Carl Friedrich von Pückler-Burghauss

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Carl Friedrich von Pückler-Burghauss

Carl Friedrich Graf von Pückler-Burghauss, Freiherr von Groditz (born October 7, 1886 in Friedland , Province of Silesia ; † May 12 or 13, 1945 in Rakowitz , Third Czechoslovak Republic ) was a German politician ( NSDAP ), SA leader and during the Second World War last SS group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS .

Live and act

Youth, World War I and Weimar Republic

Carl Friedrich was born on October 7, 1886 in the Lower Silesian city ​​of Breslau as the first son of the Prussian politician Friedrich Graf von Pückler-Burghaus (* February 3, 1849 - July 10, 1920) and the Countess Ella von Köppen in the Silesian noble family von Pückler -Burghauss born. His younger brothers were Sylvius and Otto von Pückler-Burghauss. His grandfather was the Prussian politician Karl von Pückler-Burghauß .

On April 1, 1908, Pückler-Burghauss joined the body cuirassier regiment . On June 25, 1909, he received the lieutenant's license. On January 1, 1913, he was transferred to the reserve officers. In the same year he married Princess Olga-Elisabeth von Sachsen Altenburg, Duchess of Saxony (1886–1955), the eldest daughter of Albert von Sachsen-Altenburg and Marie of Prussia . The marriage resulted in three children: The daughters Ella-Viola (* April 8, 1914; † April 4, 1982), married. von Flotow , and Eleonore-Renata (born November 25, 1919, † November 4, 1997), most recently married. Petersen, as well as the son Karl Rudiger (* / † 1923). He took part with his regiment in the First World War, in which he was awarded the Iron Cross of both classes, among other things . In 1917 he was appointed to the General Staff of the VI. Army corps transferred. In September 1919 he took his leave as Rittmeister in order to manage his parents' goods as a farmer.

From 1919 to 1931 he was a member of the German National People's Party . In addition to his political activities, Pückler-Burghauss was also active as a writer. In the 1930s he first published books about his hunting experiences and later also a volume about his war experiences up to 1942.

Career in the NSDAP and SA (1931 to 1934)

On December 1, 1931, Pückler-Burghauss joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) ( membership number 788.697) and the Sturmabteilung (SA), in which he was awarded the rank of Sturmbannführer in the same month . After he was active as a gau-speaker for the NSDAP in Silesia in the first half of 1932, he was taken over as a full-time SA leader on July 1, 1932.

From July 1 to December 14, 1932, Pückler-Burghauss was SA leader e.g. V. and advisor for military matters to the staff of the SA Group Silesia (Breslau) and from December 15, 1932 to November 30, 1933 (initially commissioned) staff leader of the SA group Silesia. In this post he was promoted to SA Standartenführer on December 29, 1932 with effect from July 1, 1932 and to SA Oberführer on April 10, 1933 . In the period from June 1 to June 30, 1933 he was staff leader of SA-Obergruppe I (with the subordinate SA groups Berlin-Brandenburg , Ostmark, Silesia, Pomerania and Nordmark), then (July 1, 1933 to March 14 1934) commissioned staff leader of SA upper group III (SA groups Berlin-Brandenburg, Ostmark and Silesia, office: Breslau).

From the Reichstag election in March 1933 to November 1933, Pückler-Burghauss was a member of the Reichstag for the NSDAP for constituency 9 (Opole). The most important parliamentary event in which he was involved as an MdR during this time was the passing of the Enabling Act in March 1933, which ultimately opened the way to dictatorship and was passed, among other things, with his vote. In the Reichstag elections of November 12, 1933, he was not re-run as a candidate due to differences with the Silesian Gauleiter Helmuth Brückner .

From March 15 to June 30, 1934, Pückler-Burghauss was the full-time SA leader under SA-Obergruppenführer Edmund Heines , who at the same time (since July 31, 1931) was the leader of the SA Group Silesia, and then staff leader of the (new) SA Obergruppe VIII (SA Group Silesia, Office: Wroclaw). After the so-called Röhm Putsch , Pückler-Burghauss resigned from full-time employment with the SA with effect from July 1, 1934, and held the rank of SA leader until January 30, 1937. V. of the Supreme SA leadership .

