Georg Lindemann
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Georg Lindemann (March 8, 1884 – September 25, 1963) was a German cavalry officer and field commander who served in the Heer during World War I and World War II. He survived the Second World War and after several years in captivity as a Prisoner of War (POW), he was released.
Georg Lindemann was born in Osterburg in Altmark. He joined the Prussian Officer Corps and served in the First World War on both the East and Western Fronts. After the war, he joined Von Lettow's Freikorps and during the civil unrest of 1919, helped to crush the Communist Workers Council in Hamburg. In 1930, Lindemann was serving as Commanding officer of the 13th Reiter Regiment.
With the rise of the NSDAP, Lindemann was promoted to Commander of the Kriegschule in Hanover, a position which he occupied until 1936. In 1936, Lindemann was promoted to Generalleutnant and given command of the 36.Infanterie Division. The division was involved in guarding the Saar region during the Invasion of Poland, and it then took part in the Invasion of France. At the end of the Western campaign, Lindemann was promoted to General der Kavallerie and given command of L.Armeekorps. At the launch of Operation Barbarossa, Lindemann's Corps was a part of Army Group North. Lindemann commanded the corps during the Army Groups advance towards Leningrad, being briefly shifted to the command of Army Group Centre during the operations to capture Smolensk. Lindemann's corps was then shifted back to the North.
On 16 January, 1942, Lindemann took the command of the 18.Army, a part of Army Group North. Later, in the summer of 1942, he was promoted to Generaloberst.
Lindemann commanded the 18.Army throughout the campaigns around Leningrad and during the January 1944 retreat from Oranienbaum to Narva. Lindemann then commanded the units defending the Narva line during the Battle of Narva before he was promoted to command of Army Group North on 31 March 1944. His command of the Army Group was short-lived, and on 4 July 1944 he was relieved and transferred to the Reserve Army. Allegedly Hitler gave as reason for this change that Lindemann had become too old and too week.
After serving a few months in the Reserve Army, Lindemann was put in command of a newbuild staff called "Fuehrungsstab Ostseekueste". From 1 February 1945 he held the post as "Wehrmachtsbefehlshaber Dänemark", thereby coming in command of all German troops in Denmark. In April 1945, when the end of the war was apparent to almost all German commanders, Lindemann issued an order to his troops to preserve strict discipline. He further ordered that Denmark had to be defended to the last bullet.
On 3 May, Lindemann went to Mürwik to participate in a meeting with the OKW, the new government and the new German Head of State, Großadmiral Karl Dönitz. Lindemann informed Dönitz that he would be able to hold Denmark for at least some time, and he and his colleague in Norway, General Boehme, argued for keeping Denmark and Norway in German custody as bargaining chips in the armistice negotiations soon to come. Dönitz however, sued for immediate peace, and Germany surrendered unconditionally in North West Germany, Holland and Denmark on 5 May 1945. As commander of "Armee Lindemann", Lindemann was then tasked with the dismantling of the German occupation of Denmark until 6 June 1945, when he was arrested at his headquarters in Silkeborg.
Lindemann was a POW in US custody until 1948. He was not charged for war crimes neither by the Allied nor by Denmark. After his release he went into retirement in West Germany. He died on 25 September 1963.
