František Bürger-Bartoš

František Bürger-Bartoš (1945)

František Bürger-Bartoš , also František Bürger (Bartoš) (born November 25, 1898 in Cheertin , Český Krumlov district , † October 15, 1964 in Prague ), born as František Bürger , was a Czechoslovak soldier, member of the Czechoslovak legions , in the interwar period Colonel of the General Staff, during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia participant in the resistance against the National Socialist occupation , member of the resistance organization Obrana národa ), at the end of the war organizer and chief of staff of Vojenské velitelství Velké Prahy Bartoš ( Military Headquarters of Greater Prague ) during the Prague uprising in May 1945, then Brigadier General; Political prisoner in the 1950s, demoted to ordinary soldier, in November 1957, after he was rehabilitated, he was restored to his general rank.

Surname

František Bürger took part in the resistance during the German occupation of the country and used the code name Bartoš, which was also used by an illegal resistance group he led. After the end of the war he officially adopted the code name - together with his wife and two daughters - as the second part of his new double name Bürger-Bartoš.

Life, military career

Bürger-Bartoš attended the Czech grammar school in Budweis , but before graduation he was drafted into the army on May 8, 1916. Until 1917 he served on the Russian front, from February 1917 on the Italian front, where he was captured on August 19 of the same year. After seven months in captivity in Sicily, he joined the Czechoslovak legions on March 12, 1918 . In December 1918 he left an officer's school in Modena. After returning to Czechoslovakia, he was a lieutenant in the Polish-Czechoslovak border war and in battles with Hungarian units in Slovakia. In 1928/1929 he finished as a captain at the war college in Prague, attended a secret service course and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. He became chief of staff of the 5th Infantry Division and chief of staff of border area 31 in Budweis.

After the occupation of the country and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , Bürger went to Prague and became an official in the Pension Department of the Ministry of Finance. At the same time he was very active in the resistance. He worked with General Alois Eliáš and built an intelligence network within the Obrana národa resistance group that went undetected by the Gestapo for several years . After the arrest of General Zdeněk Novák in June 1944, he began to independently prepare military campaigns against the occupiers in Prague. He maintained close contacts with General Karel Kutlvašr and General František Slunečko . With the end of the war, he focused on building the military organization, Vojenské velitelství Velké Prahy Bartoš ( Military Headquarters Greater Prague Bartoš ), who in May 1945, during the Prague Uprising, led the military operations against the occupying forces and as the best organized illegal resistance group in Prague is called. On May 5, 1945, he resumed active service and, as chief of staff at the military headquarters of the greater Prague area, was instrumental in leading the activities of the insurgent units - alongside brigadier general and commander of the insurgent Kutlvašr - and coordinated them with other resistance activities through his Contacts with the Czech National Council .

After the country's liberation, Bürger-Bartoš was promoted to brigadier general and first served as chief of staff of the 1st Army Corps of the new Czechoslovak Army . Due to increasing pressure from Moscow and the Communist Party against most of the main actors in the Prague uprising, Bürger-Bartoš was sent to the Czechoslovak military mission to the Allied Control Commission in Budapest in early 1946, and a year later to Paris as a military attaché. After the February coup , he was recalled to Prague in September 1948, after a short time as commander of the war college in Prague, he was sent on “vacation” in October 1949 as “politically unreliable”. On May 3, 1950, he was arrested and sentenced to eight months in prison and at the same time demoted to a simple soldier, but was held in prison until January 3, 1953. After his release he worked for a state publishing house in Prague. In November 1957, the Supreme Court acquitted him of his previous charges and restored him to the rank of general.

Awards

František Bürger-Bartoš received the following awards:

• Czechoslovak Revolution Medal from 1918
• Interallied Victory Medal (Czechoslovakia)
• War Merit Cross (Italy) from 1918
• Czechoslovak War Cross 1914–1918
• Star of Romania
• Order of the Crown of Romania
• Czechoslovak War Cross 1939

and other.

Remarks

1. ↑ Following a change in 1951 he received instead of the previous service level brigadier general the then equivalent rank Major General (see. Valka.cz / ... .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Ministr financí odhalil pamětní desku Františku Bürgeru-Bartošovi , press release of May 4, 2005, portal of the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic, online at: mfcr.cz / ...
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Citizen (Bartoš) František , detailed curriculum vitae in: Vojenské osobnosti československého odboje 1939–1945 , publication of the Historical Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic, AVIS, Prague 2005, p. 39, online (archived) at: vojenskaakademiehranice. ic.cz / ...