Otto groom

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Otto Bräutigam (born May 14, 1895 in Wesel ; † April 30, 1992 in Coesfeld ) was a German diplomat and lawyer who worked for Alfred Rosenberg in both the Foreign Office and the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMfdbO) during the Nazi era has worked in managerial positions. Bridegroom not only knew about the Holocaust , but was involved in it. In the post-war period he got another job in the Foreign Office and in 1954 became head of its eastern department.

Legal career

Early entry into the Foreign Office

Otto Bräutigam was born the son of a district court director in Wesel. After attending the high school in Duisburg , he studied law in Grenoble , Oxford and Strasbourg between 1913 and 1914 . During the First World War he took part in the field artillery fighting on the Western Front, most recently as a first lieutenant . One of his comrades in the regiment was the later "Reich Press Chief" Jacob Otto Dietrich (1897–1952). In the early years of the Weimar Republic , between 1918 and 1919, he completed his studies in Münster with the state examination and completed a legal clerkship at the Coesfeld District Court . As early as 1920 he got a job in the Foreign Office (AA), where he initially worked in the commercial policy department. Most recently he worked there as a "Ruhreinbruchsreferent" (see Ruhr occupation ). 1922 doctorate he attended the University of Giessen Dr. jur. The subject of his dissertation was Proof of Truth in Insults and Its Relation to the Question of Guilt . This was followed by activities in various consulates general , for example in 1923 in Tbilisi , 1924 in Baku , 1925 in Kharkov and 1927 in Odessa .

Getting to know Alfred Rosenberg

As early as 1925 during his time in Charkow, Bräutigam made the acquaintance of the later Nazi chief ideologist Alfred Rosenberg and his later full-time employee of the Foreign Policy Office of the NSDAP (APA) and head of the "Eastern Department" in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMfdbO), Georg Leibbrandt . The Black Sea German Leibbrandt came from near Odessa. Leibbrandt, Rosenberg and Bridegroom were completely on the same political line. In 1928, the groom was transferred to the German embassy in Moscow . In 1930 he became head of the "Economy - Russia" department at the Foreign Office.

time of the nationalsocialism

Relationship to the NSDAP

Groom, like many conservatives, sympathized with the anti-democratic and foreign policy ideas of National Socialism . He was also anti-Semitic . In 1933 he considered the discriminatory measures against Jews in Germany to be justified. In 1968 he spoke of the fact that this discrimination in 1933 was politically unwise only because it had provoked backlash from the influential “ World Jewry ”. In 1935 a long trip to Russia followed on behalf of the AA. In 1936 he was transferred to the German embassy in Paris . Among other things, Ambassador Johannes Graf von Welczeck gave him the task of maintaining contacts with the National Group France of the NSDAP under its head, the Hamburg businessman and Rudolf Schleier , who was consul general at the embassy from June 1941 . Bridegroom joined the NSDAP in December 1936 (membership number 3,752,095). In Paris he made the first acquaintance with the NSDAP Gauleiter Alfred Meyer , who later also worked in the RMfdbO and was also a participant in the Wannsee Conference . In 1939, Bräutigam returned to the Foreign Office and worked in the policy department of the trade policy department. In 1941, Bräutigam was listed as a member of the local group " Brown House " of the NSDAP.

Connection to OKW and OKH

At the beginning of the war , the groom became the liaison man of the Foreign Office with General Georg Thomas , the head of the Economic and Armaments Office in the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW). In November 1939 he was also seconded to the main trust center East (HTO). He was appointed by the head of the trusteeship, Max Winkler (1875–1961). From July 15, 1940, he acted as consul general of the AA in Batum . On March 21, 1941, Groom was ordered back from the Consulate General in Batum to Berlin because of planning the war against the Soviet Union. A vacation was faked to the Soviet authorities. In Berlin he became a member of the “ Russia Committee ” of the AA.

At the beginning of May 1941, at Hitler's instigation, the Russia expert Bräutigam was assigned permanently to the Rosenberg office. There he was engaged under Leibbrandt with the planning of the occupation administration of the areas that Germany wanted to conquer. Areas that would not be directly on the front lines should be under civil administration. This administration was supposed to be the RMfdbO, which was subordinate to Rosenberg and was to be created. The Reichskommissariate Ostland , Ukraine , Russia , Caucasia and Turkestan should be subordinate to this. On June 22, 1941, the German invasion of the Soviet Union began . With the beginning of the "Russian Campaign", the groom became the liaison officer of the Rosenberg office to the commander of the military administration in the Army High Command (OKH). His first place of employment was a headquarters of the OKH, code name Maybach I, about 30 km south of Berlin near Wünsdorf . Bridegroom saw the outbreak of war not only as an inevitable political fate, but it was an expression of his joy. In his diary he wrote:

“Outbreak of war with the Soviet Union. Now it was finally there, the confrontation with Bolshevism . It had to come if a final pacification and reorganization of Europe were to be brought about. For most of them, the outbreak of war was a big surprise, as the camouflage had been carried out until the last minute. "

