CalendarZ

  1. Home
  2. On This Day
  3. August
  4. 6
  5. Wilhelm Mohnke

Deaths on August 6

2001Aug, 6

Wilhelm Mohnke

Wilhelm Mohnke, German general (b. 1911)
Wilhelm Mohnke (15 March 1911 – 6 August 2001) was one of the original members of the SS-Staff Guard (Stabswache) "Berlin" formed in March 1933. From those ranks, Mohnke rose to become one of Adolf Hitler's last remaining generals. He joined the Nazi Party in September 1931.

With the SS Division Leibstandarte, Mohnke participated in the fighting in France, Poland and the Balkans. He was appointed to command a regiment in the SS Division Hitlerjugend in 1943. He led the unit in the Battle for Caen, receiving the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 11 July 1944. Mohnke was given command of his original division, the Leibstandarte, during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.

During the Battle of Berlin, Mohnke commanded the Kampfgruppe Mohnke and was charged with defending the Berlin government district, including the Reich Chancellery and the Reichstag. He was investigated after the war for war crimes, including allegations that he was responsible for the murder of prisoners in France in 1940, Normandy in June 1944 and Belgium in December 1944. He was never charged and died in 2001, aged 90.

References

Choose Another Date

Events on 2001

  • 6May

    Pope John Paul II

    During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.
  • 11Sep

    September 11 attacks

    Two hijacked aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, while a third smashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in a series of coordinated suicide attacks by 19 members of al-Qaeda. A total of 2,996 people are killed.
  • 14Sep

    September 11, 2001 attacks

    Historic National Prayer Service held at Washington National Cathedral for victims of the September 11 attacks. A similar service is held in Canada on Parliament Hill, the largest vigil ever held in the nation's capital.
  • 17Sep

    September 11 attacks

    The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression.
  • 7Oct

    War in Afghanistan (2001-2014)

    The Global War on Terrorism begins as a result of the September 11 attacks. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan initiates with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.