Briesen, Kurt Alfred Otto Erimar von, born 03-05-1886, in Anklam, to Generalleutnant Alfred von Briesen and his wife Olga, born von Kleist (born 18-08-1847; she died 29-03-1938). Kurt von Briesen had been married to Charlotte, born von Gynz-Rekowski, since 1915. It was not possible to determine whether Rüdiger Walter Harry von Briesen, who was born on 11-08-1918 in Leipzig and who died on 30-11-1941 and thus 10 days after Kurt von Briesen on the Eastern Front near Vyborg, was his son.. Kurt joined the German Army and was assigned to an infantry regiment in Berlin. In 1913, he studied in the war academy, and in the following year he fought in France.
After WW1, he was given charge of border control of the Pomerania region, and after that he enjoyed a steady track of promotions.
On 0-018-1939, Briesen was promoted to the rank of Generalleutnant, and a month from that date he led the 30th Infantry Division, succeeding Generalleutnant Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel,
across the eastern border during the invasion of Poland. Adolf Hitler visits Briesen on the Polish front,
September 1939. On 27-10-1939, he was injured during combat,
Kurt von Briesen with his staff from the 30th Infantry Division in the western campaign; wounded sitting to his left, Hauptmann Herbert Burseg from Wrist, commander of the 2nd Battalion / Infantry Regiment 46, who is reporting. Burseg was seriously wounded again in the Eastern campaign, lost his leg and was dismissed as a major. As a farmer and owner of the Heidrehm farm southwest of Neumünster, he experienced the enemy’s air war against his homeland. He was called to service again for the final battle for Germany, and in late 1944 / early 1945 he trained Unterführer of the Volkssturm in Itzehoe. His further fate is unknown. Adolf Hitler happened to be taking a tour
of the front lines with Generalfeldmarschall der Artillerie. Wilhelm Keitel
shortly after the injury had occurred. Briesen’s weakened division had held the flanks of the main column, of Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz’s
8th Army against a mass break out attempt by Polish forces, and in the process Briesen personally led the last reserve battalion into combat.
This amphibious tank is now used as ambulance tank. The division was commanded first by General Kurt von Briesen,
During the battle, a large piece of shrapnel sliced away his left forearm, but he insisted on returning to lead his division as soon as the wound was cared for. “That is a real Prussian General of the Royal school. You can’t have enough soldiers like him.” Hitler exclaimed after meeting Briesen on the front lines. “Before today is over I want him to be the first divisional commander to get the Knight’s Cross. He has saved Blaskowitz’s army by his gallantry and drive.” the following year,
Briesen led his division in France during the invasion of that country. Again impressing the top echelons of command with their gallantry, the men of the 30th Infantry Division were given the honor to be among the German troops to march through the Arc de Triomphe. In the winter of 1941 the division was trapped in the Demyansk Pocket along with the 12th, 32nd, 123rd and 290th infantry divisions, and the SS-Division Totenkopf,
as well as RAD, police, Todt organization and other auxiliary units, for a total of about 90,000 German troops and around 10,000 auxiliaries. Their commander was General der Infanterie Walter Graf von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt, commander of the II. Armeekorps (2nd Army Corps). Walter von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt (13-07-1887 – 09-05-1943) was a General of the Infantry.. He was a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt
became ill in November 1942 and returned to Germany. He died in a hospital in Berlin. Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt himself was a descendant of Danish-Holsteiner nobility.
Death and burial ground of Briesen, Kurt Alfred Otto Erimar von.


On 01-08-1940, he was promoted to the rank of a full General.. General Kurt von Briesen was killed by Soviet aircraft near Isjum on the Donetz, southeast of Kharkov, on 20-11-1941, age 55, at 12:30 PM in action during Operation Barbarossa. The Briesen barracks (today mostly: Gartenstadt Weiche) was built in 1956/57 in the Flensburg district of Weiche and moved in 1958 by the first federal army units. In parallel, US troops were stationed in the barracks until the 1990s. The barracks was named from 1964 to 1997 after General Kurt von Briesen. Following the closure of the barracks in 1997, the barracks buildings were converted into residential buildings and the surrounding terrain was built, thus creating the “Gartenstadt Weiche”, a garden city.
Briesen memorial plate from the barracks.
General Kurt von Briesen is buried at,Kharkov German War CemeteryKharkov, Kharkivs’ka, Ukraine, and there is a stone of remembrance near the barracks in Flensburg.
General of the infantry Georg von Sodenstern at the funeral service for Kurt von Briesen in Poltava, in the background Field Marshals Gerd von Rundstedt and Walter von Reichenau.

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