With the advance of the German troops, the headquarters of the "OKH" was relocated to Mauerwald in East Prussia and the Fuehrer's headquarters in Wolfsschanze nearby. Bridegroom was stationed in Mauerwald. On July 15 he received Rosenberg at the airfield and took him to Wolfsschanze, where they met with Hitler, Keitel, Otto Dietrich, Jodl, Bormann, General Bodenschatz from the Luftwaffe, SS-Oberstgruppenführer Wolff as representative of Himmler, the envoy Hewel from the AA and others for dinner. In a later meeting on July 15 and 16 between Hitler, Keitel, Bormann, Goering and Rosenberg, the details of the new Reich Ministry for the occupied eastern territories were determined. On July 16, 1941, Rosenberg was appointed "Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories" in the presence of Groom at the Führer Headquarters. Rosenberg also had Hitler confirm his commissioners. On July 26, 1941, Hinrich Lohse introduced himself to Hitler at the Fuehrer's headquarters. Erich Koch , the Gauleiter of East Prussia, was forced on Rosenberg by Göring. The groom went to Konigsberg to visit Erich Koch and to let him in on Rosenberg's plans. But Koch had gone to see Reichsmarschall Goering. Erich Koch, who was involved in numerous war crimes, was only a few days later - on August 1, 1941 - appointed civil commissioner and later head of civil administration in the Bialystok district and also Reich commissioner of the Reich Commissioner for Ukraine .

On December 11, 1941 , Germany and Italy declared war on the United States . Groom had attended the session of the German Reichstag that preceded the declaration of war that day.

On December 21, 1941, the groom was again at the Fuehrer's headquarters. There he held a conversation with H. von Tippelkirch and Major Andreas Meyer-Mader. At this time, under General Ernst-August Köstring, the latter set up a "Turk Battalion 450" from Caucasian prisoners of war and those of the Turkic peoples , which he led like a free corps based on the German model and which in the fight against so-called " partisans " (mostly a veiling word for "Jews"), robbing and murdering.

Bridegroom was awarded the War Merit Cross on May 14, 1942, on his 47th birthday . In November 1942, he was the several months ago by Rosenberg in terms of Caucasus issues had received powers of attorney, liaison officer of the East Ministry for Army Group A . This army group had been tasked with conquering the Caucasus. After the defeat of the Wehrmacht in the Battle of Stalingrad , Groom fled to Ukraine and then returned to the RMfdbO.

After the attempted assassination attempt on Hitler , in August 1944, Bräutigam was delegated to the people 's court trials against the people of July 20.

Activity in the East Ministry

On April 11, 1941, a few weeks before the military attack on the Soviet Union, Rosenberg made a drawing in his country house in Mondsee in which he outlined the positions for the central authority of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMfdbO). For groom, Rosenberg planned to head a department that he had called "political department" there. In May 1941, Bräutigam was assigned to the Rosenberg office. At the same time, at the suggestion of Georg Leibbrandt, he became the AA's liaison to the RMfdbO von Rosenberg. The RMfdbO, which moved into the former building of the Yugoslav embassy in Rauchstrasse 17/18 in Berlin, was still in its development process at this early stage. Otto Bräutigam participated in the planning for the establishment of the RMfdbO. In general, Bridegroom was concerned with the “redesign of the European East” and the eradication of communism . (Here it must be noted that the "extermination of communism" in the understanding of Alfred Rosenberg meant the "extermination of Judaism." Rosenberg, who was Bräutigam's immediate superior at this time and whose racial ideology and actions Bräutigam strictly followed, had this fixed chain of associations already established in his youth writings and maintained until his death.)

In particular, he worked in the follow-up period on behalf of Rosenberg - together with Leibbrandt and the Foreign Policy Office of the NSDAP (APA) - an administrative plan and a structure of the eastern areas to be occupied. On June 11, 1941, exactly twelve years after the death of his mother to the day, Otto Bräutigam began making short, often notepad-like diary entries and continued to do so until December 27, 1942. Right at the beginning of these notes he wrote: “I work in the Rosenberg office on leave from the Foreign Office. We are preparing great events. "

The planning of the campaign as an extreme war of exploitation and hunger , as envisaged in the economic policy guidelines, the so-called Green Portfolio of June 1941, was explicitly contradicted by Bräutigam. He focused on winning over allies willing to cooperate with the Soviet minorities who were opposed to Russia and the Soviet headquarters in Moscow and opposed treating these peoples as inferior in the sense of National Socialist racial theory. According to the historian Christian Streit, in a meeting with Hermann Reinecke on selection practice in the prisoner-of-war camps, he achieved “a more precise definition of the 'opponent' categories and a weakening in some points”. As early as August 1941, Bräutigam demanded better treatment of the Soviet prisoners of war in the custody of the Wehrmacht, as this was the only way to gain the urgently needed support from the population in the occupied territories.

