Augsburg freedom movement
The Augsburg Freedom Movement (English: the Freedom Party of Augsburg or the Augsburg Liberation Movement ) was a group of Augsburg citizens that formed in the last weeks of the Second World War . They achieved a non-violent, non-violent surrender of the city to the advancing US troops without further casualties or war damage.
initial situation
The city had already suffered severe damage during the air raids on Augsburg in 1944; it had been transformed into a landscape of ruins and largely depopulated. In 1945 the US military threatened that another 2,000 bombers would be ready to attack Augsburg. The American 3rd Infantry Division moved closer and closer from the north-west without any significant resistance and a successful defense of the city was illusory in view of the extremely weak German forces. The German defeat in the war was imminent and the desire for a surrender to prevent even more suffering was in the air in April 1945.
The Augsburg city commander, Major General Franz Fehn , however, continued to invoke his orders - the corps order of April 20, 1945 was "that Bavaria must be defended on the Iller and Danube and the enemy must be given a definitive stop here" - and denied a surrender to the end themselves. This drove individual citizens to take the initiative from underground to achieve a surrender of the city without a fight.
Involved
The chief physician at the municipal main hospital Rudolf Lang (1909–1962), the department manager at the municipal employment office Georg Achatz and the head of the Augsburg school for the blind Anton Setzer were among the most important figures in the Augsburg freedom movement . In the second half of April 1945, various village chaplains in the west of Augsburg were included in the movement.
Collaboration with the enemy was regarded as treason or a degradation of military strength and was threatened with death. Those involved in the Augsburg freedom movement had to keep their project strictly secret from the German military justice. They met secretly, under the name "John Roy", in the Maria Stern military hospital in Göggingen , in the school for the blind in Jesuitengasse 14, and later in the St. Elisabeth monastery near Augsburg Cathedral , which belongs to the Maria Stern monastery .
Georg Achatz contacted the city's major industrial plants. He managed to find supporters there and to prevent the ordered destruction in these factories. A demolition of bridges was also prevented in Augsburg.
Handover of the city of Augsburg without a fight
On April 27, 1945, the group succeeded in telephone contact with the Americans and informed them that Augsburg was surrendering. Mayor Josef Mayr also reported to the US troops by telephone that the city would be surrendered without a fight. US General John W. O'Daniel reacted to the mood in Augsburg, which he had become aware of, with the order to his people:
"I don't want you to fire at all into Augsburg unless it is actually observed firing, .... Keep your eyes open for white flags or other signs of surrender as we have had many indications ...."
“I don't want you to shoot Augsburg at all, unless shots are actually observed from there .... Pay particular attention to white flags or other signs of surrender, because we received a lot of relevant information .. .. "
Citizens spread the message throughout the city that the city had already surrendered and that white flags should be raised. They also cleared bridges and road blocks to make it easier for the Americans to invade. On the night of April 28, 1945, parliamentarians led a 3rd Infantry Division raid to the town's command center without incident . The liberators were greeted with white flags hanging from the windows. A white flag also hung from the tallest tower in the city, the St. Ulrich and Afra church tower .
The Augsburg command center was located in a bomb-proof bunker in the city center - the Riedingerbunker, which was built between the ruins after the Riedingerhaus was destroyed on the fruit market. A relatively small US squad was led there in the early hours of the morning and entered the bunker. The deputy Gauleiter and SS-Standartenführer Anton Mündler shot himself when the Americans arrived. City commandant Franz Fehn was present in the bunker and tried in vain to call for reinforcements. He was overwhelmed and arrested by the Americans along with the others present there. This ended the Nazi rule in Augsburg without fighting.
