Corfes, Otto

Childhood, adolescence. Start of Service

From the pastor’s family. He was the fifth child in the family of Otto Corfes and his wife Emilia, nee Friedrich. In 1901 , when Otto was 12 years old, the family moved to Kattenstedt in the Harz. In 1901 - 1909 he studied at the gymnasium and on March 16, 1909 , upon graduation, he received a certificate of maturity.

In May of that year, Corfes entered the 66th Infantry Regiment (3rd Magdeburg). In October, he was awarded the title of Fenrich , and on August 22, 1910, he became a lieutenant. In August 1914 , when the First World War began , he was sent to the Western Front and on September 17 received the 2nd Class Iron Cross .

At the beginning of 1915 he was awarded the next rank of lieutenant. In the spring of 1916, Corfes was awarded the Iron Cross of the 1st class. At the end of 1917 he was awarded the rank of captain. In July 1918 , shortly before the end of the war, he was seriously wounded and was in hospital until January 1919 .

Peaceful Life in the Weimar Republic

In July 1919, he was invited to work in the German Union of Officers in Berlin , and in the fall he entered the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Berlin Friedrich-Wilhelm . At the same time, from the beginning of 1920, he began working in the Central Department of the Reichsarchive. June 9, 1923 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Social and Political Sciences. In the same year, he was hired by the military-historical department of the Reichsarchive under the leadership of General Hans von Heften .

From this time he begins to give lectures, his publications are printed. In December of the same year, he became a member of the Steel Helmet Front-End Union , led by his former co-worker Franz Seldte. On October 26, 1929, he married (an engagement took place in July 1929) to Gudrunn Merz von Kvirnheim, daughter of the president of the Reich Archives German Merz von Kvirnheim .

In 1933, their daughter Sigrid was born. On October 1, 1937, Korfes quit his job in the Reichsarhive (he recently worked as an Ober-regungsrat (senior official) at the Military Historical Research Institute in Potsdam ( German Kriegsgeschichtlichen Forschungsanstalt des Heeres in Potsdam ) and again enlisted in the army.

The Second World War. Surrender at Stalingrad

In the fall of 1937 he was reinstated in the rank of major and was assigned to the 66th Infantry Regiment in Magdeburg . February 1, 1938 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel. In the fall of 1938, he participated as a battalion commander of the 66th Infantry Regiment in the occupation of the Sudetenland . Soon Korfes became commander of the 66th regiment.

In February 1940, he was appointed commander of the 518th Infantry Regiment . In this position he participated in the defeat of France. On June 22, 1941, a regiment of the 295th Infantry Division ( 17th Army ) participated in the attack on the Soviet Union . The division with battles advanced through Uman , Poltava, Artyomovsk and Rossosh to the east. In August 1942, the 295th Infantry Division (and with it the Corfes Regiment) was transferred to the 6th Army , advancing on Stalingrad . As part of the 51st Army Corps, the division participated in battles for Mamaev Kurgan in September, and in October for the Krasny Oktyabr steel mill and the Lazur chemical factory.

November 16, 1942 , a few days before the offensive of the Soviet army, Corfes was appointed acting commander of the 295th Infantry Division. On January 1, 1943 he was awarded the title of Major General and he was officially confirmed as the division commander, and on January 22 of the same year Korfes was awarded the Knight's Cross . But no titles and awards could change the situation that developed in the Stalingrad boiler in early 1943 . At the end of January, the 6th Army ceased to exist. January 31, 1943 Korfes in full dress and with all orders surrendered.

Captive

In February 1943 , a few days after the capture, Korfes and other generals were transported and placed in a prisoner of war camp in Krasnogorsk near Moscow. In April 1943, Corfes, along with the rest, was transferred to a prisoner of war camp in Voikovo. In July 1943, the generals were again transferred to a new prisoner of war camp in Voikovo. On August 19, Korfes, together with Seidlitz-Kurzbach and Lattmann, were transferred from Voikov to the retraining center in Zhukovo.

On September 11-12, 1943, Corfes participated in the creation of the Union of German Officers in Lunevo and became a member of the presidium of the new organization. On September 14-15, 1943, the Union of German Officers and the National Committee "Free Germany" merged. From September 1943 to November 1945, Corfes was primarily engaged in journalistic activities in the newspaper “Free Germany” and participated in broadcasts on radio stations bearing the same name.

On July 20, 1944, a group of German officers attempted to assassinate Hitler , which ended in failure. One of these officers was the brother of Korfes's wife, Albrecht Merz von Quirnheim , who was shot immediately after the failure of the conspiracy. Another relative of Korfes, the husband of his wife’s older sister, Wilhelm Dickman , also involved in the conspiracy, was shot dead at the Moabit prison on September 13, 1944 , after brutal interrogations of the Gestapo. After information was received in Germany that Corfes was actively cooperating with the Russians, repressions were launched against his family.

In the service of the GDR

September 13, 1948 Korfes returned to the Soviet occupation zone of Germany . Shortly after his return, on October 16, 1948 , he was appointed head of the Central Archive in the Soviet zone of German occupation in Potsdam, created on June 1, 1946 .

In November of the same year, he joined the National Democratic Party of Germany . In 1949, Corfes became a member of the Presidium of the NPD . In 1950-1952, Corfes led the Institute of Archival Studies in Potsdam. On October 1, 1952, with the rank of Major General, he was called up to serve in the Barracks People’s Police as the head of the Historical Department ( German: Leiter der Historischen Abteilung ).

In the 1950s, Corfes was engaged in various activities: he is a member of the National Council of the National Front of the GDR, the historical section of the Academy of Sciences, the scientific council of the Museum of German History. In 1958-1964, he was also the chairman of the Community of Former Officers ( German Arbeitsgemeinschaft ehemaliger Offiziere ). March 31, 1956 Corfes retired. November 29, 1959 , on his 70th birthday, Korfes was awarded the Order of Merit to the Fatherland in silver. On August 24, 1964 , at the 75th year of his life, he died in Potsdam .

In 1994, the biography of Corfes, written by his daughter Sigrid Wegner-Corfes, Weimar-Stalingrad-Berlin, was published.

• Fenrich - October 18, 1909 ;
• Lieutenant - August 22, 1910 ;
• Ober Lieutenant - February 25, 1915 ;
• Captain - December 18, 1917 ;
• Reserve Major - June 1, 1935 ;
• Major - October 1, 1937 ;
• Lieutenant Colonel - February 1, 1938 ;
• Colonel - January 1, 1941 ;
• Major General - January 1, 1943 ;
• Major General ( NNA ) - October 1, 1952 .

• Iron Cross 2nd class;
• Iron Cross 1st class;
• Buckle to the Iron Cross 1st class;
• Buckle to the Iron Cross 2nd class;
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross - January 22, 1943 ;
• German cross in gold - January 11, 1942 ;
• Order of Merit before the Fatherland in silver (GDR) - November 23, 1959 .

• Bivor E. Stalingrad. - Smolensk .: Rusich, 1999
• Burtsev M.I. - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1981
• Steidle L. From the Volga to Weimar. - Moscow: Progress, 1975
• Winzer Oh . Twelve years of the struggle against fascism and war. - Moscow: Publishing House of Foreign Literature, 1956
• Sigrid Wegner-Korfes. Weimar, Stalingrad, Berlin: das Leben des deutschen Generals Otto Korfes. Biografie. - Berlin: Verlag der Nation, 1994 .-- 271 p. - ISBN 3-373-00463-2 .

• List of publications by Otto Corfes on the website of the German National Library (German)
• Literaturportal (German)