Jaeger, Friedrich “Fritz”, born 25-09-1895 in Kirchberg an der Jagst,
a small town in eastern Württenberg, to the district doctor (later chief doctor), Franz Jaeger and his wife Sofie Katharina (born Schirndinger von Schirnding). In 1906, the family moved to Stuttgart, where Jaeger went to the Eberhard Ludwigs Gymnasium
. At the outbreak of the first war in 1914, Jaeger did the Notabitur, a special, harder wartime version of the Abitur, declared himself a volunteer, and became an ensign in Infantry Regiment 119. During the war, he was deployed in Flanders Fields
and France, and also at the Battles of the Isonzo on the Italian Front in Slovenia. Jaeger wa s wounded six times
and received numerous decorations. After the war’s end, he studied agriculture in Tettnang. On 06-07-1919, Jaeger’s only son, Krafft Werner Jaeger
, was born. Werner survived the war and died age 88 on 13-03-2008. In the same birth year 1909, Jaeger joined the German Workers’ Party, which later called itself the National Socialist German Workers’ Party
. Although he was a leading member of the Munich Freikorps Oberland
, Jaeger refused to participate in the Kapp Putch and quit the NSDAP. The Kapp Putsch — also known as the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch, after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp
and Walter von Lüttwitz
was a coup attempt in March 1920 aimed at undoing the results of the German Revolution of 1918-1919, overthrowing the Weimar Republic and establishing a right-wing autocratic government. It was supported by parts of the Reichswehr
and other conservative, nationalistic and monarchistic forces. In the years that followed, Jaeger was a resolute opponent of the Nazis. In 1934, he went out of his way to get himself back into the Reichswehr since he was foreseen as Reichssportführer, Hans von Tschammer und Osten’s adjutant
. Von Tschammer died age 55, on 25-03-1943. Jaeger was taken on by the 29th Infantry Regiment as a Hauptmann. In 1936, he was promoted to Major. In 1938, after the Sudeten Crisis, Jaeger took part in the German invasion of Czechoslvakia’s Sudeten German areas.
With the outbreak of World War II, he was deployed in the invasion of Poland. From 1939, Jaeger forged contacts with resistance elements within the Wehrmacht, including Chief of the OKW Staff, Hans Oster,
General der Infanterie, Friedrich Olbricht
and Generaloberst der Artillerie, Ludwig Beck.
In 1940, he participated in the Battle of France where he earned the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross and in 1941, he was deployed in the Russian Campaign. After his wife’s death during a British bombing raid on 17-02-1942, Jaeger spoke with his son for the first time about his contacts with the resistance and their plans to overthrow Adolf Hitler. In the course of the year, Jaeger was made a Oberst, and he was sent to the Battle of Stalingrad. There, he was wounded
eight times, and after becoming sick with epidemic typhus he was flown out to Lublin. In 1943, Jaeger was approached and reluctantly agreed to the plans for an attempt on Hitler’s life. Owing to his Christian convictions, he would rather have seen Hitler standing before a duly constituted court. Jaeger’s son the Hauptmann in the Gross Deutschland Division, one of Germany’s most elite units, under command of Generalleutnant Hasso von Manteuffel
. Jaeger’s son Krafft was arrested and charged with attempted treason and leading a comrade into military disobedience. Krafft was freed for lack of evidence, but he was then sent back to the front so that he could “recover his honour”. On 20 July 1944, the day of the attempt on Hitler’s life, Jaeger was commander of the Panzer Reserve Troops in defense districts II, Stettin and XXI, Kalisch). After the briefcase bomb exploded at the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia. Jaeger received orders from Oberst der Kavallerie, Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg
to arrest an SS Oberführer. Furthermore, he was also to arrest Josef Goebbels
(see Did you know) and occupy the radio station in Masurenallee. After it became known that Hitler had survived the attempt on his life, however, the soldiers under his command would no longer take his orders. The 20 July threaten at the Bendlerblock in Berlin was saved by Major Otto Ernst Remer




































Death and burial ground of Jaeger, Friedrich “Fritz” Gustav.


His family’s property was confiscated and his son Krafft Werner Jaeger was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He survived, however, and on 25-09-1995, he unveiled a memorial plaque to his father at the house where he was born exactly one hundred years earlier. The house is now Kirchberg an der Jagst’s town hall. Fritz Jaeger’s brother was the Generaloberarzt Franz Jaeger and the brothers Jaeger are buried on the Prager cemetery of Stuttgart only steps from the graves of the WWII Generals, Hans Speidel











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