Gerhard Engel

Gerhard Michael Engel (Guban, Germany, 13 April 1906 - Munich, Bavaria, December 9, 1976) was a Major General of the Wehrmacht , Adolf Hitler’s assistant and keeper of the Iron Cross Knight’s Cross for his Value on the battle front.

Biography

Gerhard Michael Engel was born in Guban, Brandenburg in 1906, entered the Reichswerh on October 5, 1925 in the 5th Infantry Regiment as a rifleman, in 1930 reached the rank of lieutenant. ¹ In March of 1939 was assigned to the course of heads of companies in Döberitz until January of 1939 being promoted to captain. In 1938 he was also appointed Hitler’s assistant to the Navy when he served as chancellor and succeeded Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer from February 1944.

Engel requested that he be dispatched to the front and assigned as commander of the Riflemen’s Regiment No. 27 until July 1944 in the Army Group North during the Leningrad Siege , later assigned as Commander of the Grenadier Regiment No. 109 for a short period. He was commander of the 12th Volksgranadier Infantry Division reaching the First Class Iron Cross from November 1944 to April 1945. ²

He was appointed Commander of the Ulrich von Hutten Division from April to May 1945. He fought prominently in Operation Bagration , in the Battle of Minsk on Soviet soil, and in the Battle of the Bulge. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, on July 4, 1944 for his courage on the front. ³ He was captured by the Americans in May 1945 and held captive until 1947, while he was captive wrote a diary about his experiences with Hitler called In the Heart of the Reich-Secret Diary of a Hitler Military Aide . ⁴

Gerhard Engel passed away in 1976, in Munich at the age of 70 years.

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