Theodor Ernst Hermann August

Theodorn Busse, born on 15-12-1887 in Frankfurt an der Oder, joined the Imperial German Army as an officer cadet in 1915. During World War I he won the Knights Cross with Swords of the Hohenzollern Order. After the armistice he was accepted as one of 2000 officers into the new 100.000 men Reichswehr, where he steadily rose in rank. Busse was a General Staff officer in April 1939 and between 1940 and 1942 he served as the Chief of Operations to General Erich von Manstein (see Manstein) in the 11^th Army on the Eastern Front. While serving with Army Group South he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 30-01-1944. He spent a short time in the Führer Reserve and was then appointed General Officer Commanding German 121^st Infantry Division. In July 1944 he commanded I Army C. During the last five months of the war, Busse commanded the 9^th Army which was by then part of Army Group Vistula. The 9^th Army  was activated on 15-05-940 with General Johannes Blaskowitz (see Blaskowitz) in command . As the Soviets continued to advance into Germany, Busse fought to protect the German capital city in the Battle of Berlin. Specifically, Busse commanded the 9^th Army during the Battle of Seelow Heights and the Battle of the Oder-Neis.

      The last commander of 9^th Army  was Ferdinand Schörner (see Schörner). On 22-04-1945, Busse became part of a poorly conceived and incredibly desperate plan that Wilhelm Keitel (see Keitel) and (Bodewin Keitel) and Alfred Jodl (see Jodl) and (Ferdinand Jodl) proposed to Adolf Hitler (see Adolf) (did you know) (see Hitler parents) (see William Hitler). The plan was proposed to Hitler to mollify him; Hitler was in a rage earlier that day after he discovered that forces under General Felix Steiner (see Steiner) and Walther Wenck (see Wenck) would not be coming to his relief in Berlin. The XLI Panzer Corps commanded by the reliable General Rudolf Holste,(see Holste) an old regimental comrade of Busse, would be brought back across the Elbe. The Battle of Halbe, did allow a remnant of Busse's army and some German civilians to escape to the West. Between 1945 and 1946, Busse was a prisoner of War and lived later in Wallerstein, where he at the very old age of 98, died on 21-10-1986. He is buried with his wife Camilla, born Hahn, who died age 68 on 06-10-1968, on the small cemetery of Wallerstein.