Jürgen Möller (historian)

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Jürgen Möller on April 17th, 2016 at the opening of the exhibition room in the Capa-Haus

Jürgen Möller (born August 27, 1959 in Gotha ) is a German military historian. His military-historical achievements are based on research into the end of the war in Germany in 1944/1945 with the focus on the American occupation of Central Germany.

Act

Jürgen Möller grew up in Gotha in the Erfurt district , after completing vocational training with a high school diploma, he was an officer in the National People's Army and the Bundeswehr from 1979 to 2014 . Möller has been researching the end of the war in his spare time since the early 1990s and published from 2003 to 2007 at Arps Verlag Weißenfels. Since his retirement in 2014, in addition to his work as a book author, he has devoted himself to the profession of military historian and has worked, among other things, on the creation of military-historical reconstructions for the detection of explosive ordnance. Since 2010 Möller has published his research results on the American occupation of Central Germany as part of the documentary series "The End of the War in Central Germany 1945" at the Rockstuhl Bad Langensalza publishing house . He regularly presents his results in lectures and is also in demand as a consultant for television productions on the history of Central Germany. Möller conducts research around the world, and in particular when searching for the name of the last dead man in the war (this is how the American war photographer Robert Capa called his later famous photo Last man to die ), he provided the decisive clue that 67 years after the end of the war the identity of the American soldier Raymond J. Bowman , who was fatally hit by a German sniper on a balcony in Leipzig-Lindenau , was cleared up .

In his 2017 special edition Buchenwald Concentration Camp Weimar in April 1945 - Who Liberated Buchenwald , Möller was able to use American documents to provide scientific evidence that, contrary to previous knowledge, units of the 4th US Armored Division were already ahead of the 6th US Armored Division , which were the first to pass Funk reported on the discovery of the camp, reached the Buchenwald camp and thus triggered all further events that led to the final liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Jürgen Möller is married and lives in Winkelhaid near Nuremberg .

Military scientific works (selection)

Exhibitions / media productions (selection)

  • 2005 The war is over - Weißenfels April 1945 , Museum Schloss Neu-Augustusburg Weißenfels
  • 2006–2008 Forward to the River Mulde - The American occupation of the southern Leipzig area in April 1945 , traveling exhibitions: Museum Stadt Pegau, Stadtmühle Groitzsch, Alte Mälzerei Zeitz, Museum der Stadt Borna, Schule Rötha, Heimatmuseum Kitzscher, High School Markkleeberg / Zöbiger district, Gustav -Adolf Museum Lützen,
  • 2010 The occupation of the Querfurt district - 65 years of the end of the war , Museum Burg Querfurt,
  • 2013 1945 - End of the war in Zeitz and the surrounding area , Museum Schloss Moritzburg Zeitz
  • 2017 War is over, Robert Capa in Leipzig , permanent exhibition in the Capa-Haus, collaboration
  • 2015 MDR documentation Lost Fathers, Forgotten Fathers - when the Americans came to the Saale as a consultant
  • 2019 MDR culture podcast series The secret depots of Buchenwald by Peter-Hugo Scholz , consultant part 6/7
  • 2020 MDR documentation Der Retter von Gotha - Ritter von Gadolla as a specialist advisor

Honors

  • 2006 Silver merit clasp of the regional association of Bavaria Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. for services to the work of war grave care
  • 2007 Central German Historians Prize Ur-Krostitzer Jahresring 2007

Others

Jürgen Möller had been a member of an American veterans organization since 2005, the 69th Infantry Division (Torgau Division), which was the first American division to meet with Soviet troops near Strehla on the Elbe. This historical event is commemorated every five years as part of Elbe Day at the official memorial in Torgau. Möller, who was an honorary member of the Fighting 69th Infantry Div.Ass. was, and has been a member of the successor organization The 69the Infantry Division Next Generation Group since 2016 , was awarded for his contribution to the realization of a plaque in memory of the fallen on both sides during the fighting at Weißenfels in April 1945 and the reappraisal of history on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary at the end of the war in April 2007 by a representative of the Consulate General of the United States of America Leipzig with the commemorative plaque of the 69th Infantry Division. The inauguration of the memorial plaque in Schloss Neu-Augustusburg Weißenfels took place on April 13, 2005 as part of a ceremony on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the end of the war in the presence of representatives of the state government of Saxony-Anhalt as well as representatives of the German Armed Forces and the US Army.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Flössberg and Borna Memorials , accessed on January 1, 2018
  2. ↑ Remembrance Day on April 18, 1945 , accessed on January 1, 2018
  3. ↑ Buchenwald 1937–1945: "Masses of armored vehicles and tanks rolled over the mountain" , accessed on January 4, 2018
  4. ↑ Arrival of the patrol of Captain Frederic Keffer (Keffer patrol) on April 11, 1945 in Buchenwald , accessed on January 9, 2018
  5. ↑ How the US troops came to the Saale in 1945 , accessed on January 5, 2018
  6. ↑ When the Americans came to the Saale. In: YouTube. Retrieved November 18, 2019 .
  7. ↑ The secret depots of Buchenwald. In: mdr culture. Retrieved November 16, 2019 .
  8. ↑ The Savior of Gotha - Knight of Gardolla. In: mdr television. Retrieved April 3, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Jürgen Möller honor in Naumburg , accessed on January 9, 2018
  10. ^ Weissenfels Memorial , accessed January 9, 2018

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Möller, Jürgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military historian
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Gotha