Karl Rothenburg (8 June 1894 – 28 June 1941) was born in Fuerstenwalde, near the river Spree in Brandenburg, on June 8, 1894, and entered the Imperial Army as a private in the 5th Foot Guards Regiment on April 1, 1914. Four months later, World War I broke out. Rothenburg first saw action near Namur, Belgium, but was soon on his way to Silesia with his regiment. The 5th Foot Guards fought against the Czar’s armies in Poland, Galicia, and in the Carpathians. After serving on the Eastern Front, Rothenburg was involved in the trench warfare that characterized the Western Front. He distinguished himself in combat, both as an enlisted man and as an officer. On November 8, 1915, he was awarded a direct battlefield commission as a second lieutenant of reserves. Later he was awarded the Pour le Merite, also known as the ‘‘Blue Max,’’ which was the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor when awarded to someone of such junior rank. By the time the Armistice was declared, however, Karl Rothenburg had obviously had enough of war and the army. He was discharged at this own request on December 18, 1918. Because he left the service so quickly, he did not receive the customary honorary promotion to the next highest grade (i.e., first lieutenant).
Rothenburg spent the next 14 years in the police. On July 26, 1935, however, he rejoined the army as a major. He foresaw that the future lay in mobile warfare and, as the holder of the ‘‘Blue Max,’’ he was in
a much better position to influence his own assignments than the average major. In 1936, he was named commander of the II Battalion of the 6th Panzer Regiment, despite the fact that he had no experience in
tanks and was a grade junior to his appointment!
The 6th Panzer was part of the Berliner 3rd Panzer Division, which was known as ‘‘the Bear Division’’ from its emblem and mascot. During the 1937–39 period, the regiment furnished cadres and volunteers for the 88th Panzer Battalion, which was part of the Condor Legion in Spain. Thus, it had more highly experienced combat veterans than any other panzer unit in the German Army when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. Before that, the 6th Panzer took part in the Anschluss (the occupation of Austria, 1938) and the occupation of the Sudetenland (1938). Meanwhile, Rothenburg was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 1, 1938.
Karl Rothenburg was promoted to the command of the 6th Panzer Regiment on March 1, 1939, and led it in the Polish campaign. As part of Heinz Guderian’s XIX Motorized Corps, it attacked from Pomerania to Thorn in northern Poland and cut the Polish Corridor, uniting East Prussia with the rest of the Reich. It then redeployed to the east and attacked to the southeast, and ended the campaign with the capture of the Polish fortress of Brest-Litovsk.
During the conquest of Poland, the German light divisions (numbered 1st through 4th) proved too cumbersome in combat. Hitler and Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH, the army high command) therefore decided to convert them into panzer divisions. Each division, which already had a tank battalion, was given two more panzer battalions and a panzer regiment headquarters. Rothenburg was named commander of the newly formed 25th Panzer Regiment of Lieutenant General Georg Stumme’s 7th Panzer Division, which was nicknamed ‘‘the Ghost Division.’’ A poorly equipped unit by German standards, it had no Panzer Mark IIIs (PzKw IIIs)—the best tank in the German Army until 1942. As of April 12, 1940, the regiment had 72 poor Panzer Mark IIs (armed with a 20mm main battle gun), 37 nearly useless Panzer Mark Is (which did not even have a main battle gun), and 23 Panzer Mark IVs, whose short-barreled 75mm main battle gun seriously limited their effectiveness. Its main tank was the Panzer 38 (t), a Czech tank which had been incorporated into the German Army after the occupation of the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. It was not a bad tank by 1940 standards, but it was too light to match up effectively with many of the Allied tanks. Also, the fact that its operators’ manuals and maintenance manuals were written in Czech—which few (if any) of Rothenburg’s men could read—created further headaches, especially for the maintenance units.
