Jakob Lichtenberger

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Jakob Filip Lichtenberger (born April 1, 1909 in Újpázova ( German  Neu-Pasua ), Syrmia , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary ; † January 12, 2005 in Germany) was a National Socialist -oriented association functionary in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , Hauptsturmführer of the Waffen-SS and temporarily German " ethnic group leader " in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH).

Life

Lichtenberger came from a Protestant family of preachers. He was the son of Heinrich Lichtenberger and his wife Elisabetha, née Befurt. His grandfather Wilhelm, born in Baden in 1844, came to Serbia as a missionary for an English Bible Society . He studied German, French and South Slavic languages ​​and literature in Bonn, Paris and Belgrade. While still in the position of head of the youth organization of the Swabian-German Cultural Association (youth warden from 1934 to 1935), where he was significantly involved in spreading National Socialist ideas, he joined the renewal movement . In August 1935, Lichtenberger, who had not only refused to obey the federal government, but also advocated the use of force, was removed from office. On January 1, 1939, Lichtenberger was reassigned to the federal government as a state youth leader.

The leading head of the “innovators” was Jakob Awender , who sought to align the policy of the ethnic German minority of Yugoslavia with the German Empire. Awender headed the German Cultural and Welfare Association (KWVD), which competed with the Kulturbund for political supremacy within the German minority. The Deutsche Volksblatt reported on March 1, 1936 that Jakob Lichtenberger and supporters of the KWVD had a meeting of the Kulturbund with calls against their federal leaders like “Shoot them dead, the traitors!” Or “Beat him dead the (Johann) biscuit . Put (Matthias) Giljum on the wall! ”. From May 1936, Lichtenberger was given access to National Socialist publications by the Reich German press such as Völkischer Beobachter , Volk und Rasse, or Der Judenkenner through the Association for German Cultural Relations Abroad .

In the Slavonian or Croatian area, which is not organizationally covered by the Kulturbund, a supporter of the renewal group, Branimir Altgayer , founded the “Culture and Welfare Association of Germans in Slavonia”, which brought numerous local groups into being. Altgayer and Lichtenberger founded their own “Culture and Welfare Association” in Osijek, as well as their own newspaper, the “Slavonian People's Messenger”. After the National Socialists took over the Kulturbund and brought it into line, Lichtenberger and the activist Michael "Michel" Reiser , both reserve officers of the Yugoslav military, were "won over" as leaders for the SS at the suggestion of the new "ethnic group leader" Josef Janko and for training on the SS -Junkerschule Tölz sent to the German Reich . On September 15, 1940 Lichtenberger was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer . As early as the late 1930s, there were armed “self-protection units” within the organized German minority that Lichtenberger commanded. Organized by Michael Reiser (obersturmführer) Lichtenberger in the Independent State of Croatia , a vigilante group, the "team" from the core of it the end of May 1941, the SS modeled and the Ustasha integrated application season of the German team was formed (ES), which he held until 1943 commanded; as well as the "main department for popular education". Soldiers of the Einsatzstaffel initially wore uniforms of the Croatian Home Guard , from the beginning of 1942 then uniforms in the style of the Waffen-SS .

Lichtenberger was also active in the 7th SS volunteer mountain division “Prinz Eugen” . On July 25, 1942, he was transferred to the substitute command southeast of the Waffen-SS and in mid-1943 "on probation" on the eastern front (from October 1943 SS-Hauptsturmführer). From April 1944 Lichtenberger was the commander of the "Jagdverband Croatia der Waffen-SS". From November 11, 1944 to February 1, 1945 he was appointed by the SS Personnel Office while Altgayer ("Volksgruppenführer" and SS-Sturmbannführer ) was on duty at the front as "Volksgruppenführer in Croatia".

On May 7, 1945 Lichtenberger left Croatia for Germany. Here he settled in Pforzheim and worked as a teacher and, according to the historian Johann Böhm , “together with his former Nazi officials at the“ Südostdeutsche Kulturwerk ”in Munich”. In 1974 the retired Lichtenberger left Germany for Brazil , where he worked as a teacher in the Danube Swabian settlement of Entre Rios . Between 1984 and 1985 he conducted interviews there with Danube Swabians who had experienced the Second World War in the Balkans . The representations of contemporary witnesses, mostly spoken in dialect, were transcribed and given to the Entre Rios local history museum. An interview that Lichtenberger, the last living functionary of the Swabian-German Cultural Association, gave to the Serbian daily Danas in Novi Sad is remarkable . Lichtenberger died in Germany in 2005. His written estate remained with the Institute for Danube Swabian History and Regional Studies in Tübingen .

