Heisterman von Ziehlberg Gustav Dietrich Adolf.

Heisterman von Ziehlberg Gustav Dietrich Adolf , born 10-12-1898 in Inowrazlaw, Poland   the son of the Prussian Major Georg Heisterman von Ziehlberg (1865–1914) and his wife Helene, born Goecke.  Gustav attended high school in Braunsberg (Lyceum Hosianum) and Königsberg from 1908. He then attended the cadet school and joined the Grenadier Regiment “King Friedrich Wilhelm IV” (1st Pomeranian) No. 2 in Stettin on 10-08-1914 after the outbreak of the First World War. Promoted to Lieutenant on 08-03-1915, Gustav then was deployed as a company commander and battalion adjutant on the Eastern Front and was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross.

After the end of the war, Heisterman von Ziehlberg served in the Eastern Border Guard until March 1919. He was then transferred to the Reichswehr

Gustav then served in the General Staff in the Central Department of the Army General Staff from 1939 to 1942, most recently as head of this department. In January 1943 he was given command of the 48th Grenadier Regiment on the Eastern Front.

In May 1943 he was deployed as commander of the 65th Infantry Division and in August he was promoted to Major General. In November 1943 Heisterman von Ziehlberg was seriously wounded in Italy and his left arm had to be amputated. While commanding the 65th Infantry Division in Italy, between September and October 1943, von Ziehlberg ordered the illegal execution of four SAS men: Captain Patrick Laurence Dudgeon, age 23 Sergeant William Henry Foster, age 29 , Corporal James Patric Shortall, age 24

and Gunner Bernard Oliver Brunt, age 21 and ordered the taking of 34 Italian civilians hostage and asked for permission to execute them in retaliation for suspected partisan attacks. The request was denied by Erwin Rommel. Von Ziehlberg fought on the Eastern Front in 1944 but this was refused.

Half a year later, he took over as commander of the 28th Jäger Division on the Eastern Front. On 01-06-1944, Heisterman von Ziehlberg was promoted to Lieutenant General and awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross on 27-07-1944.

On 20-07-1944, von Ziehlberg was ordered to arrest his Ia staff officer Major Joachim Kuhn, age

for his involvement in the 20 July plot against Hitler. Kuhn together with his friend Lieutenant Albrecht von Hagen had arranged for the explosive delivered by Helmuth Stieff to Oberst Claus von Stauffenberg. On 21 July he had accompanied General Henning von Tresckow

to the front near Królowy Most, where Tresckow committed suicide. Confronted with the warrant, Kuhn denied any entanglement. Instead of arresting him, von Ziehlberg told Kuhn to transfer his official duties and proceed to Berlin in order to clear things up. Kuhn used that opportunity to flee towards the forces of the Soviet 2nd Belorussian Front. under command of General Pavel Alekseyevich Kurochkin   Kuhn was taken prisoner and interrogated by the SMERSH  counter-intelligence agency. Kuhn died age 80 on 06-03-1994.

Von Ziehlberg was charged with negligent disobedience. In September 1944, he was sentenced to nine months in prison by the Reichskriegsgericht’s jurist Herman Cuhorst  but was pardoned for his previous service. He returned to his division, but was again summoned to Berlin on 30 October. Hitler, suspecting him of collaboration with Generaloberst Ludwig Beck, revoked his sentence and had von Ziehlberg re-arrested to face another trial. On 21 November he was sentenced to death by the Reichskriegsgericht, dishonourably discharged, and stripped of all honors, ranks and titles. The judges openly stated that they had to follow the Führer’s instructions. Hermann Cuhorst survived the war and died age 92 in 1991.

The presiding judge, General Staff Judge Karl Schmauser, said at the end of the trial: “The court can understand his actions, the court also recognizes that there was no dishonorable behavior,” but that, “as much as everyone regrets it, the Führer and supreme warlord is the representative of the prosecution and he has decided on the death penalty by hanging, unfortunately there is nothing that can be done about it, the court must agree with this verdict.”

Heisterman von Ziehlberg Gustav Dietrich Adolf, age 46, who was married to Anneliese von Tschischwitz (1908–1995), daughter of Margareta von Steinbach and Erich von Tschischwitz, from 1928 and had four daughters and a son with her, was executed on 02-02-1945 by a Wehrmacht firing squad at a proving ground near Olympic Stadium in the Charlottenburg (present-day Westend) district of Berlin. and is buried at the Parkfriedhof Berlin-Lichterfelde, Section 25. Osteweg 12, 14167 Berlin.

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