Branch: Heer
Born: 10 July 1883 in Paterswalde, Kreis Wehlau (East
Prussia).
Died: 5 February 1948 in Nuremberg, Germany.
Ranks:
Generaloberst 1 October 1939
General der Infanterie 1 August
1936
Generalleutnant 1 December
1933
Generalmajor 1 October 1932
Oberst 1 October 1929
Oberstleutnant 6 April 1926
Major 1 January 1922
Hauptmann 17 February 1914
Oberleutnant 27 January 1910
Leutnant 27 January 1902
Fähnrich 2 March 1901
Decorations:
Iron Cross Second 1914 and First 1915 Classes
Clasp to the Iron Cross Second 1939 and First 1939) Classes
Knight's Cross 1939
Oak Leaves 1944
Swords 1945
Anschluss Medal 1938
Sudetenland Medal 1938 with Prague Castle bar 1938
Wound Badge 1918
Cross of Honor 1934
Bavarian Military Merit Cross 3rd Class with Swords 1916
German Cross in Silver 1943
Prussian Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern
with Swords 1917
Baden Knight's Cross 2nd Class of the Order of the Zähringer
Lion with Swords 1915
Oldenburg Friedrich August Cross Second 1916 and First 1916
Classes
War Merit Cross Second and First Classes
Order of the Crown of Italy, Grand Cross 1941
Commands:
8. Armee
Takes command on 1 August 1939
Ends command on 20 October 1939
9. Armee
Takes command on 15 May 1940
Ends command on 29 May 1940
1. Armee
Takes command on 24 October 1940
Ends command on 2 May 1944
Heeresgruppe G
Takes command on 8 May 1944
Ends command on 1945
Heeresgruppe H
Takes command on 28 January 1945
Ends command on 21 March 1945
Other: Personnel
Articles:
Johannes Albrecht Blaskowitz was born on 10 July 1883 in Peterswalde
and started his military career during the First World War
and rose to command his own company. By 1918, and was awarded
the iron Cross. And was a serving member of the Heer during
World War II and managed to attain the rank of Generaloberst
and went on to command the following 8. Armee, 9. Armee, 1.
Armee, Heeresgruppe G (Army Group G), and Heeresgruppe H (Army
Group H).
Johannes Blaskowitz was born on July 10, 1883, in Paterswalde,
Kreis Wehlau (East Prussia), now in Kaliningrad Oblast. His
father was a Lutheran pastor. In 1894, Johannes Blaskowitz
joined cadet school at Köslin (Koszalin) and also afterwards
at Berlin Lichterfelde. In 1901, he started his military career
as a Fähnrich in an East Prussian regiment in Osterode
(Ostróda).
During World War I, Johannes Blaskowitz served on the Eastern
and Western Front and was employed in the Generalstab. He
rose to command an infantry company by 1918, and was awarded
the Iron Cross for bravery.
Johannes Blaskowitz war service secured him a place in the
post-war Reichswehr during the Weimar Republic, through whose
ranks he rose until 1938, when
Adolf
Hitler sacked virtually all the other senior generals.
His attitude towards the National Socialists' seizure of power
(Machtergreifung) was reportedly indifferent because he believed
that the armed forces should be politically neutral.
In early 1939 he commanded the German forces that occupied
Austria and Czechoslovakia, and was promoted to General
of Infantry and given command of the 8th Army just prior
to the outbreak of World War II
During the Invasion of Poland that began World War II, the
8th Army under Johannes Blaskowitz command participated in
the Battle of the Bzura. He was awarded the Knight's Cross
of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes), was
promoted to Colonel-General, and was installed as Commander-in-Chief
East (Oberbefehlshaber Ost) in Poland on 20 October 1939.
As a traditional soldier, Johannes Blaskowitz kept a firm
control on the men under his command in their dealings with
civilians, Johannes Blaskowitz was opposed to the Army committing
war crimes with the SS, not the idea however of atrocities
against Poland. Between November 1939 and February 1940
he wrote several memoranda to higher command, in which he
detailed SS atrocities in Poland, their effects on Wehrmacht
soldiers, and the insolent attitude of the SS to the army.
However, his protests produced no condemnations of such
behaviour, and merely earned him the enmity of
Hans
Frank,
Reinhard
Heydrich,
Heinrich
Himmler, and
Adolf
Hitler, while Chief of Staff
Alfred
Jodl dismissed them as naive and uncalled for.