After the reorganization was completed, the division redeployed to the Rhine sector, just behind the Western Front. This was the ‘‘Phony War’’ period and the division was allowed to train unmolested. On February 10, 1940, Stumme was promoted and given command of the newly formed XXXX Corps. A relatively junior Generalmajor named Erwin Rommel arrived at the divisional headquarters at Bad Godesburg to succeed him. He initially made a very unfavorable impression by greeting his senior commanders with the Hitler salute. (Although he was forced to commit suicide in 1944 for his part in the anti-Hitler conspiracy, Rommel had commanded Hitler’s bodyguard battalion in 1939 and was definitely a Nazi sympathizer in 1940.) He also offended the officers when he made a sneering reference to the fact that most of the 7th Panzer’s enlisted men were Thuringians, supposedly an area not noted for producing good soldiers. Then he ordered a general inspection for the next day—a Sunday—which was very unusual and not at all popular.
A few days later, General Rommel returned to Berlin for a last interview with Hitler. While he was gone, his disgruntled officers met to discuss their new commander. The fact that Rommel was an infantry officer without armored experience did nothing to increase his popularity. Of the 10 senior officers, only Rothenburg and Lieutenant Colonel Rudolf Sieckenius, the commander of the III/25th Panzer Regiment, urged patient cooperation. When he returned, Rommel had a gift. He presented each of the 10 senior officers with a copy of his book on tactics, Infantry in the Attack. This further aggravated some of the already unhappy officers.
Rommel realized that there was dissension in the senior ranks and his solution to the problem was to exhibit his inflexible determination. On February 29, he abruptly fired a battalion commander and had him packed and out of the divisional area in an hour and a half. His remark that this would cause the other dissidents ‘‘to pull up their socks’’ was quite correct. The division quickly embraced Rommel’s vigorous training program.
Rommel, in fact, had little to be dissatisfied about in the 7th Panzer Division, as the ensuing battles would prove. Despite its maintenance problems, Rothenburg’s 25th Panzer Regiment performed brilliantly in the French campaign. It broke through the Allies’ Meuse River defenses, smashed through Belgium and France, and overran the French 1st Armored Division, destroying more than 100 French tanks and some 30 armored cars in the process. It helped check the British counterattack at Arras, overran the French 31st Motorized Division, and helped destroy the 1st French Army at Lille. It then turned south, captured Cherbourg, and pushed almost to the Spanish border by the time the French surrendered. The 7th Panzer Division amassed a tremendous record of accomplishment in the Western Campaign and Rommel, as the division commander, naturally received the lion’s share of the glory. Rothenburg’s part, however, did not go unnoticed, either by Rommel or Berlin. (Early in the campaign, Rothenburg’s personal tank rescued the future Desert Fox by picking him up on the battlefield after his own tank had been knocked out). Rommel, in fact, relied more heavily on his panzer regiment’s commander than on any other subordinate in the French campaign. Rothenburg was decorated with the Knight’s Cross on June 3, 1940, and was promoted to full colonel on August 1, 1940.
Rothenburg’s attitude in battle was entirely fatalistic: he simply did not fear death. Perhaps because Rommel had a similarly fearless view of the world, he often rode with Rothenburg in the colonel’s command tank. They were, in fact, kindred spirits. Like Rommel and many other German panzer commanders, Rothenburg habitually placed himself at the forefront of each advance. This fearless attitude cost Rommel his life when he joined the anti-Hitler conspiracy, and it would cost Rothenburg his life in the next campaign.
The 25th Panzer Regiment was engaged in occupation duties in the Bordeaux region until February 1941, when it was sent to East Prussia. It crossed into Russia on June 22, 1941, and was immediately involved in what became the Battle of the Minsk Pocket. In the early stages of this huge battle of encirclement, Colonel Karl Rothenburg was critically wounded near Grodeck-Ostrochichy (south of Minsk) on June 27 and died two days later. He was thus one of the first of Rommel’s old ‘‘Ghost Division’’ to suffer the fate awaiting many of them. By April 1944, the division, which in 1940 boasted a strength of more than 15,000 men and 218 panzers, was down to a total fighting strength of 1,872 men, 9 guns, 11 antitank guns, and 9 tanks—one of which was a captured Russian T-34. By early 1945, it did not have a single tank left!
