Kaldrack, Otto.

Kaldrack, Otto, born 19-08-1875 in Eisleben, joined the Army Service on 13-03-1894, age 18, as a Fahnenjunker in the 56^th Infantry Regiment. During the first war he was a Company Chief and Battalion Commander and retired from the Service as an Oberst on 31-10-1928. Placed to the disposal of the Army in Mai 1940 and following Field Commandant 503 to 17-01-1941 and of the 520 in Antwerp, to 26-04-1941 and landed in the Führer Reserve  (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know) to 16-07-1941. Again Field Commandant 200 until 25-08-1941 in the Reserve again, promoted to Generalmajor on 01-10-1941 and at last retired on 31-10-1942, age 67, not useful for Hitler’s warfare 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. Examples: Major Karl August Meinel, 01-08-1942, was shifted into the Führerreserve, because on 13-01-1942 he wrote a critical report to General Hermann Reinecke  on the segregation and execution of Russian prisoners of war in prison camp Stalag VII-A by the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst SD (security Service) of the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler  Stalag VII-A was north of Moosberg, a Bavarian town close to Munich. Hermann Reinecke died old age 85, on 10-10-1973. General Georg Thomas   , head of the Military Economics and Armament Office of the Armed Forces Supreme Command, played an essential role in drawing up the starvation policy for the occupied Eastern territories. He was transferred to the Officers Reserve on 20-11-1942 and arrested after the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler because of his contacts with the resistance. Thomas died, age 56, 29-12-1946.

Generaloberst der Infanterie, Franz Halder,  head of the Army General Staff, planned army operations from 1939 to 1941. He was dismissed in 1942 and transferred to the Officers Reserve. After the assassination attempt on Hitler of 20 July 1944, his involvement in a conspiracy in 1938 came to light, which led to his arrest and imprisonment in Flossenbürg concentration camp. He was freed by U.S. troops in May 1945. In camp Flossenburg, Wilhelm Canaris  and Hans Paul Oster  were killed only days before the end of the war. Generalfeldmarschall der Infanterie, Walter von Brauchitsch 

became Supreme Commander of the Army in 1938 and was decisively involved in planning Operation Barbarossa. He was dismissed on 19-12-1941 because of the military defeat at Moscow and transferred Officers Reserve.

Kaldrack was married to Eva Boehmer (1883–1967). The marriage produced at least one son, Günther Kaldrack (1911–1945). His marriage to Gerda Schwinning produced three sons and a daughter, Kara. The latter, granddaughter of Otto Kaldrack, married the theologian Wolfgang Huber in 1966, later chairman of the EKD Council and Protestant bishop.

Death and burial ground of Kaldrack, Otto.

Otto  Kaldrack lived in Bad Godesberg after the war and died there at the age of 80, on 28-09-1954. Kaldrak is buried with his wife Eva, born Boehmer, who died age 82, on 17-04-1967, on the Zentralfriedhof of Bad Godesberg. The Generals Generalmajor der Infanterie, Kommandeur POW Camp Dictrict XVII, Lothar von Block, Generalmajor der Nachrichtentruppe, Kommandeur Wehrmacht in Holland, Heinrich Claes,  General der Infanterie, Defender of “Festung Königsberg”, Otto Lasch, the defender of Königsberg, and General der Flieger, Department Chief of the Air Ministry, Hans von Seidel are buried here too.

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