Griffin Militaria - Top
Display your banner here
Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 39

A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth

Article about: Karl-Günther von Hase, next to the Queen Elisabeth II of England, in 1972 1. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. Karl-Günther von Hase was born during the First World War, on December 15, 1917 in, Gut Wa

  1. #1

    Default A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth

    Karl-Günther von Hase, next to the Queen Elisabeth II of United Kingdom, in 1972

    1. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

    Karl-Günther von Hase was born during the First World War, on December 15, 1917 in, Gut Wangern, District of Breslau, in Lower Silesia (Niederschlesien).
    Son of Günther von Hase (1881-1948), a pretentious officer to a family landowner of Silesia and his wife Ina - born Hicketier- (1882-1972).
    At the age of three he moved with his family to Berlin, the city to which his father had been assigned in 1920 as a police officer.
    There they lived in a modest apartment in a current building from 1920 to 1927 in Berlin-Tempelhof, near the then brand new and newly opened Berlin airport.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    1925. Image of children in the streets of Berlin

    His room with a stove where he read and entertained himself with a set of constructions, overlooked the backyard where he played soccer with the children in the neighborhood.
    His peaceful childhood was between Berlin and Breslau, two hours away by train. There his family traveled on weekends and spent the holidays at his grandfather's farm, riding a horse and bike with his cousins or driving his uncle's tractor.
    He was an enthusiastic reader of Karl May's wild West novels; Robinson Crusoe and Don Quixote, a moderately applied student, were educated by their parents, he remembers, on the principles of honesty and sincerity.
    His father faced the Nazis notoriously from the outset, for opposing his inflitration in the Berlin police; so he was classified by them as "politically unreliable" and forced to early retirement in 1934 with the rank of Colonel of the Berlin Police.
    While living in the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district, Karl-Günther studied at the Humanistisches Prinz-Heinrich-Gymnasium between 1923 and 1935, when he obtained the Abitur.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Berlin Schöneberg. Prinz Heinrich Gymnasium

    His paternal uncle Paul (1885 - 1944) was then Brigadier General, so following the military tradition of his father and uncle, he entered the 19 Hanover Artillery Regiment as Fahnenjunker (Aspiring Officer) in 1936.
    We recall from Rommel's biography that the entry as an aspiring officer in some army unit was the gateway to a military school or academy for officers or non-commissioned officers.
    In that same year and in 1937 he studied at the Kriegsschule (Military Academy) of Postdam, about 40 km. of Berlin. According to he declared years later "Persuaded that he could do a military career without thinking about politics"

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    A group of officer Aspirants in the Kriegsschule of Dresde

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Schulterklappen für einen Fahnenjunker

    At this time we find a small biographical lagoon, although we know that he obtained the degree of Leutnant and was assigned in 92nd Artillery Regiment during 1938 and 1939 somewhere in Germany that I don't know, since this specific unit was settled in Erfurt, but since 1940.
    Last edited by TabsTabs1964; 09-28-2022 at 11:31 PM.

  2. # ADS
    Circuit advertisement A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Join Date
    Always
    Location
    Advertising world
    Age
    2010
    P
    Many
     

  3. #2

    Default

    2. THE WAR.

    During World War II, von Hase fought in the campaigns of Poland and France first as Assistant and later as Chief of a battery guns of the Panzer Artillerie Regiment 92 (won the Iron Cross of 2nd and 1st Class)
    In 1941 he participated with his unit in the invasion of the Soviet Union, where he continued the entire campaign of the first winter, and was injured in 1942.
    In 1943, already restored from his injuries and with the rank of Captain was assigned to the 161st Infantry Division in the High Command of the Reserve Army, which allowed him between 1943 and May 1944 to graduate in General Staff (Generalstabslehrgang) at the School of War in Hirschberg.
    In June 1944, he promoted Major to be assigned as Commander of Staff to the LXXVI Army Corps in northern Italy. Everything seemed to indicate that von Hase was going to face the final months of the war in a position away from the first line of combat.