On November 12, 1941, the appointment of Alfred Rosenberg as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories was announced to the German public. Bridegroom was transferred back to Berlin and head of the “General Politics” department in the East Ministry. Here he was the fourth most important man after Rosenberg, Alfred Meyer and Leibbrandt. In addition to his position as Leibbrandt's deputy, he was head of the "Central Office for Political Support for Warfare in the East", which worked with the Wehrmacht Propaganda Office , the Propaganda Ministry and the Reich Security Main Office . Immediately subordinate to him was u. a. the later author of the so-called gas chamber letter , his "advisor for Jewish affairs" Erhard Wetzel . The letter is considered to be the earliest written testimony to date of the connection between the "euthanasia" campaign T4 and the systematic extermination of Jews in Europe .

In a letter from Rosenberg to OKW boss Wilhelm Keitel , dated February 28, 1942 , which was evidently written by Bräutigam's reference number, the treatment of Soviet prisoners of war, which was characterized by starvation, mistreatment and murder, is criticized:

“The fate of the Soviet prisoners of war in Germany is [...] a tragedy of the greatest proportions. Of the 3.6 million, only a few hundred thousand are still able to work today. A large part of them starved to death [...] At the top of the demands is that the prisoners of war should be treated according to the laws of humanity and in accordance with the dignity of the German Reich. "

In the spring of 1942 he published his book "Agriculture in the Soviet Union". And on February 3, 1942, he spoke to Erich Koch , the Reich Commissioner for the Reich Commissioner for Ukraine , about agricultural policy in the occupied eastern territories. Not least in the RMfdbO, his career was crowned with success: on May 21, 1942 he was appointed ministerial director and authorized representative of Alfred Rosenberg for questions about the Caucasus.

With his political approach of treating large parts of the population, which had to be won over to the interests of the occupiers, more gently, Bräutigam came into sharp opposition to Reichsführer SS , Heinrich Himmler . On June 16, 1943, Himmler complained in a letter to Ribbentrop about groom:

“I have been informed that the Consul General Dr. Bridegroom advocates a policy towards the East that I cannot describe otherwise than humane humility. [...] Field Marshal von Kleist had asserted to the Führer that the order of Army Group A signed by him was largely due to Mr. Bräutigam personally. This order contains numerous regulations on the treatment of the population in the regions of the Ukraine occupied by the army. Here one can really speak of courting for the favor of the population when, in the opinion of the Führer, on which I fully based my measures, we have to appear exclusively as masters in the East. "

At the beginning of 1943, after the war in Stalingrad, Groom returned from Ukraine to the RMfdbO. A short time later, after the dismissal of his superior Georg Leibbrandt, he worked from now on with his successor, SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger and his adjutant Fritz Arlt . Bridegroom headed the "Leadership Group I. General" in the RMfdbO and in this function the "Central Office for the People of the East". Shortly before the end of National Socialism, on January 14, 1945, Bräutigam left the RMfdbO. From then on he worked again for the Foreign Office, in whose economic policy department he headed the “Far East” economic department. At the end of February 1945 he moved with this department from Berlin to Blankenheim in Thuringia.

Participation in the Holocaust

Otto Bräutigam was not only well informed about the systematic murder of Jews in Europe , but was also involved in it at a jointly responsible point. On July 11, 1941, Groom wrote about his visit to Kovno :

“With our tacit approval, numerous pogroms against Jews were carried out by the Lithuanian auxiliary police. Incidentally, the Jews, whose clothing was marked with a piece of yellow cloth on the back , were put together to form labor columns. "

On August 11, 1941, the groom visited Riga , Alfred Rosenberg's former university town. He noted:

“There was little evidence of joy at the overthrow of Bolshevism or of sympathy for the liberators. The Jews were particularly striking in the street scene, all of whom wore a large yellow star on their chests. "

On August 25, 1941, Bräutigam attended a meeting with Quartermaster General Eduard Wagner . At this conference, the Higher SS and Police Leader Friedrich Jeckeln , active in the Ukraine , announced that he would carry out the liquidation of all Jews in Kamenez-Podolsk . This Kamenets-Podolsk massacre took place from August 26th to 28th, 1941 and killed around 23,600 people.