Publications (selection)

  • Mathias Leh. President of Agraria Entre Rios for 15 years. In: Der Donauschwabe from August 2, 1981, p. 1.
  • Photo report of a Danube Swabian settlement in Brazil. ( Portuguese Entre Rios - Documentário ilustrado da colonização suábios danubiana. ) Published for the 25th anniversary of the Cooperativa Agrária Mista Entre Rios Ltda. in 1976, with numerous illustrations and Brazilian and German texts, o. O., o. J., o S.
  • The Bible Man of Belgrade. Südostdeutsches Kulturwerk, Lohrbach 1968.
  • The creation of the “German team” in Yugoslavia up to the conclusion of the war negotiations in April 1941. In: OST-DOK. 16/152.
  • German youth work in Yugoslavia.

literature

  • Méri Frotscher, Marcos Nestor Stein, Beatriz Anselmo Olinto: Memory, resentment and the politization of trauma: narratives of World War II. Donauschwaben Entre Rios, Guarapuava - Paraná.
  • Darko Stuparić, Zdravko Dizdar et al .: Tko je tko u NDH. Hrvatska, 1941-1945 godine. Minerva, Zagreb 1997.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b German Word magazine (Njmacka Rijec). Journal of Germans and Austrians in Croats. Issue 56, Osijek, June 2005. P. 35. The Danube Swab. Messages. Issue 2, Eggenstein – Leopoldshafen, February 2005. p. 19.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Carl Bethke : “No common language?” LIT Verlag Münster, 2013, ISBN 3-64311-754-X , p. 265.
  3. ↑ Jakob Lichtenberger: The Bible Man of Belgrade. Südostdeutsches Kulturwerk, Lohrbach 1968.
  4. ^ A b Rainer Bendel, Robert Pech, Norbert Spannenberger: Church and group formation processes of German minorities in East Central and Southeast Europe 1918–1933. LIT Verlag, Münster 2015, p. 208.
  5. ^ A b c d e f g Johann Böhm : The German ethnic groups in the independent state of Croatia and in the Serbian Banat. Your relationship to the Third Reich 1941–1944. Lang, 2012. ISBN 3-63163-323-8 , p. 15.
  6. ↑ Böhm, p. 223.
  7. ^ Oskar Feldtänzer : The Danube Swabians in the interwar period and their relationship to National Socialism. Felix-Ermacora-Institut , Research Center for the Peoples of the Danube Monarchy, 2003. P. 64.
  8. ↑ Michael Schwartz , Michael Buddrus , Martin Holler, Alexander Post: Functionaries with a past: The founding board of the Federal Association of Expellees and the “Third Reich”. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2013, ISBN 3-48671-626-3 , p. 195.
  9. ^ Philip W. Lyon: After Empire: Ethnic Germans and Minority Nationalism in Interwar Yugoslavia. Ph.D – Thesis., 2008. pp. 407 f.
  10. ↑ Bethke, p. 212.
  11. ^ Hans-Ulrich Wehler : Nationality Policy in Yugoslavia. The German minority 1918–1978. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1980, ISBN 3525013221 , p. 35 ff.
  12. ↑ Thomas Casagrande : The Volksdeutsche SS division "Prinz Eugen". The Banat Swabians and the National Socialist war crimes. Campus Verlag, 2003. ISBN 3-59337-234-7 , p. 137.
  13. ↑ John P. Moore: List of leaders of the Waffen SS. JP Moore Publishing, Portland 2003.
  14. ↑ Casagrande, pp. 143, 301.
  15. ↑ a b Casagrande, p. 154.
  16. ↑ a b Mislav Miholek: German troops of Ustasha Army.
  17. ^ Johann Böhm: The German ethnic group in Yugoslavia 1918-1941. Domestic and foreign policy as symptoms of the relationship between the German minority and the Yugoslav government. Peter Lang, 2009, ISBN 3-631-59557-3 , p. 17 f.
  18. ↑ Casagrande, pp. 154, 156, 157.
  19. ↑ Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims : The Fate of Germans in Yugoslavia. Documents, No. 11: The formation of armed units of the German ethnic group in Croatia as part of the Croatian army in the years 1941–43, their transfer to the Waffen SS division “Prinz Eugen”; the partisan fighting in Syrmia. Pp. 83, 84.
  20. ↑ Ref .: 21c16 Bro./Le.
  21. ↑ a b Obituary. In: Revista de Entre Rios, Guarapuava, March 2005, p. 7.
  22. ↑ Bethke, p. 424.
  23. ↑ Méri Frotscher, Marcos Nestor Stein, Beatriz Anselmo Olinto: Memory, resentment and the politization of trauma: narratives of World War II. Danube Swabians Entre Rios, Guarapuava - Paraná.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The commander of the squadron was nominally Altgayer, in his deputy the actual function of a commander was Lieutenant Colonel Lichtenberger.
  2. ^ The title of the interview was Jugoslaviju nisu rušili Nijemci. Jakob Lichtenberger, posljednji živi Ńclan rukovodstva Kulturbunda u Jugoslaviji, German The last surviving member of the leadership of the Kulturbunda in Yugoslavia.
personal data
SURNAME Lichtenberger, Jakob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lichtenberger, Jakob Filip; Lichtenberger, Jakob Phillip
BRIEF DESCRIPTION National Socialist association functionary in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Újpázova , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 2005
Place of death Germany