Military commander

Military commander (official abbreviation MilBfh. ) Was a high official in countries occupied by the
Wehrmacht during World War II . The position was normally taken by an Army or Air Force general .

Table of Contents
task
Differentiation from other posts in occupied countries
Command areas of the military commanders
Belgium and Northern France
France
Greece
Command flag of a military
Serbia
commander
Web links
literature
Individual evidence

Task
As the head of the military administration, the military commander was the highest representative of the occupying power in the occupied
country and, as the de facto military governor , exercised control over the occupied country. He had his own staff for this purpose .
Depending on the size of the occupied area, it was divided into military administrative districts, Oberfeldkommandanture and
Feldkommandanture. [1]

The military commanders were appointed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army (OBdH) and exercised executive power in his name.
OBdH during the war was von Brauchitsch until December 1941 , then Hitler until his death in April 1945 . In day-to-day business, the
military commander received his instructions from the army quartermaster general . [1]
Demarcation from other service positions in occupied countries
The operational combat units of the Wehrmacht stationed in the occupied area were not subordinate to the military commander, but to the
commander-in-chief (OB) of the area, who was directly subordinate to the high command of the armed forces (OKW) or, on the eastern
front, to the high command of the army (OKH). The only exception to this separation was the southeast area (roughly the area of
Yugoslavia ), in which the function of military commander and commander in chief were combined in the Wehrmacht commander in chief
southeast . [1]

There was no military commander in the countries and areas under civil administration (Norway, Netherlands, Denmark, Channel
Islands). There a Wehrmacht commander in chief (WBF) exercised the military sovereignty, but was not responsible for the
administration. [1]

Command areas of the military commanders

Belgium and Northern France

See also : Military administration in Belgium and northern France

On May 20, 1940, the command of the Belgian Military Commander was created; on May 28, 1940, it was renamed 'Military Commander
Belgium and Northern France' and expanded. The command area consisted of the territory of occupied Belgium together with the two
French departments Pas-de-Calais and Nord . The headquarters were in Brussels . Commanders were:

Alexander von Falkenhausen from May 22, 1940 to July 15, 1944
Martin Grase from July 18 to September 16, 1944, then other subordination

France
See also : German occupation of France in World War II

The command post of the French Military Commander (MBF) was created in Paris on October 16, 1940. Before that, a head of the
military administration (General Alfred Streccius ) had been the head of administration since the end of June . The area of command
included all of occupied France except for the two departments of Pas-de-Calais and Nord, which were assigned to the military commander
in Belgium-Northern France. The headquarters of the MBF and its central departments were in the Hotel Majestic on avenue Kléber ; the
management reports of the MBF are online. [2] Military commanders were:

Otto von Stülpnagel from October 25, 1940 to February 13, 1942
Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel from February 14, 1942 to July 21, 1944 (arrested after the assassination attempt on Hitler )
 Karl Kitzinger from July 22nd to October 4th, 1944

Greece

Commander South Greece, from 25 August 1943 [3] then Military Commander Greece (MBGR). The command post was dissolved on
October 15, 1944. In August 1944 the command area included the staff command, the commandant of the fortress of Crete and the
commandant of the East Aegean. Commanders were:

Hellmuth Felmy from June 21, 1941 to September 8, 1942

Wilhelm Speidel from September 8, 1942 to April 27, 1944
Heinz Scheurlen from June to September 1944 [4]

Serbia

The military commander in Serbia was deployed in 1941. With the instruction OKH 48, 48a and 48b from July 1943 (“Restructuring for
the command and defense of the southeast area”): the command was renamed to Military Commander Southeast. Commanders were: [5]

Helmuth Förster
Ludwig von Schröder from June until his death in July 1941
Heinrich Danckelmann from July 29 to October 20, 1941
Franz Böhme from September 16 to December 2, 1941
Paul Bader vom 11. Dezember 1941 bis 25. August 1943
Hans-Gustav Felber vom 15. August 1943 bis 6. Oktober 1944

Weblinks
bundesarchiv.de: Territoriale Befehlshaber in Südosteuropa (http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/RWD23-31774/index.htm?kid=8fe
9635e-c851-4e17-ba95-f405e50c691b)

Literatur
Anestis Nessou: Griechenland 1941–1944. Deutsche Besatzungspolitik und Verbrechen gegen die Zivilbevölkerung – eine Beurteilung
nach dem Völkerrecht. V & R Unipress, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-89971-507-1 (Osnabrücker Schriften zur Rechtsgeschichte 15),
(Zugleich: Osnabrück, Univ., Diss., 2008).
 Robert Bohn (Hrsg.): Die deutsche Herrschaft in den „germanischen“ Ländern 1940–1945. Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-515-07099-
0 (Historische Mitteilungen Beiheft 26).
Walter Lukan (Hrsg.): Serbien und Montenegro. Raum und Bevölkerung – Geschichte – Sprache und Literatur – Kultur – Politik –
Gesellschaft – Wirtschaft – Recht. LIT Verlag, Wien u. a. 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9539-4 (Österreichische Osthefte 47, 1/4, 2005 =
Sonderband 18).

Einzelnachweise
1. Werner Röhr: System oder organisiertes Chaos? Fragen einer Typologie der deutschen Okkupationsregime im Zweiten Weltkrieg. In:
Robert Bohn (Hrsg.): "Die deutsche Herrschaft in den "germanischen" Ländern 1940-1945". Franz Steiner Verlag, 1997, S. 24–25.
2. www.ihtp.cnrs.fr (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) (https://web.archive.org/web/20160304135110/http://www.ihtp.cnrs.fr/pre
fets/cadre_prefets_d.html) (Memento des Originals (https://giftbot.toolforge.org/deref.fcgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ihtp.cnrs.fr%2Fpr
efets%2Fcadre_prefets_d.html) vom 4. März 2016 im Internet Archive) Info: Der Archivlink wurde automatisch eingesetzt und noch nicht
geprüft. Bitte prüfe Original- und Archivlink gemäß Anleitung und entferne dann diesen Hinweis.
3. the day Mussolini was deposed; shortly thereafter, the Badoglio government concluded the Cassibile armistice with the Western Allies
4. Anestis Nessou: Greece 1941-1944: German Occupation Policy ... , p. 105.
5. Michael Portmann , Arnold Suppan : Serbia and Montenegro in World War II . In: Walter Lukan (Ed.): Serbia and Montenegro. LIT
Verlag, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9539-4 , p. 268, footnote 12.

Abgerufen von „https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Militärbefehlshaber&oldid=191432722“

This page was last edited on 17 August 2019, at 13:44.

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