On September 14, 1941, one day before the Nuremberg Laws were introduced in Slovakia (see Jewish Code ), he noted:

“ Kalinin had ordered that all Volga Germans should be sent to Siberia . Apparently they feared leaving it in the heart of the Soviet Union and wanted to withdraw it from any later access by us. The sad fate of being exiled was to affect 400,000 people. It was clear that most of them would not survive the exile or even the transport. As a countermeasure, the Reichsleiter [Alfred Rosenberg] had planned to send all Jews from Central Europe to the eastern areas under our administration, and I had received a telegraph to get the Führer to approve this project. "

The groom also noted for this day:

"I talked for a short time with General d.Fl. Bodenschatz and was then referred to General Jodl , who also tried to get rid of the matter and said that the responsibility of the Foreign Office was given. Incidentally, the implementation of the project would fail due to the transport difficulties. Finally I discovered Colonel Schmundt , and to my great surprise he immediately asked for the notes, saying that it was a very important and urgent matter in which the Fuehrer was very interested. He would give me a message. Glad to have done my job, I went home. "

One day later, on September 15, 1941, Bräutigam began to be interested again in Rosenberg's proposal, which he had willingly passed on to Hitler. He wrote:

“I was interested in the fate of the Reichsleiter's proposal and called Colonel Schmundt accordingly. He put me through to General Field Marshal Keitel , who informed me that the Fiihrer had given orders to first obtain a statement from the Foreign Office. So I called Hewel , who was represented by Baron Steengracht . He referred me to envoy von Rintelen , who explained to me that von Ribbentrop had not yet made a statement , but wanted to discuss the matter personally with the Führer. "

The entry makes it clear that at this point in time, Groom was only interested in possible transport difficulties from thousands of people. He did not reveal any scruples even in his private notes.

On October 31, 1941, Georg Leibbrandt , head of the Political Department of the RMfdbO, wrote a letter to Hinrich Lohse , Reich Commissioner in the East. It reads: “The Reich and Security Main Office complains that the Reich Commissioner Ostland has prohibited the execution of Jews in Libau. I request an immediate report on the matter concerned. On behalf of Dr. Leibbrandt. (Department Head II). ”15 days later, on November 15, 1941, Lohse sent a reply to Leibbrandt in which he wrote that he had“ forbidden the wild executions of Jews in Libau ”“ because they were not carried out in the way they were carried out were responsible ”. And Lohse asked: “I would ask you to inform me whether your request of October 31 is to be taken as an instruction that all Jews in the East should be liquidated? Should this be done regardless of age, gender and economic interests (for example the Wehrmacht in skilled workers in armaments factories)? ”On December 18, 1941, Otto Bräutigam replied, he wrote to Lohse:

“In the meantime, oral discussions should clarify the Jewish question . Economic concerns should in principle be disregarded when regulating the problem . In addition, you are asked to settle any questions that arise directly with the senior SS and Police Leader . By order signed groom. "

In this letter, which was written on the stationery of the "Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories" (Alfred Rosenberg), Bräutigam, according to the historian Ernst Piper , spoke out in favor of the murder of Jewish people. The historian Heinz Schneppen contradicts an interpretation of this letter, signed by Bräutigam, as an "order to continue atrocities", which is often encountered. Rather, Lohse had meanwhile already been informed by Rosenberg and the Higher SS and Police Leader Jeckeln about the desired "final solution" and Bräutigam's letter had only completed the already completed written request for the sake of form and with reference to the discussions that had already taken place orally. On the same day, also on December 18, 1941, Rosenberg wrote a memo to Hitler in which it says:

“The attacks on German armed forces have not stopped, but are continuing. A clear plan emerges here to disrupt Franco-German cooperation, to force Germany to retaliate, and thus to provoke a new defense on the part of the French against Germany. I suggest that the Führer shoot 100 or more Jewish bankers, lawyers, etc. instead of 100 Frenchmen. "

The attitude of the RMfdbO, as it has been expressed in the words of Bräutigam and his superior Rosenberg since then, speaks a clear language: In the context of the utopia of the “ General Plan East ”, the RMfdbO did not primarily become a closed state and sovereign group as The enemy, but on a political-religious basis the entire Jewish population in the occupied eastern territories. And in this way, Bridegroom unconditionally subscribed to von Rosenberg's racial ideology on which this action was based.

On January 29, 1942, eight days after the Wannsee Conference , the first follow-up conference took place in the rooms of the RMfdbO with subordinate representatives from various ministries, the party chancellery and the high command of the Wehrmacht . Otto Bräutigam chaired this meeting. The aim of this meeting was to fill in the content of the resolutions passed at the Wannsee Conference and to make them legally more precise. All representatives of the RMfdbO, which took part in the conference with 8 of the 16 men, took the position that the “ Jewish question ” had to be “solved” in the most rigid way. According to the RMfdbO, the term Jews should by no means be defined “too narrowly”. From then on, “ mixed race ” would have to be regarded as “full Jews” and thus be included in the local extermination campaigns. These proposals were implemented at the end of the meeting.

