Kortfleisch, Joachim Otto August Achatius von.

Kortfleisch, Joachim Otto August Achatius von, born 03-01-1890 in Braunschweig, into an aristocratic Westphalian family in Braunschweig, Duchy of Brunswick, the son of the Prussian Generalmajor Gustav Franz Achatius von Kortzfleisch (1854 – 1910)

  and Elsbeth Oppermann (1862 – 1937). Joachim joined the Army Service as a volunteer and Fahnenjunker on 08-09-1907, age 17, in the 4. Königin-Augusta-Garde-Regiment. He was promoted to Leutnant on 17-01-1909 and joined the General Staff of the 1^st Fortress Machine Gun Battalion at the beginning of the first war. He till the end was in the fields of the war and after the war he was excepted in the new Reichswehr as an Oberleutnant. He becomes a Generalmajor on 01-08-1937 and at the beginning of World War II he is a Generalleutnant with the command of the 1^st Infantry Division . Appointed as Commanding General of the XI Army Corps on 14-04-1940 and from 01-08-1940 as a General of the Infantry. He lands in the Führer Reserve OKH (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know) on 01-06-1942 and awarded with the Knights Cross  for his bravery leading in the Western Front. He here with Oberstleutnant, later Generalmajor der Pioniere Hans von Ahlfen,

takes the replacement command of the XXXXIII Army Corps until 15-08-1942. Kortfleisch is transferred to the Reichs War court and on 01-03-1943 assigned as Commanding General of the III Reserve Army corps. Commander of the Wehrkreis III, Region III of Berlin, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels (did you know) was also Gauleiter of Berlin

. (see Magda Goebbels). Here he was almost involved in the Oberst der Kavallerie, Claus von Stauffenberg’s    plot but hold of of this complot. On 20 July 1944 as the commander of the defense group III (Berlin) he was summoned to the Bendlerstrasse where he angrily refused to obey Operation Valkyrie orders issued by one of the leading conspirators General Friedrich Olbricht

  and kept shouting ‘the Führer is not dead’ and referring to the oath of loyalty to Hitler. He was arrested and put under guard by the plotters and said that he was not willing to take part in a coup as he was just a soldier interested only in going home and pulling weeds in his garden. He was replaced in his command by General Karl Freiherr von Thüngen    and was later allowed to leave the Bendlerblock. General Karl Freiherr von Thüngen was dismissed from the army by the court of honor and was then tried by the People’s Court, sentenced to death by Roland Freisler

on 05-10-1944 and shot by firing squad in Brandenburg-Görden Prison  on 24-10-1944, age 51. Von Kortfleisch subsequently interrogated Major Hans-Ulrich von Oertzen  who was a supporter of the plot. Major Hans-Ulrich von Oertzen with the arrival of the Gestapo imminent he killed himself by detonating two hand grenades on 21-07-1944, age 29. Von Kortfleisch came again in the infamous Führer Reserve on 16-01-1945 and appointed as General for Special Purpose with the Army Group B in under Field Marshal Walter Model

Death and burial ground of Kortfleisch, Joachim Otto August Achatius von.

During this command Kortfleisch was shot by the American Forces in battle, near Wülwesort, on 20-04-1945, age 55,a US patrol encountered them at Schmallenberg-Wulwesort, Sauerland. The General defended himself with a machine pistol as he was surrounded by US soldiers, and was told to put his hands up. After he refused to do this, but proudly raised his arm in the Hitler salute, he was instantly shot by a US soldier of the 737th Tank Battalion of the United States Army. He is buried on the war cemetery of Breuna and his neighbour is Generalmajor der Panzertruppe, Kommandeur der Panzertruppe IX, Gustav Feller

  who also died in battle.

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