(1886-09-14)14 September 1886 Frankfurt (Oder), Brandenburg, Prussia, German Empire
Died
8 August 1944(1944-08-08) (aged 57) Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, Nazi Germany
Cause of death
Execution by hanging
Allegiance
German Empire (1905-1918)
Weimar Republic (1918-1933)
Nazi Germany (1933-1942)
Service/branch
Army
Years of service
1905–42
Rank
Generaloberst
Commands held
1st Light Division
XVI Army Corps
4th Panzer Group
Battles/wars
World War I
World War II
Invasion of Poland
Battle of France
Operation Barbarossa
Battle of Moscow
Awards
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Erich Kurt Richard Hoepner (14 September 1886 – 8 August 1944) was a German general during World War II. An early proponent of mechanisation and armoured warfare, he was a Wehrmacht army corps commander at the beginning of the war, leading his troops during the invasion of Poland and the Battle of France.
Hoepner commanded the 4th Panzer Group on the Eastern Front during Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. During the invasion of Poland, he resisted mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war, but in Russia, Hoepner called for a war of extermination. Units under his authority closely cooperated with the Einsatzgruppen and he implemented the Commissar Order that directed Wehrmacht troops to summarily execute Red Army political commissars immediately upon capture. Hoepner's Panzer group, along with the 3rd Panzer Group, spearheaded the advance on Moscow in Operation Typhoon, the failed attempt to seize the Soviet capital.
Dismissed from the Wehrmacht after the failure of the 1941 campaign, Hoepner restored his pension rights through a lawsuit. He was implicated in the failed 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler and executed in 1944.
Erich Kurt Richard Hoepner (14 September 1886 – 8 August 1944) was a German general during World War II. An early proponent of mechanisation and armoured...
corps was part of the Fourth Panzer Group under the command of General ErichHoepner in Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb's Army Group North. The Army Group was tasked...
High Command's preparations for Operation Barbarossa, Generaloberst ErichHoepner was appointed to command the 4th Panzer Group in February 1941. It was...
Stauffenberg restrained him at gunpoint and Olbricht then appointed General ErichHoepner to take over his duties. By this time Himmler had taken charge of the...
this racialist ideology. In a speech to the 4th Panzer Group, General ErichHoepner echoed the Nazi racial plans by claiming the war against the Soviet...
was removed and arrested by the conspirators and replaced by General ErichHoepner. Meanwhile, Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, military governor of occupied...
Generals Falkenhausen, Erich Fellgiebel, Friedrich Fromm, Paul von Hase, Gustav Heistermann von Ziehlberg, Otto Herfurth, ErichHoepner, Fritz Lindemann, Friedrich...
(L Corps – Under 9th Army) (2 infantry divisions) 4th Panzer Group (ErichHoepner) XXXVIII Corps (Friedrich-Wilhelm von Chappuis) (1 infantry division)...
and Erich von Manstein. Later in 1939 and into 1940, he served as the second general staff officer of Army Group A under Gerd von Rundstedt and Erich von...
exterminations and that relations with the 4th Panzer Army, commanded by General ErichHoepner, were "very close, almost cordial". In the south, the Romanian Army...
plotters including Generaloberst (Colonel General) Ludwig Beck, Generals ErichHoepner and Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, Admiral and Chief of the Abwehr Wilhelm...
implemented gradually over 25 to 30 years. A speech given by General ErichHoepner demonstrates the dissemination of the Nazi racial plan, as he informed...
(1881–1968) July 19, 1940 – Eugen von Schobert (1883–1941) July 19, 1940 – ErichHoepner (1886–1944) July 19, 1940 – Heinz Guderian (1888–1954) July 19, 1940...
regiment became part of the German 1st Light Division under General ErichHoepner, another later member of the covert German Resistance, and the unit...
six completely destroyed, and three damaged. For German commanders like Hoepner and Bock, the action was inconsequential; their primary worry was resistance...
Stauffenberg, Ludwig Beck, Erwin von Witzleben, Günther von Kluge, ErichHoepner, Hans Oster and Friedrich Olbricht. This is because their legacy has...
Johannes Blaskowitz Walther von Reichenau Günther von Kluge Wilhelm Ulex ErichHoepner Tadeusz Kutrzeba Władysław Bortnowski Edmund Knoll-Kownacki Mikołaj...
guidelines, in a directive sent out to the troops under his command, General ErichHoepner of the Panzer Group 4 stated: The war against Russia is an important...
Executed (Hanging) 1944 Andreas Hermes Minister of Finance Survived 1964 ErichHoepner General Executed (Hanging) 1944 Caesar von Hofacker Lieutenant Colonel...
and three tank armies (2nd, 3rd, and 4th Panzers). Colonel General ErichHoepner would command the 4th Panzer Army, while the former two were outgrowths...
Canaris, Hans Oster, Generals Erwin von Witzleben, Franz Halder and ErichHoepner. He was an uncle of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famous Lutheran pastor...
Army (Wehrmacht) - 4th Panzer Army - Panzer Group Hoth 19 July 1940 ErichHoepner 1886 1944 4th Panzer Army 19 July 1940 Eugen Ritter von Schobert 1883...
involvement in the failed 20 July 1944 attempt to kill Adolf Hitler ErichHoepner September 14, 1886 August 8, 1944 57 years, 329 days Heavily collaborated...
Global Information
Generaloberst