Just one day later, on January 30, 1942, Hitler exclaimed in his speech on racial ideology in the Berlin Sports Palace : “We are aware that the war can only end with either the extermination of the Aryan peoples or Judaism Europe is disappearing. ”Bridegroom was personally invited to this speech.

post war period

In December 1944, Otto Bräutigam had left the RMfdbO. After the war, from the summer of 1945, he initially received " Automatic Arrest " as a "Ministerialbeamter" in the Seckenheim camp , which was located in the district of the same name on the outskirts of the city of Mannheim . He was released in March 1946. In connection with the so-called “ Wilhelmstrasse Trial ” against Ernst von Weizsäcker and others, he was questioned by representatives of the prosecution and stated on February 6, 1947 that Reich Commissioner Hinrich Lohse had reported in the summer of 1941 that “Jewish liquidations [ …] Often carried out in a cruel form ”, so that he [Lohse] asks the East Ministry“ to ensure that gas vans are sent to his Reichskommissariat for this purpose ”; Lohse used the term “euthanasia vehicle”. From 1947 to 1953, Bräutigam was head of political evaluation in the Gehlen Organization, the forerunner of the Federal Intelligence Service .

Prosecution

It was not until 1950 that the public prosecutor's office in Nuremberg-Fürth initiated an investigation against Bräutigam under the file number 72 Ks 3/50 on suspicion of multiple murders . Like numerous other National Socialists during this time, Bräutigam was acquitted of this court. On August 10, 1950, the case against him was dropped. In the grounds of the judgment of the second criminal chamber of the Nuremberg-Fürth regional court, it says “that he did not approve of the extermination of the Jews, did what he could against it, and that the SS suspected him enough to be monitored”. The prosecutors also alleged in his exoneration that as a "Soviet expert", Bräutigam had saved the mountain Jews in the Caucasus and the Karaites from persecution because he was of the opinion that the two tribes converted to the Jewish faith, but of Tatar origin be.

Reinstatement in the Foreign Office

In 1953 Otto Bräutigam was reappointed to the Foreign Office. He owed his reinstatement not least to the support of the Gehlen organization, which campaigned for bridegrooms at the Federal Chancellery and praised his appointment as the “beginning of a promising development in German Ostpolitik”. In 1954 he became ministerial director and head of the Eastern Department. In the same year he published the apparently apologetic work Overview of the Occupied Eastern Territories during World War II (Studies of the Institute for Occupation Issues on the German Occupations in World War II No. 3).

In January 1956, the parliamentary secretary of the SPD parliamentary group, Walter Menzel , demanded a statement from Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano (CDU) about Groom's Nazi past. Bridegroom was then initially "on leave" from the Foreign Office (until 1958). On June 3, 1957, the Foreign Office received an expert opinion that had been drawn up by Heinrich Lingemann , the former President of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court . The report reads:

"The fact that Dr. Bridegroom was in no way involved in the persecution of the Jews in the Third Reich and he cannot be blamed for guilt, is evident from the concurring statements of all the witnesses who were questioned. The witnesses have unequivocally and unanimously stated that Dr. Bridegroom, in view of his whole personality and attitude, could not possibly have committed the accusations made and participated in the persecution of the Jews. The witnesses gave credible assurance that Dr. On the contrary, Bridegroom did everything in his power to put a stop to the persecution of the Jews by the Third Reich and, wherever possible, to help and support the persecuted Jews and other people. "

In 1958, after his ostensible “ rehabilitation ”, Otto Bräutigam resumed his work in the Foreign Office. Bridegroom was appointed Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Hong Kong . He worked there until 1960.

In August 1959 Otto Bräutigam received the Great Federal Cross of Merit . A few months later, in 1960, he retired. He died on April 30, 1992. Personnel files of the Foreign Office have been accessible since 1988 if they are older than 30 years. 30 years must have passed since the death of former employees. It follows that his files can only be viewed from April 30, 2022.

Groom's War Diary

On March 1, 1956, shortly after the discussion about Otto Bräutigam's Nazi past began in the German public, the Committee for German Unity in the GDR published its war diary. On March 21, 1956, Der Spiegel expressed its overall disappointment with the contents of the diary under the title There was roast goose . The Spiegel author placed the emphasis of his criticism in particular on the seeming banality of numerous entries in which groom made the daily meal the subject of his writing. Nevertheless, he also did not forget to cite some of the entries that seemed “less harmless” to him - albeit without comment in detail and thus unreflected. Just looking at the diary, he came to the conclusion:

"As little as a political or criminal charge against Otto Bräutigam can be constructed from this diary, just as little can he use it to exonerate him."

It was not until 1987 that Otto Bräutigam's war diary entries were published in the Federal Republic of Germany in collaboration with the Hamburg Institute for Social Research (June 11, 1941 to December 27, 1942).

Groom in public discussion

After Heinrich von Brentano had demanded an explanation of the groom's Nazi past, he instructed the President of the Higher Regional Court in the spring of 1956. R. Dr. hc Heinrich Lingemann , a seventy-six year old retired man, with the investigation of the case. Groom answered the press reports at the end of January with a two-volume memorandum, which he u. a. the FAZ and the mirror left for evaluation. The FAZ then wrote:

"Finally, Bräutigam gives examples to prove that he prevented planned measures against Jewish groups in the Soviet Union, had never been an anti-Semite, always had friendly relations with Jews and was involved in a lawsuit because of 'Jew-friendly statements'."

