Arthur Nicholson

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arthur Donald Nicholson junior , nickname "Nick" (* June 7, 1947 , † March 24, 1985 in Karstädt (Mecklenburg) ), was a major in the US armed forces and an employee of the military intelligence service and is considered the last victim of the Cold War .

Family and education

Nicholson, son of a US Navy officer, grew up in McLean, Virginia and Redding, Connecticut, where he graduated from high school (West Redding High School) in 1965. In 1969 he graduated from Transylvania University in Lexington (Kentucky) with a bachelor's degree.

He was married to Karen V. Nicholson, their daughter Jennifer was born in 1976.

Career in the military and secret service

Transfer of Arthur Nicholson's body to the United States

After graduating from college, Nicholson joined the army in 1970. His military career is only partially known to this day.

In 1973 and 1974, Nicholson served as an officer in a Missile Battalion, Area S-2, in Korea. In 1974 he was transferred to Germany in unknown reconnaissance units (Military Intelligence units) in Frankfurt / Main and Munich. Until 1979 he stayed in the Federal Republic.

Nicholson embarked on a career as a Foreign Officer (FAO) with a focus on Eastern Europe / USSR, obtained a master's degree in Soviet and Eastern European Studies at the Naval Postgraduate School in 1980 and at the same time attended a two-year intensive Russian language course at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA ( 1979/80) as well as another special course at the US Army Russian Institute in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (1980–1982).

The training in Garmisch paved the way for Nicholson to work with the American Military Liaison Mission (USMLM) in Potsdam. The military liaison missions were holdovers from World War II. They were set up at the level of the command staff to ensure smooth communication between the Allies in occupied Germany. In fact, after the beginning of the Cold War, due to the freedom of movement guaranteed to them by contract on the territory of the now enemy, they were mainly used for espionage by all four nations.

With the rank of captain, Nicholson joined the USMLM, Army Reconnaissance Section, in 1982 and worked there as a Production Officer. In 1983 he was promoted to major. Overall, he has completed more than a hundred of the "tours" called reconnaissance and espionage trips.

Last use

On March 24, 1985, Nicholson and his driver Staff Sergeant Jessie George Schatz were on a USMLM trip in the GDR . With Schatz as driver, Nicholson had made a total of seven trips to the GDR by then. The states involved - the USA, the Soviet Union and the GDR - provide very different information about the purpose of this last mission and its course. The two US soldiers drove to the site of a Soviet tank division near Ludwigslust. There Nicholson got out of the vehicle, approached a military building with a photo camera and possibly also entered and photographed it.

A previously unnoticed Soviet guard, Untersergeant (Младший сержант) Aleksander Ryabtsew, who had been away from the building in the nearby forest, approached the two Americans and fired a total of three shots. One of these shots hit Nicholson and fatally wounded his upper abdomen. The guard prevented the driver at gunpoint from getting to Nicholson and his camera with a first aid kit and forced him back into his car. Since the vehicle was contractually considered an extraterritorial area, the driver could not be arrested afterwards. So far the representations agree.

There are different representations about the exact process and thus the question of guilt. The Soviet Union claimed that the guard met the men near a security-sensitive military building, called them in Russian and German, fired a warning shot and only then fired at Nicholson, who ran to his vehicle just a few meters away. The United States alleged that the guard immediately targeted the driver, who was watching the area from the sunroof, and shot the unarmed Nicholson after he dropped into the car. The Soviet Union claimed that Nicholson died instantly and that medical help was not possible. The U.S. claimed that he bled to death for up to two hours and that no one provided first aid, although reinforcements called by the post soon arrived.

In many places it is reported that a few months earlier Major Nicholson had managed to break into a Soviet military building and photograph the inside of what was then the most modern Soviet T-80 tank. As with secret service operations, this is unsurprisingly so far no confirmation from the USA. However, it is known that this coup was celebrated accordingly when Nicholson returned.

It is speculated that Nicholson's last assignment was intended to repeat that success. Elsewhere it is speculated that the Soviet counterintelligence wanted to lure him into a trap in order to liquidate him in revenge for the spectacular coup. Alternatively, it is assumed that the espionage success through the counter-espionage of the GDR became known and had led to massive pressure on the obviously negligent guards.

The fact that he forced the driver back into the car speaks against an ingenious trap and an overreaction of an inexperienced guard. Outside the vehicle, he could have been captured in order to later question him by the secret service.

Since there was also constant cooperation between Soviet security organs and the special defense department of the MfS , if a case had been prepared, not only a guard but an arrest group would have been present, which would never have led to this fatal incident, as firearms were never used here .

dig

The corpse of Nicholson was handed over to the US employees of the liaison mission on the Glienicker Bridge, then transferred to the Andrews Airbase in the USA and buried in the Arlington National Cemetery. In 1988 the Soviet Union apologized for killing Nicholson.

Commemoration

The garrison library of the American armed forces in Berlin was named Major Arthur D. Nicholson Jr. Memorial Library in his memory . Today it is part of the Allied Museum .

Memorial stone near Karstädt

Since March 2005 a memorial stone on the federal highway 191 between the intersection B 5 / B 191 and Karstädt has been commemorating Nicholson's death.

literature

  • Helmut Trotnow: Shots in Techentin. Background to the death of Major Arthur D. Nicholson , in: AlliiertenMuseum (Ed.): Mission accomplished, The military liaison missions of the Western powers in Potsdam from 1946 to 1990 , Berlin 2004, pp. 123-134
  • Klaus Behling : Spies in Uniform - The Allied Military Missions in Germany. ISBN 3-89850-121-3
  • Söhnke Streckel: Licensed Espionage - The Allied Military Liaison Missions and the MfS. LStU Saxony-Anhalt, Magdeburg 2008
  • Wunnicke, Christoph: Cold War in Mecklenburg. The death of Arthur D. Nicholson in Techentin , In: Zeitgeschichte regional ISSN  1434-1794 9 (2005), 1, pp. 90-91

Web links

Commons : Arthur Nicholson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Section 7A, grave 171
  2. ^ Nicholson Memorial Library , accessed September 4, 2014
  3. ↑ http://www.alliiertenmuseum.de/de/aktuelles/backstage/jahresansicht.html?calyear=2005&ayr=0
personal data
SURNAME Nicholson, Arthur
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nicholson, Arthur Donald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American officer, major
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1947
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 1985
Place of death Ludwigslust