After working as a self-employed farmer from July 1934 to the beginning of 1937, he was again taken over into active (full-time) SA service on January 30, 1937: from February 1, 1937 to July 2, 1939, he initially served as head of the office Supreme SA leadership . After being promoted to SA Brigade Leader on May 1, 1937 , Pückler-Burghauss was head of the Berlin Liaison Office of the Supreme SA Leadership from October 1937 to July 2, 1939, before being finally dismissed from full-time SA service on July 1, 1939 has been.

Career in the SS (1939 to 1945)

On November 25, 1939, Pückler-Burghauss applied to the Supreme SA leadership for approval to transfer to the Schutzstaffel (SS). After the consent of OSAF, he was finally accepted as a member of the SS on July 1, 1940 (SS no. 365.136), in which he was given the rank of SS brigade leader on the same day .

At the beginning of 1942 he was appointed as the deputy of the sick Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski as Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) for the area of ​​Central Russia. From January to the beginning of May, the task forces involved in the mass murder of Soviet Jews in the Mitte section were directly subordinate to Pückler-Burghaus as HSSPF Mitte . After his return on May 7, von dem Bach described Pückler-Burghaus in his war diary as heavily dependent on alcohol and complained about his inaction in fighting partisans . On September 12, 1942 he was appointed commander of the Waffen SS in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and promoted to the rank of SS Brigade Leader and Major General of the Waffen SS . In May 1943 there was another promotion, this time to commander of the 15th SS Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS in Latvia with the rank of SS group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS. He held this post until February 17, 1944. On March 20, 1944, he was reassigned to his previous command as commander of the Waffen SS in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which he held until the end of the Second World War .

End of the war, surrender and suicide (May 1945)

As the commander of the Waffen SS units that were deployed against the Prague uprising on May 7, 1945 , Pückler-Burghauss initially did not want to submit to the commanding General Rudolf Toussaint and did so only after Field Marshal Schörner intervened over the phone . Then, with the words “ The whole nest must burn ”, he demanded that the historic city center be razed to the ground with incendiary bombs . This was only prevented by General Toussaint's objection . In a message from the evening of May 7th around 11:30 p.m. Pückler-Burghauss described his further planning:

"According to previous experience, due to the lack of artillery and air support, the advance was only successful if the blocks were burned down. The Czech bourgeois circles would like to end the fight. The communists are leading and fighting. They are counting on Vlasov. All groups arranged for the night, fire and fire." At dawn the combat groups attack in a narrow battle front. We again demand a strong operation of the air force against the Wenceslas Square - Trench. Today's scattered air raids were useless. The point is to panic and use them to attack use."

After the fighting continued all day on May 8th, General Toussaint signed a document, initially only mentioned as a protocol, as the surrender of the German troops in Prague . Pückler-Burghauss refused at first to stop the fighting and had to be forced by Karl Hermann Frank to follow suit.

From the morning of May 9, Pückler-Burghauss led the surviving German troops west to take them into American captivity. After the surrender, these troops were considered "armed prisoners". Numerous German civilians joined his units in the escape. On May 10, the commander of the 4th US Armored Division , Brigadier General William H. Hoge , rejected Pückler-Burghaus's request for surrender. The unit had previously been forced to stop on May 9 by Czech partisan units that had blocked the advance towards the American lines. With the arrival of Soviet troops from the 1st, 2nd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts on the afternoon of May 11th, several days after the official unconditional surrender of all German troops , the so-called Battle of Slivice began . In the course of it, over 1,000 people were killed on all sides. The Americans supported the attack with artillery fire on the SS positions and again refused to capture the Pückler-Burghauss and his family from the Red Army . After an insight into the military situation, which had cost the lives of well over 1,000 people on all sides, days late, Pückler-Burghauss signed the last military surrender of the on May 12, 1945 at around 3:00 a.m. in the presence of American and Soviet military representatives Second World War on European soil and then committed suicide . His body was buried in the central cemetery in Brno .

