Josef Grimm

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Josef Grimm
Pastor Grimm memorial near Unterleiten
Plaque
Grimm / Hangl monument in Götting
Grimm / Hangl monument (detail)
Grimm / Hangl memorial stone on the RO8 district road above Unterleiten

Josef Grimm (born January 13, 1900 in Deisenried , Miesbach district ; † April 28, 1945 in Götting ) was a pastor in Götting and was murdered there by the SS shortly before the end of the war .

Life

Josef Grimm grew up with six siblings (three sisters and three brothers) on an agricultural property in Oberaudorf . He was encouraged to become a priest by an acquaintance of the family, later Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Neuhäusler .

After four years of studying theology at the Lyceum in Freising , he was ordained a priest on June 29, 1925 by Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber . On July 12, 1925, he celebrated his first Mass in Oberaudorf. This was followed by 13 years as an auxiliary and temporary priest in Grüntegernbach , Surberg , Altfraunhofen , Feldmoching and Untermenzing .

In 1938 he took over the parish of St. Martin in Untermenzing and in 1939 he was transferred to Götting to live closer to his homeland.

assassination

Towards the end of the Second World War there were around 40 to 50 soldiers from the SS-Jagdverband Nordwest in Götting. For the most part, they withdrew on April 27, 1945, leaving a detachment consisting of about five men and a few women. They had set up a writing room in the Gasthaus Eder.

After the teacher Georg Hangl heard the calls of the Bavarian Freedom Campaign (FAB) on the radio on the morning of April 28, 1945 (The FAB had announced that it had fought for government the night before and called on the population to call on the functionaries to disempower the NSDAP), he went to Grimm around 6.30 a.m. to tell him about what he had just heard. A short time later they hoisted the white and blue Bavaria flag together on the south side of the church tower. The swastika flag was thrown down and caught in the gutter of the church.

Around 7 a.m., the two went to the landlord Josef Eder (Mayor of Götting until 1933) and told him about the FAB's appeal and about their plan to take action against the National Socialists on site. First, the remaining SS car that was in the nearby shelter was supposed to be damaged. However, since SS-Obersturmführer Bachot slept in the car, this was not implemented.

Hangl then went to the school to inform the students that classes would be canceled that day. According to police, he used the words "(they) can go home and kill the Nazis".

In the meantime, the captain of a squadron of the Army Horse Hospital, who was also on site, went to the rectory in order to have the white and blue flag drawn in and the swastika flag removed from the gutter in the interests of peace and order. The white and blue flag was removed during morning mass and by 8 a.m. the swastika flag was removed from the church roof.

During the course of the morning, Grimm, Hans Gruber and Georg Eisenreich met in the schoolhouse near Hangl to discuss the morning's events. A soldier of the Army Horse Hospital Squadron came later and demanded the surrender of the swastika flag. So Grimm went with him to the rectory.

Around noon the pastor went to the school house again and said that he was going to Bad Aibling to get hosts there. There he visited the Rotthaler couple in the early afternoon and reported on the events in Götting. The couple offered to hide him, but Grimm refused, since he still had to hear confession and pray the rosary; so he left for Gotting around 3 p.m.

At around 3 p.m. SS-Obersturmführer Bachot and three other SS men returned to the place. A short time later they brought the second mayor Martin Krattenmacher, the community clerk Karl Braßler as well as the messner Josef Wörndl and his son into the office to question them about hoisting the white and blue flag. The questioning was inconclusive, however, as the interviewees did not provide any information about the process.

Subsequently, Pastor Grimm was picked up by the SS in the parsonage and also interrogated in the office. After the end of the interrogation, Grimm asked to be allowed to say goodbye to his elderly, seriously ill mother who was lying in the rectory, but he was driven immediately in the opposite direction to the road to Irschenberg , from where the SS men about half an hour later, around 17 Clock without the pastor returned. Allegedly the pastor had been handed over to the security service.

