Kurt Christian von Loeben

* "30 September 1915" – Döbeln (Saxony)
† "24 March 1945" – Brantice, Moravian Silesia

Under the command of Kurt-Christian von Loeben, in the spring of 1944, the Reconnaissance battalion of the ‘Hermann Göring’ Parachute Panzer Division carried out a number of operations against partisans in the Apennines. In the course of these operations, appr. 300 civilians were killed, including many children. The battalion’s extreme brutality prompted a great deal of indignation from RSI-officials, so that the Wehrmacht was forced to initiate an investigation. This had no results, aside from the transfer of von Loeben and two other officers. Rittmeister von Loeben died in a field hospital on the Eastern Front after being wounded in March 1945.

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Nationality: German
Formation: Wehrmacht
Army branch: Army
Joined the NSDAP: no
Armed force: Wehrmacht
Unit: ‘Hermann Göring’ Parachute Panzer Division
Years of service: 1937-1945
Rittmeister (cavalry)
Offensive: France 1940
Occupation of Netherlands 1943(?)-44
Italy 1944
Eastern Front 1944-45
Confirmed Massacres: Monchio, Susano and Costrignano (Modena)
Cervarolo and Civago (Reggio Emilia)
Monte Morello (Florence)
Vallucciole and the area around Monte Falterona (Arezzo)
Mommio (Massa and Carrara)
Post war period: Killed in battle March 1945.

Training and experience in war

An old noble family with military tradition

Kurt Christian von Loeben was born in 1915 in Dresden, into an old noble family with military tradition. His ancestors held important offices in the Kingdom of Saxony’s public administration. Von Loeben’s father had been a captain in the army. The family initially lived in the centre of Dresden, then in Loschwitz, a suburb, where many of the city’s prominent personalities had their summer residences. Christian von Loeben attended the humanistic Vitzhum Gymnasium, and then from 1930 to 1935 the Reformed König Georg Gymnasium. After graduation, he opted for a military career, joining a cavalry regiment. He became a lieutenant in 1937 and a first lieutenant on 1 Sept. 1939, while attending the war school in Hannover.
At the front

Between Nov. 1939 and Feb. 1942, von Loeben served in combat units initially as a platoon leader, then as a company commander. As leader of a company of the Panzer Reconnaissance Platoon of the 14th Panzer Division, in late July 1941 he crossed the Dnieper and took part in battles in Southern Russia. He was wounded in early Nov. 1941. Between April 1942 and Jan. 1943 he was an adjutant and aide under the head of army ordnance and commander of the Reserve Army, General Friedrich Fromm. Subsequently, until late 1943 he served as a tactics instructor at the school for armoured command in Paris.

Participation in massacres of civilians

With the ‘Hermann Göring’ division in Italien

Von Loeben only returned to the front in January 1944, this time in Italy. On the front near Nettuno, for around two weeks he led the Luftwaffe-Jäger-Bataillon z.b.V. 7, a penal unit of the Luftwaffe for special purposes. From mid-Feb. to 17 May 1944, he was at the head of the reconnaissance battalion of the ‘Hermann Göring’ Parachute Panzer Division in the fighting at the Nettuno bridgehead. After the failure of the German attack and heavy losses, the ‘Hermann Göring’ Division was transferred to Tuscany. Von Loeben and his battalion were now deployed as a mobile reserve in the area west of Bologna.

The brutality of the raids was so intense that it even prompted a negative reaction in German command centres. Following a complaint by Italian Social Republic officials, the battalion was investigated by the Wehrmacht in a court-martial framework.

Fighting partisans and murdering civilians in spring 1944

On 18 March 1944, Rittmeister von Loeben led his battalion in various operations against partisans in the Apennine region. This was accompanied by the murder of numerous civilians: in Monchio, Cervarolo, and Civago, Monte Morello, Vallucciole, and the area of Monte Falterona; and finally in Mommio. In total, appr. 300 persons were murdered. The extent of the brutality was so intense that it even prompted negative reactions in German command centres. Following a complaint of the Italian Social Republic authorities, the battalion was investigated by the Wehrmacht in a court-martial framework. But since the ‘Barbarossa Decree’ of 1941 forbade the criminal prosecution of German soldiers for excesses while fighting partisans, only the accusations of rape and plunder were investigated. In the end, all of the possible charges were dropped, the only result being the transfer of von Loeben and two additional incriminated officers to other units.

In the course of his military career, von Loeben received a number of awards, the last one being the German Cross in Gold in 1945. In March of that year, he was gravely wounded and died in a field hospital in Bransdorf (presently Czech Republic).

On the Eastern Front

On the Eastern Front, Loeben had initially taken over command of the 17^th Panzer Division’s Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion. But in his personnel files, it was indicated that he was not sufficiently mature to lead an independent battalion. For this reason, he received command of a battalion in Panzergrenadier Regiment 40 of the same division. Deployed on the Weichsel Front, his unit suffered grave losses.

In the course of his military career, von Loeben received a number of awards, the last one being the German Cross in Gold in 1945. In March of that year, he was gravely wounded and died in a field hospital in Bransdorf (presently Czech Republic). His remains could not be exhumed by the Volksbund Kriegsgräberfürsorge (the German military graves commission). His name is noted in the memorial book of the German military cemetery in Valasske Mezirici.

Sources

Personnel files of Kurt Christian von Loeben in Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv (German Federal Archives), Freiburg, PERS 6/51892.

Literature

Carlo Gentile, Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Partisanenkrieg. Italien 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, pp. 308, 311f., 319, 328, 332.

Carlo Gentile, Le stragi del 1944 in provincia di Arezzo ed i loro perpetratori (report on the preparation of the application of the Bucine, Cavriglia, Civitella in Val di Chiana and Stia communes to open an investigation), Cologne, 1998: https://uni-koeln.academia.edu/CarloGentile)

Authorship and translation

Author: Carlo Gentile

Translated from German by: Joel Golb

2023

Text: CC BY NC SA 4.0

Kurt Christian von Loeben

Training and experience in war

An old noble family with military tradition

At the front

Participation in massacres of civilians

With the ‘Hermann Göring’ division in Italien

The brutality of the raids was so intense that it even prompted a negative reaction in German command centres. Following a complaint by Italian Social Republic officials, the battalion was investigated by the Wehrmacht in a court-martial framework.

Fighting partisans and murdering civilians in spring 1944

In the course of his military career, von Loeben received a number of awards, the last one being the German Cross in Gold in 1945. In March of that year, he was gravely wounded and died in a field hospital in Bransdorf (presently Czech Republic).

On the Eastern Front

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