Bogislaw von Bonin

Bogislaw von Bonin (January 17, 1908 – 1980) was a German Wehrmacht Officer and journalist.

Until 1945

Bonin was born in Potsdam, Province of Brandenburg and joined the 4. Reiterregiment (Cavalry Regiment) of the German Reichswehr in 1926. He was educated at the Infantry school Dresden together with Claus von Stauffenberg and Manfred von Brauchitsch in October 1927 - August 1928 and became a Lieutenant in 1930. In 1937/38 he visited the War academy (Kriegsakademie) in Berlin and became a member of the Army High Command in 1938. In 1943 he was the Commander of the XIV. Panzerkorps at Sicily and for short times in 1944 Chief of Staff of the LVI.Panzerkorps, the 1. Hungarian Army and , with the rank of a Colonel, finally Chief of the Operational Branch of the Army General Staff (Generalstab des Heeres). On January 16, 1945 he rejected a direct command of Adolf Hitler by giving permission to the retreat of German Heeresgruppe A from Warsaw throughout the Soviet Vistula-Oder Offensive and was imprisoned on January 19, 1945 by the Gestapo at Flossenbürg concentration camp and Dachau concentration camp. Together with several members of the July 20 plot and other notable prisoners such as Leon Blum, Kurt Schuschnigg, Hjalmar Schacht, Franz Halder and Fritz Thyssen he was transferred to Tyrol, where the SS guards left them behind and escaped in late April 1945, while the prisoners were liberated by US troops.

After 1945

Bonin became a Prisoner of War and started working as a freight forwarder in 1947 and later on for Daimler Benz. In 1952 he joined the "Amt Blank" (Bureau Blank, named after its director Theodor Blank), the predecessor of the later Federal Ministry of Defence, as the head of the subdivision "military planning", to map out a strategy of the German contribution to the European Defence Community, but came into conflicts with the Adenauer government, as he favored a rather neutral or independent German concept. Already in 1955, before the German Bundeswehr was established, Bonin was released and worked as a journalist after that.

Bonin died in Lehrte.

References

* [http://www.ifdt.de/0101/Artikel/Theiler.htm] Olaf Theiler: Abschreckung oder Verteidigung. Das Sicherheitsdilemma der Bundesrepublik. Gescheiterter Außenseiter - Der Rebell Bogislaw von Bonin, in: Informationen für die Truppe - Zeitschrift für Innere Führung (der Bundeswehr)
* [http://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktuelles/aus_dem_archiv/galerie/00130/index.html?index=0&id=4&nr=2] Denkschrift Bogislaw von Bonin auf der Homepage des Bundesarchivs: Wiedervereinigung und Wiederbewaffnung – kein Gegensatz, Februar 1955
*Heinz Brill, Bogislaw von Bonin im Spannungsfeld zwischen Wiederbewaffnung – Westintegration – Wiedervereinigung. Ein Beitrag zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Bundeswehr 1952-1955, Band I. Baden-Baden 1987, Band II. Baden-Baden 1989
*Peter Hoffmann: "Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg", München 2007, ISBN 978-3-570-55046-5