Hugo Biermann

Hugo Hendrik Biermann (born August 6, 1916 in Johannesburg ; † March 27, 2012 in Silvermine, Fish Hoek ) was a South African admiral and from 1972 to 1976 the chief of the SADF armed forces .

ancestors

Hugo Biermann's ancestors included a tailor from Hamburg who emigrated to the Cape Colony in the 18th century and served as a soldier in the Dutch East India Company (VOC). The family developed in the Cape Colony as a wagon builder and blacksmith in the regions around Durbanville and Paarl . Hugo Biermann's grandfather fought the British in the last Boer War .

Life

Biermann began his school years at Braamfontein Afrikaans medium school , continued it at Volk Skool in Heidelberg and graduated from Jan van Riebeeck High School in Cape Town with the junior certificate grade 10 . He then took 1932 to 1933 at a Navy training in the Navy - training ship General Botha part. After two years he switched to the service of the British Merchant Navy , where he worked as a cadet until 1938 . Biermann then worked for the Maritime Department of the South African Railways and Harbors (SAR & H). Now he has obtained the Master Mariner's Certificate of Competency , a high degree of captaincy .

In 1938 Biermann joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, SA division as a sub-lieutenant . This step led him to deployments in the Mediterranean on a mine clearance boat during World War II . As the commander of the salvage ship HMSAS Gamtoos , which played an important role, especially after the Allies landed in southern France in 1944 , he helped secure important ports such as the one in Marseille . In addition to his promotion to Lieutenant-Commander , he was awarded the OBE ( Order of the British Empire ).

After the end of World War II, he served in the South African Navy in various positions, such as captain of the SAS Bloemfontein and first officer of the demining squadron. In 1950 Biermann took up a position as Director-General of the SA Naval Forces at the headquarters of the armed forces in Pretoria .

Two years later Biermann completed a British Naval Staff Course in Greenwich and was then used in the rank of Commander as a naval attaché in the South African House in London . He was also involved in the development of the South African Navy as a gradually becoming independent part of the Royal Navy . On December 1, 1952 Biermann received his appointment as Naval and Marine Chief of Staff and was promoted to the rank of Commodore .

In the mid-1950s, Defense Ministers Erasmus and Biermann traveled to London several times to hold talks to convince the top management of the Royal Navy to hand over the naval base Simon’s Town to the Union of South Africa . As a counter-argument, the delegation was repeatedly reproached that South Africa and its navy were not ready to secure the southern sea route around the African continent in the interests of the Western powers during the Cold War . When South Africa was already internationally ostracized because of its racial policy, it used this argument against the Western powers in the 1970s.

Biermann had played an essential role in the negotiations for the Simon's Town Agreement , which gave South Africa further independence from Great Britain. With his appointment as site commander of Simon's Town Naval Base on April 1, 1957, he was promoted to Rear Admiral . Another career advancement came on December 1, 1965 with the appointment to Vice Admiral and the assumption of the function as Commander Maritime Defense, South African Defense Force . This promotion to the post of Chief of the Navy received support from the ranks of the National Party . His appointment to this position sparked internal and public debates ( Sunday Times ) because he was considered an Afrikaans and others felt that this decision was being ignored. The then South African Defense Minister Frans Erasmus then unsuccessfully put pressure on him to promote Boer officers instead of often better qualified English-speaking naval personnel.

Biermann finally got into the highest military office of the armed forces. On January 31, 1972 it came to the appointment to Temporary Admiral and with effect from April 1, 1972 to take over the post Chief of the South African Defense Force (SADF), the commander in chief of the South African armed forces.

When Biermann succeeded Rudolph Hiemstra as head of the SADF in 1974 , he had several secret meetings in Washington with the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff in order to promote a closer relationship between the two countries. A military alliance with South Africa seemed to be of interest at the time if the country had to protect this important sea route in the interests of Western politics.

Biermann's tenure as head of the armed forces is linked to political change in southern Africa . When South African military actions deep in Angola fought opposing locations in 1975 and the conflict with SWAPO on the border between South West Africa / Namibia and Angola intensified, Biermann resisted efforts in his country's politics and military to expand this war further. He was instrumental in the decision to withdraw all troops from Angola in early 1976. The withdrawal of troops from Angola at that time coincided with his resignation from the SADF in August 1976.

Personal

For many years Biermann was on the board of the former South African National War Museum (now part of the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History ) as the official representative of the South African Navy .

From his environment and outside observers, Biermann was perceived appreciatively in dealing with the political situation in which he had to serve. Biermann had been influenced from childhood to respect all South Africans, regardless of their ethnic origin or creed. As an example, in 1966 he declared his intention to open service to black South Africans in the navy and opposed government activities to relocate the resident Cape Malay merchant families and their businesses out of Simon's Town.

When he retired on August 31, 1976, he lived with his family in Muizenberg . Biermann was married to his Scottish wife, Peggy. Both had two children, a daughter and a son.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Anonymus: A sad farewell to Admiral HH Biermann SSA, SD, OBE 01222819 PE . on www.capeboatandskiboatclub.co.za (English)
2. ^ The Times: Admiral Hugo Biermann. Wartime minesweeper commander who was chief of staff of South Africa's defense forces under apartheid . Article from May 22, 2012 on www.thetimes.co.uk
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Chris Barron: Obituary: Hugo Biermann: chief of SA navy and army . April 8, 2012 article in the Sunday Times, online at www.timeslive.co.za
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Allan Sinclair: OBITUARY: Admiral Hugo Biermann, SSA, SD, OBE 1916-2012 . In: The South African Military History Society (Ed.), Military History Journal, Vol. 15 No. 4 (December 2011), online at www.samilitaryhistory.org (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Rudolph Hiemstra	Commander of the South African Defense Force 1972–1976	Magnus Malan