Iller accident

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Monument commemorating the Iller accident, near the Hirschdorf Iller Bridge

In the Iller disaster on June 3, 1957, 15 people doing basic military service from Luftlandejägerbataillons 19 of the Bundeswehr had a fatal accident while crossing the Iller near Hirschdorf (municipality of St. Lorenz , district of Kempten (Allgäu) ; today city of Kempten) in Bavaria . The battalion was stationed in the Prinz-Franz-Kaserne in Kempten (Allgäu) . One of the consequences of this accident was the founding of the " Soldiers' Relief Organization of the Bundeswehr ".

course

For the first time, on April 1, 1957, conscripts born in 1937 were drafted into the Bundeswehr, which was founded at the end of 1955, to complete their twelve-month basic military service . 15 members of the 4th platoon of the 2nd Company under Company Commander Oberleutnant Alfred Sommer of Airborne Infantry Battalion 19 were killed two months later, on Monday, June 3rd.

That day around 10:30 a.m., 28 recruits came back from infantry combat training, led by the 24-year-old chief hunter Dieter Julitz, who had been a trainer and group leader for the riot police before joining the Bundeswehr . The soldiers were to cross the Iller with full equipment at Hirschdorf as a training insert, at this point about 50 meters wide and 1.30 meters deep. The 33-year-old platoon leader Stabsoberjäger Schäffler, who was experienced in the war, observed the events from a bridge, as he was "foot sick".

Julitz led the way as a platoon leader in the Iller, which was only eight degrees cold; his 28 recruits followed him. The raging river immediately pulled the soldiers' feet away from under their bodies. Some were able to cling to the pillars of the Iller Bridge. 19 soldiers were washed away, four were able to save themselves. The remaining 15 sank in the floods and were driven away. The later search for them was made difficult by the onset of rain. The last body was found 16 days later, on Corpus Christi day, June 19, 1957. Already on June 6th, three days after the accident, a funeral service took place in Kempten, in which a single coffin stood for all those who had died.

Two of the survivors, Manfred Karremann and Wolfgang Igel, who were able to save their comrade Bernhard Blessing, had to identify the mutilated corpses after they had been found, as they wanted to save their relatives from seeing them.

It was later determined that the crossing of the Iller was neither secured by the duty roster nor by safety precautions, but was a "spontaneous act".

At the accident site north of the Hirschdorfer Iller Bridge, the district of Kempten (Allgäu) erected a memorial for the 15 dead and to commemorate this accident on June 3, 1957, the "blackest day of the army " . Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss also spoke at the inauguration . Since then, a memorial ceremony for the Bundeswehr has been held there every year. On the 50th anniversary in 2007, General Inspector Wolfgang Schneiderhan spoke .

Follow-up examination

The Inspector of the Army , Lieutenant General Hans Röttiger and the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr , General Adolf Heusinger , were immediately flown from Bonn to the scene of the accident, as was Franz Josef Strauss, who is celebrating the hen party in Rott am Inn with Marianne Zwicknagl , his future wife wanted to. The press spokesman for the Ministry of Defense , the then major and later General Gerd Schmückle , learned from company commander Sommer that “the river crossing was militarily nonsense” and “strictly forbidden, verbally and in writing” .

On June 12, the federal cabinet dealt with the accident. The incident had sparked another debate about the form and content of military training and " inner leadership " in the Bundeswehr. The old arguments between traditionalists and reformers were articulated again. For Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer , after the politically highly controversial founding of the Bundeswehr, it was particularly important that this accident was not based on errors in the military and political system. It should be emphasized, he demanded, that “it was not the system but the fault of one or more individuals that led to the catastrophe” .

On June 26, Defense Minister Strauss announced the results of the investigation in front of the Bundestag , according to which the soldiers had already crossed the Iller several times. The battalion commander had, however, after learning of such exercises, immediately banned them. The commander had ordered that a future crossing of the Iller would only be permitted with his express permission. Company commander Sommer had informed his subordinates about this instruction, and platoon leader Schäffler was also aware of this instruction. But Schäffler stated that “at the crucial moment he did not think about it” . It had not been clarified whether Julitz was aware of this instruction. However, he had been posted on the day of the instruction.

The Bundestag member and Knight's Cross holder Fritz Eschmann ( SPD ) presented the opinion of the opposition to the Bundestag. Eschmann emphasized the political guilt for this accident and referred to the "senseless haste and rush" in building the Bundeswehr. The opposition could not accept that the NCOs alone should be blamed or that the recruits could have refused the order. This is a shifting of the guilt downwards and a "shameful way, namely to shift the question of guilt even on the dead" . The CSU MP Richard Jaeger denied any guilt of the government.

The chief hunters Julitz and Schäffler as well as company commander Sommer had to appear before the Kempten district court at the end of August 1957 . They were charged with negligent homicide and negligent bodily harm . Schäffler and Sommer were acquitted, Julitz was sentenced to eight months in prison, but the sentence was offset against the pre- trial detention and the remaining sentence was suspended.

Names of the dead soldiers

Inscription plaque on the monument with the names of the soldiers

Soldier Relief Organization

Immediately after the accident, Major Schmückle initiated the "Iller relief operation" on site to support the relatives of the victims. When he returned to the Ermekeil barracks in Bonn , he appealed to Army Inspector Röttiger to put this proposal into practice and to found a "soldiers' relief organization" - according to the motto: "If you give quickly, you help twice!"

The "Soldiers Aid Organization of the Bundeswehr" was founded on October 18, 1957. In 2006 alone, it collected donations of 900,000 euros .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Report by the survivor Otto-Ludwig Winner ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Manfred Karremann in the Schwäbische Zeitung ( Memento from November 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Dpa report from September 15, 1997
  4. ↑ “Another two dead salvaged”, in: Schwäbische Zeitung of June 18, 1957, page 3. In the June 5, 1957 edition, page 3, “Oberstetten, District of Böblingen” is written. However, such a location does not exist in the Boeblingen district , the information seems to stem from a printing or transcription error. When the body was recovered, the press then recorded Oberjettingen.
  5. ↑ "The Iller releases its victims" in Reutlinger Generalanzeiger of June 12, 1957, page 1
  6. ^ "Another eight Iller victims missing" in Rems-Zeitung of June 10, 1957
  7. ^ Dieter E. Kilian: Politics and the military in Germany. The Federal Presidents and Federal Chancellors and their relationship to the military and the Bundeswehr , Miles Verlag, Berlin 2011 (BoD), ISBN 978-3-937885-36-0 ; P. 311, fn. 608

literature

  • Rainer Blasius : End of an exercise. The death of fifteen recruits in the Iller rocked the Bundeswehr in its development phase . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . June 2, 2007, ISSN  0174-4909 .
  • Frank Nägler: The wanted soldier and his change. Personnel armament and internal leadership in the years of establishment of the Bundeswehr 1956 to 1964/65 , Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58815-6 ; Pp. 317–326 (Further references there.)

Web links

Commons : Iller-Unglück  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 47 ° 46 ′ 1.18 "  N , 10 ° 18 ′ 3.49"  E