Fonts

  • Hunting, traveling, being funny: From green forest and colorful life , Berlin 1936.
  • Wild, forest and world: a happy hiking book , Berlin 1938.
  • Seen, thought and laughed: memories from the 1939–42 campaigns , Prague 1943.

literature

  • Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the ethnic and National Socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924. Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 , pp. 829–830.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Lothar Erdmann von Pückler-Burghauss, Count, Baron von Groditz. In: geni.com . www.geni.com, accessed on May 21, 2020 (see also http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Pückler-Burghauss ).
  2. ↑ Sylvius Graf von Pückler, Baron von Groditz. www.geni.com, accessed on May 21, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Dr. Otto Graf von Pückler-Burghauss, Baron von Groditz. www.geni.com, accessed on May 21, 2020 .
  4. ^ Karl Alexander Ludwig Erdmann von Pückler-Burghauss, Baron von Groditz. www.geni.com, accessed on May 21, 2020 .
  5. ^ Ella Viola Countess von Pückler-Burghauss, Baroness von Groditz. www.geni.com, accessed on May 21, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Eleonore Renata Gfin. von Pückler-Burghauss, Baroness von Groditz. www.geni.com, accessed on May 21, 2020 .
  7. ↑ The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945. Vol. 3. German Reich and Protectorate September 1939 - September 1941 . Oldenbourg, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-58524-7 , p. 22.
  8. ↑ Heiko Hüttmann and Wolfgang Kopitzsch: “The forces deployed by the Ordnungspolizei ... did their job in an exemplary manner.” The Police Battalion 307 (Lübeck) “in the east” 1940-1945. An exhibition by the Schleswig-Holstein State Police, Police Directorate Schleswig-Holstein South (Lübeck) in cooperation with the State Police Hamburg, State Police School. Schmidt-Römhild, Essen 2002, OCLC 249066270 , p. 21 ( foerderkreis-stadthaus.de [PDF]).
  9. ↑ a b Jakub Siska: Self-liberation between the fronts - the end of the war in Prague. Radio Prague international (www.radio.cz/de), May 8, 2015, accessed on May 21, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Stanislav Kokoska: Prague in May 1945. The story of an uprising (dissertation Charles University 2009) . Prague November 11, 2009, p. 160 ( cuni.cz ).
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Jung: Prague: The whole nest must burn. In: www.stern.de. Stern , May 5, 2005, accessed May 21, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Stanislav Kokoška: Prague in May 1945. The story of an uprising (dissertation Charles University 2009). Prague November 11, 2009, p. 188 ( cuni.cz ).
  13. ↑ Stanislav Kokoška: Prague in May 1945. The story of an uprising (dissertation Charles University 2009). Prague November 11, 2009, p. 244 ( cuni.cz ).
  14. ↑ Stanislav Kokoška: Prague in May 1945. The story of an uprising (dissertation Charles University 2009) . Prague November 11, 2009, p. 258 ( cuni.cz ).
  15. ↑ Jaroslav Kojzar: Questions to Jindřich Hacaperka, participant in the last war in Europe (Czech Otázky pro Jindřicha Hacaperku, účastníka posledního válečného střetnutí v Evropě). In: Halo Noviny. May 11, 2020, accessed May 21, 2020 .
  16. ^ Paul Leonhard: 75 years ago: The last military surrender. Junge Freiheit, May 12, 2020, accessed on May 21, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Slivice. In: Spolek pro vojenská pietní místa. vets.cz (Association for Military Memorials in the Czech Republic). Retrieved May 21, 2020 (Czech).
  18. ↑ Magazine article of the program "Wanderde Kamera" (Czech toulava camera) of the Czech television (Czech ceska televize). Czech television (ceska televize) , May 19, 2020, accessed on May 21, 2020 (Czech).
personal data
SURNAME Pückler-Burghauss, Carl Friedrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pückler-Burghauss Freiherr von Groditz, Carl Friedrich Graf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS group leader, lieutenant general of the Waffen SS and politician (NSDAP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Friedland , Falkenberg district, Upper Silesia
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1945 or May 13, 1945
Place of death Rakowitz , Third Czechoslovak Republic