00:21Gerhard Schacht was a legendary figure among the paratroopers.
00:25Because of his bushy eyebrows, his soldiers also called him the owl.
00:33He was born on April 6, 1916 in Berlin-Steglitz and after graduating from high school,
00:40briefly began studying engineering at the Technical University of Charlottenburg.
00:46However, he was more interested in serving in the Reichswehr,
00:50so he dropped out of his studies and joined reconnaissance unit Fremont of the 3rd.
00:57He had joined the 3rd Panzer Division Wunstorf as a volunteer.
01:01After attending the Dresden War School,
01:04he transferred in 1935 as an Oberfehnrich to the Luftwaffe Defense Squadron Greifswald.
01:12However, in 1937, after a boisterous evening with corresponding results in the officers' club there,
01:20he was more or less transferred as a punishment to the Fassberg Bomber Pilot School.
01:26Out of annoyance over this transfer, he applied for a transfer within the Luftwaffe in October.
01:33When a 1.86-meter-tall Schacht was assigned to the Paratrooper Regiment I,
01:41on January 1, 1938, Schacht became a lieutenant,
01:44and shortly thereafter, in the 7th Air Division,
01:47he became the adjutant to Major General Kurt Student.
01:52In January 1940, Schacht was transferred to the Coke Assault Unit,
01:57where, after the Eben Emil Operati on the 12th,
02:00on May 12, 1940, he received the Knight's Cross,
02:04and on the 16th, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant.
02:08In December 1940, he once again became the adjutant to General Der Flieger Student,
02:14and, together with him, also took part in Operation Merkur on Crete in May 1941.
02:19Here is Schacht, second from the left, with General Student and Karnier.
02:25After Student took over the 11th Air Corps Schacht,
02:29became its staff IAIA, that is, the first General Staff Officer, on the 25th.
02:36On February 25, 1942, he was promoted to CAP in July.
02:41Schacht became Chief of Staff of the 1st Paratrooper Brigade
02:45under Major General Hermann Rammke.
02:48With which he took part in the 2nd Battle of El Alamein in North Africa.
02:54A year later, in July 1943,
02:58Schacht was transferred as the officer responsible for enemy situation
03:02to the 2nd Paratrooper Division,
03:05starting from the 1st.
03:06From October until February 8, 1944,
03:10he underwent the shortened General Staff Training.
03:14Earlier, in September, he was significantly involved
03:17in the planning for the liberation of the deposed Italian Duce,
03:22who was interned on Gran Sasso.
03:24Benito Mussolini, by Major Iuli,
03:26transferred to the officer responsible for enemy intelligence
03:30in the Paratrooper Division.
03:33From October 1st to February 8th,
03:37the shortened General Staff Training until the end of the year
03:40as the 1st General Staff Officer in the 2nd Paratrooper Division.
03:45From December 1, 1944, to March 17, 1945,
03:51he led the unit that was formed on November 25,
03:55at the Drammenberg Training Area.
03:57Eighty kilometers east of Stetten,
03:59the Follschirmjäger Regiment ZBW Schacht,
04:03which was formed there after suffering heavy losses
04:05in February 1945 near KĂĽstrin
04:08and in the area of the Arnswalde area,
04:10Schacht led the regiment into the Altdamm Bridgehead.
04:13On March 17, it was disbanded.
04:16At the same time under Schacht's command,
04:19Paratrooper Regiment 25 was formed in the Bridgehead.
04:22With this regiment, Schacht continued to serve
04:25until he was wounded on the 16th.
04:28In April, he took part in Operation Sonnenwende
04:31as the offensive against the Red Army in Pomerania,
04:35planned by General Heinz Guderian, was called.
04:38Then he moved with his regiment to the Oder Front,
04:42where he was wounded on the first day of the battle
04:45in the Oderbruch by shell fragments in the neck and thigh.
04:50Awarded the Knight's Cross,
04:52the German Cross in gold,
04:54the Wombadge in silver,
04:56the Luftwaffe,
04:57close combat class,
04:59the Crete and Africa cuff titles,
05:01and the Army tank battle badge.
05:04The Healy decorated General Staff,
05:07Major Schacht,
05:08experienced the end of the war in the hospital.
05:11After the war,
05:12he began studying law in Berlin,
05:15where he lived at 17 Rittelsbacher Street,
05:17in Wilmersdorf.
05:19But he ended his studies shortly before the first date examination.
05:23Instead,
05:24he went to Munich,
05:25where he moved into an apartment
05:27at 4 Postillon Street,
05:29returning to his old field,
05:31the Army and Intelligence Service.
05:34For the latter,
05:36he worked from autumn,
05:371947,
05:38until February 28,
05:411951.
