Lothar Rendulic

Dr. Lothar Rendulic
Dr. Lothar Rendulic
Born	(1887-11-23)23 November 1887
Died	18 January 1971(1971-01-18) (aged 83)
Place of birth	Wiener Neustadt, Austria
Place of death	Eferding, Austria
Allegiance	Austria-Hungary (to 1918) First Austrian Republic (to 1938) Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Austrian Army Heer
Years of service	1910-1938 (Austria) 1938-1945 (Germany)
Rank	Oberst (Austria) Generaloberst (Germany)
Commands held	14. Infanterie-Division 52. Infanterie-Division XXXV. Armeekorps 2. Panzer-Armee 20. Gebirgs-Armee Heeresgruppe Kurland Heeresgruppe Süd Heeresgruppe Nord Heeresgruppe Ostmark
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern

Lothar Rendulic (23 November 1887 – 18 January 1971) was an army group commander in the German Army during World War II. Rendulic was one of three Austrians who rose to the rank of Generaloberst (senior general) in the Wehrmacht.

He was tried at Nuremberg in 1948 and, though acquitted of deliberate scorched earth tactics in the Lapland war, was convicted of killing hostages in Yugoslavia and imprisoned. After his release in 1951 he took up writing.

Biography

Early years

Rendulic was born in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, to a Croatian family (the Croatian spelling of the surname is Rendulić). His father Lukas was a colonel in the Austro-Hungarian army. Following his Abitur, Lothar studied law and political science at universities in Vienna and Lausanne; in 1907, he was admitted to the Theresianische Militärakademie (later renamed the Kriegsschule Wiener Neustadt) in his home town, Wiener Neustadt. In August 1910, Rendulic was commissioned a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army and assigned to the 99. Infanterieregiment Georg I., König der Hellenen, in Vienna. He remained with this regiment during the first year of World War I before being posted to the 31.Infanterie-Division in 1915 and to XXI.Korps in 1918.

Following World War I, Rendulic studied law at the University of Vienna and in 1920 was awarded his doctorate in law (a Dr. iur. in German). He also joined the newly formed army of the Austrian republic and in 1932 joined the banned Austrian Nazi Party. From 1934, Rendulic served in the diplomatic corps as a military attaché for France and England with an office in Paris. However, his promising military and diplomatic career faltered in 1936, when he was put on the temporary inactive list because his early membership in the Nazi Party was considered undesirable for an Austrian officer and diplomat.

World War II

Rendulic was called to the German Army, the Wehrmacht, in 1938, after the annexation of Austria to Germany. By 1940, Rendulic was serving as the acting general officer in command of the 14. Infanterie-Division (23.6.40 - 10.10.40). From 1940 to 1942, he was the general commanding the 52nd Division. From 1942 to 1943, he was the general in command of the XXXV Corps. But, by 1943, Lothar Rendulic was being held in reserve.

Yugoslavia

From 1943 to 1944, Rendulic served as the general commanding the 2nd Panzer Army in Yugoslavia. Early in 1944, the Führer Adolf Hitler ordered Rendulic to devise a plan to capture Yugoslav partisan leader Josip Broz Tito. In the resultant raid on Drvar on 25 May 1944, German paratroopers stormed partisan headquarters in Drvar (western Bosnia) looking for Tito and very nearly captured him.

Finland and Norway

Following the death of General Dietl in June 1944, Rendulic served as the general commanding the 20th Mountain Army as well as the commander of German troops stationed in Finland and Norway. It is oft-stated that Rendulic in October 1944 ordered the Finnish town of Rovaniemi to be burned in revenge against the Finns for having concluded a separate peace with the Soviet Union. Rendulic actually ordered Rovaniemi’s public buildings destroyed while Finnish private property was to be spared. While the German rear guard was going about the destruction, an ammunition train in Rovaniemi station exploded and set fire to the wooden houses of the town. The German troops suffered many casualties, mainly from glass splinters. Ironically, a Finnish commando unit claimed to have blown up the ammunition train and may well have been the primary cause of the town's ruin. The cause was then unknown and generally assumed to be the deliberate intent of Rendulic.

Eastern Front

In 1945, Rendulic served as the commander-in-chief of Heeresgruppe Kurland (Army Group Courland) on the Eastern Front. By this time, the Army Group was completely cut off in the Courland Pocket. Shortly thereafter, Rendulic served briefly as commander-in-chief of Heeresgruppe Nord (Army Group North, then located in northern Germany), returned to commanding Army Group Courland (fighting in what was left of Latvia), and finally commanded Heeresgruppe Sud (Army Group South, soon renamed Heeresgruppe Ostmark, in Austria and Czechoslovakia).

On 7 May 1945, during the Prague Offensive, Lothar Rendulic, its commander-in-chief, surrendered Army Group Ostmark to the elements of the U.S. Army in Austria.

Imprisonment and death

After his surrender, Lothar Rendulic was interned and tried as a military criminal in the "hostages trial" at Nuremberg, because of his involvement in the Wehrmacht's attacks on civilians in Yugoslavia and the scorched earth policy in Lapland. On 19 February 1948 he was found guilty and sentenced to twenty years in prison, although he was cleared of charges concerning the scorching of Lapland. This sentence was later reduced to ten years, and on 1 February 1951 Rendulic was released from the military prison in Landsberg am Lech in Bavaria.