A hero of two wars, Karl Rothenburg was buried with full honors. He was posthumously promoted to major general, effective June 1, 1941. For the rest of the war, the 25th Panzer was semi-officially referred to as ‘‘the Rothenburg regiment.’’
Rothenburg spent the next 14 years in the police. On July 26, 1935, however, he rejoined the army as a major. He foresaw that the future lay in mobile warfare and, as the holder of the ‘‘Blue Max,’’ he was in
a much better position to influence his own assignments than the average major. In 1936, he was named commander of the II Battalion of the 6th Panzer Regiment, despite the fact that he had no experience in
tanks and was a grade junior to his appointment!
The 6th Panzer was part of the Berliner 3rd Panzer Division, which was known as ‘‘the Bear Division’’ from its emblem and mascot. During the 1937–39 period, the regiment furnished cadres and volunteers for the 88th Panzer Battalion, which was part of the Condor Legion in Spain. Thus, it had more highly experienced combat veterans than any other panzer unit in the German Army when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. Before that, the 6th Panzer took part in the Anschluss (the occupation of Austria, 1938) and the occupation of the Sudetenland (1938). Meanwhile, Rothenburg was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 1, 1938.
Karl Rothenburg was promoted to the command of the 6th Panzer Regiment on March 1, 1939, and led it in the Polish campaign. As part of Heinz Guderian’s XIX Motorized Corps, it attacked from Pomerania to Thorn in northern Poland and cut the Polish Corridor, uniting East Prussia with the rest of the Reich. It then redeployed to the east and attacked to the southeast, and ended the campaign with the capture of the Polish fortress of Brest-Litovsk.
During the conquest of Poland, the German light divisions (numbered 1st through 4th) proved too cumbersome in combat. Hitler and Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH, the army high command) therefore decided to convert them into panzer divisions. Each division, which already had a tank battalion, was given two more panzer battalions and a panzer regiment headquarters. Rothenburg was named commander of the newly formed 25th Panzer Regiment of Lieutenant General Georg Stumme’s 7th Panzer Division, which was nicknamed ‘‘the Ghost Division.’’ A poorly equipped unit by German standards, it had no Panzer Mark IIIs (PzKw IIIs)—the best tank in the German Army until 1942. As of April 12, 1940, the regiment had 72 poor Panzer Mark IIs (armed with a 20mm main battle gun), 37 nearly useless Panzer Mark Is (which did not even have a main battle gun), and 23 Panzer Mark IVs, whose short-barreled 75mm main battle gun seriously limited their effectiveness. Its main tank was the Panzer 38 (t), a Czech tank which had been incorporated into the German Army after the occupation of the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. It was not a bad tank by 1940 standards, but it was too light to match up effectively with many of the Allied tanks. Also, the fact that its operators’ manuals and maintenance manuals were written in Czech—which few (if any) of Rothenburg’s men could read—created further headaches, especially for the maintenance units.
After the reorganization was completed, the division redeployed to the Rhine sector, just behind the Western Front. This was the ‘‘Phony War’’ period and the division was allowed to train unmolested. On February 10, 1940, Stumme was promoted and given command of the newly formed XXXX Corps. A relatively junior Generalmajor named Erwin Rommel arrived at the divisional headquarters at Bad Godesburg to succeed him. He initially made a very unfavorable impression by greeting his senior commanders with the Hitler salute. (Although he was forced to commit suicide in 1944 for his part in the anti-Hitler conspiracy, Rommel had commanded Hitler’s bodyguard battalion in 1939 and was definitely a Nazi sympathizer in 1940.) He also offended the officers when he made a sneering reference to the fact that most of the 7th Panzer’s enlisted men were Thuringians, supposedly an area not noted for producing good soldiers. Then he ordered a general inspection for the next day—a Sunday—which was very unusual and not at all popular.