Historian Omer Bartov wrote that Johannes Blaskowitz was
actually legitimising murder by expressing approval
of SS massacres while demanding that the Army be kept out
of the massacres as damaging to discipline. Johannes Blaskowitz
wrote about mass murder of Jews and Poles: It is incorrect
to slaughter a few ten thousand Jews and Poles as it is
happening at the moment, for this will neither destroy the
idea of Polish state in the eyes of the mass of the population,
nor do away with the Jews. On the contrary, the manner in
the which the slaughter is carried out causes great harm,
complicates the problems and makes them much more dangerous
than they would have been if premeditated and purposeful
action were taken
According to Bartov such statements are ambiguous as they
could also be read as recommendation to kill more people
in more orderly and disciplined manner, rather than to refrain
from murder altogetherTo Johannes Blaskowitz the result
of the German policy would be the legalisation of criminality,
to him the only way to protect oneself from this epidemic
is by bringing the guilty and their followers at the greatest
speed under military command and jurisdiction.
Commander-in-Chief
Walther
von Brauchitsch forwarded Johannes Blaskowitz first
memorandum to
Adolf
Hitler on 18 November, who launched a tirade against
Johannes Blaskowitz, denouncing his concerns about due process
as childish and poured scorn on his Salvation
Army attitude. As a result, Johannes Blaskowitz found
himself placed on a blacklist, and he was relieved of his
command on 29 May 1940.
Following the Fall of France in May 1940, Johannes Blaskowitz
was initially slated to command the 9th Army for occupation
duties, but the appointment was blocked by
Adolf
Hitler and instead he was appointed to relatively minor
position as Military Governor of Northern France, a position
he held until October 1940, when he was transferred to the
command of the 1st Army, on the South West coast between Brittany
and the Spanish border.
In May 1944, following the appointment of
Gerd
von Rundstedt as Commander-in-Chief in the West, Johannes
Blaskowitz was appointed head of Heeresgruppe G (Army Group
G). This comparatively small command, consisting of the 1st
Army and the 19th Army, was given the task of defending southern
France from the imminent Allied invasion.
The invasion of southern France commenced on 15 August 1944,
with Operation Dragoon, when Allied forces landed on the Riviera
between Toulon and Cannes. Johannes Blaskowitz, badly outnumbered
and lacking air superiority, brought up units, stabilised
his front, and led a fighting withdrawal to the north to avoid
encirclement US army units pursued Johannes Blaskowitz up
through the Vosges mountains before pausing to regroup. There,
Johannes Blaskowitz forces were reinforced by the 5th Panzer
Army under Hasso von Manteuffel. Johannes Blaskowitz wanted
to entrench his forces, but
Adolf
Hitler ordered him to immediately counterattack the US
Third Army. Both Manteuffel and Johannes Blaskowitz realised
the futility of such an action, but obeyed their orders, and
their attack caught the US forces in disarray and pushed them
back to near Lunéville on 18-20 September 1944, at
which point resistance stiffened and the attack was suspended.
Furious over this failure,
Adolf
Hitler summarily relieved Johannes Blaskowitz, replacing
him with Hermann Balck.
Johannes Blaskowitz remained unoccupied for some time, until
in December 1944 he was suddenly recalled and ordered to attack
in the vicinity of Alsace-Lorraine in support of the ongoing
Ardennes offensive. On 1 January 1945 Heeresgruppe G (Army
Group G) hit the US 7th Army during Operation Nordwind, forcing
them to withdraw. Johannes Blaskowitz was subsequently transferred
to Holland, where he succeeded
Kurt
Student as commander of Heeresgruppe H (Army Group H)
. For the following three months he conducted a fighting withdrawal
against the British 2nd Army, being awarded the Swords to
his Knights Cross. This command was redesignated in early
April 1945 and Johannes Blaskowitz became commander-in-chief
of the northern (still occupied) part of the Netherlands.
Despite ruling the troops under his command with an iron hand,
and threatening to execute deserters, from April 29, Johannes
Blaskowitz allowed Allied airdrops of food and medicine to
the Dutch civilian population.
Johannes Blaskowitz surrenders to the Canadians. On May
5, Johannes Blaskowitz was summoned to the Hotel de Wereld
(Hotel the World) in Wageningen by General Charles Foulkes
(commander of I Canadian Corps) to discuss the surrender
of the German forces in the Netherlands. Prince Bernhard,
acting as commander-in-chief of the Dutch Interior Forces,
attended the meeting as well. Johannes Blaskowitz agreed
with all proposals by Foulkes. However, nowhere in the building
- some sources claim nowhere in the whole town - could a
typewriter be found. Thus, the surrender document could
not be typed. The next day, both parties returned and, in
the presence of both General Foulkes and Prince Bernhard,
Blaskowitz signed the surrender document which, in the meantime,
had been typed
Johannes Blaskowitz was charged with war crimes during the
Nuremberg Trials in the High Command Trial (Case No. XII),
but died on February 5, 1948 by committing suicide. After
breaking away from his guards he threw himself off a balcony
into the inner courtyard of the court building.
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