05:42Among other things,
05:43he was an employee of the organization,
05:46named after its leader,
05:48the former general and head
05:50of the Foreign Army's East Intelligence Division,
05:54Reinhard Gehlen,
05:55called the Gehlen Organization,
05:57the predecessor of the Federal Intelligence Service,
06:00in which he was listed under the following codenames,
06:05Georg Schaefer,
06:06Scholz,
06:07Ludwig,
06:08the Owl,
06:09or V4162.
06:12After his departure,
06:14due to the expiration of his contract,
06:16he became an employee
06:17of the second German intelligence service of those years,
06:20which remains relatively unknown to this day.
06:23Which,
06:24in contrast to the organization Gehlen,
06:26that was established and controlled
06:28by the U.S. intelligence agency CIA,
06:31was a purely German service,
06:34directly subordinate
06:35to federal chancellor
06:36and chancellor candidate,
06:38Adenauer.
06:39The Archive for Contemporary Research,
06:42or after one of its directors,
06:44also called the Friedrich Wilhelm Heinz Service,
06:46or FWH Service.
06:48In this service,
06:49Schacht had served since October 1,
06:521950 until the 30th.
06:54Until May 30, 1952,
06:56he carried out special tasks there,
06:59such as being the primary handler
07:00for commando troops and paratroopers.
07:02During these years,
07:04in the ORG and the FWH service,
07:07Schacht,
07:08who was also said to have good connections
07:10to the Sharif of Tunisia
07:12and to Syria and Egypt,
07:14was always involved in intelligence work
07:17wherever things were exciting and thrilling.
07:19The assessment of an old comrade
07:22probably came close to his nature.
07:25In January 1953,
07:28triggered by his intelligence connection
07:31to the former Austrian officer
07:33and employee of the Reich main security office,
07:36Dr. Wilhelm Höttl,
07:39who, however,
07:40had worked with Western agencies after the war,
07:43Schacht left the FWH service
07:45and held office until the 31st of July
07:50as the organizational leader
07:52of the Baden-WĂĽrttemberg Employers Association Society
07:56for New State Policy EV.
08:00In Ulm at HirschstraĂźe 5 today,
08:03you would call it a lobbying organization.
08:06After that,
08:07he worked as a freelancer
08:08until July 5, 1954,
08:11in the historical division of the U.S. Army,
08:14which was stationed in Karlsruhe at the time,
08:18where former high-ranking German officers
08:21prepared military studies.
08:23Starting August 1, 1954,
08:27Gerhard Schacht,
08:28who was married to Rolandi,
08:30earned his living,
08:31father of a daughter and two sons,
08:33as a sales representative
08:35for a Munich publishing company.
08:37Until the expert committee
08:39of the blank office
08:41The predecessor of the Ministry of Defense
08:44had approved Schacht's application
08:46for admission to the Bundeswehr.
08:48And from December 1, 1955
08:51until the end of June 1957,
08:55he served again as a major
08:56on the general staff.
08:59Schacht was chief of staff,
09:01that is, G3 in the 1st Airborne Division,
09:04stationed in Esslingen.
09:09After a Crete celebration
09:11organized by the division,
09:12and already disapproved of
09:14by politicians at the time,
09:16held at Airborne Battalion 29
09:18in Böblingen,
09:19he was relieved of his post
09:20and a little later
09:22transferred as deputy commander
09:24to the Airborne School
09:25located in Altenstadt, Bavaria.
09:28But since at the beginning of 1962,
09:32it was planned to transfer
09:33Lieutenant Colonel Schacht
09:34to Algeria as a military attaché.
09:37He was initially transferred
09:39to the Federal Ministry of Defense.
09:42However, Schacht's military path
09:45led not to Tunis,
09:46but to Koblenz,
09:47where he became the Army Aviation
09:49Commander of the 3rd Corps.
09:51In September 1964,
09:54Schacht was promoted to colonel,
09:56and in November and December 1968,
10:00he participated in the orientation course
10:03for military attachés.
10:05At the end of that year,
10:06he became a military attaché
10:08at the German embassy in Tehran,
10:11the capital of Persia,
10:12which is now Iran.
10:14After his return to Germany in 1971,
10:18Schacht became the deputy commander
10:20of the 1st,
10:21which was now stationed in Bruchsal.
10:25Airborne Division.
10:26Not G3 as is generally written.
10:29However, a serious illness
10:31soon after made him unfit for duty.
10:35Colonel Gerhard Schacht passed away
10:37on February 7, 1972
10:39at the age of 55 in Dortmund.
10:43The Airborne Division bid him farewell
10:46with a military ceremony in Bruchsal.
11:05The Airborne Division
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