Leopold Bürkner

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Leopold Bürkner (born January 29, 1894 in Zerbst ( Anhalt ), † July 15, 1975 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German naval officer , most recently with the rank of Vice Admiral . From 1938 until the end of the Second World War he was head of the foreign department in the foreign / defense department in the OKW and chief of protocol under the Dönitz government . In addition, Bürkner acted for a long time as Admiral Wilhelm Canaris' deputy .

Life

Imperial Navy

Leopold Bürkner joined the Imperial Navy on April 1, 1912 as a midshipman . He received his basic training on board the training ship SMS Hansa until March 31, 1913. From April 1, 1913 to July 31, 1914, he attended the naval school. Here he was also appointed ensign at sea .

From August 1, 1914 to September 28, 1915, Bürkner served in various functions on the liner ships Wettin and Schwaben as well as the great cruisers Seydlitz and Moltke . In the meantime, he was appointed lieutenant at sea on March 22, 1915 . From September 29, 1915 Bürkner was assigned to the 1st torpedo boat division. Until October 24, 1915 he was used as an officer on watch on T 108 . He then became temporarily in command of the torpedo boat S 130 (October 25, 1915 to November 6, 1915). Bürkner then attended a course on the artillery training ship Kaiserin Augusta until December 21, 1915 , and until January 16, 1916 he was available to the 1st torpedo boat division. From January 17, 1916, until the end of the war, he was employed as an officer on watch on various torpedo boats: S 143 (January 17 to March 8, 1916), S 165 (March 12 to May 30, 1916), G 173 (June 1 to 6 August 1916), G 197 (7 August 1916 to 7 July 1917) and G 39 (8 July 1917 to 21 June 1919).

The T-boat G 39 was sunk in the bay of Scapa Flow in 1919 and the crew was taken prisoner (see self- sinking of the Imperial High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow ). Until January 29, 1920 Leopold Bürkner was in British captivity , on January 31, 1920 all soldiers captured in Scapa Flow returned to Germany on a British steamer.

Weimar Republic and the time of National Socialism

After his release, Leopold Bürkner served in the Admiralty's personnel department from February 1, 1920; but already on August 1, 1920 he became an inspection or group officer at the Mürwik naval school . He carried out this activity until September 26, 1923. He then attended a course at the coastal artillery school before he became commander of the G 10 torpedo boat and at the same time adjutant of the 1st torpedo boat flotilla on October 27, 1923 . From February 8, 1926 to March 20, 1926, Lieutenant Bürkner attended a leadership training course.

Then he was a consultant in the training department of the naval command (September 28, 1927 to September 30, 1931). At the same time Bürkner was from July 20, 1929 to August 12, 1929 commander of the Schnellboots-Halbflotilla and from October 1, 1931 then commander of the 3rd Torpedo Boats-Half-Flotilla. Subsequently, from October 9, 1933, he was liaison officer for the foreign naval attachés in Germany in the Berlin naval command . On October 1, 1935, Bürkner was transferred to the German naval troops that took part in the Spanish Civil War and was appointed first officer on the ironclad Admiral Scheer . Later, on July 28, 1937, Bürkner became the commandant of the light cruiser Emden , which was actually a cadet school cruiser , but was temporarily in service off Spain. With the Emden , Bürkner made the eighth trip abroad for officer candidates. For one week, in March 1938, Bürkner was also the commander of the German naval forces off Spain (March 14 to March 22, 1938).

On June 15, 1938, Captain Leopold Bürkner became head of the foreign department in what was later to become the foreign / defense office , which was renamed in 1938 from the defense department to the defense department in the high command of the Wehrmacht and in 1941 to the foreign / defense office in the OKW. On February 11, 1944, his superior in office, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris , was removed from office by Adolf Hitler and later executed as a resistance fighter. As a result, the Abwehr was partially subordinated to the Reich Security Main Office as Amt Mil . Vice-Admiral Bürkner remained in charge of the Foreign Department in the Foreign / Defense Office until the end of the war. At the same time he was briefly appointed chief of protocol in the Dönitz government in Flensburg - Mürwik from May 3, 1945 to May 23, 1945.

After the Second World War

With the arrest and removal of the Dönitz government by Allied troops on May 23, 1945 in the Mürwik special area , Bürkner was also arrested and imprisoned in Ansbach until June 25, 1947 . In 1946, in captivity, he was recruited for a "Control Group" of the Operational History (German) Section of the "Historical Division" of the US Army, which worked for the former Army Chief of Staff, Franz Halder . During the Nuremberg Trial , Leopold Bürkner was scheduled to be a witness for Alfred Jodl . After his release he was u. a. Personnel manager for the German staff of the Dutch airline KLM in Frankfurt am Main . From 1949 he worked temporarily as an advisor to the Foreign Office .

Leopold Bürkner died on July 15, 1975 in Frankfurt / Main.

After his death, some of his personal documents came to the Federal Archives. Further so-called witness literature can be found in the Munich Institute for Contemporary History .

Promotions

Awards

Fonts

  • George Laurent: Introduction to the Study of Strategy (German translation). Verlag für Volkstum, Wehr und Wirtschaft, Berlin 1939.
  • Inexpensive wisdom picked up while sailing (with drawings by Rudolf Krohne). Dünnhaupt, Dessau 1942. Was placed on the list of literature to be segregated in the Soviet occupation zone after the end of the Second World War .
  • Charles W. Thayer : Hello, Comrade General! (German translation, with illustrations by Heiner Rothfuchs ) Athenäum-Verlag, Bonn 1953.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Note in: Friedrich Ruge: Scapa Flow 1919. The end of the German fleet. Stalling Verlag, Oldenburg 1969, p. 195.
  2. ↑ Bernd Wegner : Written victories. Franz Halder, the "Historical Division" and the reconstruction of the Second World War in the spirit of the German General Staff . In: Political Change, Organized Violence and National Security . Edited by Ernst Willi Hansen, Gerhard Schreiber and Bernd Wegner. Oldenbourg, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-486-56063-8 , pp. 287-302, here pp. 292 f.
  3. ↑ http://www.zeno.org/Geschichte/M/Der+Nürnberger+Prozess/Hauptverhandlungen/Ein one hundred and ninety-four+ day.+Samstag,+3.+August+1946/Morunching session
  4. ↑ Mader, Julius: Hitler's espionage generals unpack, Berlin (East), Verlag der Nation, 1970 ff.
  5. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated June 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ghi-dc.org
  6. ↑ http://www.ijnhonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Raeder-Bibliography-Aug05.pdf
  7. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1947-nslit-b.html
personal data
SURNAME Bürkner, Leopold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer, most recently vice admiral in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Zerbst (Anhalt)
DATE OF DEATH 15th July 1975
Place of death Frankfurt am Main