There is no information about the unit of this Waffen-SS soldiers. It's either the 1. SS-Infanterie Brigade or the SS-Kavallerie Division, but in the winter of 1943/44 regardless. The photographer was named Ahrens, and there were several Waffen-SS war reporters with that name (both units had one of them). Both units also had a single battery of around 10 Sturmgeschützs.
Source :
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10219232699879847&set=gm.751279962465553
Source :
NARA Archives
https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/17798/Schmidtgen-Richard.htm
Meeting on Wedtlenstedter Schleuse (Fuse Canal lock house), 10 April 1945. Leutnant Schmidt (interpreter) carrying a white flag, while General Hobbs and General Harrison backs to the camera.
Account of surrender negotiations between Major General Leland S. Hobbs, Commanding General, 30th Infantry Division and Generallcutnant Karl Vcith, Commander of the Braunschweig Defenses, 10 April 1945, as observed by 1st Lt. John Henderson, 4th Information and Historical Service, 9th U.S. Army:
The advance to the east were practically unopposed to Vechelede. The 126th Cavalry captured the town before canal containing a military hospital. A Gorman medical officer knew the German General was anxious to talk terms of surrender. Our line stopped advance while a Private Solomon of l35th Cavalry conferred with German officials. A conference was arranged for 1900B at 820114, between General Hobbs and General Veith. I was present at the conference having followed the party through no man's land. As our party approached the canal the German general's car was seen coming in from the east. All personnel were unarmed and under cover of a white fiag. Arms and sidearms had been placed in my vehicle.
The meeting took place at a lock on the canal in the portion of the lock house on the east side of the canal. I do not know the composition of the German party other than it consisted of 6 men, the General, a couple of aides, an interpreter, and one other person whom I take to be the political leader of the area. All were in dress unifoms. General Hobbs' party in the conference room consisted of the General, General Harrison, Lt. Col. Hall, Lt. Schmidt (Interpreter), Lt. Henderson (9th Army Historian), Lt Kerrigan (30th Division PRO) and numerous cameramen.
General Veith was a little, undignified man with rather a hesitant halting voice. His words were certainly at the insistance of the tall scar faced officer (Gestapo?) beside him. General Hobbs' voice filled the small second story room as he said, "I am not here to bicker." During the five minute con-sultation between General Veith and staff, General Hobbs and General Harrison discussed methods of taking the place if the deal did not work. As we approached the canal wo could see puffs of smoke and hear deep rumbling explosions. These were bridges along the canal being blown. The original plan had been to move rapidly to the outskirts of town, 'then demand surrender. In light of events which followed I believe that would have been the sounder plan. I think our people could have rushed the bridges rather than permitting the enemy to blow bridges while we negotiated. The return trip was without incident, though roads were clogged with armor and infantry waiting to plunge in if the "plan" didn't work. Also, German planes in the vicinity made things uncomfortable, but our column was not strafed.
Conversation between Major General Leland S. Hobbs, Commanding General, 30th Infantry Division and Generalleutnant Karl Veith at 820114, Germany, 1900B, 10 April 1945:
General Hobbs: I am here to receive the surrender of your general and his troops.
General Veith: We wish the towns to be open and undefended in order to avert war among the civil population. Therefore I offer them as open towns. We wish until 1900B tomorrow to withdraw our troops.
General Hobbs: The terms of the Allies are always unconditional.
General Veith: Yes we know that, but your parliamentarian stated that such could be done in accordance with the Geneva Convention.
General Hobbs: He was making the best statement he could, but it was not based on the facts. He had no authority to say that we would accept anything other than unconditional surrender.
General Veith: Though it is our desire to fight soldier to soldier, we would like to withdraw our soldiers in order to save the civilian population.
General Hobbs: I repeat my terms are unconditional as they have been submitted. The General knows that if he surrenders as a man no harm will be done the city.
General Veith: I fight soldier against soldier and if the civilian population suffers, it is your will.
