21 Facts About Gotthard Heinrici

Gotthard Heinrici was born in 1886 at Gumbinnen in East Prussia, the son of a minister of the Evangelical Church in Germany.

In May 1916, Gotthard Heinrici took part in the Battle of Verdun.

In March 1917, Gotthard Heinrici was posted to the German General Staff.

In February 1918, Gotthard Heinrici was posted to an infantry division, serving as a staff officer responsible for operations.

Gotthard Heinrici had two children, Hartmut and Gisela, with his wife Gertrude.

Gotthard Heinrici was a devout Protestant who regularly went to church.

However, Gotthard Heinrici received a "German Blood Certificate" from Hitler himself, which validated their supposed "Aryan" status and protected them from discrimination.

Gotthard Heinrici's forces succeeded in breaking through the Maginot Line south of Saarbrucken on 14 June 1940.

Gotthard Heinrici received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in 1941.

Late in January 1942, Gotthard Heinrici was given command of the 4th Army.

In 1944, after the previous successes of the Red Army in Ukraine, Gotthard Heinrici repeatedly argued for the retreat of Army Group Center and a concomitant shortening of the front line; Hitler rejected these plans at a staff meeting on 20 May 1944.

Gotthard Heinrici was able to keep the 1st Panzer Army relatively intact as it retreated into Slovakia.

Gotthard Heinrici was awarded the Swords to the Oak Leaves of his Knight's Cross on 3 March 1945.

Gotthard Heinrici was tasked with preventing a Soviet attack across the Oder River amid shortages of manpower and material.

Only the terrain itself favoured Gotthard Heinrici; he dug the 9th Army into three defensive lines atop Seelow Heights, overlooking the sandy, swampy banks of the Oder.

Gotthard Heinrici was dismissed by Keitel for refusing to save Hitler.

Gotthard Heinrici was summoned to Berlin and would have complied had Captain Hellmuth Lang not persuaded him to "drive as slowly as you can" to Plon instead, informing him that he would be murdered in Berlin like Rommel.

Gotthard Heinrici was featured prominently in Cornelius Ryan's 1966 book, The Last Battle.

Gotthard Heinrici died in 1971 in Karlsruhe and was buried with full military honours at the Bergacker cemetery in Freiburg im Breisgau.

Gotthard Heinrici was shocked by the anti-Jewish pogroms of Kristallnacht, although this did not lead him to distance himself from the Nazi regime.

Hurter writes that Gotthard Heinrici proved to be a tough and capable commander who demanded as much of himself as his soldiers.