of Army Group South, and capturedKiev,Belgorod,Kharkov andKursk. During its offensive into the Soviet Union, the German army was confronted with a number of superior tank designs. Reichenau inspected the Soviet tanks he came across, entering each tank and measuring its armour plate. According to general staff officer Paul Jordan, after examining aT-34, Reichenau told his officers "If the Russians ever produce it on anassembly line we will have lost the war."[11]
In November 1941 Hitler relieved Field Marshalvon Rundstedt from his command ofArmy Group South and promoted Reichenau to take his place. At his personal recommendation to Hitler,Friedrich Paulus, a protege of Reichenau's and former member of his command staff, was promoted to take over his command of the 6th Army.[12]
Reichenau was a habitual cross-country runner and suffered a stroke after a routine run in cold weather on 14 January 1942.[13] He then sustained severe head injuries when the flight carrying him back to Leipzig for medical attention crashed on landing inLemberg. Whether he died from his stroke or from injuries sustained in the crash is unknown.[14] He was replaced at Army Group South byFedor von Bock and given a state funeral.[15][16]
Reichenau's uncle was an ardentNazi and introduced him toAdolf Hitler in April 1932. Reichenau joined theNazi Party, although doing so was a violation of the army regulations laid down bySeeckt to insulate the army from national politics.[17] Reichenau was ananti-Semite whoequatedJewry withBolshevism and a perceived Asian threat to Europe. Having died in 1942, Reichenau was never convicted of war crimes, but he was part of the German General Staff and High Command of the Armed Forces collectively indicted atNuremberg.[18] Specifically cited in the indictment was his "Reichenau Order", commonly known as theSeverity Order of October 1941, which supported Nazi genocidal policies and advocated for punishment against the “subhuman species” of Jews and the extermination of Jewish Bolshevism in Europe.[19]
The only objection Reichenau raised to the activities of the Einsatzgruppen in his sector was when they were killing so many Jews, so quickly, that they began to create ammunition shortages in his sector of operations, an issue he addressed by recommending that the SS and SD limit themselves to two bullets per Jew.[14]
Reichenau was in charge of the area of operations in whichSS, Einsatzgruppen, andUkrainian auxiliaries committed the massacre of over 33,000 Jews atBabi Yar. Earlier that year in August, Reichenau also directly acted to ensure the execution of ninety Jewish children in theBila Tserkva massacre, afterHelmuth Groscurth petitioned him to avert the killings.[20]
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by none | Commander of10th Army 6 August 1939 – 10 October 1939 | Succeeded by GeneralHeinrich von Vietinghoff otherwise Scheel |
| Preceded by none | Commander of6th Army 10 October 1939 – 29 December 1941 | Succeeded by FeldmarschallFriedrich Paulus |
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