Gotthard Heinrici (1886-1971) was one of the most prominent representatives of the German military elite under Hitler, and was a high commander in the war against the Soviet Union during the period from June 1941 to April 1945, in the end as the supreme commander of the Army Group Vistula (Heeresgruppe Weichsel), which was tasked with the defense of Berlin. The extensive ego-documents from his estate are not only an excellent source for the structure and course of the war of annihilation on the Eastern Front but also for the observations and interpretations of a “completely normal” Wehrmacht general under the Nazi dictatorship.

Johannes Hürter had previously made use of this source as part of the IfZ project on the “Wehrmacht under the Nazi dictatorship” and published an edited collection of documents from the first year of the German-Soviet War. The new expanded edition, doubled in size, will place its focus on 1941/42, while also including numerous other notes of Heinrici from 1915 through 1945. A completely new introduction was added as well.