Kausche kettle
The Kausche Kessel was an enclosure of German troops and civilians by Soviet troops in the course of the Berlin operation in April 1945 in and around the town of Kausche in Niederlausitz .
prehistory
On April 16, 1945, the battle for Berlin began with the three front sections of the Soviet armed forces: north, center and south. In the northern section was the 2nd Belarusian Front under Marshal Konstantin Rokossowski , in the middle section the 1st Belarusian Front under Georgi Zhukov and in the southern section the 1st Ukrainian Front under Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Konev . A total of 1,593,800 men were deployed on these three front sections. In the Cottbus-Potsdam operation, the 1st Ukrainian Front under Marshal Konew had the task of crossing the Neisse between Forst and Bad Muskau , breaking the defensive lines of the 4th Panzer Army there, advancing towards Cottbus and Spremberg and then into the Berlin operation to intervene from the south. The headquarters of the German troops stationed in Niederlausitz was in Senftenberg and was commanded by the General of the Panzer Troop Fritz-Hubert Gräser .
Spremberg Fortress
With the start of the major offensive of the Red Army, the 3rd Armored Guard Army under Colonel General P. S. Rybalko , the 13th Army under Colonel General NP Puchow and the 5th Guards Army under Colonel General AS Schadow of the 1st Ukrainian Front advanced to the city of Spremberg, which had been declared a fortress . With the now known thrusts of the Soviet troops, the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Center Field Marshal Schörner ordered the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg" under Major General of the Waffen-SS Heinz Harmel to move in an express march from Görlitz to Niederlausitz to Spremberg. Not all vehicles reach their destination, supply troops were already lying in the Bautzen area due to the constantly worsening fuel situation . On April 17, the combat units of the 10th SS Panzer Division reached their target area and on April 18 set up their division command post in Roitz , west of Spremberg.
The attacking Soviet units were able to quickly gain significant space and also pushed past Spremberg to the south and north. A weakly defended security line was still east of Spremberg, which was defended and held for the time being by the Führer-Escort Division under Major General Otto Ernst Remer . The 344th Infantry Division under Major General Erwin Jolasse, which stood north of Spremberg on the Spree section, withdrew south towards the urban area of Spremberg due to the Soviet 3rd Guard Panzer Army that had broken through in the north. In order to prevent a possible encirclement by the Soviet troops pushing past Spremberg, the Führer-Escort-Division moved its command post to Gosda , west of Spremberg, on the evening of April 18, 1945 . On the morning of April 19, 1945, only a narrow corridor to the west remained open to the three German units. In the north, the Soviet 13th Army advanced with the 24th Rifle Corps under Major General Onuprienko . To the south of it, Schadov's army advanced with the 34th and 33rd Guards Rifle Corps under Lieutenant General Lebedenko on the fortifications of Spremberg, while to the east of it the 32nd Guards Rifle Corps under Lieutenant General Rodimzew with the 95th Guards Rifle Division (Major General Olejnikow) closed up.
On the evening of April 19, 1945, Major General Remer summoned all available commanders to inform them that they had been surrounded from three sides by Soviet units. Thereupon the commanders of the three larger German units formed the "Kampfgruppe Spremberg", which comprised a total of around 20,000 men .
On the night of April 19 to April 20, 1945, the Soviet troops prepared to attack Spremberg. Spremberg was shot ready for assault in a 30-minute continuous bombardment from 1247 guns of every caliber of the 7th and 10th Artillery Breakthrough Corps and other artillery brigades as well as forces of the 2nd Air Army under Colonel General Krassowski . On the morning of April 20, 1945, the three German units were locked in a boiler northwest of Spremberg. On the morning of April 20, 1945, the first Soviet troops penetrated the city center - the 24th Rifle Corps from the north, the 95th Guards Rifle Division and the 33rd Guards Rifle Corps from the east and south - and completely conquered the city by evening. The losses among the defenders of the "Spremberg Fortress" amounted to about 2000 men, 1130 men were taken prisoner .
For the three enclosed divisions there was a clear order from April 20, 1945 to Major General Ernst Harmel
“ The gap in the front between Spremberg and Cottbus that has arisen in your sector must be closed by an immediate attack. You are personally responsible to me for carrying out this order. You have to lead the attack victoriously or your division to fall. "
only one more option, to break out of the basin to the northwest. The commander of the 344th Infantry Division Major General Jolasse had extreme reservations about participating in this outbreak and wanted to hold the "Spremberg Fortress" at all costs. Under Major General Harmel the following breakout plan was established:
1. All vehicles and weapons that are not absolutely necessary for the outbreak are destroyed. The fuel must be completely pumped out before destruction so that the vehicles intended for the breakout must be refueled.