A few days later, General Rommel returned to Berlin for a last interview with Hitler. While he was gone, his disgruntled officers met to discuss their new commander. The fact that Rommel was an infantry officer without armored experience did nothing to increase his popularity. Of the 10 senior officers, only Rothenburg and Lieutenant Colonel Rudolf Sieckenius, the commander of the III/25th Panzer Regiment, urged patient cooperation. When he returned, Rommel had a gift. He presented each of the 10 senior officers with a copy of his book on tactics, Infantry in the Attack. This further aggravated some of the already unhappy officers.
Rommel realized that there was dissension in the senior ranks and his solution to the problem was to exhibit his inflexible determination. On February 29, he abruptly fired a battalion commander and had him packed and out of the divisional area in an hour and a half. His remark that this would cause the other dissidents ‘‘to pull up their socks’’ was quite correct. The division quickly embraced Rommel’s vigorous training program.
Rommel, in fact, had little to be dissatisfied about in the 7th Panzer Division, as the ensuing battles would prove. Despite its maintenance problems, Rothenburg’s 25th Panzer Regiment performed brilliantly in the French campaign. It broke through the Allies’ Meuse River defenses, smashed through Belgium and France, and overran the French 1st Armored Division, destroying more than 100 French tanks and some 30 armored cars in the process. It helped check the British counterattack at Arras, overran the French 31st Motorized Division, and helped destroy the 1st French Army at Lille. It then turned south, captured Cherbourg, and pushed almost to the Spanish border by the time the French surrendered. The 7th Panzer Division amassed a tremendous record of accomplishment in the Western Campaign and Rommel, as the division commander, naturally received the lion’s share of the glory. Rothenburg’s part, however, did not go unnoticed, either by Rommel or Berlin. (Early in the campaign, Rothenburg’s personal tank rescued the future Desert Fox by picking him up on the battlefield after his own tank had been knocked out). Rommel, in fact, relied more heavily on his panzer regiment’s commander than on any other subordinate in the French campaign. Rothenburg was decorated with the Knight’s Cross on June 3, 1940, and was promoted to full colonel on August 1, 1940.
Rothenburg’s attitude in battle was entirely fatalistic: he simply did not fear death. Perhaps because Rommel had a similarly fearless view of the world, he often rode with Rothenburg in the colonel’s command tank. They were, in fact, kindred spirits. Like Rommel and many other German panzer commanders, Rothenburg habitually placed himself at the forefront of each advance. This fearless attitude cost Rommel his life when he joined the anti-Hitler conspiracy, and it would cost Rothenburg his life in the next campaign.
The 25th Panzer Regiment was engaged in occupation duties in the Bordeaux region until February 1941, when it was sent to East Prussia. It crossed into Russia on June 22, 1941, and was immediately involved in what became the Battle of the Minsk Pocket. In the early stages of this huge battle of encirclement, Colonel Karl Rothenburg was critically wounded near Grodeck-Ostrochichy (south of Minsk) on June 27 and died two days later. He was thus one of the first of Rommel’s old ‘‘Ghost Division’’ to suffer the fate awaiting many of them. By April 1944, the division, which in 1940 boasted a strength of more than 15,000 men and 218 panzers, was down to a total fighting strength of 1,872 men, 9 guns, 11 antitank guns, and 9 tanks—one of which was a captured Russian T-34. By early 1945, it did not have a single tank left!
A hero of two wars, Karl Rothenburg was buried with full honors. He was posthumously promoted to major general, effective June 1, 1941. For the rest of the war, the 25th Panzer was semi-officially referred to as ‘‘the Rothenburg regiment.’’
Source :
"Rommel's Lieutenants: The Men Who Served the Desert Fox" by Samuel W. Mitcham
https://sylviolassance.blogspot.com/2013/08/rothenburg-karl-0806189428061941.html
