Wartenberg, Bodo von.

Wartenberg, Bodo von, born 06-12-1890 in Luggendorf, he son of Rittergutsbesitzers and Ritterschaftsrat Hans von Wartenberg and his wife Martha. The family was a real General family also in the past. On 22-10-1910 age 19, Bodo joined as a Fahnenjunker in the Königliche Sächs.1. Uhlan Regiment “Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, King of Hungary” No. 17. From  02-08-, 1914, he was employed as a platoon commander and from 07-09-1914 as a company commander. Wounded   on 21-10-1914, he was admitted to a military hospital. After his recovery he was commanded to the technical institute for the infantry in Berlin Spandau and on 01-04-1916 company commander in the replacement battalion of the Königliche Sächs.1. Uhlan Regiment “Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, King of Hungary” No. 17. On 01-09-1916, he returned to his regiment as a company commander back to the front. On 18-08-1917 promoted to leutnant, he was on 26-10-1917 in French captivity, from which he was released in mid-April 1920 again. He joined the Reichswehr/Wehrmacht  with the 8^th Infantry Regiment and became a Oberstleutnant on 01-10-1936, age 45, an Oberst on 01-06-1941 and Generalmajor on 01-01-1943. With the start of World War II he was the commander of the 196^th Infantry Regiment. Commander of the 703 East Troops from 20-05-1942 until 01-11-1942, Commander of the East Troops High Command West. From 22-05-1944 commander of the Volunteers Troops High Command West and Commander of the Volunteers BDE until 08-06-1944.

On 08-06-1944 he became commander of the volunteer associations at the commander of the replacement army and on 09-09-1944 commander of the Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division. The Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division (“Volunteer Tribal Division”) was a German infantry division of the Wehrmacht during World War II. It was created on 01-02-1944 in Southern France. The Division was a so-called Ostlegion,  which means its personnel was made up from volunteers from the Soviet Union. Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division was made up with Turkic, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Tartar, Cossack, Armenian and other Soviet volunteers, spread over five regiments. The primary purpose of the division were anti-partisan operations against the French Resistance. 

In 1944, the French Maquis started numerous uprisings in France. To defeat the French forces, units of the Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division were used in various operations. This included German operations against the Maquis du Mont Mouchet, Maquis de l’Ain et du Haut-Jura and the Maquis du Vercors.

Part of these anti-Maquis operations also included Operation Treffenfeld (fr), in which units of the Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division participated. During Operation Treffenfeld, the 5th Regiment of the division conducted the Dortan Massacre (fr)  at the French town of Dortan on 13/14 July 1944. Twenty-four civilians were killed in what the German command described as “reprisal measures”

At the end of the war, von Wartenberg fell into American captivity, from which he was released in June 1947.

Death and burial ground of Wartenberg, Bodo von.

Von Wartenberg survived the war and retiring in Bonn, Bad Honnef, he at the age of 64 died in 1954. He is buried with his wife Elsa, born Wunderlich, on the Hauptfriedhof of Bad Honnef, a suburb of Bonn. On the New Cemetery of Bad Honnef is buried Generalmajor of the Infanterie, Kommandeur Waffeschulen Heeresgruppe, Richard Kotz.

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