2. The remnants of the 10th SS Panzer Division stand ready and force the breakthrough.
3. Remer takes the rear guard with the remnants of the Führer-Escort-Division. The group receives tracked vehicles to take away the wounded.
4. The direction of the outbreak was to the northwest, in order to gain connection to the own troops ( Wenck Army ) in the area south of Berlin . The outbreak is to take place through the forests of Niederlausitz .
On the morning of April 21, 1945, two of the three German units trapped, other troop units and the Spremberger Volkssturm broke out of the “Spremberg Kessel”. With it to inhabitants and refugees, mainly the Soviet and Polish troops also involved, the Spremberg now were plundered and pillaged , wanted to get to safety.
An outbreak of this magnitude was of course not hidden from the Soviet units, so that the 24th Rifle Corps from the north and the 33rd Guards Rifle Corps from the south undertook an extended encircling attack and united south of the town of Kausche at noon on April 21, 1945.
Kausche kettle
The 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg", which had its command post in Roitz, the Führer-Escort Division with command post in Gosda broke out to the northwest in the direction of Kausche.
The tip of the outbreak was formed by the 10th SS Panzer Division, which fought its way between Wolkenberg and Gosda through wooded areas towards Welzow . The Führer-Begleit-Division was pushed to the north by attacks on Gosda and swerved north into blind forest areas, where it was exposed to strong enemy fire. In the course of the morning of April 21, the other escaping units then reached the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg". The 344th Infantry Division under Jolasse, who had only been promoted to Lieutenant General the day before and who wanted to hold the "Kessel von Spremberg" at all costs, united with the escaping units around noon. The breakout column of the associations involved stretched to almost 2.5 kilometers due to the often faltering breakout and shelling.
In the afternoon, a small advance command from SS Pioneer Battalion 10 reached the village of Kausche, which was already occupied by Soviet troops. They did not yet know that a force of around 20,000 men was moving towards the village. Since Kausche was directly in the direction of the outbreak of the German associations, the village had to be taken. Towards the evening of April 21st, Kausche was retaken. In the next few hours, more and more German associations, some of which had to make their way through forest areas or were involved in smaller skirmishes , arrived in Kausche.
The Soviet troops had meanwhile surrounded Kausche from the north, south and east, the German troops were stuck again, now in the “Kausche Kessel”. There was also no escape for the civilian population who remained in the village and those accompanying the German troops. Women and girls from Kausche described the fate of rape and abuse in the last few hours. The commanders of the German units therefore decided that all civilians on the way west should be taken in their vehicles.
While the three German divisions were stuck again, Hitler in Berlin , completely ignorant of the situation , demanded that the "Kampfgruppe Spremberg" be supplied by the Luftflotte Reich under Ia Karl Kessel , as there was a considerable gap in the front between Spremberg and Cottbus . Neither the air transport chief nor the operations department of the "Luftflotte Reich" knew the exact location of the "Kampfgruppe Spremberg". A supply from the air never took place.
Breakout from the Kausche kettle
In the morning hours of April 22, 1945, the German units gathered again to break out. The small village of Kausche and the surrounding area of about 5 km² was completely overcrowded with people and material. The remaining fuel was pumped onto the intact vehicles, everything that could not be taken was blown up or made unusable.
In the morning, after exploring the situation, the first tanks and SPWs of the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg", also manned by civilians , set off on forest paths in the direction of Klein Görigk , Geisendorf . In the vicinity of Geisendorf, swampy terrain began which was bordered on both sides by forests. The swampy meadows were already controlled by Soviet PaK , artillery and machine gun fire . They had intercepted unencrypted radio messages the day before, from which the activities of the German troops became known. Soviet troops such as the 117th Guards Rifle Division and the 1228th SFL Artillery Regiment, which were already operating in the Calau area , were relocated back to the Kausche area in order to strengthen the troops there.
The main part of the 344th Infantry Division and the Führer-Begleit-Division also broke out to the northwest. But they too expected the same fate: strong Soviet units controlled the direction of the outbreak with ever stronger fire and inflicted considerable losses on the slow moving convoy. Parts of the 344th Infantry Division that tried to break out to the north were also inflicted heavy losses there by Soviet troops, so that they then had to swivel west. The whole tragedy of the intercepted radio messages was now more than clear in all sections.
