Allegiance Nazi Germany Name Karl-Ludwig Barths Service/branch German Army | Years of service 1937–45 Rank Major | |
Born 13 May 1920 (age 103)
Kolbatz ( 1920-05-13 ) Commands held Heeres-Sturmgeschutz-Brigade 393 Battles/wars World War II
Invasion of Poland
Battle of France
Battle of Greece
Operation Barbarossa
Baltic Offensive
Riga Offensive (1944) Awards Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross Battles and wars Invasion of Poland, Battle of France | ||
Karl-Ludwig Barths (born 13 May 1920) is a former German officer and businessman who lived and worked for nearly a decade in Canada.
Contents
Life in War and Peace
Barths was born in Kolbatz (now Kolbacz) near Stettin (now Szczecin). After completing secondary school he entered the German army, called Wehrmacht, in 1937.
In World War II he fought in nearly in all significant battle fields as in Poland, France, Greece, Russia and the Baltic. At the end of the war he was held in Soviet captivity. This hard time he described in his book Jungmann. Erlebte und erzahlte Episoden 1939-1949, which has been published in 2007.
After return from captivity he became an export/import apprentice in Hamburg. In 1953 he started working for Volkswagen, where he became responsible for the company's business in North America. In 1963 Barths moved to Toronto in Canada where he was president of Volkswagen Canada Ltd. There he also held the offices of a governor of the town's Central Hospital and director of the Toronto Symphony. In 1972 Barths moved to Wolfsburg in Germany where he was chairman of the Volkswagen Versicherungsdienst Gmbh until 1985. From 1972 to 2000 he was president of the Deutsch-Kanadische Gesellschaft (German-Canadian Society). As of 2014 he lives in Taunus/Hesse, Germany.