Armin Graebert

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Armin Graebert (born December 31, 1898 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf ; † February 5, 1947 in the Soviet special camp Jamlitz ) was a German local politician and from 1939 to 1945 Lord Mayor of the city of Wurzen . On April 24, 1945, contrary to National Socialist orders, he arranged for the city to capitulate , thus saving Wurzen from destruction and death.

Career

Graebert's father was a high school teacher. He studied in Halle (Saale), Berlin and Breslau, where he received his doctorate in law and political science in 1926. During his studies he became a member of the Neogermania Berlin fraternity in 1919 .

As the son-in-law of the famous land reformer Adolf Damaschke , Graebert was committed to the same cause. Nominated as a non-party member by the tenants 'association, a social citizens' association in Anklam , he was appointed second mayor on April 19, 1928, and first deputy from January 1, 1934. In 1935 Graebert became a member of the NSDAP . From 1935 to 1937 he was second mayor in Glogau , in 1937 he moved to Weimar as city treasurer .

Local politics in Wurzen

From July 7, 1939, Graebert was officially in office as Lord Mayor of Wurzen. The direct and indirect effects of the Second World War completely determined what happened in Wurzen - and with it Graebert's room for maneuver. While a Zeppelin airship was still flying over the city on June 6, 1939, on June 30, 1940 a third of the councilors and employees of the city administration had already been drafted into the Wehrmacht. In 1939 Wurzen had to raise a monthly war contribution of 30,295 Reichsmarks as well as other military service expenses .

As Lord Mayor, Graebert remained indispensable for local politics during the war years: On November 11, 1943, the Reich Defense Commissioner recognized him as a specialist in a management and key position and was therefore not called up. In 1944 and 1945 the situation worsened for the officially registered 21,684 citizens of Wurzens (as of July 31, 1944) and numerous refugees with air raid alarms.

On April 16, 1945, NS units blew up the Mulde bridges in front of Wurzen in connection with the scorched earth tactics . Graebert then had secret talks with the SPD and KPD members Otto Schunke (SPD), Kurt Krause and Richard Beutel (both KPD) as well as with the Protestant pastor Carl Magirius and the Catholic pastor Franz Wörner to save the city. Between April 18 and April 19, he had the offer of surrender sent to the US Army and released the Volkssturm on April 19, 1945.

Contrary to the express orders of the Nazi leadership, on the morning of April 24, 1945 in Bennewitz, Wurzens was handed over without a fight to Major Victor Conley of the 273rd US Infantry Regiment - Graebert led the group that crossed the Mulde with the aim of surrendering: He climbed over the bombed railway bridge in the direction of Bennewitz with a military doctor and an interpreter to meet US Major Conley. The mayor had previously instructed to hoist the white flag on the tower of the Wenceslaikirche, which can be seen from afar. This surrender meant the salvation of the city and its citizens as well as the thousands of wounded, refugees, displaced persons and forced laborers who were in the city at the time - Wurzen was saved from senseless struggle and the destruction of the city.

Graebert retained his post as Lord Mayor, even after Wurzen was handed over to Red Army units by US troops on May 5, 1945 - in the legal sense, he was only released from service on September 30, 1945.

NKVD imprisonment and death

The Soviet secret service NKVD arrested Graebert on May 18, 1945 (reason given: “Mayor”) and brought him to Bautzen as a political prisoner ; he was transferred to the Jamlitz special camp on September 24, 1946 .

On April 29, 1948 - three years after the surrender of Wurzens initiated by Graebert without a fight - the "anti-fascist-democratic bloc" Wurzens campaigned for the release of their former mayor Graebert in a letter signed by Otto Abicht. What the letter writers did not know: Armin Graebert had died more than a year earlier - on February 5, 1947 - in jail in Jamlitz. Graebert's family only received the official notice of death in 1995, after 48 years.

A similar fate befell the mayor of Freiberg, Werner Hartenstein , who also surrendered his city without a fight and, like Graebert, died in February 1947 in the special camp in Jamlitz.

Appreciation

Since April 24, 1995 - 50 years after the event - a memorial plaque on the town hall in Wurzen has been commemorating Armin Graebert's services as Lord Mayor in handing over the city to US troops on April 24, 1945 without a fight. This plaque has the following inscription:

" In this house on April 24, 1945, Lord Mayor Dr. Armin Graebert opposite the commander of the 1st Bat. 273rd US Inf.-Reg., Major Victor Conley, the surrender of Wurzens. This saved residents, refugees, war wounded and forced laborers from death and the city from destruction. 50 years ago April 24, 1995 ”.

Quotes

"What made the German Colonel Petershagen a hero when the city of Greifswald was handed over to the Soviet Army without a fight , Graebert - both Nazis without compromise - failed."

- Hansrainer Baum : From Schmidt to Schmidt - About Wurzener Mayor 1832–2008. (2011)

“70 years later, it seems like a miracle that Wurzen was given a second life. Many publications have described what happened in detail in dramatic scenes. They show that and how Lord Mayor Dr. Armin Graebert and his anti-fascist-democratic companions Otto Schunke, Kurt Krause, Richard Beutel, Oswald Billwitz, Pastor Carl Magirius and Pastor Franz Wörner gave their lives so that Wurzen might live. Your selfless, courageous act of rescue will not be forgotten.

