Harald Momm

Reception at the Presidential Palace with President von Hindenburg (1930): Freiherr von Nagel, Harald Momm, Rudolf von Waldenfels, Kurt Hasse (from left to right)

Harald Momm (15 November 1899 – 6 February 1979) was a German show jumper and colonel in the Wehrmacht.

Life

Harold Momm was born on 15 November 1899 in Trier, the son of government official Wilhelm Momm. He attended high school from 1907 to 1917 and then began his military career as a Uhlan. During World War I, he served in Italy and France, and eventually became a lieutenant in the border guard. In 1924, he was transferred to the Reichswehr.

Sports

In 1927, Momm became a rider and trainer at the jumping stables of the Cavalry School in Hanover. The chestnut gelding Baccarat (born 1919 in England), with which he won the German Show Jumping Derby in 1933, had been in his possession since 1929. In 1934, Momm was once again appointed to the Cavalry School and became its director in 1936. After the 1936 Summer Olympics, he became the head of German show jumping.

Second World War

At the beginning of the war, he served as aide-de-camp to Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel. Between 1941 and 1943, Momm was transferred to the Eastern Front, where he proved his military skills, and in 1943 he became a colonel and commander of the Army Riding and Driving School in Potsdam. However, his friendship with Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg would damage his career. Due to the disparaging remark "Orderly, a bottle of champagne, the swine is dead!" in connection with the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt, Momm was demoted and transferred to the 2.SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger under the command of Oskar Dirlewanger. There, he was demoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain) and played a role as a commander of the 5. company from the 2./ SS-St.Rgt 2 and later as the battalion commander of the 2. SS-St.Rgt 2, replacing Ewald Ehlers.

Postwar

At the end of April 1945, Momm was taken prisoner by the Soviets near Berlin, and was not released until the end of 1949. He soon managed to reestablish himself professionally, becoming managing director of Vereinigte Hirsch-Kohlewerke (a coal company). A lung disease contracted during captivity—he had been forced to work in mining—prevented him from continuing his athletic career. Nevertheless, he remained head of the German show jumpers, including at the 1956 Olympic Equestrian Games in Stockholm.

As one of the few officers of the penal unit Dirlewanger, Momm was rehabilitated after the war and restored to his former rank of colonel.

Momm died on 6 February 1979 in Munich.