    But suddenly everything changed.
    After the failed coup of July 20, 1944, von Hase was relieved of his position. There was a reason for this: the participation of his uncle Paul von Hase in the coup.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Hitler and Mussolini contemplate the effects of the explosion of July 20th

    Months later, with the Red Army at the gates of the Reich, von Hase was sent as a frontline operations officer: to Schneidemühl, an important railway junction in eastern Pomerania that had been declared Festung (fortress) by Hitler. It is the current Polish city of Pila.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth

    It should be remembered here that, in an attempt to contain the Soviet tide, Hitler began in 1944 the absurd strategy of declaring a series of cities as "Fortresses" (Festung) to resist at all times once overcome by the Russians. As we know such a decision only served to cause greater death and destruction to the "lucky" cities with hardly any practical effects from a strategic point of view.

  4. #3

    Default

    A very interesting thread... thanks for posting.

    Cheers,
    Steve

  5. #4

    Default

    From here we will follow the story of von Hase's adventures that the British historian Max Hastings recounts in his encyclopedic work "Armageddon":
    “Paul von Hase, military governor of Berlin had suffered hanging for his participation in the July conspiracy, and his nephew, Commander Karl-Günther von Hase, had to leave Italy to undergo interrogation. Although he was able to prove his innocence he was expelled from the general staff to send him, in mid-January 1945, to serve as an operations officer in Schneidemühl, one of Hitler's fortresses, located in eastern Pomerania. The fact of having to continue fighting for the Führer, despite the purgatory that his family was suffering for his cause, did not place him in any dilemma. It was obvious that the war was lost, but we had an obligation to defend Germany, and we did not ignore the difference between confronting the Soviets and fighting against Western allies. In 1945, the Germans were not willing to repeat the experience of 1918, when the army surrendered before it was defeated; and such resolution explains our behavior”.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Current image of the vestiges of a German trench in the outskirts of PILA

    While von Hase was moving along the snowy road that led him to his new destination, a black cat crossed his vehicle, and once he reached that fort, he found nothing that could dissuade him that it had been a sign of bad omen. In front of the fortified enclosure was Colonel Remlinger, a capable officer who barely took a few years.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Left, Oberst Remlinger

    However, the garrison at his command suffered from an unfortunate weakness. His defense depended on a few regular Wehrmacht troops, six thousand Volkssturm militiamen, teenagers from a non-commissioned academy and a handful of self-propelled guns from an artillery school in the city. They had no tanks, and they had to recruit the entire civilian population of the place to make them dig trenches. They were immediately surrounded by the Soviets, who conquered the airstrip in early February. After that, those of Schneidemühl only received few supplies launched by parachute. The authorities did not allow them to search for an escape route, although they had requested it insistently, and the garrison soon found itself less than fifty kilometers -behind- the front.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Current image of one of the many bunkers in the surroundings of Pila (Schneidemühl)

    Remlinger's soldiers defended themselves vigorously, and mobilized an armored train that managed to cross Soviet lines to rescue a load of ammunition and supplies that had been left behind the enemy's cannons. Strict rationing was imposed in anticipation of a prolonged siege, although such an initiative only served to ensure that a good part of the food available ended up in the hands of the Red Army. Ammunition was scarce, and by the end of February it had been consumed almost completely. The attackers harassed them with incessant heavy mortar fire, which the bombings joined at night. Von Hase was dismayed by the fate of the fourteen and fifteen-year-old cadets. “It was terrible. They tried with all their might to be brave. Whenever we needed volunteers to carry out a patrol service or a dangerous counterattack, teenagers showed up. We needed to gain the ground we had lost; so we don't hesitate to use them. ”

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth

    Very young students of the NCO School, like those in these two images, participated in the fighting for the defense os Schneidemüh.

    The commander received a Knight's Cross that Remlinger gave him, for his participation in the direction of the counterattacks. "The discipline remained, surprisingly, until the end."

