Power Werner Jaeger

Krafft Werner Jaeger (born July 6, 1919 in Stuttgart ; † March 13, 2008 in Bad Rappenau ) was a German officer in the Wehrmacht and resistance fighter against National Socialism . After the end of the war he worked as a businessman, cynologist and entomologist .

Life

Krafft Werner Jaeger, son of the officer and resistance fighter against National Socialism Friedrich Gustav Jaeger , finished his school years in 1938. While he was doing his compulsory labor service (RAD) in Fürstenwalde , Jaeger made the acquaintance of the estate owner and resistance fighter Carl-Hans Graf von Hardenberg . After the outbreak of World War II , he was part of a RAD construction battalion during the attack on Poland . As a flag boy in the Wehrmacht, Jaeger took part in the western campaign in 1940. After several promotions, he attended the war school in Potsdam-Bornstedt and received the officer patent in early February 1941. Then Jaeger took part in the German-Soviet War . Due to a serious wounding of Jaeger during the fighting for Moscow, a hospital stay of several weeks followed.

After his recovery, Jaeger was transferred to the "Greater Germany" guard battalion in Berlin in January 1942 . In February 1942, Jaeger met his father again at the funeral of his late mother. His father told him about his contacts to the resistance against National Socialism and the planned overthrow of Hitler. Jaeger assured his cooperation, since his father should take over the guard battalion "Greater Germany" after a successful coup.

With the rank of first lieutenant, however, Jaeger was transferred from Berlin to replacement troops in Frankfurt an der Oder . There he tried to win a trusted lieutenant for the resistance, but was reported by him. Jaeger was arrested on April 1, 1943 and transferred to the Lehrter Strasse cell prison in Berlin. There Jaeger was in custody for three months and was acquitted by the Reich Court Martial on July 2, 1943 for lack of evidence . Then Jaeger was deployed in Denmark and Italy. After the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944 , Jaeger was arrested at the beginning of August 1944 in an Italian hospital, where he was lying due to an injury. Two Wehrmacht officers escorted him to Berlin where he was initially imprisoned in the Gestapo prison at Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8. From there he was transferred back to the Lehrter Straße cell prison on August 13, 1944. Jaeger's father was sentenced to death before the People's Court because of the failed putsch by Roland Freisler and executed on August 21, 1944.

On February 20, 1945, Jaeger was transferred from prison to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . Jaeger was marked there as a prisoner at risk of fleeing , whose return was undesirable . As a member of the Wehrmacht, he came to the "education block" and was employed in the camp kitchen, the prisoners' office and, most recently, during night work as a "camp air situation reporter". On April 20, 1945 Jaeger was promoted to captain and entrusted with the management of the camp people storm. However, two days later the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was evacuated and the prisoners, including Jaeger, sent on a death march .

After that, Jaeger was first captured by the Americans in Schwerin and then by the British. During the internment, he made statements about the camp personnel in Sachsenhausen concentration camp and was thus able to contribute to the apprehension of those responsible for the concentration camp crimes there.

After his internment, Jaeger performed various professional activities from 1946, including as a bookbinder and graphic artist. Jaeger married in 1947 and the couple had a son. His first marriage was divorced in 1952 and Jaeger remarried in 1953. From 1957 he worked as an independent businessman for about three years and sold prefabricated houses. Jaeger then dealt with cynology and became a breeder of Asian domestic dogs. From 1978 Jaeger worked as an entomologist and studied the occurrence of butterflies in the Wollenbachtal nature reserve. Jaeger has published specialist articles and books in both cynology and entomology. From 1990 Jaeger devoted himself to his family history and in this context in particular to heraldry . In the mid-1990s, Jaeger was present at the inauguration of a memorial plaque for his father in Kirchberg an der Jagst, his birthplace, as well as a street name change ("Fritz-Jaeger-Allee") in Wünsdorf . Jaeger died in the spring of 2008.

literature

Winfried Meyer (Ed.): Conspirators in the concentration camp - Hans von Dohnanyi and the prisoners of July 20, 1944 in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , Berlin 1999, series of publications by the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation , Vol. 5: Edition Hentrich, ISBN 3-89468-251-5

Web links

• Susanne Eckelmann: Power Werner Jaeger. Tabular curriculum vitae in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )