Fritz Streletz (born 28 September 1926) is a German former army general of the GDR. In 1944 he entered the ''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

'' as a noncommissioned officer after graduating from military school in

Deggendorf Deggendorf () is a town in Bavaria, Germany, capital of the Deggendorf district. It is located on the left bank approximately in the middle between the Danube cities of Regensburg and Passau. The Danube forms the town's natural border towards ...

. He was captured by Soviet forces in February 1945 and released in October 1948, whereupon he joined the ''

Volkspolizei The ''Deutsche Volkspolizei'' (DVP, German for "German People's Police"), commonly known as the ''Volkspolizei'' or VoPo, was the national police force of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1945 to 1990. The Volkspolizei was a h ...

''. In 1956 he joined the precursor to the

National People's Army The National People's Army (german: Nationale Volksarmee, ; NVA ) were the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1956 to 1990. The NVA was organized into four branches: the (Ground Forces), the (Navy), the (Air Force) a ...

, the ''

Kasernierte Volkspolizei The Kasernierte Volkspolizei ( en, Barracked People's Police) was the precursor to the National People's Army (NVA) in East Germany. Their original headquarters was in Adlershof locality in Berlin, and from 1954 in Strausberg in modern-day Bra ...

'', as an officer. In 1991, after the

re-unification of Germany German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

, Streletz was arrested. He was charged in February 1992 for the incitement to kill German civilians fleeing East Germany and was found guilty. He was sentenced to five years and six months in prison but was released in October 1997. Streletz remained committed to the GDR's ideals after re-unification.

References

1926 births Possibly living people Colonel generals of the National People's Army (Ground Forces) German Army soldiers of World War II German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union {{Germany-mil-bio-stub