(The German General asked for five minutes to confer with his staff).
During the intermission General Hobbs requested that his interpreter be prepared to ask the German commander how many troops he had in his command. This the interpreter did during the conference. To this the German General answered, "I would no more tell you than you would tell me how many troops in your command." General Hobbs explained to the interpreter that this question was only to be asked after the surrender had been tendered.
(The negotiations continued at 1916B).
Interpreter: The German General would like to have your name, sir. He has already given you his.
General Hobbs: General Hobbs. H-O-B-B-S.
General Veith: What are the conditions of your offer? (Here the German interpreter interceded). He means what area and what troops do you ask to surrender?
General Hobbs: I ask the surrender of the area and the troops that he (the General) commands.
General Veith: Braunschweig and vicinity will surrender unconditionally at 1200 tomorrow. I will with-draw my troops before the town and those that are in the town.
General Hobbs: No.
General Harrison: (30th's Assistant Division Commander): We don't care about the town. We want your troops.
General Hobbs: I am not here to bicker. I want unconditional surrender or we will continue the cam-paign.
General Veith shrugged his shoulders to indicate non-acceptance.
The American party began to leave. The German interpreter shouted to the American interpreter, "How long will the truce continue?" After conferring with General Hobbs and Lt. Col. Stewart L. Hall, G-2, 30th Infantry Division, who directed the arrangements for the conference, the interpreter replied, "One half hour. It is now 1920B."
Source :
Picture courtesy of Graveland
https://www.britishpathe.com/video/men-out-of-cages
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cbergabe_der_Stadt_Braunschweig
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=211991
https://www.oldhickory30th.com/BraunschweigFall.htm
http://www.oldhickory30th.com/22_photo_page.htm
Eugen Müller (19 July 1891 – 24 April 1951) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He is known for having drafted the criminal Commissar order in preparation for Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.
Eugen Müller was born in Metz, Alsace-Lorraine, on 9 July 1891. He joined the German Army straight from school, at nineteen years of age. He began his military career in the Bavarian Army, joining the First Bavarian Artillery Regiment, in 1912. From 1914 to 1918, during the First World War, Müller served as an officer in the Imperial German Army. By the war's end, he had reached the rank of Major. He stayed in the army, now part of the Reichswehr, after the war and was promoted to Oberstleutnant in October 1933, and Oberst in 1935. On 1 April 1939, Müller was promoted to the rank of Generalmajor and took command of the War Academy.
At the eve of World War II, on 1 September 1939, Eugen Müller was assigned to the Headquarters Chief of Staff of the Army, under the command of Generaloberst Franz Halder. Müller was in charge of legal and criminal action relating to the occupied areas in Europe. On 1 August 1940, he was promoted to Generalleutnant. Prior to the attack against the Soviet Union in 1941, Muller had played a leading role in training military staff officers responsible for enforcing military law in occupied territories. On 1 June 1942, Müller was promoted to the rank of General der Artillerie. He remained at the General Staff until the end of the war.
The first draft of the Commissar Order was issued by General Eugen Müller on May 6, 1941 and called for the shooting of all commissars in order to avoid letting any captured commissar reach a POW camp in Germany. The German historian Hans-Adolf Jacobsen wrote:
"There was never any doubt in the minds of German Army commanders that the order deliberately flouted international law; that is borne out by the unusually small number of written copies of the Kommissarbefehl which were distributed".
The paragraph in which General Müller called for Army commanders to prevent "excesses" was removed on the request of the OKW. Brauchitsch amended the order on May 24, 1941 by attaching Müller's paragraph and calling on the Army to maintain discipline in the enforcement of the order. The final draft of the order was issued by OKW on June 6, 1941 and was restricted only to the most senior commanders, who were instructed to inform their subordinates verbally.
