Obert i.G. Eberhard Kinzel (October 18, 1897 – June 25, 1945)

Obert i.G. Eberhard Kinzel joined the Imperial Army on October 16, 1914, as a war volunteer. He was assigned to the 3rd Brandenburg Infantry Regiment "Graf Tauentzien von Wittenburg" No. 20. At the beginning of 1915, he also embarked on an officer's career with this regiment. In May 1915 he was wounded as an ensign at the front. In mid-July 1915, after recovering, he returned to the troops. On July 30, 1915, he was promoted to lieutenant. His rank seniority was later set at November 1, 1915. During the course of the First World War he was employed in various functions in his 3rd Brandenburg Infantry Regiment "Graf Tauentzien von Wittenburg" No. 20. In World War I he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Royal Prussian House Order of Hohenzollern with swords and both Iron Crosses as well as other awards. After the war, after a certain period of time, he was taken on by the Freikorps von Oven in the Imperial Army. In the spring of 1920, he was then deployed in the interim army with the 6th Reichswehr Infantry Regiment. When the 100,000-man army of the Reichswehr was formed, he then became an orderly officer 5th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment. In 1921 he was assigned to this regiment as a company officer of the 14th company. From April 1, 1923, he was employed as adjutant of the training battalion of the 5th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment in Greifswald. As such, he was promoted to Oberleutnant in the summer of 1925. The rank seniority was set to April 1, 1925. On October 1, 1926, he was then assigned to the staff of the 2nd Division of the Reichswehr for the next two years for leadership assistant training transferred to Szczecin. After that, he continued to be assigned to this staff, but on October 1, 1928, he was assigned to the Berlin Command. On October 1, 1929, he was then assigned to the Reichswehr Ministry in Berlin. On October 1, 1930, he was also officially transferred to the Reichswehr Ministry. There he was then deployed in the Foreign Armies Department (T 3) of the Troops Office (TA). There he was promoted to captain on February 1, 1932. On October 1, 1933, he was transferred to the German Embassy in Warsaw. There he was now employed as an assistant to the military attaché. There he was promoted to Major in January 1936. The rank seniority was set to January 1, 1936. On April 1, 1936, he was transferred to the 66th Infantry Regiment. On April 1, 1937, he became the 1st General Staff Officer of the 19th Infantry Division in Hanover. On November 10, 1938, he was transferred to the Army High Command in Berlin. There he was now charged with maintaining the business of the department head of the 12th department (12th Dept.) at the Oberquartiermeister IV (O Qu IV). On February 1, 1939, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel iG. The rank seniority was dated March 1, 1938. As such, he has now been appointed Head of the Department of Foreign Armies East II. He remained in this position for the next few years. He was promoted to Colonel iG on February 1, 1941. In this function he was also awarded both clasps for his Iron Crosses. In March 1941 he appeared in Budapest in March 1941 with a letter from Generaloberst Halderto the Hungarian Colonel-General Werth. This letter contained the German wish for Hungary to participate in a possible Yugoslav war with the five mobilized Hungarian army corps against the Soviet Union. The letter held out the prospect of the imminent arrival of a German delegation headed by Generalleutnant Paulus in Budapest to discuss operational cooperation and the German advance against southern Slavia via Hungarian territory. Kinzel then took the answer back to Berlin. On May 1, 1942, he was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Reinhard Gehlen in the OKH and transferred to the Führerreserve. On May 23, 1942, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the XXIX. Army Corps. On November 12, 1942, he was again transferred to the Führerreserve. During this phase he headed the German liaison staff at the Italian II Army Corps from December 15 to 22, 1942. On December 23, 1942, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his work as chief of the Foreign Armies East Department. On January 1, 1943, he was promoted to major general. As such, he was now appointed Chief of the General Staff by the General Command zbV Cramer. On January 22, 1943, he was appointed Chief of Staff of Army Group North. On September 1, 1943, he was promoted to Generalleutnant. In mid-July 1944 he was relieved and transferred to the Führerreserve. On September 1, 1944, he was appointed commander of the 570th Volks-Grenadier-Division. By renaming the unit, he was then appointed commander of the 337th Volks-Grenadier-Division on September 15, 1944. At the beginning of March 1945, he relinquished his command. He was appointed Chief of Staff of Army Group Vistula that month. On April 20, 1945, he was promoted to General der Infanterie. As such, on April 22, 1945, he became Chief of the General Staff of Operations Staff North under Grand Admiral Dönitz. At the beginning of May 1945, he was part of the delegation at the capitulation negotiations at Field Marshal Montgomery's headquarters together with General Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, Rear Admiral Gerhard Wagner, Major Jochen Friedel and Colonel iG Fritz Poleck. With the capitulation he was taken prisoner. There he committed suicide in May 1945. (From Lexikon der Wehrmacht)

Knights Cross of the Iron Cross formal award document issued to Obert i.G. Hans-Eberhard Kinzel on parchment with an integral blank front leaf, Führerhauptquartier, December 21, 1942. The ornately lettered document is executed in India ink and gold with a hand-inked signature of Adolf Hitler at the bottom. The parchment is just the slightest bit wavy, as is very common in such documents, but otherwise fine condition. Award documents for the Knight’s Cross are rare, even though Hitler granted over 7,000 of them. A severe backlog soon developed and, in the end, very few recipients of the award ever received their large formal award documents.

The document is part of a veteran bring-back that we proudly offer here for the very first time. The GI opted to bring 9 single formal documents in one red presentation leather folder (Mappe) which will be auctioned with Ratisbon’s through a couple of auctions.