When the NSDAP promised reconstruction and jobs in 1933, Armin Graebert believed his social ideas were at home here and joined the party in 1935. This formal affiliation led him to the head of the Wurzen town hall in 1939. A stroke of luck for the cathedral city. After May 5, 1945, the Russians even appointed the citizens' shop steward as district administrator. According to a relevant "Stalin order", Graebert was interned on May 18, 1945 (stated reason for arrest: "Mayor") as a political prisoner of the NKVD in Bautzen, later in the special camp Jamlitz, where he died on February 5, 1947, regardless of his merits. - Graebert was hushed up in the GDR because of his NSDAP membership. The German authorities did not fully rehabilitate the arbitrary and not convicted former mayor until 1996. The 70th anniversary of April 24, 1945 would later be an occasion to finally do justice to him, Otto Schunke and Kurt Krause. "

- Wulf Skaun : Leipziger Volkszeitung, Muldental edition, April 24, 2015, page 27

Private

Armin Graebert married a daughter of the land reformer Adolf Damaschke . The couple are the parents of Hans-Adolf Graebert (* 1929), Thomas Graebert and Irene Köhler (née Irene Graebert).

Varia

As Lord Mayor, Armin Graebert surrendered Wurzen without a fight, contrary to Nazi orders, and thus saved his city from destruction. A short time later he was killed in a special camp after being interned in a legally controversial manner. He shares this fate, for example, with the Lord Mayors of Freiberg , Werner Hartenstein , and von Stendal , Karl Wernecke - they had also surrendered their cities without a fight.

literature

  • Wulf Skaun: Wurzens fateful days in April 1945. 70 years ago the cathedral city was given a second life. P. 270–277 in: Wurzen - Day of the Saxons 2015 . Issue 3/2015 as an expanded edition of Sächsische Heimatblätter , magazine for Saxon history, monument preservation, nature and the environment, 61st year, A4 format, 321 pages, Niederjahna / Meißen 2015
  • Wulf Skaun: Wurzen is given a second life on April 24, 1945 - Exactly 70 years ago, on April 24, 1945, Wurzen was handed over to Major Victor Conley of the 273rd US Infantry Regiment without a fight. The end of World War II in the city. The mayor at the time, Armin Graebert, resisted the orders of the Nazi leadership by surrendering. This saved the city from destruction. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung , Muldental edition, April 24, 2015, page 27
  • Wulf Skaun: “My father had a lot of helpers” - Hans-Adolf Graebert preserves the memory of all heroes. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung, Muldental edition, April 24, 2015, page 27
  • Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume 1: Politicians. Sub-Volume 2: F-H. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0809-X , pp. 165-166.

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Wulf Skaun: "My father had many helpers" - Hans-Adolf Graebert preserves the memory of all heroes. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung, Muldental edition, April 24, 2015, page 27
  2. ↑ Complete designation in US source: "Major Conley, newly-appointed commander of 1st Battalion, 273rd Infantry" - p. 38 in: http://www.69th-infantry-division.com/pdf/USArmy69InfDiv_Vol47_No1_SepDec1993.pdf
  3. ↑ a b Excerpt from the chronicle of the city of Wurzen. In: Website of the city of Wurzen. Retrieved August 14, 2015 .
  4. ↑ p. 150 in: Archived copy ( Memento of the original from December 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.politische-bildung-brandenburg.de
  5. ↑ Torsten Richter: Jamlitz Book of the Dead is being developed. In: Lausitzer Rundschau , Lübben edition. February 28, 2007, accessed August 14, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Memorial plaque for Armin Graebert. In: Annette Kaminsky (Ed.): Places of Remembrance: Memorial signs, memorials and museums on the dictatorship in the Soviet Zone and GDR . Ch. Links Verlag, 2007, pp. 382–383 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  7. ^ Hansrainer Baum and Jürgen Schmidt : From Schmidt to Schmidt - About Wurzener Mayor 1832–2008. Wurzen 2011, without ISBN, p. 80.
  8. ^ Wulf Skaun: Wurzen was given a second life on April 24, 1945 - Exactly 70 years ago, on April 24, 1945, Wurzen was handed over to Major Victor Conley of the 273rd US Infantry Regiment without a fight. The end of World War II in the city. The mayor at the time, Armin Graebert, resisted the orders of the Nazi leadership by surrendering. This saved the city from destruction. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung, Muldental edition, April 24, 2015, page 27
  9. ^ Hansrainer Baum and Jürgen Schmidt: From Schmidt to Schmidt - About Wurzener Mayor 1832–2008. Wurzen 2011, without ISBN, pp. 78–82.
personal data
SURNAME Graebert, Armin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German local politician and Lord Mayor of Wurzen (1939–1945)
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin-Wilmersdorf
DATE OF DEATH February 5, 1947
Place of death Special camp Jamlitz