Ernst August Köstring

Ernst-August Köstring (20 June 1876 – 20 November 1953) was a German diplomat and officer who served during World War II.

Early life and military career Born in Imperial Russia in 1876, Ernst August Köstring grew up in St Petersburg (or Moscow ) and was fluent in Russian. He left Russia just before World War I like many other Germans. In September 1939, he was involved in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact negotiations, along with Colonel Heinrich Aschenbrenner. On 8 August 1940, Köstring was warned by General Franz Halder that "he would have to answer a lot of questions soon",

After operation Barbarossa started on June 22 he was repatriated under diplomatic immunity and assigned to the Führerreserve. He visited, together with Friedrich Werner von Schulenburg, prisoner-of-war camps to recruit Soviet prisoners-of-war for the German war effort.

On 1 September 1942, he was appointed "General Officer attached to Army Group A for Caucasian Questions" under General Eduard Wagner. In that role, he worked on creating national legions among the indigenous people of the Caucasus, among them the Muslim Karachai. He arranged for Armenians, Georgians, and other Caucasian populations to fight at the front after training in Poland. Most of the Armenians deserted.

The Karachai had formed an anti-Soviet committee under Qadi Bayramukov(ru) before the Germans arrived. Köstring invited them to the Bairam feast on 11 October. He was exceptionally well received and was carried shoulder-high in celebration, as was the custom.

In the spring of 1943, Köstring was put into the Führerreserve. In mid-June 1943, he was appointed Inspector of the German-commanded Turkic associations. On 1 January 1944, he was appointed the General of the "volunteer" organizations in the Army High Command. Throughout that period, he spent most of his time helping with the creation of Andrey Vlasov's Russian Liberation Army.

He surrendered on 4 May 1945 to the US Army and he was released in 1947. He co-authored the 1946 book The Peoples of the Soviet Union, which was later used by the US Army.