And on February 4, Walter Henkels wrote in the FAZ :

“It is hardly to be said too much when it is claimed that most of the officials and recently also the soldiers in the Federal Ministry of Defense are 'former' ... Groaning under the burden of comradeship, they smile at each other slyly when they meet in the long corridors ... Im The Foreign Office whispers similar things. You can imagine the rest of the other federal authorities. "

An exemplary expression of the climate of opinion in the still young Federal Republic of Germany is also an article in Spiegel about Hans Globke from April 4, 1956, in which a statement from a radio message from Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was quoted. It says: “To an ever increasing extent, public figures are being attacked and belittled in public. ... Bad memories of the Weimar period are awakened, in which there was no stopping before the denigration of authoritative personalities. ”On October 2, 1956, around four months after the Lingemann report was handed over to the Foreign Office, the public was informed of its existence . This first happened in the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung on October 2nd; SPIEGEL articles followed on October 10 and November 20.

In 1962, Bräutigam gave a lecture in front of the Düsseldorf industrial club . He then published this lecture under the title China's position in world politics with special consideration of the economic situation . In 1968 he then published his book So It Happened - A Life as a Soldier and Diplomat .

On May 24, 1982 Otto Bräutigam's nephew, State Secretary Hans Otto Bräutigam , became head of the permanent representation of the Federal Republic of Germany in the GDR. At this point in time, insufficient biographical and ideology-critical knowledge of Otto Bräutigam can be proven. After his nephew had filled the new political office, the Frankfurter Rundschau reported that he came "from an old diplomatic family": "His uncle was a well-known specialist in Russia."

In 1999 Christian Gerlach published his book Kalkulierte Morde for the first time . In it, he characterized the groom, along with Rosenberg and Leibbrandt, as someone who was "one of the most active and fanatical perpetrators, not infrequently one of the strategists of the occupation policy and the mass murders " during the National Socialist era.

Personal

Otto Bräutigam was married to Gertrud Bräutigam (née Peters from Berlin). The couple had two sons and a daughter. From July 13, 1941, the groom lived in a house in Berlin-Zehlendorf on Kronprinzenallee, and later in Coesfeld.

Publications

  • Agriculture in the Soviet Union. Stollberg, Berlin 1941 + 1942 ( Otto Karl Stollberg Verlag. Die Bücherei des Ostraumes. Edited by Georg Leibbrandt )
  • Overview of the occupied eastern territories during World War II (studies by the Institute for Occupation Issues on the German occupations in World War II No. 3) . Tübingen 1954.
  • From the diary of a murderer of the Jews: Further documents on the enforcement of the Bonn state apparatus with criminals against d. Humanity . Committee for German Unity. Berlin 1956. Reissued by su
  • China's position in world politics with special consideration of the economic realities . Lecture, Industrie-Club Düsseldorf, 1962.
  • So it happened ...: A life as a soldier u. Diplomat . Holzner, Würzburg 1968.

literature

  • HD Heilmann: From the war diary of the diplomat Otto Bräutigam . In: Götz Aly u. a. (Ed.): Biedermann and desk clerk. Materials on the German perpetrator biography . Institute for Social Research in Hamburg: Contributions to National Socialist Health and Social Policy 4. Berlin 1987, pp. 123–187, ISBN 3-88022-953-8 .
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
  • Heinz Schneppen : Consul General ret. D. Dr. Otto Bridegroom: Resistance and Entanglement. A source-critical investigation . In: Journal of History . 60th year 2012, issue 4, pp. 301-330.
  • Michael Schwab-Trapp: Conflict, Culture and Interpretation. A discourse analysis of the public dealings with National Socialism . In: Studies on Social Science , Volume 168, Opladen 1996, ISBN 3-531-12842-6 .

