Branimir Altgayer

Branimir Altgayer

Branimir Altgayer (born on November 8, 1897 in Przekopana, suburb of Przemyśl , Crown Land of Galicia , Austria-Hungary , executed on May 15, 1950 in Zagreb , Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia ) was an officer of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) as well as " ethnic group leader " of the Germans in Croatia during the Second World War .

Life

According to interrogation protocols from the UDBA , Altgayer was born in Galicia, where his father, who came from Osijek ( German  Esseg ), served as an Austro-Hungarian cavalry lieutenant. He grew up in various garrison towns ( Pardubitz , Tschakathurn , Sarajewo ) and from 1904 in Kutjevo in Slavonia , where he attended the Croatian school there. Then he went to Croatian high schools in Osijek and Zemun (German Semlin ), where he passed his Matura.

After graduating from the cavalry cadet school in Hranice na Moravě (German Mährisch Weißkirchen ), which he attended from 1912 to 1915, he fought as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army in Russia, Romania and Italy during the First World War . On August 24, 1915 he was promoted to lieutenant and on August 17, 1917 to first lieutenant.

From December 16, 1918 to January 28, 1927 he served in the army of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, where he achieved the rank of captain, first class. After leaving the army, he worked as an accountant, bank clerk, representative and head of an agricultural cooperative until he became a full-time politician from 1937.

In the summer of 1928, Branimir Altgayer made an attempt to found a German farmers' association. However, due to the beginning of the royal dictatorship in 1929, this project could not be implemented. On March 19, 1934 he was the founder and chairman of the Osijek branch of the Swabian-German Cultural Association (SDKB). On December 3, 1934, he was appointed to the federal committee of the SDKB, where he represented the National Socialist wing of the “ renewal movement ”.

In 1936 he founded the “Culture and Welfare Association of Germans” (KWVD) in Osijek, thus opposing the conservative leadership of the Kulturbund. After the Kulturbund was taken over by the “innovators” and its merger with the KWVD in 1939, he took over the regional management for Slavonia.

After the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in 1941, he became a (non-elected) German “ethnic group leader”. Josef Meier was elected, who had to leave Croatia on the instructions of the main office for Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle . In 1942, as one of two representatives of the German minority (the other was Ferdinand Gasteiger ), he was appointed a member of the Croatian Parliament "Sabor". In 1943 he also became State Secretary in the Croatian government, where he was responsible for the internal affairs of the German minority. In this function he legalized the operations of the German team's deployment against partisans.

Branimir Altgayer

The fascist dictator of the NDH Ante Pavelić promoted Altgayer to colonel in the Ustascha militia and awarded him the title of knight ( Croatian vitez ). He served briefly on the Eastern Front .

Altgayer had been a member of the SS since November 12, 1940 . On November 6, 1941, Heinrich Himmler appointed him SS-Hauptsturmführer and on November 9, 1943, SS-Sturmbannführer .

After the Second World War, Altgayer was interned by the British occupying forces with others against whom an extradition request was made, in the Wolfsberg camp and extradited to Yugoslavia. He was sentenced to death by the Zagreb District Court on January 21, 1950 for “crimes against the people and the state” . He submitted a pardon to no avail. He was executed by shooting on May 15, 1950 .

Awards (selection)

• Austrian Military Merit Cross III. class

literature

• Vladimir Geiger: ALTGAYER, Branimir . In: Darko Stuparić (ed.): Tko je tko u NDH: Hrvatska 1941. – 1945 [Who is who in the NDH: Croatia 1941–1945] . Minerva, Zagreb 1997, p. 7 (Croatian).
• Vladimir Geiger (1999): Saslušanje Branimira Altgayera vođe Njemacke narodne skupine u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj u Upravi državne bezbjednosti za Narodnu Republiku Hrvatsku 1949. godine [The hearing of Croatia in the service of Branimira in the German People's Republic in 1949] .49 . Časopis za suvremenu povijest, Zagreb 31, pp. 575-638
• Mads Ole Balling: From Reval to Bucharest - Statistical-Biographical Handbook of the Parliamentarians of the German Minorities in East Central and Southeastern Europe 1919–1945, Volume 2, 2nd edition . Copenhagen 1991, ISBN 87-983829-5-0 , pp. 687-688 .

Web links

Commons : Branimir Altgayer  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• vojska.net - Branimir Altgayer (1897–1950)
• Summary of the interrogation of Branimir Altgayer by the UDBA

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tko per tko u NDH: Hrvatska 1941-1945. Minerva, Zagreb 1997, ISBN 953-6377-03-9 , p. 7.
2. ↑ Zaloguj - Biblioteka Genealogii Polaków . In: okiem.pl . Archived from the original on August 11, 2014. 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. Retrieved October 25, 2010. 
3. ↑ Saslušanje Branimira Altgayera vođe Njemacke narodne skupine u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj u Upravi državne bezbjednosti za Narodnu Republiku Hrvatsku 1949. godine  ( page no longer available , search in web archives is defective )  Info: The link was automatically defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Interrogation of Branimir Altgayer, (Eng.)  
4. ^ Anton Scherer : Suevia-Pannonica, Graz 2009, p. 112.
5. ↑ The wording can be found under: Zakon o krivičnim delima protiv naroda i države . It was not a law against war crimes, but a state protection law.