Knobelsdorff, Otto von.

Knobelsdorff, Otto von, born 31-03-1886 in Berlin, to a noble family,  Joseph Goebbels  (did you know), was Gauleiter of Berlin. Otto’s parents were Major Heinrich Otto August von Knobelsdorff (born 21-01-1856) and his wife Anna Luise Usula Katharina von Manteuffel (born 10-03-1862). Otto joined the Army on 25-05-1905, age 18, as a Cadet in Bensberg and Gross Lichterfeld. He entered the 94^th Infantry Regiment and was promoted to Lieutenant on 18-08-1908. He was in the fields of the first war and wounded in hospital from 29-08-1915 until 01-11-1915. He was allowed in the new Reichswehr and promoted to Major on 01-02-1929. On 01-01-1939 to Generalmajor and with the begin of World War II he was in the Staff of the XXXIII. Army Corps and from 01-02-1940, as commander of the 19^th Infantry-Division  succeeding Generalleutnant Günther Schwantes , in the Western Front. General Schwantes died in battle on 11-08-1942 in Gläsen  For his leading in the Russian battles Knobelsdorff was awarded with the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. He lost his command because of a sever illness and recovered on 01-05-1942 he was appointed as commander of the X Army Corps, he succeeded General der Artillerie, Christian Hansen.  From 01-06-1942 Commanding General of the II Army Corps, former commander Generalmajor der Infanterie, Carl von Stülpnagel.  He was appointed as General of the Panzertruppen with the leading of the XXIV Panzer Corps.  He took the command of the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps on 01-12-1942 and after the battles for Schlacht and Tschir awarded with the German Golden Cross. For his leading in the heavy battles in the region Bjelgorod he received the Oak Leaves on 12-11-1943. He again was very sick and lost his command on 09-10-1943 and after his recover landed in the Führer Reserve (see Adolf Hitler)  (did you know) until 01-02-1944. On 01-02-1944 assigned as Commanding General of the XXXX Panzer Corps in the bridgehead of Nikopol, he succeeded General Field Marshal, Kommandeur der XXXX Panzerkorps, Ferdinand Schörner.  Schorner, on 30-01-1943, was one of the few to receive the Golden Party Badge . The badge was associated with the Alte Kämpfer, Old Fighters and those favored by the Führer, the Nazi Party elite. Adolf Hitler’s own Golden Party Badge had the number ‘1’. He awarded it to Magda Goebbels  on 27-04-1945, less than 48 hours before he committed suicide in his Führerbunker. She called it “The greatest honour any German could receive”. It was awarded to her for being “The Greatest Mother in the Reich”. The ‘1’ badge was stolen from a display in Russia in 2005. The guards thought that a cat had set off the alarms and this allowed the burglar to escape After the retreat of his Corps to the west he was awarded with the Swords on 21-09-1944. On 06-09-1944 von Knobelsdorff was appointed as high commander  of the 1^st Army in the West, he succeeded Generalleutnant der Panzertruppe, Kurt von Chevallerie

and again in the Reserve OKH from 30-11-1944. Until the end of the war he didn’t get a command anymore and landed in U.S. captivity, until 21-12-1947.

Death and burial ground of Knobelsdorff, Otto von.

     He retired in Hannover, where he at the old age of 80 died, on 21-10-1966 and is buried on the Cemetery Engeshode in Hanover. Many other WWII as eneralleutnant der Artillerie, Higher Artillery Commander 315, Walter Büchs, Generalmajor der Infanterie, Kommandeur 276^th Volks Grenadier Division , Hugo Dempwolff, Generalleutnant der Infanterie, Militair Ersatz Inspector Dresden, Hans von Falkenstein, The German 19^th Panzer Division was created from the 19^th Infantry Division and was formed on 01-11-1940. In July 1941 it moved to the central sector of the Eastern front until December 1942 when it was transferred south. It was pushed back though Ukraine and Poland and surrendered in Czechoslovakia in May 1945. Also buried here is SS Gruppenführer, Lieutenant General of the Police, Hans Wappenhaus.

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