Heinz-Helmut von Hinckeldey was born on January 25 1914. In the First World War his father was a general staff officer who, in 1921, joined the newly organised German Finance Ministry, where he attempted to restore currency stability during the hyperinflation of the Weimar era.
Heinz-Helmut was educated in Potsdam and Berlin and, after leaving school in 1933, joined the Reichswehr which, until it became the Wehrmacht in 1935, was a politically neutral organisation. Commissioned in 1935, he served during the Second World War as an artillery officer and a staff officer on the Eastern Front.
In 1944 he was seconded to provide security at the German embassy in Bucharest. When the Russians entered the city in September that year the entire embassy staff, including von Hinckeldey, was taken prisoner. The Russians insisted on treating all the captives as political prisoners and, possibly out of prejudice against his upper-class background, refused to countenance von Hinckeldey's claim to be treated as a military PoW.
During his 11-year captivity, much of it spent in solitary confinement, von Hinckeldey underwent frequent interrogations, suffered liver damage due to severe malnourishment, and had his appendix removed under inadequate local anaesthetic. He later recalled that, as he and other prisoners were moved from prison to prison, they learned to dread the absence of rats – a sure sign that the ground was poisoned or polluted.
For most of his time in captivity von Hinckeldey was not allowed to make contact with his family to inform them he was still alive. He eventually got the message through by learning Japanese and asking some Japanese prisoners to pass the information to Germany via Japan. He was finally released in 1955 when Moscow applied to open an embassy in West Germany and agreed to release its German political prisoners as a sign of goodwill.
In 1956 von Hinckeldey joined the newly-formed Bundeswehr of democratic West Germany and, after training at the US Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, rose rapidly. After commanding a brigade in 1963, he served as general of the German artillery for five years, then as Chief of Staff Headquarters Northern Army Group, an integrated Nato force, from 1968 to 1973. He retired from the Bundeswehr in the rank of generalmajor.
The post of commander of the Northern Army Group was held by a British officer, who also served as Commander British Army of the Rhine. Von Hinckeldey, who served under General Sir John Hackett, General Sir Desmond Fitzpatrick, General Sir Peter Hunt and General Sir Harry Tuzo, established close links with the British Army and became good friends of many British officers with whom he served. After retirement from the Bundeswehr, von Hinckeldey joined the armaments firm Dynamit Nobel in Cologne.
In later years he was active in the Rotary movement, serving as president of the Rotary club in Cologne. A cheerful, outgoing man, he refused to be bitter about his years in captivity. In 2001 his Rotary club funded a programme of business and management seminars and internships for young Russian professionals.
Generalmajor von Hinckeldey's wife, Ehrengard, died in 2000. He is survived by two sons and a daughter.
