Action Rhineland

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The action Rheinland was an action of the Düsseldorf resistance group against Nazism to Karl August Wieden Hofen . Their goal was to hand over the city of Düsseldorf to American troops on April 17, 1945 without a fight and thus to protect it from further destruction.

The situation in April 1945

The Second World War was lost for Germany. The invasion by the Allies had taken place, the Wehrmacht was defeated and was on the decline. In many places further warfare appeared to the population as hopeless.

Since the end of February 1945 Düsseldorf was a front-line city. American troops - parts of the 83rd US Infantry Division - occupied the neighboring city of Neuss and the areas of Düsseldorf on the left bank of the Rhine at the beginning of March . The Rhine bridges were then blown up. Gauleiter of the NSDAP and Reich Defense Commissioner Friedrich Karl Florian had issued the order scorched earth . All utilities and means of transport should be blown up and the population should leave Düsseldorf. The city was under constant fire and was completely enclosed from April 10, 1945. The Allied air strikes had killed more than 5,000 civilians since May 1940, damaged around 90 percent of the buildings and destroyed half of all buildings. On June 12, 1943, they deliberately started a firestorm .

The group around Wiedenhofen

Aloys Odenthal and Theodor Winkens had met for political talks in Gerresheim since the late 1930s . The architect Odenthal acted out of Christian conviction. He had already been interrogated twice by the Secret State Police for expressions critical of the regime and he was threatened with being sent to a concentration camp . Winkens, a trained baker and pastry chef, at the time employed in the police headquarters, was married to a Jewish woman. Because he refused to divorce, he was released in 1937. The lawyer Karl Müller took part in talks, other people left the group.

In 1943, Müller contacted the resistance group in downtown Düsseldorf around the lawyer Karl August Wiedenhofen . The group also included the engineer and businessman Josef Knab and the master craftsmen Ernst Klein , Josef Lauxtermann and Karl Kleppe . The group met twice a month without planning or carrying out any action. The common goal was the liberation of Germany from National Socialism.

From the summer of 1944, the deputy chief of police, Otto Goetsch, also belonged to the group around Wiedenhofen. Although Goetsch was a senior civil servant and member of the NSDAP , he was fundamentally opposed to National Socialism.

Creation and implementation of Aktion Rheinland

Due to the worsening situation in Düsseldorf, the decision was made on February 15, 1945 to take action and prepare a surrender of the city to the advancing Allies without a fight. The police was seen as the only trustworthy armed organization that could secure the implementation of the action. Via Josef Knab, contact was established in the antechamber of the commander of the protective police, Franz Juergens , who was known to have vehemently refused a command over a combat group of police officers and Volkssturm men. A first meeting with Juergens took place only two days before the action.

The execution of the action was discussed in the group on April 15, the Nazi leadership of the police should be eliminated. The building contractor Theodor Andresen and the “half-Jewish” student Hermann Weill joined the group as reinforcements.

On April 16, Odenthal, Wiedenhofen, Knab, Müller and Andresen met with Juergens in the police headquarters. Captain Gehrke, Jürgen's deputy, was inaugurated. The action was only now given the name Rhineland . The Düsseldorf police chief, SS-Brigadführer August Korreng , was arrested in a cell in the police headquarters and Jürgens took over the command of the police. The Deputy Police President Goetsch and Lieutenant Colonel Jürgens issued a permit. This pass legitimized Wiedenhofen as a negotiator for the city of Düsseldorf.

A short time later the plan was betrayed and Korreng was freed again in the late afternoon by a raiding party. Some of the resistance members were able to flee, the others were arrested at the police headquarters. Goetsch was also able to escape after Korreng was liberated and hid with Karl Müller. On April 18, he made himself available to the Americans.

Warning board at the place of execution

August Wiedenhofen and Aloys Odenthal reached American lines at Mettmann on the afternoon of April 16, 1945 and, after long negotiations, were able to hand over the city to the American troops without a fight. An air strike with 800 bombers, which was planned for April 17th at 1:10 a.m., was literally stopped at the last minute. On April 17, the Americans moved into Düsseldorf without any significant fighting. Odenthal and Wiedenhofen drove with the tanks and took them to the police headquarters.

Even on the night of April 17 were Jürgens, Kleppe, Knab and Weill in Andresen stand trial for war treason sentenced to death and shot in the yard of the "General School", now the "Franz-Jürgens-Berufskolleg" at the Färberstraße 34 , Gehrke was acquitted. The bodies were buried, but exhumed again a short time later and autopsied on June 1, 1945. Knab and Andresen were found to have been severely mistreated.

After the end of the war

Memorial plaque "To the reminder" at the police headquarters in Düsseldorf

The death sentences from the stand court proceedings were reviewed in a total of four court proceedings between 1948 and 1952 and were ultimately found to be lawful by the Federal Court of Justice . It was not until 1999 that they were overturned on the basis of the law to repeal unjust Nazi judgments .

The resistance fighters involved received numerous honors. The executed were buried in graves of honor at the Düsseldorf North Cemetery , the Gerresheimer Waldfriedhof and the Stoffeler Cemetery , memorials were erected and streets and squares were named after them. Aloys Odenthal received the honorary citizenship of Düsseldorf in 1985.

On April 17, 2011, Mayor Dirk Elbers inaugurated the Path of Liberation , which consists of six steles that are set up at stations along the path from Odenthal and Wiedenhofen. In 2012, a memorial room was set up in the “Franz Jürgens Vocational College”.

Persons involved in the events of April 16 and 17, 1945

see also:

  • Friedrich Karl Florian (1894–1975), Gauleiter Düsseldorf, Reich Defense Commissioner
  • August Korreng († June 7, 1945, suicide), SS brigade leader and Düsseldorf police chief
  • Karl Brumshagen , chairman of the court court in Jürgens
  • Walter Model (1891–1945), Field Marshal General and 1945 City Commandant Düsseldorf
  • Major Peiper, chairman of the court court Andresen, Kleppe, Knab and Weill

Web links

literature

  • Klaus Dönecke: The events of April 16 and 17, 1945 in Düsseldorf ("Aktion Rheinland") and the involvement of the Deputy Police President Dr. Dr. Otto Goetsch, in: Moment, No. 17, Düsseldorf 2000, pp. 23-25.
  • Klaus Dönecke / Fleermann, Bastian: 65 years ago. The path of liberation led to Mettmann, in: Mettmann Journal. Yearbook of the Mettmann district 2010.
  • LG Düsseldorf, March 5, 1949 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German criminal judgments for Nazi homicides 1945–1966, Vol. IV, edited by Adelheid L Rüter-Ehlermann, CF Rüter . Amsterdam: University Press, 1970, No. 125, pp. 191-257 Trial of three defendants for crimes of the final stage. Acquittal.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d http://www.duesseldorf.de/presse/pld/d2008/d2008_04/d2008_04_14/08041114_180.pdf
  2. ^ "General vocational school" (for unskilled workers), school on Färberstrasse , in the address book of the city of Düsseldorf, 1926, p. 31.
  3. ↑ http://www.duesseldorf.de/stadtgruen/friedhof/nordfriedhof/ruhestaette.shtml
  4. ↑ http://www.duesseldorf.de/stadtgruen/friedhof/gerresheim.shtml
  5. ↑ http://www.duesseldorf.de/stadtgruen/friedhof/stoffeln/ruhestaette.shtml
  6. ↑ The resistance fighters spent the last hours in this small room, which is now a memorial room. , at fjbk.de, accessed on October 5, 2017.