Web links

Commons : Otto Bräutigam  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Ernst Piper : Alfred Rosenberg . Hitler's chief ideologist, Munich 2005, pp. 535 f., ISBN 3-89667-148-0 .
  2. ↑ Otto Bräutigam, This is how it happened ... A life as a soldier and diplomat . Holzner Verlag, Würzburg 1968, p. 224.
  3. ↑ Otto Bräutigam, This is how it happened ... A life as a soldier and diplomat . Holzner Verlag, Würzburg 1968, p. 244.
  4. ↑ a b c There was roast goose . In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 1956, pp. 21 ( online - March 21, 1956 , the article also gives a detailed account of the ways in which the diary was made public).
  5. ↑ From an ideology-critical perspective, Bräutigam's attitude represents a “fate” of political acts. Cf. for example Hedda J. Herwig: “Violence is soft and veiled ...”. Exploitation strategies in our society . Reinbek near Hamburg 1992, p. 289 ff.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Quoted in: HD Heilmann, from the war diary of the diplomat Otto Bräutigam , in: Götz Aly u. a. (Ed.): Biedermann and desk clerk . Materials on the German perpetrator biography, Hamburg Institute for Social Research : Contributions to National Socialist Health and Social Policy 4, Berlin 1987, pp. 123–187.
  7. ↑ Quoted in: HD Heilmann, from the war diary of the diplomat Otto Bräutigam , in: Götz Aly u. a. (Ed.): Biedermann and desk clerk . Materials on the German perpetrator biography, Institute for Social Research in Hamburg: Contributions to National Socialist Health and Social Policy 4, Berlin 1987, p. 136 ff.
  8. ↑ HD Heilmann, From the war diary of the diplomat Otto Bräutigam . In: Götz Aly u. a. (Ed.): Biedermann and desk clerk . Materials on the German perpetrator biography, Hamburg Institute for Social Research : Contributions to National Socialist Health and Social Policy 4, Berlin 1987, pp. 153, 180.
  9. ^ Ernst Piper: Alfred Rosenberg . Hitler's chief ideologist, Munich 2005, p. 514.
  10. ↑ See Alfred Rosenberg, writings from the years 1917–1919 . In: ders .: Schriften und Reden , Vol. 1, with an introduction by Alfred Bäumler , Munich 1943, pp. I – CVII and 1–124.
  11. ^ Robert Gibbons: General guidelines for the political and economic administration of the occupied eastern territories . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Vol. 25 (1977), No. 2, pp. 252-261; ifz-muenchen.de (PDF)
  12. ↑ Christian Streit: No Comrades: The Wehrmacht and the Soviet Prisoners of War 1941–1945. New edition. JHW Dietz, Bonn 1997, ISBN 978-3-8012-5023-2 , p. 98.
  13. ↑ Christian Streit: No Comrades: The Wehrmacht and the Soviet Prisoners of War 1941–1945. New edition. JHW Dietz, Bonn 1997, p. 377, note 338.
  14. ↑ Heinz Schneppen: Consul General retired Dr. Otto Bridegroom: Resistance and Entanglement. A source-critical investigation . In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft , 60th year 2012, issue 4, pp. 301–330, here p. 310 f., Quotation p. 311.
  15. ↑ Quoted from Heinz Schneppen: Consul General ret. Dr. Otto Bridegroom: Resistance and Entanglement. A source-critical investigation . In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft , 60th year 2012, issue 4, pp. 301–330, here p. 309.
  16. ↑ Quoted in: HD Heilmann, from the war diary of the diplomat Otto Bräutigam . In: Götz Aly u. a. (Ed.): Biedermann and desk clerk. Materials on the German perpetrator biography . Institute for Social Research in Hamburg: Contributions to National Socialist Health and Social Policy 4. Berlin 1987, p. 134, cf. P. 171. (The crimes of Einsatzkommando 2 of Einsatzgruppe A under SS Brigade Leader Dr. Walther Stahlecker are described here .)
  17. ^ Andrej Angrick : The Escalation of German-Rumanian Anti-Jewish Policy after the Attack on the Soviet Union, June 22, 1941 , p. 23, footnote 65 ( PDF (PDF) accessed on August 10, 2011).
  18. ↑ Gerald Reitlinger : The final solution . Hitler's attempt to exterminate the Jews of Europe 1939–1945. 7th edition. Berlin 1992, p. 599.
  19. ↑ Quoted in: HD Heilmann: From the war diary of the diplomat Otto Bräutigam . In: Götz Aly u. a. (Ed.): Biedermann and desk clerk. Materials on the German perpetrator biography . Institute for Social Research in Hamburg: Contributions to National Socialist Health and Social Policy 4. Berlin 1987, p. 143, cf. P. 176.
  20. ↑ a b c The trial of the main war criminals before the International Military Court of Nuremberg November 14, 1945 - October 1, 1946 , Vol. XI, Munich / Zurich 1984. S. 609. Serge Lang, Ernst von Schenck: Portrait of a human criminal after those left behind Memoirs of the former Reich Minister Alfred Rosenberg . St. Gallen 1947, p. 131.
  21. ↑ Quoted in: The Trial against the Major War Criminals before the International Military Court of Nuremberg November 14, 1945 - October 1, 1946 , Vol. XI, Munich / Zurich 1984. p. 611; Reinhard Bollmus: The Rosenberg Office and its opponents . On the power struggle in the National Socialist system of rule, Stuttgart 1970, p. 292. (Cited source: 3666-PS.); Serge Lang / Ernst von Schenck: Portrait of a human criminal based on the memoirs of the former Reich Minister Alfred Rosenberg , St. Gallen 1947, p. 131.
