Günther von Kluge
Günther Adolf Ferdinand von[a] Kluge (30 October 1882 – 19 August 1944) was a German Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) during World War II who held commands on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. He commanded the 4th Army of the Wehrmacht during the invasion of Poland in 1939 and the Battle of France in 1940, earning a promotion to Generalfeldmarschall. Kluge went on to command the 4th Army in Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the Soviet Union) and the Battle for Moscow in 1941.
Günther von Kluge
Günther Adolf Ferdinand von Kluge
Hans Günther von Kluge
Clever Hans
30 October 1882
Posen, Prussia, German Empire
19 August 1944 (aged 61)
Metz, Nazi Germany
German Empire (1901–1918)
Weimar Republic (1918–1933)
Nazi Germany (1933–1944)
1901–44
46th Field Artillery Regiment
3
Wolfgang von Kluge (brother)
Eike-Henner Kluge (grandson)
Amid the crisis of the Soviet counter-offensive in December 1941, Kluge was promoted to command Army Group Centre replacing Field Marshal Fedor von Bock. Several members of the German military resistance to Adolf Hitler served on his staff, including Henning von Tresckow. Kluge was aware of the plotters' activities but refused to offer his support unless Hitler was killed. His command on the Eastern Front lasted until October 1943 when Kluge was badly injured in a car accident.
Following a lengthy recuperation, Kluge was appointed OB West (Supreme Commander West) in occupied France in July 1944, after his predecessor, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, was dismissed for defeatism. Kluge's forces were unable to stop the momentum of the Allied invasion of Normandy, and he began to realise that the war in the West was lost. Although Kluge was not an active conspirator in the 20 July plot, in the aftermath of the failed coup he committed suicide on 19 August 1944, after having been recalled to Berlin for a meeting with Hitler. Kluge was replaced by Field Marshal Walter Model.
Early life and career[edit]
Kluge was born on 30 October 1882 in Posen, then in the German state of Prussia (now in western Poland).[2] His father, Max von Kluge, was from an aristocratic Prussian military family. A distinguished commander, Max was a lieutenant general in the German Army who served in the First World War. He married Elise Kühn-Schuhmann in 1881.[2] Günther von Kluge was one of two children, having a younger brother named Wolfgang (1892–1976).[2] Wolfgang served in both world wars, rising to the rank of lieutenant general by 1943, and was commander of Fortress Dunkirk between July and September 1944.[3]
In 1901, Günther von Kluge – sometimes called Hans Günther von Kluge or Der kluge Hans ("Clever Hans") after an alleged performing horse[4] – was commissioned in the German Army's 46th Field Artillery Regiment.[2] He served on the General Staff between 1910 and 1918, reaching the rank of captain on the Western Front during the First World War. He was wounded at Verdun, and later became a captain on the General Staff.[5] He remained in the postwar Reichswehr (national army) during the Weimar era, becoming a colonel in 1930, major general in 1933, and lieutenant general a year later.[2] He was von Brauchitsch's chief of staff in East Prussia in 1933, and was viewed as having subsequently "followed von Brauchitsch's star."[6] On 1 April 1934, Kluge took command of the 6th Division in Münster.[2] In 1935, Adolf Hitler's proclamation of the Wehrmacht – the enlarged German Army – precipitated Kluge's appointment to the 6th Corps and then the 6th Army Group, which subsequently became the 4th Army.[2]
Kluge believed Hitler's "crude militarism" would lead Germany into disaster.[2] During the Sudetenland Crisis, he was a member of a secret anti-war faction led by Ludwig Beck and Ernst von Weizsäcker, hoping to avoid armed conflict over the disputed territory. The crisis was averted by the Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938. Although he was privately critical of the Nazis, Kluge believed in the principle of Lebensraum and took pride in the rearmament of the Wehrmacht.[7]
World War II[edit]
Invasion of Poland[edit]
Hitler approved of the German High Command's outline for invading Poland with two army groups during a military briefing on 26–27 April 1939.[8] Kluge's 4th Army was assigned to Army Group North under Fedor von Bock.[9] The Polish campaign commenced on 1 September, taking advantage of the country's long border with Germany. The 4th Army was to advance eastward toward the Corridor from West Pomerania to link with the 3rd Army; the port city of Danzig fell within the first day.[10]
By the following day, apprehensions of a strong Polish defensive line along the Brda River had not materialized. The 4th Army crossed the river, sealing the Polish 9th Infantry Division, 27th Infantry Division, and the Pomeranian Cavalry Brigade in the Corridor. Kluge sent the 10th Panzer Division from his army across the Vistula River, meeting with the 3rd Army on 3 September.[11] The 4th Army's XIX Panzer Corps (Heinz Guderian) captured the city of Brześć on 17 September after three days of fighting in the Battle of Brześć Litewski.[12] Army Group North was informed of the Red Army's invasion of eastern Poland the same day and was directed to remain west of the Bug River.[12] Brześć was turned over to the Soviet forces on 22 September.[13] For his entrapment of Polish forces in the early stages of the invasion, Kluge earned Hitler's praise as one of his most brilliant commanders.[9]