After his release, he worked as an author and was involved in local politics in Seewalchen am Attersee, in the Salzkammergut region of Austria. He died at Eferding, Austria, on 18 January 1971.

Personal life

On 4 September 1916 Rendulic married Nella Zöbl.

Summary of his military career

Dates of rank

• k.u.k Leutnant : 8 August 1910
• k.u.k Oberleutnant : 8 April 1914
• k.u.k Hauptmann : 1 May 1917
• Major (Austrian Army) : 1925
• Oberstleutnant (Austrian Army) : 1929
• Oberst (Austrian Army) : 1933
• Oberst (German Army) : 1 April 1938
• Generalmajor : 1 December 1939
• Generalleutnant : 1 December 1942
• General der Infanterie : 1 December 1942
• Generaloberst : 1 April 1944

Notable decorations

Award	Date of award	Decoration
Wound Medal with one stripe	unknown	Austria-Hungary
Karl Troop Cross, 3rd Class with War Decoration and Swords	unknown	Austria-Hungary
Order of the Iron Crown, 3rd class	unknown	Austria-Hungary
Military Merit Medal, in bronze and silver on the Ribbon of the Bravery Medal with Swords	unknown	Austria-Hungary
Military Merit Cross, 3rd class on the Ribbon of the Bravery Medal with war decoration and Swords	unknown	Austria-Hungary
Iron Cross (1914), 1st and 2nd class	unknown	German Empire
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords	Knight's Cross on 6 March 1942 as Generalleutnant and commander of the 52. Infanterie-Division 271st Oak Leaves on 15 August 1943 as General der Infanterie and commanding general of the XXXV. Armeekorps 122nd Swords on 18 January 1945 as Generaloberst and commander in chief of the 20. Gebirgsarmee	Nazi Germany
Iron Cross (1939)	Second Class on 20 September 1939 First Class on 10 October 1939	Nazi Germany
German Cross in Gold	26 December 1941 as Generalmajor and commander of the 52. Infanterie-Division	Nazi Germany
Eastern Front Medal	1942	Nazi Germany
Cross of Honor	unknown	Nazi Germany
Cuff title Kurland	1945	Nazi Germany
Lappland Shield	1945	Nazi Germany
Wound Badge in Black	unknown	Nazi Germany
Golden Party Badge	19 September 1944	Nazi Germany
Mentioned four times in the Wehrmachtbericht	6 June 1944, 28 December 1944, 14 March 1945 and 9 May 1945	Nazi Germany

Books by Lothar Rendulic

• Rendulic, L: Gekämpft, gesiegt, geschlagen. (Fought, victorious, vanquished) Welsermühl Verlag, Wels and Heidelberg, 1952. 384 p.
• Rendulic, L: Glasenbach - Nürnberg - Landsberg. Ein Soldatenschicksal nach dem Krieg (A soldier's fate after the war), Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz, 1953. 222 p.
• Rendulic, L.: Die unheimlichen Waffen : Atomraketen über uns. Lenkwaffen, Raketengeschosse, Atombomben (Monstrous weapons: atomic rockets over us. Guided weapons, rockets, atom bombs) 1957
• Rendulic, L: Weder Krieg noch Frieden. Eine Frage an die Macht. (Neither war nor peace. A question to the powers) Welsermühl Verlag, Munich and Wels, 1961. 250 p.
• Rendulic, L: Soldat in stürzenden Reichen. (Soldier in falling empires) Damm Verlag, Munich 1965. 483 p.
• Rendulic, L.: Grundlagen militärischer Führung, 1967
• Rendulic, L: Aus dem Abgrund in die Gegenwart. (From the abyss to the present) Verlag Ernst Ploetz, Wolfsberg, 1969. 259 p.

See also

• Yugoslavian Front (WWII)
• Lapland War
• Courland Pocket
• Prague Offensive

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Berger, Florian (1999) (in German). Mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern. Die höchstdekorierten Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkrieges [With Oak Leaves and Swords. The Highest Decorated Soldiers of the Second World War]. Vienna, Austria: Selbstverlag Florian Berger. ISBN 978-3-9501307-0-6. 
• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) (in German). Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 – Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtsteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches]. Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6. 
• Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001) (in German). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2]. Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8. 
• Schaulen, Fritjof (2005) (in German). Eichenlaubträger 1940 – 1945 Zeitgeschichte in Farbe III Radusch – Zwernemann [Oak Leaves Bearers 1940 – 1945 Contemporary History in Color III Radusch – Zwernemann]. Selent, Germany: Pour le Mérite. ISBN 978-3-932381-22-5. 
• Scherzer, Veit (2007) (in German). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives]. Jena, Germany: Scherzers Miltaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2. 
• Thomas, Franz (1998) (in German). Die Eichenlaubträger 1939–1945 Band 2: L–Z [The Oak Leaves Bearers 1939–1945 Volume 2: L–Z]. Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7648-2300-9. 

External links

• "Cool-off in Finland" - Monday, Oct. 23, 1944 – Article from Time Magazine