Soon afterwards the SS men came to the school house and arrested Georg Hangl on the grounds that he had to make a statement about the “pastor”. Shortly afterwards he was shot by the SS while on the run (probably after a blow from Bachot). The SS troops left Götting that same night.

After more and more doubts arose about the pastor's whereabouts, a search was initiated around noon the following day, in which the gendarmerie and residents of Götting were involved. After about an hour, Grimm's body was found in a hollow in the forest above Unterleiten near the road to Irschenberg. She was covered with fir branches and still held the rosary in her left hand. The body had a shot in the neck and chipped front teeth (possibly caused by the shot in the neck). There were numerous small stitches (possibly from a knife or dagger) on the back of the head and neck, and the fingernails were bloodshot.

Grimm was laid out in the rectory. Apparently, by order of the SS, an honorable burial should be refused. Two days after the US Army moved in, Hangl and Pastor Grimm were buried on May 3, 1945, with great sympathy from the Göttingen population.

Criminal law processing

First investigation in 1945

As early as June 1945, the district office initiated an investigation. In August 1945, the first minutes of the interrogations of relatives and eyewitnesses were available. It was possible to identify three people who were presumed to be part of the group of perpetrators: Obersturmführer Josef Bachot, Unterscharführer Gaston Koeken and Unterscharführer Jean Moens. Since all three were Belgians, information was obtained from there. It turned out that Koeken and Moens had already been sentenced to lengthy imprisonment terms by a Belgian court martial and that the untraceable Bachot (in absentia) was even sentenced to death. Because of this, the Traunstein Public Prosecutor's Office closed the investigation at the end of 1950.

Arrest of Bachot in 1961

In May 1961 Josef Bachot, who lived under a false name, was discovered near Hanover . Thereupon the Traunstein public prosecutor arranged for his arrest and resumed the investigation. He always denied his involvement in the Hangl and Grimm murders. Bachot's lawyers tried several times to obtain parole. However, he remained for escape and danger of collusion in remand .

Preliminary investigations 1962

In January 1962 there were three trials at the Traunstein Regional Court against Josef Bachot, Heinz K. and Leonhard L. In the interrogation on January 9, the former Unterscharfuhrer Heinz K. charged with his testimony on the murder of Pastor Grimm Bachot and Moens. He himself participated in a house search during the pick-up of Hangl, but was not involved in the shooting of the teacher.

Leonhard L. was unable to provide any relevant information about the two murders, as he was mainly in the office. However, he had heard that Bachot was involved in the shooting of concentration camp prisoners and foreign workers near Gießen-Marburg.

Thereupon the trial was opened against Bachot as well as against Leonhard L. and Heinz K. Koeken and Moens were also to be questioned about the matter, but Koeken was meanwhile placed in a mental hospital and could no longer give any relevant information about the events. The statement by Jean Moens about the two murders weighed heavily on Bachot.

The preliminary investigations were completed in May 1962. The main hearing was delayed due to a pending request for legal assistance from the Belgian authorities.

Main hearing in 1963

On February 27, 1963, the main trial against Bachot began at the Traunstein Regional Court; he was charged with murder. A case against Heinz K. for complicity in murder was not opened for lack of evidence. A charge against Leonhard L. is not recorded in the files.

All of the surviving witnesses repeated their statements. Since Jean Moens was not personally present, the minutes of the interrogation carried out on a provisional basis as well as the statements of the witnesses who had already died were read out. On March 6, 1963, the taking of evidence was completed. The prosecution's application was for life imprisonment for each of the two murders and the deprivation of civil rights .

The verdict was announced on March 7, 1963: Pastor Grimm was “guilty of a crime of manslaughter” and an acquittal in the case of Hangl's execution. The sentence was 7 years in prison, taking full account of the pre-trial detention.

Both the defense and the chief prosecutor appealed. The Federal Court of Justice overturned the judgment on October 22, 1963 and referred the proceedings back to the Traunstein Regional Court. In December 1963, Bachot was released from custody.

