Hardenberg position
The Hardenberg position was part of the German defense system in the final battle for Berlin from April 16, 1945, the beginning of the Soviet final offensive on the Oder front. Behind the main battle line, which ran along the Oder , the position extended as a catching position on the ridges west of the Oder, but partly also down to the Old Oder. Like the other defensive positions on the eastern front, it was an improvised system for fortifying the rear of the front, which lasted only a few hours or days after the first Soviet breakthroughs through the main battle line in the battle of the Seelow Heights .
Behind the Hardenberg position there was another catching position to the west towards Berlin, which, like a position of the so-called east wall, called Wotan position , which stretched from Schermützelsee near Buckow to Fürstenwalde , and also only held for a short time.
With the unconditional surrender of Berlin to the Soviet troops on May 2, 1945, the Second World War ended in this part of the theater of war.
The naming of the position, apparently after the Prussian statesman Karl August von Hardenberg , is remarkable because Hardenberg was an avowed Freemason , while Freemasons were persecuted in the "Third Reich" and Hardenberg had contributed to the alliance of Prussia with Russia Overthrow Napoleon. Possibly the name was chosen with knowledge or ignorance of these historical connections because of the central location in the front line of the place Neuhardenberg , where a castle of the count was located.
See also
literature
- Gerhard Boldt : The last days of the Reich Chancellery. Hamburg 1948, p. 48
- Karl Bahm: Berlin 1945 - The final reckoning. Saint Paul (Minnesota / USA) 2001, p. 72