Leister, Erwin.

Leister, Erwin, born 09-12-1886 in Volkmarsen, Hessen, joined the Army at the age of 20, on 05-03-1907, as a Fahnenjunker in the 6^th Foot Artillery Regiment. Erwin was in the fields of the first war as a Battery Leader and was allowed in the new Reichswehr after the war. From 1934 Leister as an Oberst was the commander of the Army Gas Protection School in Berlin , Gauleiter was Joseph Goebbels (did you know)  of Berlin and in 1939 promoted to Generalmajor with the command of the Army Gas Protection School in Celle until 01-01-1941. Appointed as Inspector of Smook troops and Gas defence to 01-08-1944 and he landed in the Führer Reserve until 30-09-1944. 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 as a Generalleutnant. The youngest Generalleutnant in WWII, with 36, was THeodor Tolsdorff.   Leister wouldn’t get a job anymore and was finally retired on 30-09-1944. Still he landed in British captivity on 14-04-1945 and first released on 15-10-1947 again.

Death and burial ground of Leister, Erwin.

Living in Göttingen, Leister not a battlefield General died at the old age of 89 and is buried on the Stadtfriedhof of Göttingen and only steps away are the graves of the WWII Generalleutnant der Flakartillerie, Kommandeur Heeres Gruppe IV, Curd Bernard, Generalleutnant der Artillerie, Kommandeur 34^th Division, Friedrich Bremer, General der Panzertruppe, Kommandeur 4^th Panzer Grenadier Division ,Fritz Graser , Generalleutnant der Infantrie, Kommandeur der 83^th Infanterie Division, Wilhelm Heun, General der Infanterie, Commander 4^th Heeresgruppe, Friedrich Hossbach, Generalmajor der Artillerie, Kommandeur 33^rdArtillerie Ersatz Regiment, Emiel Klie,   Generalmajor der Infanterie, Kommandeur Heeres Regio 593, Walter Krause, Generalleutnant der Infanterie, Erwin Leister, General der Flieger, Inspector of Smook Troops and Gas defence, Erich Quade and Generalmajor der Artillerie, Kommandeur vom WBK Königsberg II,  Rudolf Scheller. 

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