Raegener, Adolf.

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Raegener, Adolf, born 17-02-1895 in Kleinleinungen, the son of the landowner Adolf Raegener and his wife Klara, born Augspurg, joined the Army service as a volunteer, age 19, on 10-08-1914, with the 3rd Hannoverisches Infantery Regiment “von Voigts-Rhetz” Nr 79. Promoted toLLeutnant on 06-11-1915. He was in the fields of the first war as a Company Officer in this regiment and transferred on 22-03-1916 to the 1st Thüringisches Infantry Regiment “Graf Bose” Nr 31  and following to the 2nd Garde Reserve Regiment. He was awarded with the Knight Cross of the Königlich Prussian Hausordens von Hohenzollern, with Swords in 1918. He was not only wounded in the war, he received the wounded badge in black, but also received both the Iron Crosses.  Raegener was excepted in the new Reichswehr as a Leutnant with the 115th Infantry Regiment and transferred to the 5th Prussian Infantry Regiment, as a Company Officer. Promoted to Oberleutnant on 31-07-1925, age 30, with his Regiment in Stettin. He became a Hauptmann on 01-02-1930 and Chief of the 10th Company of the 5th Prussian Infantry Regiment in Rostock. From 1931/1932 he was the Chief of the 12th MG Company  in the 5th Regiment in Rostock. Again transferred now to the 9th Prussian Infantry Regiment. In the new Wehrmacht he was with the Infantry Regiment Potsdam. From 15-10-1935 he was a Major and assigned as commander of the 1st Battalion of the 67th Infantry Regiment. Promoted to Oberstleutnant on 01-08-1938, age 43 and with his Regiment involved in the Poland invasion in September 1939. Commander of the II Battalion of the 68th Infantry Regiment on 01-02-1940 and from 01-03-190 commander of the 309th Infantry Regiment. With this Regiment he was on the Western front in the spring of 1940, around Antwerp in Belgium and Dunkirk France and awarded for bravery with the Knight Cross of the Iron Cross on 25-06-1940. Adolf then was promoted to Oberst on 15-02-1941, age 46 and commander of the 9th Infantry Regiment. Now involved in the Eastern campaign in Mid Russia and again seriously wounded on 15-02-1941 and lost a leg. After his recover he landed in the Führer Reserve and sent to a course for recovering officers in Wehrkreis III and promoted to Generalmajor on 15-01-1944. End 1944 he volunteered for the front and became Commander of the defence region of “Warthe” and from 25-01-1945 as commander of Fortress Küstrin .

In January of 1945, the arrival of Soviet troops at the garrison town of Küstrin came as a tremendous shock to the German High Command. The Soviets were now only fifty miles from Berlin itself. Before they could advance on the capital, the Red Army needed the vital road and rail bridges passing through Küstrin. A combination of flooding and strategic blunders resulted in a sixty-day siege by two Soviet armies which totally destroyed the town.

Magdeburg was the location of 30 forced labour detachments of the Stalag XI-A prisoner-of-war camp for some 4,500 Allied POWs, a camp for Sinti and Romani people, and three subcamps of the Buchenwald concentration camp, in which mostly Jewish men and boys and Soviet, Polish and Jewish women were imprisoned. In April 1945, dozens of prisoners were massacred by the Volkssturm and Hitler Youth, and surviving prisoners were sent on death marches towards the Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen concentration camps.

Magdeburg was heavily bombed by British and American air forces during the Second World War. The RAF bombing raid on the night of 16-01-1945 destroyed much of the city centre. The death toll is estimated at 2,000–2,500. Near the end of World War II, the city of about 340,000 became capital of the Province of Magdeburg.

From 07-02-1945 as commander of the Division Staff “Raegener”, 433rd and 463rd Infantry Division. Promoted to Generalleutnant on 01-03-1945, age 50, and from 13-03-1945 commander of the defence region of Magdeburg. For his excellent leading he was awarded with the Oak Leaves on 17-04-1945. Leading his Corps Group “Raegener” he surrendered to the American forces and was released on 01-07-1945, age 50.

Death and burial ground of Raegener, Adolf.

Living and retiring in Braunschweig, he at the old age of 86, died on 17-08-1983 and is buried with his wife Lilly, who died also old age, 86, on 09-06-1981, on the Hauptfriedhof of Braunschweig, close to the Generalmajor der Flieger, Commander 2nd Fallschirm Jäger Division 2nd Fallschirmjäger Division Logo.svg, Hans Kroh, and resistance man Friedrich Werner Graf von der Schulenburg,

Schulenburg a German diplomat who served as the last German ambassador to the Soviet Union before Operation Barbarossa. He began his diplomatic career before World War I, serving as consul and ambassador in several countries. After the failed July 20 plot (see Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg) in 1944, Schulenburg was accused of being a co-conspirator and subsequently executed, on 10-11-1944, age 68 in Plötsensee prison

   . Also buried here the composer of the song “Lilly Marleen”, Norbert Schultze..

Message(s), tips or interesting graves for the webmaster:    robhopmans@outlook.com

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