Anybody knows why Operation Marita was named like this?

[Max Sinister]

Barbarossa e.g. was originally named Fritz, because Generalmajor Bernhard von Loßberg happened to have a son named Fritz. WP doesn't seen to know why Marita, the invasion of Greece, was named like this. I've also checked the various prominent Maritas mentioned in WP, but the only one which might apply would be a Marita Gründgens, sister of the gaysexual theatre actor/director Gustaf who compromised with the Nazis. (There's a good novel/roman a clef about him, named "Mephisto", but I digress.)

I also wouldn't deem it impossible that the Nazis used a fictional character as a namesake, but only candidate I can think of is "Gräfin Mariza", some schmaltzy movie as it seems. Close but no cigar.

Anybody knows more?

[Max Sinister]

This fellow here claims it was derived from the Maritsa (German: Mariza) river in Bulgaria. Could be true or not.

[lordroel]

Apr 14, 2024 10:45:24 GMT Max Sinister said:

This fellow here claims it was derived from the Maritsa (German: Mariza) river in Bulgaria. Could be true or not.

Make sense, Bulgaria is located next to Greece.

[Max Sinister]

Apr 14, 2024 10:47:10 GMT lordroel said:

Apr 14, 2024 10:45:24 GMT Max Sinister said:

This fellow here claims it was derived from the Maritsa (German: Mariza) river in Bulgaria. Could be true or not.

Make sense, Bulgaria is located next to Greece.

Just wondering, because nobody has a proof with a source. Maybe they started with Mariza, noticed that this sounded like the aforementioned Gräfin Mariza flick, and thus changed it to Marita. I was asking because I wondered: If there was a WW2 during which the Nazis invaded Greece, with an earlier PoD (Weisung #20 was from December 13th, 1940) - how would they call it then? Maybe something similar, like Marika, Marina, or Anita?