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Otto Lasch | |
---|---|
Born | Pleß, German Empire | 25 June 1893
Died | 29 April 1971 77) Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany | (aged
Allegiance | ![]() ![]() |
Years of service | 1914–1918 1935–1945 |
Rank | General of the Infantry |
Battles / wars | World War I World War II |
Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves |
Otto Lasch (25 June 1893 in Pleß, Oberschlesien – 29 April 1971) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded the LXIV Corps. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.
After World War I, Lasch served in the Freikorps in the East Prussian city of Lyck. [1] He joined the Wehrmacht in 1935 and later took part in Operation Barbarossa, playing a pivotal role in capturing Riga in June 1941. [2] He rose to the rank of General of the Infantry [3] [ circular reference ] and functioned as Commandant of Königsberg in East Prussia from November 1944 onward. As Fortress Commandant of Königsberg he was responsible for defending the city and maintaining order among the flood of refugees fleeing from the advancing Red Army.
Following heavy fighting and a three month siege of the city during the Battle of Königsberg by the 36-division-strong 3rd Byelorussian Front under Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Lasch disobeyed Hitler's orders and surrendered Königsberg to the Red Army on 9 April 1945. As a result of his surrender Hitler sentenced him in absentia to death by hanging, and his family, in Denmark and Berlin at the time, was arrested. [4] [5] Lasch went into Soviet captivity and was convicted as a war criminal in the Soviet Union and sentenced to twenty-five years in a corrective labor camp. He was released in 1955. [6] Lasch died in Bonn in 1971.
Lasch authored So fiel Königsberg. Kampf und Untergang von Ostpreußens Hauptstadt, which was published in 1958. In 1965 he wrote Zuckerbrot und Peitsche about his years as a Soviet prisoner of war.
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Erich Marcks was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He authored the first draft of the operational plan, Operation Draft East, for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, advocating what was later known as A-A line as the goal for the Wehrmacht to achieve, within nine to seventeen weeks. Marcks studied philosophy in Freiburg in 1909.
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Klaus von Bismarck was the Director General of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk from 1961 to 1976, and the president of the ARD broadcasting association in 1963-1964. He was also the president of the German Evangelical Church Assembly from 1977 to 1979 and a member of its presidium from 1950 to 1995, as well as president of the Goethe-Institut from 1977 to 1989.
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Ernst Sieler was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded the LIX. Corps. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. Sieler surrendered to the Soviet forces in the course of Red Army's Vistula–Oder Offensive. He was held in the Soviet Union as a war criminal until 1955.
Paul Laux was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded the 16th Army. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi Germany.
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