Background
Krebs was born in Helmstedt on March 4, 1898.
Krebs was born in Helmstedt on March 4, 1898.
He volunteered for service in the Imperial German Army in 1914, becoming an officer in 1915.
Hans Krebs was an infantry officer in WW1. He was retained in the “treaty army,” selected for service in the Truppenamt, and was in Moscow as deputy MA on the eve of Opn Barbarossa. Colonel Krebs knew Russia well, spoke the language, and had increasingly high staff positions ending as Model’s CofS, first in Russia and then in France. Thanks largely to his old friend General Wilhelm Burgdorf, who headed the OKW personnel office, Krebs finally gol command of a front-line unit. In mid-February 1945 he replaced Wallher Wenck as Guderian’s CofS when Wenck left to be Himmler’s CofS in AG Vistula. After Wenck was badly injured in a car accident on 17 February 1945 Krebs took over from him on Himmler’s staff but within a few weeks proved unequal to the task. Krebs consequently took over Wenck’s former position as head of the OKH operations staff and Guderian’s deputy CGS. Thanks largely to the odious Burgdorf’s influence (ibid.. 416), Krebs quickly joined Hitler’s inner circle. On 28 Mar 1945 he succeeded Guderian to he the German army’s last, least worthy and most subservient CofS.
Hours after Hitler’s suicide late on 30 Apr 1945 Goebbels and Bormann sent Generaloberst Krebs under a white flag through the hotly contested ruins of Berlin to parley with the Russians. With a small group Krebs met from 3:50 am to 1:08 pm on 1 May 1945 with Chuykov, who coordinated by phone with Zhukov, who was on the line to Moscow. Chuykov devotes two chapters of his memoirs to the nine-hour parley in which he made a persistent efforts to negotiate a surrender of Berlin. Krebs steadfastly insisted he had authority only to arrange an armistice under which the new Doenitz government could deal with the Allies on peace terms. After giving the impression he was sorely tempted to surrender himself. Krebs returned to the Fuehrerbunker with a negative response for Goebbels and Bormann. The Soviets resumed their assault on the Tiergarten.
Krebs and Burgdorf almost certainly committed suicide on 1 or 2 May 1945, although some authorities believe Krebs was taken prisoner.
Hans Krebs spoke fluent Russian.