  22. ^ Ernst Piper: Alfred Rosenberg. Hitler's chief ideologist . Munich 2005, p. 590. (Piper wrote: "This document showed it very clearly: the Jews should be murdered without exception.")
  23. ↑ Heinz Schneppen: Consul General a. D. Dr. Otto Bridegroom: Resistance and Entanglement. A source-critical investigation . In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft , 60th year 2012, issue 4, pp. 301–330, here p. 305.
  24. ↑ Quoted in: The Trial against the Major War Criminals before the International Military Court of Nuremberg November 14, 1945 - October 1, 1946 , Vol. XIII, Munich, Zurich 1984. P. 110; see. also: Alfred Rosenberg, last records , Göttingen 1955, p. 315.
  25. ↑ Claus-Ekkehard Bärsch , The Political Religion of National Socialism , 2nd, completely revised. Aufl., Munich 2002, pp. 188 ff., ISBN 3-7705-3172-8 . (See the Rosenberg section on "People" and "Race".)
  26. ^ Robert MW Kempner : Eichmann and accomplices , Zurich 1961, p. 165. DNB
  27. ^ Ernst Piper: Alfred Rosenberg . Hitler's chief ideologist, Munich 2005, p. 592. (Source: List of participants BArch R 6/74, p. 76.); Michael Wildt: Generation of the unconditional . The leadership corps of the Reich Security Main Office, Hamburg 2002, p. 641. (Minutes of the meeting: Deployment in the “Reichskommissariat” Ostland, 1998, p. 57 ff.); HD Heilmann: From the war diary of the diplomat Otto Bräutigam . In: Götz Aly u. a. (Ed.): Biedermann and desk clerk . Materials on the German perpetrator biography, Berlin 1987, p. 180 f.
  28. ↑ Quoted in: Peter Longerich: The unwritten command . Hitler and the way to the "final solution". Munich 2001, p. 140. (The quote was subsequently adapted to the reformed German spelling.)
  29. ^ Ernst Piper: Alfred Rosenberg . Hitler's chief ideologist, Munich 2005, p. 618. (Source: Alexander Dallin : German Rule in Russia 1941–1945 . A Study of Occupation Policies. 2. edition, Boulder 1981, p. 638.)
  30. ↑ HD Heilmann, From the war diary of the diplomat Otto Bräutigam . Götz Aly u. a. (Ed.): Biedermann and desk clerk. Materials on the German perpetrator biography . Institute for Social Research in Hamburg: Contributions to National Socialist Health and Social Policy 4. Berlin 1987, p. 126, note 26 on p. 167. Heilmann gives there as evidence “Ministries Division. Dr. Kempner. Interrogation No. 2636. Examination of Dr. Otto Bräutigam on February 6, 1948 (...) by Peter Beauvais ”. Robert MW Kempner granted access to the relevant files. On p. 126 Heilmann writes that Bräutigam also "testified in the main war criminals trial as a witness for the indictment against his boss Rosenberg", but according to the 42 volumes The Trial against the Main War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, November 14, 1945 - October 1, 1946 and the corresponding register volume 23 there was no testimony of the groom in court. The name of the groom only appears there when third parties are mentioned and in documents from the occupation.
  31. ↑ Thomas Wolf: The emergence of the BND. Construction, financing, control . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-96289-022-3 , pp. 134-136 .
  32. ↑ Thomas Wolf: The emergence of the BND. Construction, financing, control . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-96289-022-3 , pp. 136 .
  33. ↑ See Johannes Bähr; Ralf Banken: Exploitation through Law - Introductory remarks on the use of commercial law in German occupation policy from 1939 to 1945 . In Johannes Bähr; Ralf Banken, Ed .: The Europe of the "Third Reich". Law, economy, occupation. The Europe of the dictatorship Vol. 5, Klostermann, Frankfurt 2005, ISBN 3-465-03401-5 . P. 8.
  34. ↑ Quoted in: HD Heilmann, from the war diary of the diplomat Otto Bräutigam . In: Götz Aly u. a. (Ed.): Biedermann and desk clerk. Materials on the German perpetrator biography . Institute for Social Research in Hamburg: Contributions to National Socialist Health and Social Policy 4, Berlin 1987, p. 126.
  35. ↑ See Hans Dieter Heilmann: The war diary of the diplomat Otto Bräutigam, in: Götz Aly u. a. (Ed.): Biedermann and desk clerk. Materials on the German perpetrator biography. Rotbuch, Berlin 1987 ISBN 3-88022-953-8 pp. 123-187.
  36. ↑ Heilmann drew attention to this quotation in the 1987 edition of Bräutigam's diary and dated it - probably incorrectly - to March 21, 1956. It is quoted here: Bad memories . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1956, pp. 15 ( online - 4 April 1956 ).
  37. ↑ Otto Bridegroom . In: Der Spiegel . No. 41 , 1956, pp. 48 ( Online - Oct. 10, 1956 ). Der SPIEGEL reported… In: Der Spiegel . No.  47 , 1956, pp. 66 ( online ).
  38. ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau of May 25, 1982.
  39. ^ Christian Gerlach: Calculated murders. The German economic and extermination policy in Belarus from 1941 to 1944 . Hamburg 1999, p. 225; Quote in: Ernst Piper: Alfred Rosenberg . Munich 2005, p. 794.
personal data
SURNAME Groom, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Wesel
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1992
Place of death Coesfeld