  6. #5

    Default

    When the situation became desperate, von Hase thought of his fiancee, Renate, who was a nurse in Thuringia. The Wehrmacht had long established a system of marriage by proxy thinking of the soldiers at the front. Consequently, even though the land lines leading to Schneidemühl were cut off, the commander sent Renate a radio message asking her to marry him. On February 13, according to the rules, the bride went to the civil registry of the city she was in and joined him in marriage with hers hand resting on a steel helmet whose mission was to replace the absence of the contracting party.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    From a radio like this, von Hase asked Renate to marry him.

    It was impossible, however, to communicate to Karl-Günther that the ceremony had been completed, so that when, later, the Soviets who interrogated him asked him if he was married, he had to answer: "I don't know." On the 22nd, when it became clear that there was no way to defend the fortress, Remlinger decided to contravene the orders he had received. The garrison survivors, gathered in small groups, dispersed to try to escape. After walking for three days, Remlinger, von Hase and a dozen more soldiers fell into the hands of the Soviets.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Image of a ceremony of "Ferntrauung”, Marriage of War or Proxy Marriage.

    Thus, von Hase won the Knight's Cross on February 12 for leading a counterattack, married by proxy with Renate on the 13th and fell prisoner of the Russians on the 25th. An intense month of February 1945!!

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Karl-Günther von Hase with thie Knight's Cross

    While in Moscow's Butikri prison, on May 9, 1945, from his cell he heard fireworks outside and his guards exclaim: Hitler Kaputt! He wept bitterly on his cot thinking of fallen comrades and the fate of Germany.

    He will remain in Soviet captivity in various fields until December 1949. Upon returning to Germany he married Renate in the Rendsburg church in Schleswig-Holstein on December 30, 1949. They will have five daughters.

    Thus ends the part of the soldier's story. Now the functionary and diplomatic of the German Federal Republic will begin.

    And a couple more connected stories.....
    Click to enlarge the picture Click to enlarge the picture A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth  
    Last edited by TabsTabs1964; 05-17-2020 at 05:52 AM.

  7. #6

    Default

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth

    I'll be back in half an hour.

  8. #7
    TWS
    TWS is offline
    ?

    Default

    Excellent work Santi! I am glad we are inspiring each other. I now feel I need to get working on a thread about something else in my collection that has a similar theme: Another family from the German nobility that had both highly decorated officers as well as 20 July 1944 conspirators.
    Todd
    Former U.S. Army Tanker.
    "Best job I ever had."

  9. #8

    Default

    3. A DIPLOMATIC CAREER.

    Our protagonist returned from Russia in December 1949 and made it to a country that had been founded six months earlier, the German Federal Republic (Bundesrepublik Deutschland)
    The young republic was immersed in a process of creating its governmental structures and training its official and diplomatic leaders. Karl-Günther von Hase was then 33 years old, a veteran decorated staff officer and former prisoner of war, from a good family and not at all suspected of Nazi sympathies. The ideal profile to occupy a relevant position in the new German state.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Bonn. The Bundeshaus in 1949

    So in 1950 he entered the Diplomatic School (Diplomatenschule) of Speyer, on the banks of the Rhine near Mannheim.
    Somewhat further north, the bland city of Bonn becomes the new federal capital where the first Chancellor of the new state began his term: Konrad Adenauer.
    In mid-1951 von Hase began working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Bonn and finished his training with a scholarship to the prestigious (and Jesuit) University of Georgetown in Washington D.C. in the course of 1952.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Georgetown University. Washington D.C.

