Bio of Major der Reserve Herbert Weiß

Herbert Weiß (born November 1, 1899 in Dresden, † February 19, 1945 in Eichendorffmühl, Ratibor district) was a German administrative officer. As a soldier, he fought in both world wars, most recently as a Major der Reserve and regimental commander in the Wehrmacht.

After completing secondary school in Berlin-Neukölln, Weiß joined the administrative career of statutory accident insurance as a candidate. After the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered for the Prussian Army at the age of 17. He was trained in the Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 610 and came to the Western Front in May 1918 with the 7. Rheinischen Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 69. In August 1918 he was wounded by shrapnel on the neck, but he remained with the company. As a private, he was awarded the Iron Cross II class. Until the November Revolution, he participated in all combat operations of the regiment.

Released from the army in 1919, he continued his administrative career in social security in the Weimar Republic. He became a bailiff in 1930 and deputy managing director of the professional association for health service and welfare in Berlin in 1939. As a reserve officer, he did military training with the Brandenburger Infanterie-Regiment 68 of the 23. Infanterie-Division. There he had been a Leutnant der Reserve since 1938. He worked on a voluntary basis as a sub-group leader in the Reichsluftschutzbund (Reich Air Protection Association).

When World War II broke out, he was drafted into Infanterie-Regiment 466 (257. Infanterie-Division) and used in the Polish campaign until the regiment was moved to the Western Front in late 1939. As a Oberleutnant der Reserve and company commander, he participated in the western campaign. In October 1940 he became company commander in the Infanterie-Regiment 418 (123. Infanterie-Division), which on June 22, 1941 advanced from East Prussia to Leningrad. On July 21, 1941, he was badly wounded east of Dünaburg by a machine-gun shot in the right thigh. With the Iron Cross 1st Class he returned to his regiment on the war front southeast of Lake Ilmen in April 1942. He was promoted to Hauptmann der Reserve on May 1, 1942 and was entrusted with the command of the 2nd battalion. To defend a strategically important railway line, on September 25, 1942, he defeated a far superior enemy forces in a rapid counterattack with two platoon of his battalion. He was again seriously wounded by a shot in the left shoulder. In the military hospital he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on January 7, 1943. Franz Seldte congratulated as Reich Labor Minister. After being promoted to Major der Reserve on March 1, 1943, from April 1943 to January 1945 he was served as a teaching officer and chief inspector at Schule IV für Fahnenjunker der Infanterie in Thorn, West Prussia.

On February 3, 1945, he took over as regimental commander of the newly established Grenadier-Führernachwuchs-Regiment 1243 in Potsdam, with which he moved to the front at Ratibor in Upper Silesia ten days later. He then killed in the battle on the Oder. His body was recovered and buried on March 3, 1945 in a funeral with military honors in Racibórz. After the German-Polish agreement in 1991, Weiß was relocated to the German military cemetery near Laurahütte.

Weiß left behind his wife and two sons. Egbert Weiß was a judge at the Higher Regional Court, while Helmut Weiß was department president in the Federal Insurance Office and later ministerial adviser to the military commissioner of the German Bundestag.

Source:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Wei%C3%9F_(Beamter)