Held, Karl.

Held, Karl, born 29-07-1878 in Lemgo, Lippe Gräfeling, entered the Army Service, age 18, as a Fahnenjunker in the 17^th Infantry Regiment, on 27-02-1897. He was in the fields of the first war and ended the war unhurt, as a Major in the General Staff of the General Command of VIII Army Corps. Held remained in the new Reichswehr  and promoted to Generalmajor on 01-12-1930 and Generalleutnant from 30-09-1931. The youngest Generalleutnant in WWII, with 36, was Theodor Tolsdorff.   Held was placed to disposal of the Army on 26-08-1939 and assigned as commander of the 147^th Division until 01-04-1942. He landed in the Führer Reserve (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know) to 31-07-1942 and at last retired, age 65, not useful anymore. The Führerreserve (“Officers Reserve”) was set up in 1939 as a pool of temporarily unoccupied high military officers waiting for new assignments in the German Armed Forces during World War II. The various military branches and army groups each had their own pool which they could use as they saw fit. The officers were required to remain at their assigned stations and be available to their superiors, but could not exercise any command function, which was equivalent to a temporary retirement while retaining their previous income. Especially in the second half of the war, more and more politically problematic, troublesome, or militarily incompetent officers were assigned to the Führerreserve.

Death and burial ground of Held, Karl.

Retiring in Gräfeling, Held died at the age of 69, on 31-12-1947. He is buried with his wife Elisabeth, who died old age 89 on 27-01-1985, on the Stadtfriedhof of Gräfeling, and steps away are the graves of the Generalleutnant der Kavallerie, Kommander 4^th Panzer Division , Moritz Faber de Baur,  Generalleutnant der Infanterie, The high commander of Feldkommandeur 569, Friedrich Haselmayr, General der Flieger, Kommandant der Luftregio I Königsberg, Albert Vierling

, General der Flieger/Artillerie, Kommandeur Wehrkreis VII, Edmund Wachenfeld, Generalleutnant der Flieger, Kommandant von Bohemië und Moravië, Max Ziervogel and Hitler’s first driver and look a like  and SS Brigade General, Julius Schreck and the Nazi jurist, Theodore Maunz.

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