    His diplomatic career began in 1953 as an advisor to the Embassy of the German Federal Republic in Ottawa, where he remained until 1956.
    After his Canadian experience he returns to Bonn in 1956, to take over the post of Deputy Spokesman of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which he will hold until 1958, when he will be Chief of the press department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which he will hold until 1961.
    Between 1961 and 1962 he continued his upward career becoming Director General of the Ministry and Head of the West II Political Department (in charge of relations with NATO Units, Defense, United Kingdom, United States, Central and South America and sub-Saharan Africa) a key position.
    At that time, von Hase with 44 years is already the father of five daughters: Jutta (1950), Cornelia (1952), Verena (1954), Bettina (1957) and Angelika (1961) and is one of the most prestigious government officials of the German Federal Republic, with great experience in international relations and excellent communication skills. So in 1962 he will take a new leap forward in his career.
    Last edited by TabsTabs1964; 05-12-2020 at 07:12 AM.

  10. #9

    Default

    4. SPEAKER OF THREE CHANCELLORS.

    In 1962 he became the key position of Secretary of State, Government Spokesman and Chief of the Federal Government Press and Information Office, and will do so until 1967 and under federal chancellors Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard and Kurt Georg Kiesinger (all of the CDU).
    At that time von Hase was Bonn's youngest Secretary of State and one of the highest-ranking officials in the entire federal government. In addition, the fact that two foreign ministers assumed the government spokesman of their predecessor in office, is an obvious sign of von Hase's competence.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Konrad Adenauer. Federal Chancellor 1949-1963

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Von Hase & Chancellor Adenauer

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Time´s cover art. Konrad Adenauer

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Ludwig Erhard. Federal Chancellor 1963 -1966

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    von Hase & Chancellor Erhard

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Time´s cover art. Ludwig Ehrhard

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Kurt Georg Kiesinger 1966 -1969

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    von Hase & Chancellor Kiesinger

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Time´s cover art. Kurt Georg Kiesinger

    As they are very illustrative of the personalities with whom our protagonist was related, I upload two other images. One shaking hands with the President of the United States John F. Kennedy and the other with another German Federal Chancellor, Willy Brandt

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Last edited by TabsTabs1964; 09-18-2022 at 07:37 PM.

  11. #10

    Default

    5. MINISTRY OF DEFENCE.

    In July 1967, von Hase was selected for the post of General Director of the Deutsche Welle (German Wave), which was the short-wave government broadcasting service for foreigners.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Logo of the Deutsche Welle in those years

    Economically, the offer was irresistible, but Chancellor Kiesinger intervened stating that the Federal Republic could not afford to lose trained and experienced men for public service.
    So Kiesinger offered him the highest official position: Staatssekretär, Secretary of State of the Federal Ministry of Defense, a position of very high responsibility at the time of the Cold War, which he will hold until 1969, in the ministry directed by another of the heavyweights of the CDU Gerhard Schröder (not to be confused with the SPD Chancellor, from 1998 to 2005, of the same name)
    That was how twenty-two years later, von Hase is back in his natural place: in a Ministry on which the Bundesheer depends, surrounded by many senior officers, veterans of World War II, like himself, and responsible for the acquisition of the most sophisticated military equipment in Western Europe in its time.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    The Staatssekretär von Hase arrives at Kiel in helicopter. 1968

    At that time he was known by the nickname "Bundeshase", that is, "Federal Hase" and as in German "hase" means "hare", it was said that the Ministry of Defense had hunted its best hare, for the first time He won an experienced military chief for a civil position.
    von Hase never hid his satisfaction for his new position: - “I like being a soldier and I still feel at home in the mentality of this profession.” He declared in an interview with “DER SPIEGEL” in November 1967.
    They were two years dedicated to the responsibilities of the Ministry of Defense. But he was still destined to return to his previous career: the diplomatic career.

    A Knight's Cross next to Queen Elizabeth
    Shield of German Embassies

Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. 06-04-2012, 05:30 AM
  2. Knight's cross of the iron cross

    In 1939 Eisernes Kreuz forum
    11-11-2010, 06:34 PM
  3. help for this knight cross

    In 1939 Eisernes Kreuz forum
    04-14-2010, 08:53 PM
  4. 04-02-2010, 05:56 AM
  5. Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal

    In Orders, medals and decorations
    05-28-2009, 10:41 PM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Combat-relics.com - Down
Display your banner here