Eberhard von Mackensen

Eberhard von Mackensen
Born (1889-09-24)24 September 1889
Bromberg, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died 19 May 1969(1969-05-19) (aged 79)
Neumünster, West Germany[1]
Allegiance  German Empire
 Weimar Republic
 Nazi Germany
Service/branch Army (Wehrmacht)
Years of service 1908–44
Rank Generaloberst
Commands held III Army Corps
III Panzer Corps
1st Panzer Army
14th Army
Battles/wars

World War I

World War II
Awards Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
Relations August von Mackensen (father)

Friedrich August Eberhard von Mackensen (24 September 1889 – 19 May 1969) was a German general of the Wehrmacht during World War II who served as commander of the 1st Panzer Army and the 14th Army, and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. Following the war, Mackensen stood trial for war crimes before a British military tribunal in Italy where he was convicted and sentenced to death, however the sentence was later commuted and Mackensen was released in 1952, and died in West Germany in 1969.

Early life

Eberhard was born on 24 September, 1889, in Bromberg, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire, the fourth of five children to Field Marshal August von Mackensen and his wife Dorothea (née von Horn). Mackensen joined the Imperial German Army in 1908, where he became a Fahnenjunker of the XVII Corps stationed in Danzig, and was promoted to lieutenant on March 22, 1910.

Military career

At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Mackensen served as a regimental adjutant in the 1st Hussar Regiment. On February 25, 1915, he was promoted to first lieutenant, but after a severe wound on August 23, 1915, Mackensen was transferred to a staff job in the General Staff of the Army Group Scholtz. On May 20, 1917, he was promoted to captain.

Following the armistice in 1918 ending the war, Mackensen remained in the army (now the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic) where he served as chief of the 1st squadron of the 5th (Prussian) Rider Regiment in Belgard, but in 1919 also joined the Freikorps paramilitary group and fought in the Baltic states.[2] In 1925, Mackensen was commanded the army transport department of the German General Staff of the Ministry of the Reichswehr in Berlin. After his appointment as a major on 1 February, 1928, he served from 1930 in the staff of the 1st Cavalry Division in Frankfurt (Oder), and while serving in this position was promoted on October 1, 1932, to lieutenant colonel

From November 1, 1933, Mackensen was made chief of the staff of the General Inspectorate of the Cavalry, and was promoted to colonel on 1 September, 1934. Mackensen became chief of staff of the X Army Corps in Hamburg, the successor of the cavalry in the newly-formed Wehrmacht. In 1937, Mackensen became commander of the 1st Cavalry Brigade in Insterburg. Mackensen was appointed major general on January 1, 1938, and on May 1, 1939, became commander in the Army Group Command V in Vienna, where he became chief of staff under Field Marshal Wilhelm List.

Mackensen (2nd from right)

At the beginning of World War II in September 1939, Mackensen served as the chief of staff of the German 14th Army in the invasion of Poland. Later, he was made chief of staff of the 12th Army and fought in France. On 1 January, 1940, he was promoted to lieutenant general and eight months later to General der Kavallerie. On 15 January, 1941, Mackensen was made commanding general of III Army Corps under the 1st Panzer Army in Army Group South, and on July 27, 1941, received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Mackensen's forces were the first to reach Kiev at the First Battle of Kiev during the German invasion of the Soviet Union.[3] In November 1942, when General Paul Ewald von Kleist was given the command of Army Group A, Mackensen took up led the 1st Panzer Army in the Third Battle of Kharkov in March 1943. For his achievements in the Second Battle of Kharkov, Mackensen was honored on 26 May, 1942, with the Oak Leaves added to his Iron Cross award and promoted to colonel general (Generaloberst) on 6 July 1943.

Shortly after his promotion to Generaloberst, Mackensen was transferred to Italy as commander of the 14th Army. In March 1944, Mackensen was the first senior officer to be informed by Kurt Mälzer, the city commander of Rome, of a partisan attack against the SS Police Regiment Bozen where 32 German soldiers were killed. Mälzer had requested the immediate round-up and summary execution of Italian residents of the Via Rasella, the street where the attack had occurred. Mackensen was superior to Mälzer and supposedly refused his request for being "excessive", which was instead ordered directly by Adolf Hitler, in consultation with Field Marshal Albert Kesselring and Generaloberst Alfred Jodl. The matter was then referred to Kesselring, who was superior to Mackensen, and discussed the issue with Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, resulting in orders that called for the execution of ten Italians for every German soldier killed. Reportedly, units under Mackensen's command and members of the Bozen Police Regiment themselves refused to participate in the execution, while according to other sources, Mackensen himself gave the order for the shootings. Responsibility eventually fell to the SS security service in Rome, under the command of Herbert Kappler, who approved the action. Mälzer then organized a firing squad led by Erich Priebke, an SS hauptsturmführer under Kappler, leading to the Ardeatine massacre.

Mackensen retired from active service in the army in the summer of 1944.

Trial and conviction

Following the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945 Mackensen became a prisoner of war, and on 30 November, 1946, was convicted of war crimes by a British military court in Rome, where he was sentenced to death. In mid-1947, his sentence was commuted to 21 years imprisonment, but he was released on 2 October, 1952, serving only five years. After his release, Mackensen lived a secluded life in Alt Mühlendorf (now in Warder in Rendsburg-Eckernförde district) near Nortorf in Schleswig-Holstein, West Germany.

Death

Mackensen died on May 19, 1969, in Neumünster, 79 years old.

Awards

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Adelige Häuser B Vol. XXI, Vol. 108 in the series, Limburg (Lahn): C. A. Starke 1995, ISBN 3-7980-0700-4, p. 320.
  2. ↑ Theo Schwarzmüller: Zwischen Kaiser und „Führer“ Generalfeldmarschall August von Mackensen. Eine politische Biographie. dtv, München 2001, (181.page) ISBN 3-423-30823-0.
  3. ↑ Glantz & House 2009, p. 26.
  4. ↑ Thomas 1998, p. 50.
  5. 1 2 Scherzer 2007, p. 522.

Bibliography

  • Glantz, David M.; House, Jonathan (2009). To the Gates of Stalingrad: Soviet-German Combat Operations, April-August 1942. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1630-5.
  • Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
  • Thomas, Franz (1998). Die Eichenlaubträger 1939–1945 Band 2: L–Z [The Oak Leaves Bearers 1939–1945 Volume 2: L–Z] (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7648-2300-9.
  • Glantz, David M.; House, Jonathan (2009). To the Gates of Stalingrad: Soviet-German Combat Operations, April-August 1942. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 9780700616305.
Military offices
Preceded by
Kurt von Greiff		 Commander of III Corps
15 January 1941 – 31 March 1942		 Succeeded by
Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg
Preceded by
Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg		 Commander of III Corps
20 July 1942 – 2 January 1943		 Succeeded by
Hermann Breith
Preceded by
Generalfeldmarschall Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist		 Commander of 1. Panzerarmee
21 November 1942 – 29 October 1943		 Succeeded by
Generaloberst Hans-Valentin Hube
Preceded by
Wilhelm List		 Commander of 14th Army
5 November 1943 – 4 June 1944		 Succeeded by
Joachim Lemelsen
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