The enforcement of the Commissar Order led to thousands of executions. The German historian Jürgen Förster wrote in 1989 that it was simply not true, as most German Army commanders claimed in their memoirs and some German historians like Ernst Nolte were still claiming, that the Commissar Order was not enforced. On September 23, 1941, after several Wehrmacht commanders had asked for the order to be softened as a way of encouraging the Red Army to surrender, Hitler declined "any modification of the existing orders regarding the treatment of political commissars".
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_M%C3%BCller
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Eugen_M%C3%BCller
Vizeadmiral Paul Wülfing von Ditten
Born: 13 Sep 1880 in Munich-Gladbach
Died: 01 Nov 1953 in Berlin-Schlachtensee
Promotions:
Seekadett (01 Jan 1899); Fähnrich zur See (18 Apr 1899); Leutnant zur See (13 Sep 1901); Oberleutnant zur See (28 Mar 1903); Kapitänleutnant (07 Dec 1907); Korvettenkapitän (27 Jan 1915); Fregattenkapitän (08 Mar 1920); Kapitän zur See (01 Jun 1922); Konteradmiral (01 Jan 1928); Charakter als Vizeadmiral (25 Jan 1937); Vizeadmiral z.V. (01 Feb 1941)
Career:
Entered the Navy as a Kadett, Attended Basic-Training and on Board the School-Ship 'Charlotte' (12 Apr 1898-06 Apr 1899)
Naval-School and Special-Briefings (07 Apr 1899-21 Oct 1900)
Departed to Taku (22 Oct 1900-07 Dec 1900)
On Board the Heavy Cruiser 'Hertha' (08 Dec 1900-16 Jun 1902)
Returned Home from Tsingtau and Placed to the Disposal of the II. Naval-Inspection (17 Jun 1902-00 Aug 1902)
Watch-Officer on the Liner 'Weißenburg' (00 Aug 1902-30 Sep 1902)
Watch-Officer on the Liner 'Wettin' (01 Oct 1902-31 Mar 1904)
Location-Major in Wilhelmshaven (01 Apr 1904-19 Mar 1905)
Watch-Officer and Sea-Cadet-Officer on the School-Ship 'Stein' (20 Mar 1905-22 Mar 1907)
Company-Officer in the Ships-Youth-Division (23 Mar 1907-30 Sep 1907)
Watch-Officer on the Liner 'Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm' (01 Oct 1907-30 Sep 1908)
I. Course at the Naval-Academy (01 Oct 1908-30 Jun 1909)
Placed to the Disposal of the II. Naval-Inspection then of the Fleet (01 Jul 1909-30 Sep 1909)
II. Course at the Naval-Academy (01 Oct 1909-30 Jun 1910)
Placed to the Disposal of the II. Naval-Inspection and Commandant of the Torpedo-Fishery-Protection-Boats (01 Jul 1910-14 Sep 1910)
Roll-Officer on the Liner 'Posen' (15 Sep 1910-13 Apr 1911)
Company-Officer in the II. Shipyard-Division (14 Apr 1911-30 Sep 1911)
Advisor in the Mine-Test-Commission and First Officer on the Mine-Steamer 'Pelikan' (01 Oct 1911-26 Mar 1914)
Location-Major, Commander Friedrichsort (01 Apr 1914-01 Aug 1914)
Admiral-Staff-Officer in the Staff of the Commander of Fortifications of Kiel (02 Aug 1914-00 Aug 1916)
Navigations-Officer on the Liner 'König Albert' (00 Aug 1916-01 Mar 1918)
Admiral-Staff-Officer in the Staff of the Transport-Fleet with the Finland-Venture (02 Mar 1918-16 Apr 1918)
Member of the German Ukraine-Commission in Kiev (17 Apr 1918-19 Jan 1919)
Department-Head in the Reichsmarineamt, from 15 Jul 1919 Admiralty (20 Jan 1919-28 Aug 1920)
At the same time, Acting-Chief of the Central-Department (07 Aug 1920-27 Aug 1920)
Chief of the Central-Department of the Admiralty (28 Aug 1920-09 Feb 1921)
Chief Of Staff, Naval Command (10 Feb 1921-25 Sep 1923)
