Röpke, Kurt Reinhard Wilhelm.

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Röpke, Kurt Reinhard Wilhelm, born 28-11-1896 in Solingen, the son of the general practitioner Prof. Dr. Friedrich Röpke and his wife Margarete, born Dönhoff, joined the Army Service as a Fahnenjunker, age 17, with the 57th Infantry Regiment and was in the fields of the first war as a Leutnant. Röpke was not allowed in the new 100.000 Reichswehr but reactivated in the growing Wehrmacht on 10-11-1938. With the outbreak of World War II he as an Oberstleutnant was the commander of the II Battalion of the 203rd Infantry Regiment to 15-12-1939.  Appointed as Instructor at the 2nd Infantry School to 01-08-1940 and commander of the 50th Infantry Regiment until 01-09-1942. Again instructor at the 2nd Infantry School to 26-05-1943, now as an Oberst and commander of the 320th Infantry Division File:320th Infanterie-Division Logo 2.svg , succeeding Generalleutnant Georg-Wilhelm Postel

   until 20-08-1943, meanwhile a Generalmajor. Postel was taken prisoner by the Red Army on 30-08-1944 after the capitulation of Romania. Convicted as a war criminal in the Soviet Union,Postel was sentenced to 25 years of forced labour in 1949. Postel died in custody on 20-09-1953, age 57, of tuberculosis. He was interred in the prisoner of war cemetery in Shakhty.The Kingdom of Romania, under the rule of King Carol II, was initially a neutral country in World War II. However, Fascist political forces, especially the Iron Guard, rose in popularity and power, urging an alliance with Nazi Germany and its allies. The Iron Guard (Romanian: Garda de Fier) was a Romanian militant revolutionary fascist movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel Michael or the Legionary Movement  It was strongly anti-democratic, anti-capitalist, anti-communist, and anti-Semitic. It differed from other European right-wing movements of the period due to its spiritual basis, as the Iron Guard was deeply imbued with Romanian Orthodox Christian mysticism. On 30-11-1938, it was reported that Codreanu had been killed “while fleeing.” However, it is more likely that the fourteen people were murdered (strangled and shot) by the gendarmerie at Tâncăbesti (near Bucharest). The bodies were buried in the garden of Jilava prison. Codreanu’s successor as Căpitanul of the Iron Guard became Horia Sima.

After the war, Horia Sima fled to Spain. From 1950 onwards, the Americans and British supported him in setting up a Romanian rebel army to fight the communist government in Bucharest. In 1953, some rebels were dropped in Romania but were soon arrested and tried. Until his death on 26-05-1993, age 86, Horia Sima remained in Spain.

As the military fortunes of Romania’s two main guarantors of territorial integrity—France and Britain—crumbled in the Fall of France (May to June, 1940), the government of Romania turned to Germany in hopes of a similar guarantee, unaware that Germany, in the supplementary protocol to the 1939 MolotovRibbentrop Pact,

had already granted its blessing to Soviet claims on Romanian territory.

Due to a treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Romania had to cede Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union in 1940. Later that year, Romania was forced by Nazi Germany and Italy to cede northwestern Transylvania to Hungary and southern Dobruja to Bulgaria. The people, incited by the Iron Guard, resented the king for this and on 05-09-1940, Carol was forced to transfer power to General Ion Antonescu, who deposed him the next day. The 19-year-old Michael became king again, but in fact Antonescu was the boss.

On September 7, King Carol and Magda Lupescu left Romania for good on a special train. They were allowed to take many art treasures, including 41 paintings by artists such as Titian, El Greco and Nicolae Grigorescu, on the condition that none would be sold.During and just after the Second World War, Carol tried to regain the throne several times. He even had contact with the Soviets, but received no support in Romania. Carol and Magda lived in various South American countries for a number of years and on e 03-06-1947 they married in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). From now on, Magda called herself Elena, Princess Hohenzollern. Eventually they settled in Portugal. He died oin 04-04-1953, age 56, of a heart attack. Elena would outlive him by almost 25 years.

Commander of the 46th Infantry Division File:Divisionsabzeichen der 46. Infanterie-Division der Wehrmacht.jpg, former commander General der Gebirgstruppe, Carl von Le Suire  to 10-07-1944, now a Generalleutnant  His last command before in Allied captivity was as Commanding General of the XXIX Army Corps to 08-05-1945. Röpke succeeded General Anton Reichard von Mauchenheim genannt Bechtolsheim. Von Mauchenheim survived the war and died 09-02-1961, aged 64. He was a brother of Kapitan zur See, Theodor Freiherr von Mauchenheim genannt Bechtolsheim. He too survived the war and died 20-04-1973,  aged 70, in Hanover.

Röpke was married twice: 29-07-1922 he married Hertha Klaue (born 25-04-1901) On 03-08-1929 he married Elisabeth von Roques (born 28-02-1901 andf died 21-11-1976). The grave of the Röpke couple is in the military cemetery of the main cemetery in Kassel.children. One son (born 1923) was born from the first marriage, and two further sons (born 1930 and 1935) were born from the second marriage. The son Joachim, born in 1930, died in 2011.

Death and burial groundof Röpke, Kurt Reinhard Wilhelm.

    Röpke retired in Göttingen where he at the age of 69 died on 21-07-1966. Röpke is buried with his wife, Elisabeth, born Roques, who died age 75, on 21-11-1976, on the Military Cemetery of Kassel between his colleagues, Generalmajor der Pioniere, the commander of the Senior Construction Staff 14, Friedrich Borchers  General der Infanterie, Commander of “Ost-Ungarn”, Kuno Both  Generalmajor der Infanterie, Commander of the Troop Exercise, Friedrich von Both, Generalmajor der Infanterie, Kommandeur vom WBK Königsberg II, Rudolf Scheller  Generalmajor der Panzertruppe, Commander of the 92nd Panzer Grenadier Regiment, Werner von Hillebrandt

 

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