Getting through elsewhere was no longer possible and therefore had to be enforced at Geisendorf. In the hope of blocking the view of the enemy troops, the first meadow, which was about 800 meters long and 600 meters wide, was fogged in order to then cross it in small groups with people and material. The Soviet troops, aware of their strategic advantage, shot into the smoke screen with every available caliber. But anyone who had reached the protective forest after the first death meadow was far from safe, because immediately after Geisendorf behind a railway embankment, which proved to be an additional obstacle that was difficult to overcome, there was another open field about 1000 meters long and 600 meters wide under Soviet fire. But even here there was only one way and it had to be overcome. The situation became increasingly confusing and hopeless. After larger units had gathered in the nearby forest, the eruption continued in the only possible free remaining direction to Greifenhain (colony) , Ressen . But this hope for a free escape direction was soon dashed, as the front had long since caught up with these places. Ressen had already been occupied on April 19, 1945, that is, before Spremberg, where the troops had escaped encirclement for the first time. Despite the completely hopeless situation, the German troops and the civilians accompanying them also crossed the third “death meadow” that was now in front of them, where they were caught under fire from all sides. Thousands of soldiers, men, women and children were left behind on what would later become known as the “death meadows”. In addition to the innumerable deaths, the divisions suffered considerable losses of all types of material and, from a strategic point of view, were no longer operational. Contemporary witnesses later reported that when crossing the meadows, quite a few found themselves disoriented to alleged German lines, because from there the familiar sound of German MG-42s could be heard. But this also meant certain death, because there were Soviet troops with previously captured German weapons.
Contemporary witness report:
“ … We were fair game. Regardless of whether soldiers or civilians, men, women or children, young or old, you could have captured us on this meadow surrounded by forest…. They wanted to destroy everything German here, man and woman and child, old, young, now and here…. "
The units of the I. and IV. Divisions of the 10th SS Panzer Artillery Regiment and a battalion of the Fuehrer Accompanying Division with a total strength of 1500 men, which had remained in Kausche for rear protection , were defeated by two Soviet soldiers at the same time as the events on the fields of death Attacked by regiments of the 9th Guards Airborne Division under Major General Shtykows. Under the command of Lieutenant Wulf from the Führer-Accompanying Division, Kausche could be held until the early afternoon of April 22, 1945. Then these troops also broke out towards the west, with great losses. 760 men lost their lives in the process.
losses
Only a few of the 1,000 strong battalion of the “ Volkssturm Leipzig ” and the deployed Volkssturm battalion “von Saher” from Spremberg survived the fighting in and around Kausche.
It is estimated that there were around 5,000 to 7,000 dead soldiers and civilians on the German side. The 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg" alone lost about 2000 men on April 22, 1945. On the Soviet side, 1,271 soldiers and officers died in the entire operation in the Spremberg district, half of them in the Kausche area.
The 95th Guards Rifle Division and 117th Guards Rifle Division destroyed 24 tanks, 55 armored cars and 118 motor vehicles on April 22nd alone. 673 German prisoners were taken. The 9th Guards Airborne Division, which had attacked the troops remaining in Kausche for security, destroyed 21 tanks, assault guns or armored cars and 395 motor vehicles. In addition, 47 artillery pieces, 86 machine guns and 670 rifles were captured. 645 Germans were taken prisoner.
At the beginning of May, thousands of dead were buried, mostly on site, in grenade holes and trenches. A few were buried in community cemeteries in the area. Later temporarily buried victims were exhumed again and brought to the Halbe military cemetery and buried there.
In 1996 the village of Kausche was occupied by the advancing Welzow-Süd opencast mine . The fallen from the fighting in April 1945 from a mass grave with 115 dead, buried in the community cemetery , were reburied in the German military cemetery in Spremberg . There is also a military cemetery in Neupetershain-Nord with 672 dead, as well as in Radensdorf with 230 war dead.
Fallen of the Volkssturm
fallen on April 22, 1945
Relocation of the Kausche community cemetery
Unknown German soldiers
Unknown nurse
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Involved troops
German troops
- 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg" (in action in Spremberg, Kausche)
- 344th Infantry Division (Spremberg, Kausche)
- Guide-Accompanying Division (Spremberg, Kausche)
- Panzer-Jagdverband G, set up in Spremberg in February 1945 from dispersed troops, combat strength 120 men (Spremberg, thimble)
- Volkssturmbataillon 16/263 “Von Saher” consisting of three companies with approx. 100 men each under the command of Mr. von Saher, the manor from Straussdorf . (Spremberg, thimble)
- Volkssturm Leipzig (approx. 100 men) (Spremberg, Kausche)
Soviet troops
- 1st Ukrainian Front (Spremberg, Kausche)
- 6th Guards Rifle Division (Spremberg)
- 7th Artillery Breakthrough Corps (Spremberg)
- 9th Airborne Guard Division (Spremberg)
- 10th Artillery Breakthrough Corps (Spremberg)
- 24th Rifle Corps (Spremberg, Kausche encirclement)
- 33rd Guards Rifle Corps (Spremberg, Kausche encirclement)
- 95th Guards Rifle Division (Spremberg, Kausche encirclement)
- 117th Guards Rifle Division (Death Meadows Geisendorf, Neupetershain)
- 172nd Rifle Division (Spremberg)
- 1228th SPG Artillery Regiment (Death Meadows Geisendorf, Neupetershain)
Others
During a visit to the Geisendorf area by a former soldier of the Führer-Accompanying Division in 1995, a resident asked him whether he had fought here too?