Commandant of the Cruiser 'Berlin' (01 Oct 1923-18 Jul 1925)
Commandant of the Cruiser 'Hamburg' (19 Jul 1925-27 Sep 1925)
Commander of the Naval-School Mürwik (28 Sep 1925-11 Oct 1927)
At the same time, Acting-Inspection of the Training-Affairs of the Navy (15 Jul 1927-31 Jul 1927)
Inspector of Training-Affairs of the Navy (12 Oct 1927-30 Sep 1928)
At the same time, Acting-Inspector of Torpedo and Mine Affairs (22 Dec 1927-04 Jan 1928)
At the same time, Acting-Inspector of Torpedo and Mine Affairs (09 Jul 1928-14 Jul 1928)
At the same time, Acting-Inspector of Torpedo and Mine Affairs (11 Sep 1928-16 Sep 1928)
Placed to the Disposal of the Chief of Naval Command (01 Oct 1928-28 Feb 1929)
Retired (28 Feb 1929)
2nd Admiral of the North Sea Station (As Officer Out Of Service) (03 Sep 1939-28 Nov 1939)
Placed to the Disposal of the Kriegsmarine (31 Jan 1940-06 Jun 1940)
Under-Secretary, Reichs Transport Ministry and Director of the Office for Sea Traffic (06 Jun 1940-29 May 1942)
Placed to the Disposal of the Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine (30 May 1942-28 Feb 1943)
Retired (28 Feb 1943)
Placed to the Disposal of the Kriegsmarine without mobilisation (01 Mar 1943)
Decorations & Awards:
1914 Eisernes Kreuz II. und I.Klasse
Source :
https://forum.axishistory.com/index.php
http://www.geocities.ws/orion47.geo/WEHRMACHT/KRIEGSMARINE/Vizeadmirals/WUELFING_VON_DITTEN_PAUL.html
Generalmajor Hans Hederich
Born: 14 Jul 1877 in Jüterbog
Died: 28 Dec 1965 in Kassel
Promotions:
Charakter als Fähnrich (22 Mar 1895); Sekondeleutnant (18 Aug 1896); Oberleutnant (27 Jul 1908); Hauptmann (20 Feb 1912); Major (18 Apr 1918); Oberstleutnant (15 May 1934); Oberst (15 Dec 1938); Generalmajor (01 Apr 1941)
Career:
Entered Army Service (22 Mar 1895)
Fähnrich in the 3rd Field-Artillery-Regiment (22 Mar 1895-01 Oct 1901)
Adjutant of the Mounted Battalion of the 3rd Field-Artillery-Regiment (01 Oct 1901-01 Oct 1904)
Regiments-Adjutant of the 3rd Field-Artillery-Regiment (01 Oct 1904-20 Feb 1912)
Adjutant of the 22nd Field-Artillery-Brigade (20 Feb 1912-18 Feb 1917)
Adjutant of Artillery-Commander 22 (18 Feb 1917-23 Apr 1917)
Commander of I. Battalion of the 11th Field-Artillery-Regiment (23 Apr 1917-01 Sep 1918)
Staff-Officer of Artillery with the General-Command of the Guards-Corps (01 Sep 1918-15 Nov 1918)
Commander of I. Battalion of the 7th Guards-Field-Artillery-Regiment (15 Nov 1918-23 Jan 1919)
Commander of I. Battalion of the 11th Field-Artillery-Regiment (23 Jan 1919-21 Apr 1919)
Commander of the Naval-Field-Artillery-Battalion of the Naval-Brigade (21 Apr 1919-01 Jun 1920)
Commander of Reichswehr-Squadron-Staff 8 (01 Jun 1920-30 Sep 1920)
Retired (30 Sep 1920)
Employed by the Army (01 Oct 1920)
Employed by the Reichswehr in Breslau, Stettin, Köslin & Kolberg (01 Oct 1920-30 Sep 1933)
Entered Army Service as a Territorial-Officer (01 Oct 1933); Supplemental-Officer (05 Mar 1935); Active-Officer (01 Apr 1941)
Director of District-Stock-Administration Hamburg (01 Oct 1933-01 Jan 1935)
Director of Army-Field-Equipment-Administration II (01 Jan 1935-15 Dec 1938)
Commander of Field-Equipment-Command II (15 Dec 1938-15 Jun 1940)
Commander of Senior-Field-Equipment-Staff Holland (15 Jun 1940-05 Oct 1940)
Commander of Field-Equipment-Command II (05 Oct 1940-31 Oct 1942)
Awards & Decorations:
1914 Eisernes Kreuz II. und I.Klasse