Historical memory
The 7th Army described the unusual occurrence in a report published in 1946 with the words:
“The capitulation of Augsburg in the central sector of Seventh Army's final Bavarian operations was one of the strangest stories of the advance through Germany (...) Augsburg was saved from the utter devastation which had come to Aschaffenburg, Wuerzburg, Heilbronn, Nuremberg, and Ulm, largely because of a unique subversive movement which facilitated the entrance of American troops. "
“The surrender of Augsburg in the central sector of the Bavarian final operations of the 7th Army was one of the strangest incidents on the advance in Germany. (...) Augsburg was saved from the total destruction that befell Aschaffenburg , Würzburg , Heilbronn , Nuremberg and Ulm , mainly through a unique subversive movement that facilitated the entry of American troops. "
A closer look shows that the Augsburg freedom movement consisted of several independent groups and individuals, some of whom only discovered each other in action and united their forces.
At the point where the Riedingerbunker was located in 1945, there is now an administrative building of the Augsburg municipal utilities . A plaque on this building commemorates the peaceful liberation of the city.
Similar movements in Bavaria
There was a similar movement in Munich , the Freedom Action Bavaria (FAB), but its action was suppressed by SS units and ended in a fiasco. On the same day that Augsburg was liberated by the Allies without violence against the capitulation-minded citizens and also without bloodshed, 16 people were murdered by a Nazi unit in a similar context in Penzberg, about 90 km south ( Penzberger Murder Night ). In Altötting , about 150 km to the east, there were similar final phase crimes by the National Socialists on April 28, 1945 ( civil murders in Altötting ).
literature
- 7th Army, United States Army: The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany 1944–1945. Report of Operations . tape 3 . Aloys Gräf, Heidelberg 1946, p. 827-830 (English, books.google.de ).
- Stadtarchiv Augsburg (Ed .: Wolfram Baer, Franz Schreiber): rubble, jeeps and empty stomachs. Chronicle of the City of Augsburg 1945–48 (= Stadtarchiv Augsburg [Hrsg.]: Chronik der Stadt Augsburg . Volume 1 ). Wißner, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 978-3-928898-81-2 , pp. 23-30 .
- Maximilian Fügen: "To the last man"? The role of the combat commanders in major German cities in 1945 . Tectum, Baden-Baden 2018, ISBN 978-3-8288-4182-6 (also master's thesis, University of Augsburg 2015).
Web links
- Augsburg was liberated 70 years ago (Hans Beimler Center)
- The Augsburg Freedom Movement (America in Augsburg e.V.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ United States Army Army, 7th: The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, 1944-1945: Report of Operations . A. Graef, 1946, p. 829 ( books.google.de ).
- ↑ Commemorative plaque for the capitulation of Augsburg at the Stadtwerkehaus
- ^ All lexicon articles. In: wissner.com. Retrieved January 24, 2020 .
- ↑ Augsburger Allgemeine: End of the war in Swabia and Upper Bavaria (Volume 1). In: augsburger-allgemeine.de. Augsburger Allgemeine, accessed on January 24, 2020 .
- ↑ Elke Fröhlich-Broszat: Rule and Society in Conflict . Walter de Gruyter & Co KG, 2018, ISBN 978-3-486-70837-0 , p. 670 ( books.google.de ).
- ↑ America in Augsburg ~ Sheridan Reese Flak Fryar: Freedom Movement. In: amerika-in-augsburg.de. www.america-in-augsburg.de, accessed on January 24, 2020 .
- ^ Yearbook of the Association for the History of the Augsburg Diocese e. V. The Association, 1991, p. 172 ( books.google.de ).
- ^ All lexicon articles. In: wissner.com. Retrieved January 24, 2020 .
- ^ Munich City Archives: New series of publications . 1977, ISBN 978-3-87913-080-1 , pp. 192 ( books.google.de ).
- ^ Charles B. MacDonald: The Last Offensive . Office of the Chief of Military History, United States Army, 1973, p. 436 ( books.google.de ).
- ↑ United States Army Army, 7th: The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, 1944-1945: Report of Operations . A. Graef, 1946, p. 830 ( books.google.de ).
- ↑ America in Augsburg ~ Sheridan Reese Flak Fryar: Freedom Movement. In: amerika-in-augsburg.de. www.america-in-augsburg.de, accessed on January 24, 2020 .
- ↑ United States Army Army, 7th: The Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, 1944-1945: Report of Operations . A. Graef, 1946, p. 829 ( books.google.de ).