Steidle, Luitpold

Luitpold Steidle was born into the Catholic family of a military lawyer. In 1915, he voluntarily joined the army, served in a reserve ski battalion, since 1917 with the rank of non-commissioned officer - in the royal Bavarian life-grenadier regiment at the front. In October 1917 he received the rank of lieutenant. Since April 1918 he commanded a machine gun company. He fought in Flanders and in Italy . He was awarded the Iron Cross Class I.

In 1919 he studied at the Faculty of Agriculture of the Munich Higher Technical School , participated in the activities of the Catholic youth organization. He was a trainee in peasant farms. In 1920 - 1926 he was engaged in agriculture in the peasant's yard he acquired in Bavaria . At the same time he directed the church choir, published articles on the issues of the settlement movement (the relocation of unemployed citizens to the countryside).

Since 1926, he briefly worked as an inspector on the estate of Princess Blucher, tried to implement a social experiment to re-qualify unemployed miners as peasants. He came into conflict with the owner of the estate, was forced to leave the service and go as an assistant to the stud farm in Kassel . Engaged in trade union activity as a representative of the Central Association of German employees of agricultural and forestry enterprises, continued to participate in the Catholic movement. In 1933, he was dismissed from the stud farm as "unreliable from a national point of view." He was unemployed, then worked as an insurance agent.

In his memoirs, Steidle emphasizes his opposition to Nazism throughout the existence of the Third Reich, expresses the sympathy of the Catholic opposition. However, according to Russian researcher N. Platoshkin, Steidle was a member of the NSDAP (Platoshkin N. N. The hot summer of 1953 in Germany. M., 2004).

In 1934 he entered retraining courses for former officers. Since 1935 - the captain of the reserve, switched to active service. In 1935 - 1938 - commander of a machine gun company in the 61st Infantry Regiment in Munich . In 1938 - 1940 he taught tactics at the Munich Military School and at the sapper school in Dessau-Rosslau .

Since 1941 - lieutenant colonel, battalion commander in the 61st infantry regiment. Participated in the battles on the Berezina , the Dnieper , the attack on Moscow . In December 1941, due to illness, he was sent to Germany. In March 1942 he was promoted to colonel, and was appointed commander of the 767th Grenadier Regiment of the 376th Infantry Division , which was being reorganized in France. Then the division was transferred to the Eastern Front and became part of the 6th Army.

At the head of his regiment participated in the Battle of Stalingrad . On January 22, 1943 he was awarded the Knight's Iron Cross for distinguishing himself in defensive battles near Dmitrievka. By the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, 11 officers, 3 physicians and 34 soldiers remained in service from his regiment. He persuaded his division commander, General Edler von Daniels, to capitulate without the order of the commander of the 6th Army, Friedrich Paulus .

He was in Soviet captivity in officer camps in Krasnogorsk and Suzdal . He quickly made contact with the Soviet representatives, one of the first senior officers agreed to cooperate with them. In July 1943, he was invited as a guest to the constituent conference of the Free Germany National Committee (NKSG), an anti-fascist association controlled by the Soviet special services.

He was one of the founders of the Union of German Officers, acting in close contact with the NKSG and the Soviet special services, and uniting former generals and Wehrmacht officers who spoke under anti-fascist slogans. From September 1943 - Deputy Chairman of the Union of German Officers (until its dissolution in November 1945 ). He was authorized by the Union on the 2nd, and then on the 1st Ukrainian fronts. Unsuccessfully tried to induce surrender, surrounded in January-February 1944 by a group of German troops surrounded by Korsun-Shevchenkovsky . He wrote articles and leaflets of anti-fascist content, spoke on the radio, as well as on the Soviet front line of fire (with the help of a megaphone, trench (OSU) and powerful (Moscow State University) speaking installations), held talks with prisoners of war, and prepared analytical materials.

In December 1945, he, one of the first high-ranking German prisoners of war, was allowed to return to his homeland. Then he became deputy chairman of the Main Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry for Livestock. As such, he participated in the implementation of agrarian reform. He was deputy chairman of the German Economic Commission . He was a member of the Provisional People’s Chamber, operating on the territory of the Soviet occupation zone.

In February 1946 he joined the Christian Democratic Union , where he was among the most pro-Soviet leaders. He contributed to the removal from the leadership of the CDU in the Soviet occupation zone of politicians who were critical of the USSR and opposed radical agrarian reform. He was the closest ally of Otto Nuschke , who became the chairman of the East German CDU with the support of the Soviet occupation authorities and German Communists and pursued a course of maximum cooperation with the ruling Socialist United Party of Germany (SED).

In 1949 , after the founding of the GDR, it became part of its government as Minister of Labor and Health Care under the quotation of the German CDU (CDU, a party operating in the GDR). He was a member of the People’s Chamber (Parliament) of the GDR, a member of the political committee of the KDSG.

In 1950 - 1958 he was the Minister of Health of the GDR, actively introducing the Soviet model of organization of medicine. During his leadership, the Ministry created 30 new clinics and research institutions, four new medical institutes.

On January 14, 1953 he was removed from his post as minister and accused of poor medical care of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and the People’s Police . The reason for this decision could be the " case of doctors ", a message about which appeared in the Soviet press on January 13. In addition, on January 15, one of the leaders of the CDU and Steidle's associates in the government , Foreign Minister of the GDR Georg Dertinger was arrested. However, after the termination of the "doctors' case", Steidle was reinstated.

In 1960 - 1969 he was the mayor of Weimar .

• "From the Volga to Weimar" ( M. , 1973)

• Platoshkin N. N. The hot summer of 1953 in Germany. M. , 2004.