Source :
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=228523
http://www.geocities.ws/orion47.geo/WEHRMACHT/HEER/Generalmajor/HEDERICH_HANS.html
Career:
00.00.1933 - 00.00.1945 Professor und Ordinarius für Theoretische und Experimentelle Physik, zugleich Systemische Musikwissenschaft, am II. Physikalischen Institut der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin
00.00.1934 - 00.00.1944 Leiter der Forschungsabteilung im Heereswaffenamt
00.00.1938 - 00.00.1945 Leiter der Abteilung Wissenschaft im RKM bzw OKW, Leiter der Abteilung Wissenschaft und Technik / Amt für Wissenschaft im REM (Reichserziehungsministerium)
00.00.1938 im Reichsforschungsrat (RFG)
00.00.1939 Bevollmächtigter für Sprengstoffphysik im RFR, Mitglied der Arbeitsgemeinschaft “Blitzableiter“ (Deckname für biologische Kriegführung)
00.00.1951 - 00.00.1963 wieder Direktor des II. Physikalischen Instituts der Universität Berlin (-Ost), jetzt Humboldt-Universität,
zugleich Direktor des Helmholtz-Instituts für Tonpsychologie und medizinische Akustik , Berlin (Klangforscher)
Karl Erich Schumann (5 January 1898 – 25 April 1985) was a German physicist who specialized in acoustics and explosives, and had a penchant for music. He was a general officer in the army and a professor at the University of Berlin and the Technical University of Berlin. When Adolf Hitler came to power he joined the Nazi Party. During World War II, his positions in the Army Ordnance Office and the Army High Command made him one of the most powerful and influential physicists in Germany. He ran the German nuclear energy program from 1939 to 1942, when the army relinquished control to the Reich Research Council. His role in the project was obfuscated after the war by the German physics community's defense of its conduct during the war. The publication of his book on the military's role in the project was not allowed by the British occupation authorities. He was director of the Helmholtz Institute of Sound Psychology and Medical Acoustics.
Schumann was born in Potsdam, Brandenburg. He studied at the Frederick William University (today the Humboldt University of Berlin) under the acoustician and musicologist Carl Stumpf and the physicist Max Planck. In 1922, he received his doctorate there in systematic musicology (acoustics). He completed his Habilitation on acoustics there in 1929; members of his Habilitation committee for experimental and theoretical physics included the eminent scientists Walther Nernst, Max von Laue, and Max Planck.
From 1922, Schumann was a physicist at the Reichswehrministerium (RWM, Reich Ministry of Defense), which became the Reichskriegsministerium (RKM, Reich Ministry of War) in 1939. He passed the Referendar (civil service exam) in 1926. From 1929, he was head of the RWM Central Science Office and from 1932 ministerial councilor there.
In 1929, when he completed his Habilitation at the University of Berlin, he was appointed lecturer of systematic musicology (acoustics). In 1931, he became an extraordinarius professor of experimental and theoretical physics there, and in 1933 he became an ordinarius professor of applied physics and systematic musicology. Schumann taught courses on acoustics and explosives, his areas of research. Schumann was the doctoral advisor to Wernher von Braun, who was awarded his doctorate in 1934.
