Horst von Pflugk-Harttung

Horst Gustav Friedrich von Pflugk-Harttung (born June 17, 1889 in Basel , † March 9, 1967 in Hamburg ) was a German naval officer . He was directly involved in the murder of Karl Liebknecht in January 1919 . In the 1920s and 1930s Pflugk-Harttung worked for various German military and intelligence agencies in the Scandinavian countries.

Life

Horst von Pflugk-Harttung was the oldest son of the historian Julius von Pflugk-Harttung . He grew up in Berlin , where his father was an archivist at the Secret State Archives . On April 3, 1907, he appeared as a midshipman in the Imperial navy one was in 1910 Ensign and September 27, 1913 Lieutenant promoted. During the First World War he served as an officer on watch on torpedo boats. At the end of the war , Pflugk-Harttung, promoted to lieutenant captain in 1918, commanded the torpedo boat S 51 .

In the first weeks of the November  Revolution , Pflugk-Harttung gathered around him - probably still in Kiel - other naval officers who, like himself, were ready to take armed action against the revolutionary left. This group was incorporated as a naval officer squadron with the 5th Uhlan Regiment at the turn of the year 1918/19 in the Guard Cavalry Rifle Division and used exclusively for "special operations". On the instructions of Captain Waldemar Pabst , who also initiated the murder of Rosa Luxemburg at the same time , a command of this unit commanded by Pflugk-Harttung shot Karl Liebknecht in the Berlin zoo on the evening of January 15, 1919 . Pflugk-Harttung admitted the murder "against the obligation of absolute secrecy" on January 16 to Ernst von Weizsäcker , who advised him to flee.

After a short detention Pflugk-Harttung was from the placed in charge of the investigation Judge Advocate Paul Jorn fired again, but had to like the others, now known by name those involved in late February are imprisoned in 1919 again after investigations by the Communist Party , the USPD and the Berlin Executive Council to increased public pressure and made a process inevitable. Pflugk-Harttung, together with the other officers concerned, was able to prepare for the hearing before the field court of the Guard Cavalry Rifle Division in the Lehrter Strasse prison . Wilhelm Canaris , who was appointed associate judge, “ went in and out” together with Pabst in prison; the doors to the cells were not locked, the prisoners even had weapons. Pflugk-Harttung stayed in court, as agreed, with the claim that Liebknecht had attempted to escape in the zoo. In May 1919 he was acquitted together with the other perpetrators and, with the help of Canaris, settled via Denmark to Sweden .

Pflugk-Harttung lived in Sweden in the 1920s, where he worked undercover for German naval services. He continued to correspond with Pabst, who had designated him as the Swedish confidante of the "White International" he had planned. Pflugk-Harttung's involvement in an illegal arms delivery to Swedish fascists around General Bror Munck (see Corps Munck ) resulted in his expulsion in January 1932.

From 1933, Pflugk-Harttung stayed in Copenhagen - initially as a correspondent for the Berliner Börsen-Zeitung and later as a representative for a radio company . Here he built up a larger network of agents that dealt with research into the German émigré community as well as with maritime and port espionage. The organization was exposed in late 1938 after the communist Ernst Wollweber leaked information to the Danish authorities via the British secret service . Pflugk-Harttung was arrested in January 1939 and deported to Germany a few months later.

In 1939 Pflugk-Harttung was reactivated as a lieutenant captain, and in the spring of 1941 he was promoted to captain at sea . Until 1942 he worked as a consultant in the foreign / defense office of the OKW and then headed the special naval service office in Bordeaux until 1944 . In 1944 or 1945 he was taken prisoner by the Americans, was later transferred to British posts and released from the Eselheide internment camp in 1947 . From 1950 until his death on March 9, 1967, Pflugk-Harttung lived as a businessman in Hamburg.

His brother Heinz von Pflugk-Harttung was also involved in the events of 1919.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Death register StA Hamburg-Harburg, No. 485/1967
2. ↑ Quoted from Klaus Gietinger: Der Counterrevolutionär. Waldemar Pabst - a German career. Hamburg 2009. p. 126.
3. ^ Gietinger: Counterrevolutionary. P. 130.
4. ↑ See Gietinger: Counterrevolutionary. P. 292.
5. ↑ Jan von Flocken, Michael F. Scholz: Ernst Wollweber. Saboteur-Minister-Unperson. Berlin 1994, p. 76.
6. ↑ See the letter from Horst von Pflugk-Harttung to Waldemar Pabst, May 3, 1962, in: Klaus Gietinger: Eine Leiche im Landwehrkanal. The murder of Rosa L. Berlin 1995, pp. 134-136, p. 134.