Bomb raid on Freiburg on May 10, 1940

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In the mistaken bomb attack on Freiburg on May 10, 1940 by the German Air Force , 57 residents of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau died .

Schedule

The three types of aircraft involved chain of Lieutenant Paul Seidel from the eighth season of the kampfgeschwader 51 of the type He 111 were with their squadron from the airbase Landsberg / Lech started at 14:27 in order as part of the campaign in the west , the French city of Dijon or Alternative target to bomb Dole-Jura airport . However, due to navigation errors, they lost their orientation and never got there. Although they were unable to determine their exact position, they considered the city to be French, presumably Colmar . Since the Freiburg air station in the Hildaturm on the Lorettoberg identified the aircraft as German, an air-raid alarm was only triggered after the bombing began . The planes dropped a total of 69 bombs on the city from 3:59 p.m.

Immediate consequences

The German leadership tried to cover up the mistake and ascribe the bombing to the war opponents. The co- ordinated German media picked up the event. The UFA Tonwoche for example, reported in its issue no. 506 on 15 May 1940 at the end of a longer contribution via the "brutal and ruthless attack on an unpaved German city " . The Freiburger Zeitung reported on May 11, 1940 of a “cowardly air raid” on the city. "24 civilians were torn to their deaths in the " sneaky, cowardly bombing attack that scorned all the laws of humanity and international law, " the newspaper continued . At the same time, the incident was used to justify further attacks on the enemy. So would "any other scheduled air raid be responded to the German population by five times the number of German aircraft on an English or French city." In a speech to the staff of Borsig -Werke on December 10, 1940 accused Adolf Hitler British Prime Minister Winston Churchill , to have started the terrorist attacks against the civilian population with the bombing of Freiburg.

The pilots recorded that they had attacked the alternative target Dole-Tavaux. However, this only happened later in 1940. The assertion that the duds of the attack were not made in Germany was already refuted by the production labels. Nevertheless, the myth persisted for a long time among the population that it was foreign planes that bombed Freiburg. The starting point for this could have been memories of the air raids during the First World War . At that time, Freiburg was bombed 25 times by Allied aircraft. Another connection point could have been the shelling of Freiburg by artillery from France on June 11 and 13, 1940. Shells hit the southern Lorettoberg, in Merzhausen, Günterstal and in the area around the airfield, on the premises of the Rhodia company and the gas works. With the advance of German troops in France, this possibility of attack was eliminated from June 15, 1940.

Later episodes

Memorial stone at Hilda's playground

The then commodore of Kampfgeschwader 51 "Edelweiss", Colonel Josef Kammhuber , claimed in 1954 against his better judgment that it would never be possible to find out who was responsible for the bombing of Freiburg that day. In August 1980 he wrote to two military historians: " The fact that the attack on Freiburg was erroneously carried out by a chain of III / KG51 is absolutely certain ."

The historians Anton Hoch , Wolfram Wette and Gerd R. Ueberschär made a significant contribution to the clarification of the events of May 10, 1940 . From 1956 onwards, those responsible could be named through their work. On April 5, 1956, the New York Times reported that the riddle of who had bombed Freiburg on May 10, 1940 had been solved.

In the Freiburg district of Stühlinger , a memorial stone on the Hilda playground (opposite Colmarer Str. 3), where 20 children were killed at the time, commemorates the victims of the bombing. The erection of the memorial stone goes back to the union of those persecuted by the Nazi regime . A temporary memorial plaque, which was only available for a short time, was attached to the 40th anniversary and followed the later refuted assumption that Freiburg had been deliberately bombed by the German Air Force. The current memorial stone was only unveiled on the 45th anniversary. The current inscription on the plaque is based on the findings of historical research on the event. At the inauguration of the memorial stone, the mayor Rolf Böhme, the chairman of the VVN and the chairman of the SPD local association Stühlinger spoke .

literature

  • Anton Hoch :
  • The file for May 10, 1940 in the Freiburg city archives: C 4 / XI / 31/3, the city headquarters Freiburg i. Br. Rubric: military affairs, subject: air raid on May 10, 1940, issue 1 year 40/43.
  • Gerd R. Ueberschär and Wolfram Wette: Bombs and Legends. The gradual reconnaissance of the air raid on Freiburg on May 10, 1940. Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau 1981, ISBN 3-7930-0292-6
  • Gerd R. Ueberschär: Freiburg in the air war 1939-1945 . Ploetz, Freiburg im Breisgau 1990, ISBN 978-3-87640-332-8

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Big deal . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 1982, pp. 74-78 ( online ).
  2. ↑ UFA Tonwoche No. 506 from May 15, 1940
  3. ↑ a b c The cowardly air raid on Freiburg in: Freiburger Zeitung from 11./12. May 1940
  4. ↑ Transcript of the speech under the heading We are equipped for every case in: Freiburger Zeitung of December 11, 1940 , p. 9, bottom, middle
  5. ^ British bomb Freiburg munition factories in: New York Times of March 14, 1918.
  6. ↑ Heiko Haumann / Hans Schadek (eds.), History of the City of Freiburg. Vol. 3. From the rule of Baden to the present . S. 359. Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1635-5
  7. ^ Lost Luftwaffe Craft Raided German City; Germans Bombed Own City in '40; Baring of Blunder Clears RAF in: The New York Times on April 5, 1956, last accessed November 19, 2009
  8. ↑ The bomb in question did not hit the playground, but in the neighboring house at Colmarer Str. 7, in the direction of which the children had fled, cf. Günther Klugermann: From the whooping cough garden to the great place - a playground story . In: Carola Schelle-Wolff , Hartmut Zoche (eds.): Children play in their city. Spielraum in Freiburg 1900–2000 , pp. 142–150, here p. 145. ISBN 3-922675-78-6
  9. ↑ Jörg Stadelbauer, reconstruction, structural change and functional redesign . In: Ulrich P. Ecker (ed.): Freiburg 1944–1994, Destruction and Reconstruction , Waldkircher Verlag, Waldkirch 1994, ISBN 978-3-87885-293-3 , pp. 107-132
  10. ↑ May 10th is a warning! Here and in the immediate vicinity, 20 children - a total of 57 Freiburg citizens - were victims of an inhuman air attack by a Nazi combat squadron that day. The Nazis spread s.Zt. The lie of purpose Allied planes would have flown this terrorist attack and bombed open cities analogous to the fake attack on the Gleiwitz transmitter in 1939, with which the Second World War was triggered and over 55 million people were murdered. This requires our action. Never again war! Never again fascism! End the arms race. Resist the beginnings. in: Ute Scherb, We get the monuments we deserve. Freiburg monuments in the 19th and 20th centuries . P. 212, note 109. Freiburg 2005, ISBN 3-923272-31-6
  11. ↑ 20 children were among the 57 fatalities caused by the mistaken bomb attack on Freiburg. 13 of them died in this playground. National Socialist propaganda portrayed the incident as a terrorist attack by enemy aircraft in order to justify so-called retaliatory strikes by the German air force. Let's not forget the dead - never again war
  12. ↑ Ute Scherb, We get the monuments we deserve. Freiburg monuments in the 19th and 20th centuries . P. 212 ff. Freiburg 2005, ISBN 3-923272-31-6

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