In 1933, the year Adolf Hitler came to power, Schumann became a member of the Nazi Party.
From 1933 until 1945, Schumann was director of the newly established Physics Department II of the University of Berlin, which was commissioned by the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKW, Army High Command) to conduct research projects they funded. Concurrently, from 1934, he was head of the research department for the Heereswaffenamt (HWA, Army Ordnance Office) and assistant secretary in the Science Department of the RKM, then from 1938 to 1945 of the OKW. Additionally, in the autumn of 1938, he was appointed an ordinarius professor of ballistics and military technology at the Technische Hochschule Berlin (today the Technical University of Berlin). From 1942 to 1945, he was on the Reichsforschungsrat (RFR, Reich Research Council) and was also the Bevollmächtiger (plenipotentiary) for high explosives.
Schumann, a general officer in the army and an ordinarius professor in academia, skillfully projected his power as a science policymaker for Germany. He enjoyed both roles, as remembered by the nuclear physicist Georg Hartwig, and dressed appropriately to gain advantage. For example, when he met with academia representatives, he wore his military uniform and saluted. When meeting with military officials, he dressed in mufti and was introduced as Herr Professor Doktor!
From September 1939 to 1942 the HWA controlled the German nuclear energy project, also known at the Uranverein (Uranium Club); in 1942 control was turned over to the RFR. The most influential people in the project were Schumann, Abraham Esau, Walther Gerlach, and Kurt Diebner, Schumann, during this period, was one of the most powerful and influential physicists in Germany.
When it was apparent that the nuclear energy project would not make a decisive contribution to ending the war effort in the near term by producing a nuclear weapon, the HWA had decided by January 1942 to relinquish its control of the nuclear energy project and leave it in the realm of research through the RFR. Even then, Schumann helped the project dodge what would have been a major blow to the project. Many scientists in the Uranverein working on the Uranmaschine (uranium machine, i.e., nuclear reactor) had the classification of unabkömmlich (uk, indispensable) and were exempt from being drafted into armed service. Both Paul Harteck and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker had the classification uk. However, as the war raged on, the demand for men to provide armed service caused both to be called up in January 1942 for service at the Russian front. Paul O. Müller and Karl-Heinz Höcker, colleagues of von Weizsäcker within the Uranverein had already been called up; Müller was killed on the Russian front. Werner Heisenberg, with the help of Schuman and Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer, whose brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi held an influential position in the German army, managed to maintain the uk status for Harteck and von Weizsäcker and keep them working on the nuclear energy project.
In the German scientific community's defense of its conduct during the war, the military's Schumann- and Diebner-led aspects of the Uranverein were minimized, ridiculed, and ascribed to Nichtskönner (incompetent scientists) and leadership that owed its positions to politics. Additionally, the Heisenberg component of the project was made to appear as the leading and dominant element of the project. The motivations of the German scientists were to distance themselves from the military aspects of the Uranverein and, in the denazification environment, also distance themselves from those who had visible positions under National Socialism. Regarding Schumann's scientific abilities, they are, however, attested to by the fact that members of his Habilitation committee for experimental and theoretical physics at the University of Berlin included the eminent scientists Max von Laue, Walther Nernst, and Max Planck, and the Habilitation was well before Hitler came to power.
After the war, Schumann wrote a book to get out his view of the German nuclear energy project, but publication was blocked by the British occupation authorities. Telling of some of the story from this perspective would have to wait until his right-hand man in the HWA, Kurt Diebner, published his book in 1957.
Again from 1951, Schumann was director of the Helmholtz Institute of Sound Psychology and Medical Acoustics in Berlin. He died in Homberg-Hülsa in 1985.
Source :
Photo courtesy of Graveland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Schumann
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=37932&hilit=erich+schumann
