Hello! I am trying to find out what happened to Generalmajor Alfred Gutknecht between his capture in August 1944, and his death by suicide in November 1946. The specialcamp11.co.uk entry about him gives the following timeline: 8 May 1945: Prisoner of war. 5 September 1944 transferred to Trent Park Camp11 sorting camp. 25 October 1944 transferred from Trent Park Camp 11 sorting camp to unknown camp destination. 12 November 1946: Committed suicide. As the page notes at the top, no concrete evidence is known that Gutknecht stayed at Island Farm, although this is said to be “highly probable”. The best publication on him that I could find is Derek Ray Mallett’s dissertation. Mallett gives a lot of detail of Gutknecht’s capture near Rheims on 29 August 1944 (p. 176), his time at Trent Park, the transfer on 25 October 1944 directly from Trent Park to Camp Clinton, Mississippi (p. 186), and his eventual transfer from there to the psychiatric unit of the U.S. Army Glennan General Hospital for POWs in Okmulgee, Oklahoma (p. 234-35). None of these seem to be known to the author of specialcamp11.co.uk. Mallett doesn’t give any details about Gutknecht’s repatriation, other than that his suicide took place shortly after he had been returned to Germany. On page 235, Mallett repeats the claim (made first in books from 1949 and 1973 that he’s citing) that Gutknecht committed suicide in Berlin on 12 November 1946. This is not true. Gutknecht actually committed suicide in Bringhausen, a small village in Hesse, a few miles from where I live, some time during the night of 12-13 November 1946 (death record). According to that register, Gutknecht was married to Irma Spielhagen, who was residing in Berlin-Zehlendorf at the time. The incorrect place of death is also repeated by specialcamp11.co.uk. I would like to know if Gutknecht’s transfer from the sorting camp to Camp Clinton rules out that he was held at Island Farm, if anything else can be said about Gutknecht’s release from hospital and his repatriation, why he wasn't in Berlin at the time of his death, and why an incorrect place of death may be given in all relevant publications. Many thanks, Daniel Bamberger
Guten Morgen Daniel, This name is pretty rare in Germany. Still,when you google Alfred Gutknecht, some pop up. Could there be some sort of mix up in the documents? Cheers,Stefan.
Hello Stefan, I don't see any potential for a mix up. The Alfred Gutknecht who died in Bringhausen is definitely the soldier and POW. The date and place of birth (Badingen, Kreis Stendal, 20 June 1888) match, as does the occupation ("Kraftfahrzeug-Sachverständiger" engl. motor vehicle expert; compare Mallett, p. 176), and the cause of death ("Freitod", suicide). The date of death is off by a day. I doubt there was more than one Alfred Gutknecht who became a Brigadier General. Mallett and the author of specialcamp11.co.uk clearly used some of the same documents. They give the same date (25 October 1944) for his transfer away from the Trent Park Camp 11 sorting camp. Mallett specifies the source for this in the footnote on p. 211. The only difference is that Mallett was able to link this to records from the U.S., while the author of the website did not. All these records clearly refer to the same person. What I don't understand is the origin of Mallett's statement on p. 235: "Yet, tragically, he took his own life in Berlin on 12 November 1946, shortly after he had returned home." In my original post, I actually got the source for this wrong, claiming two books from 1949 and 1973 (the footnote numbers are reset for each chapter, so footnote [30] was ambiguous). The correct source is given on p. 263: "Dermot Bradley, Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand and Markus Rövekamp. Die Generale des Heeres, 1921-1945 (Osnabrück: Biblio Verlag, 1993), 506-507; Gutknecht, MSg 109/886, BA-MA." I don't have access to Bradley's book, so I cannot tell what it is based on, but I suppose it's the original source for the wrong place of death. How could Bradley have known of the time and cause of death, yet have been wrong about the place? Is there a copy of the death record at some registry office in Berlin-Zehlendorf? And what was Bradley's source for when Gutknecht had returned home? Best wishes, Daniel
The first to notice the discrepancy seems to have been a user in a German speaking forum, in 2017 (link). This subsequently led to a change to Alfred Gutknecht's article on the German Wikipedia, which is where I first got it. Apart from that Wikipedia article, all online and print sources I find list the place of death as Berlin, and the time as 12 November 1946.
I just got an idea. The source for the date and place may not be Bradley's book, but the entry for "Gutknecht, MSg 109/886" at the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv in Freiburg... (Apologies for the multiple posts, I was unable to edit my earlier posts because of the 5 minutes time limit.)
Afternoon, This link give a little bit of a timeline: https://www.geocities.ws/orion47.geo/WEHRMACHT/HEER/Generalmajor/GUTKNECHT_ALFRED.html This page gives a picture and an alleged reason for the cause of his death: World War II Pictures In Details: General Alfred Gutknecht Captured by the US