Feldgrau.net

Does anyone have any information on who the youngest "documented' individual to attain General rank in the German Army? Some say it was Otto Remer, other places I have read that it was Erich Barenfanger and more recently, I read that in April 1945, there was a 27 year old who was promoted to GM of a Volks-Grenadier division? I doubt the latter is offiicaly documented anywhere, since it was total caos for the Germans at the end of the war. My research thus far indicates that Barenfanger was the youngest.

I have also read that Adolf Galland was the youngest Wehrmacht General . Interestingly enough, I just read on a website that there was a luftwaffe GM who just died in 2003. That individual certianly must have been pretty young to make General before war's end.

Regarding that, are there still any known l iving German Generals, either from the Heer, Luftwaffe, SS or for Kriegsmarine, any Admirals. Who was the SS's young General?

Kurt Meyer was to my knowledge the youngest SS General at the time of his promotion.

Gen Wenck is sometimes called the youngest army General and I imagine there are other contenders for the honour.

cheers
Reb

Yes, Kurt "Panzermeyer" Meyer was 33 years old when promoted to the rank of SS-Brigadeführer and GM as commander of 12.SS Pnz.Div. "Hitlerjugend".

Ritter

Kurt Meyer was 33 years & 9 months when promoted to SS GM, Otto-Ernst Remer was 33 years & 5 months when promoted to GM and was 1 year & 9 months younger than Meyer. Erich Bärenfänger was by far the youngest at 30 years & 3 months when promoted and more than 4 years younger than Meyer, while Walter Wenck was 10 years older and 42 years old when promoted to GM. Meyer was the youngest SS general when he was promoted, beating Wilhelm Mohnke for that honor by 1 month, however Mohnke was actually 3 1/2 months younger than Meyer, while Hugo Kraas was 1 month younger than Meyer and Sylvester Stadler was one week younger than Meyer!

FWIW.

Jerry

Jerry

Try saying fast, twice!

Barenfanger reminds me of the youngest yankee general in the Secession War - Pennypacker...

cheers
Reb

the Secession War ... hummm.

Jerry

Well, they don't call me Reb for nothing.

In truth though Secession War could be 1776 or 1861...

cheers
Reb

Reb wrote: In truth though Secession War could be 1776 or 1861...

Yes, I can see that... just never heard either called that.

Jerry

Enoch Powell is frequently cited as the youngest British general in WW2. He was born on 16.06.12 and became a Brigadier in 1944, as well as a Colonel earlier in the year.... I've no dates so that would make him between 31yrs 6months to 32 years 6 months..... what's more in impressive is he enlisted as an Australian, and so worked his way up from the bottom.

He also lays claim to have been the youngest Professor in the British Empire, at 25 years old. He was Professor of Greek at the University of Sydney, Australia.

He was a Luftwaffe general, and while he was quite young when promoted, I'm not sure how lod he was. I think you are also confusing him with another, as I'm pretty sure Galland died in '03.

I hadn't heard that term either. When I lived in Florida my southern friends told me the proper term was War of Northern Agression. ll depends on how you look at it.

Genstab

I try not to refer to it as the War of Northern Aggression simply because I am weary of endless debates and bear no grudges. But that it was the Second Secession War is beyond despute and seems to me to be a less incindiary term for it.

I remain totally unreconstructed but genial!
cheers
Reb

God bless, Reb!
A transplanted Ohioan- still puzzled over being called a Yankee as I thought they were in New England

Not that you ask, but I would agree that the war of 1861 was certainly a war of Secession, but I think the war of 1776 is quite appropriately refered to as a Revolution. War of Northern Aggression sounds a bit like sour grapes to me but hey, I'm not lookin' for a debate either. As an untransplanted Ohioan I have always been happy to hear my southern relatives call me "yankee", after all..... we won!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year y'all.

Jerry

Yeah, Jerry, but that's what gets "we Yankees" in trouble every time- WE weren't there- and our parents weren't either (neither were the hard core present day Confederates or their parents)- but it's OUR fault. Jeez! I heard a story from a girl whose parents were visiting her from New York- they were driving through Fernandina Beach, FL in Nassau County (the county on the Georgia line north of Jacksonville) and the local citizens saw fit to yell at their car because it had northern license plates! It's like killing the goose that laid the golden egg- they were TOURISTS in a depressed area of FLorida. The girl's mother yelled back' "Get over it!" Why should American citizens have to hate each other because of something that happened 140 years ago? No participants' children are even alive now.

I'm originally from Cleveland and I know that ill will exists even between urban northern Ohio and the rest of the state. How silly can we get?