| Nikolaus Von Falkenhorst |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT NIKOLAUS VON FALKENHORST | |
| 1885 births | |
| 1968 deaths | |
| german military personnel of world war i | |
| german military personnel of world war ii | |
| recipients of the knights cross | |
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Von Falkenhorst was born in Breslau to an old military family. He joined the army in 1907 and during World War I was given various regimental and staff appointments. As a member of the Freikorps in 1919 , he was transferred to the Reichswehr , and between 1925 and 1927 served in the Operations Division of the War Ministry. He was promoted to Brigadier on October 1 , 1932 and was then military attaché in the German embassies in Prague , Belgrade and Bucharest between 1933 and 1935 . On July 1 , 1935 he was promoted to Major General and Chief of Staff of the Third Army and in 1937 to Lieutenant General. In 1939 he commanded the Twenty First Army Corps during the Polish Campaign , and was promoted to General of Infantry. Von Falkenhorst was charged with the military planning of the Weser Exercise in 1940 . This invasion of Norway was top-secret, and von Falkenhorst was not even given military access to German military charts or maps in formulating the invasion plan. Instead, he planned the operation in a hotel room from maps and charts purchased at a stationary store in Berlin . Nevertheless, the operation was successful. The only major German loss was the sinking of the heavy cruiser '' Blücher '' in Oslofjord . After planning the invasion of Norway and repulsing a counter-invasion by British forces from the north, von Falkenhorst remained in charge of the Norwegian garrison. In contrast to the civilian administration, the military forces aimed to form an understanding with the Norwegian people, and von Falkenhorst ordered his men to treat them with courtesy. An apocryphal story, which was much believed by both sides, told of a Norwegian woman who complained that a German soldier had stolen some of her jam. The next morning, she was invited to come to the local army base to see the man shot by Firing Squad . Von Falkenhorst was dismissed from his command on December 18 , 1944 for opposing the policies of Josef Terboven , the Reich Commissioner for Norway. After the war, von Falkenhorst was tried by a joint British-Norwegian military tribunal for violating the rules of war. He had passed on the ''Führerbefehl'' known as the Commando Order which required captured saboteurs to be shot (several were), and was therefore convicted and sentenced to death in 1946 . The sentence was later commuted to twenty years' imprisonment. Von Falkenhorst was released on July 23 , 1953 due to bad health. |
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