New main hearing in 1965

On October 14, 1965, the main hearing was opened again. The taking of evidence this time only included the crime against Pastor Grimm, as the acquittal was already final with regard to Hangl's shooting. The relevant witnesses were questioned again.

On the fifth day of the trial the verdict was announced: guilty of manslaughter. This time, the sentence was three years and six months, including pre-trial detention. Josef Bachot had to pay the (partially reduced) costs of the proceedings.

In the grounds of the judgment it was mentioned that Bachot had been brought up to be submissive and obedient from an early age and that his membership in the SS had a negative influence on a normal awareness of injustice. Furthermore, towards the end of the war, human life would have counted little. In addition, Grimm had committed a serious crime according to the case law at the time, for which he was severely punished.

The public prosecutor's office in Traunstein appealed again. However, it was rejected by the Federal Court of Justice on June 28, 1966. In September 1966, the remaining one year and one month imprisonment - against the objection of the public prosecutor - was converted into a three-year suspended sentence. On October 13, 1966, the warrant was overturned.

Commemoration

  • At the place where the pastor's body was found, a wooden cross was set up as early as 1945.
  • In 1947 Schulstrasse in Munich-Untermenzing was renamed Pfarrer-Grimm-Strasse .
  • Naming of the Pfarrer-Grimm-Straße in Götting.
  • On March 22nd, 2009, the Grimm / Hangl memorial was unveiled in the Götting cemetery.
  • The Catholic Church accepted Pastor Josef Grimm as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letter from the Bruckmühl gendarmerie to the chief public prosecutor at the Traunstein regional court on April 29, 1945. Munich State Archives, Public Prosecutor's Office 31245/3
  2. ↑ Gertrud Rotthaler's interrogation record of February 17, 1947. Munich State Archives, Public Prosecutor's Office 31245/3
  3. ↑ interrogation transcript Martin Krattenmacher of 17 June 1945 Karl Brassler senior of 19 June 1945 Josef Wörndl and junior of 16 August 1945. State Archives in Munich, public prosecutors 31245/1 and 2
  4. ↑ Examination memorandum, former veterinarian captain Dr. Jan Entjer dated June 27, 1945. Munich State Archives, public prosecutor's offices 31245/2
  5. ^ Copy of a letter from the Bruckmühl gendarmerie to the chief public prosecutor at the Traunstein regional court on April 29, 1945. Munich State Archives, Public Prosecutor's Office 31245/3
  6. ↑ interrogation transcript Sebastian Schönweitz of 14 November 1961. State Archives in Munich, public prosecutors 31245/4
  7. ^ Photocopy of the corpse certificate no. 42 from April 1945 of the Aibling Police Department. State Archives Munich, public prosecutor's offices 31245/3
  8. ↑ interrogation transcript of the corpse Maria Mitter Miller November 14, 1961. State Archives in Munich, public prosecutors 31245/4
  9. ^ Letter from the Traunstein Public Prosecutor's Office dated December 23, 1950. Munich State Archives, Public Prosecutor's Office 31245/4
  10. ↑ Minutes of the interrogation of former Unterscharführer Heinz K. from 9./10. January 1962. Munich State Archives, Public Prosecutor's Office 31245/4
  11. ↑ interrogation transcript. Hauptsturmfuehrer Leonhard L. of 26 February 1962. Former State Archives in Munich, public prosecutors 31245/5
  12. ^ Translation of the transcript of the interrogation of the former Unterscharführer Jean Moens on April 7, 1962. Munich State Archives, Public Prosecutor's Office 31245/5
  13. ↑ Various litigation documents. State Archives Munich, public prosecutor's offices 31245/9
  14. ^ Judgment in the criminal case against Josef Bachot of October 21, 1965. Munich State Archives, Public Prosecutor's Office 31245/9
personal data
SURNAME Grimm, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman, pastor in Götting
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Deisenried , Miesbach district
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1945
Place of death Götting