“ Dear Sir, we didn't fight here any more, here we just ran for our lives. "
Throw today
Kausche was located in the catchment area of the Welzow-Süd opencast mine . Between 1993 and 1996 all residents were relocated. In the nearby Drebkau a new district with the name Kausche was created. Kausche was the first place in Niederlausitz that was completely relocated. In 1996 all buildings in (old) Kausche were demolished and the place was completely devastated . Around 2000 the place was excavated. Today, the open pit has moved on and the area around the former local situation thimble mining landscape again produced .
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Remember today
In Spremberg, the memory of the events of 1945 about the fighting in the city itself and in and around Kausche is extremely controversial and divides those involved into two groups. One group, which is in favor of commemorating all those involved in the fighting, and the other group, which advocates commemoration, but excludes members of the SS divisions involved, knowing full well that in 1945 no longer only volunteers served there. Even after decades, different views are held over the graves of the fallen to this day.
In 1997 the then mayor Egon Wochatz was approached by an individual whether it would be possible in Spremberg, where he served as an 18-year-old in the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg", to have a memorial stone erected for his fallen comrades . Wochatz advocated this without further consultation, but insisted on a neutral inscription. The memorial stone was then brought to Spremberg in the spring of 1998 without any further agreement on this inscription. Wochatz rejected the already incorporated inscription - “In honor of our fallen comrades” - the veterans of the Frundsberg Panzer Division - because the inscription was by no means neutral and the addition “Panzer Division” would have to be dispensed with. After the matter became public, there were protests from all political camps. The seized stone was ultimately not installed and was returned to the donors.
In October 2009, veterans of the "Frundsberger", a non-banned veterans' organization of the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg", laid down a bouquet of flowers at a ceremony at the German military cemetery in Spremberg. After a citizen complained about the text "Frundsberger" on the ribbons, these were cut off.
In October 2010, the members of the city council of Spremberg decided to allow commemorative days such as the memorial day "wreath loops only from municipalities , religious communities and the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge , but not from associations and other organizations" at future embedment celebrations .
Only a few days later, on October 23, 2010, this new regulation led to a scandal. The “Association for the Clarification of the Fate of Missing and Fallen People e. V. “(VKSVG), the police on-site were denied participation in the embedding ceremony. Only after cutting off the loops with their abbreviation “VKSVG e. V. “it was possible to participate and to put down the flower arrangements. Protests by the association were rejected by the then mayor and current member of the Bundestag, Klaus-Peter Schulze .
On August 31, 2019, an embedding ceremony organized by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge took place at the German military cemetery. With this, representatives of all factions of the city Spremberg, Mayor Christine Herntier, former President of the Parliament of Brandenburg Gunter Fritsch and other personalities. During the speeches, the dead of the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg" were mentioned and their victims were commemorated with the laying down of a wreath. A few days later, the wreath of the "Frunsbergers", which had been placed on an improvised burial mound, was stolen.
literature
- Andreas Kottwitz: Spremberg is a front-line town - the days from April 16, 1945 to April 23, 1945. 2nd edition, 1994, self-published.
- Andreas Kottwitz: The firestorm near Kausche. Home calendar of the city of Spremberg, 1997.
- Christian Lucia: From Kausche to Ressen - ways of an outbreak in April 1945. Self-published.
- Max Pilop: The Liberation of Lusatia. VEB Domowina Verlag, Bautzen 1985.
Footnotes
- ↑ From Kausche to Ressen. 2nd edition, page 40, 3rd section
- ↑ From Kausche to Ressen. 2nd edition, page 41, section 3
- ↑ From Kausche to Ressen. 2nd edition, page 105, 1st section
- ^ The liberation of Lusatia. Page 102, Section 3
- ^ The liberation of Lusatia. Page 102, Section 3
- Jump up around a memorial stone in Spremberg. In: Lausitzer Rundschau , Spremberg edition, September 11, 1998 ( beginning of the article in the Genios database ).
- ↑ Spremberg does not want any right-wing extremists at the graves. In: Lausitzer Rundschau , Spremberg edition, May 21, 2010.
- ^ Violent dispute over wreath loops when reburied on the Georgenberg. In: Lausitzer Rundschau , Spremberg edition, October 28, 2010.