M 612

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M 612 was a German minesweeper of the 1943 typeduring World War II , on which a mutiny took placeon May 5, 1945. After it ended, eleven crew members were sentenced to death and shot on board in the roadstead off Sønderborg ( Denmark )on the same day.

Denmark in May 1945

Only a few weeks before the end of the war, the M 612 was delivered by the Neptun shipyard in Rostock and put into service on April 11, 1945 with the 12th minesweeping flotilla of the Kriegsmarine .

After Lübeck was occupied on 2 May 1945 by British troops, signed on May 4, the Supreme Commander of the Navy, Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg on behalf of the last Reich President Karl Doenitz , the surrender of all those army units in the northwest's troops British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery . This partial surrender came into force on May 5th at 8 a.m. ( CEST ) and included all armed forces in Holland, Northwest Germany, Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark, including ships in this area. At that time Denmark was not yet occupied by Allied troops.

The partial surrender was announced to all German troops by radio on May 5, 1945 at 5 a.m.

Contrary to the provisions of the partial surrender, M 612 was ordered to run to Courland in order to evacuate German troops and civilians from the Soviet troops.

The mutiny

After M 612 left Fredericia on May 5 at 8 a.m. to join a transport to Courland, the crew learned the destination of the journey. The mutiny began at around 8:30 a.m., led by the 21-year-old machine mate Heinrich Glasmacher. He locked the commander of M 612 , Oberleutnant zur See Dietrich Kropp, in a chamber with his pistol raised. All other officers were also arrested under threat of weapons. Glasmacher took over the command of the ship and set course for Flensburg, where the crew might want to go ashore.

The following information is given in the grounds of the court martial that was later imposed on the participation of individual crew members:

"Masch.Mt. Rust denied the machine operator access to the engine room; He also orders that no officer or sergeant should enter the engine room. Fwk.Hpt.Gefr. Suckelt, who had the 7 rifles under lock and key, distributed the rifles among the teams. Btsmt. Kollenda let Mtr.Gefr. Give Möller a pistol to keep the officers at bay. Mtr.Ob.Gefr. Kölle, who had his own pistol, guarded the commandant when he was locked in the chamber. Mtr.Ob.Gefr. Czak, who came from Fwk.Hpt.Gefr. Nuckelt had given a rifle, also ensured 'order' in the sense of the mutineers. The Mtr.Ob.Gefr. Peters and Roth broke into a room where two officers were sleeping and got their pistols. Mtr.Ob.Gefr. Schwirtz had also been given a rifle. Matr.Ob.Gefr. Prenzler admitted that he wanted to prevent a leak to Courland by force of arms and threatened the officers with the gun. Matr.Ob.Gefr. Wilkowski threatened the officers with the pistol. Matr.Ob.Gefr. Mittelhauser had had Peters give him a pistol and kept watch at the commandant's, on 'orders' from Glasmacher and Kolenda. The defendant Müller had received the 'order' to lock the detained officers in the chamber and he did so. The officers remained in 'detention' for a total of around 2½ hours. The defendant Pretzke went into the chamber where two officers were sleeping and ordered them at gunpoint to keep calm and to give themselves prisoner. "

On the way to Flensburg, an accidentally oncoming speedboat became aware of the M 612 when it inquired of the commander of the M 612 via signal lights, but he did not appear on the bridge. More speedboats were called in. The crew of M 612 was forced to surrender by making the torpedo tubes visible. A squad with officers from the speedboats finally went on board. M 612 had to anchor in Alsensund near Sønderborg under gun guard by the speedboat escort ship Hermann von Wißmann .

Trial and Execution

On the same day, by order of the leader of the mine ships, Captain Hugo Pahl , a court martial met on board the M 612 . The chairman was Naval Chief Justice Franz Berns. Naval staff judge Adolf Holzwig acted as prosecutor. The defense attorney was a corporal. 20 crew members were charged. The trial started after 6:00 p.m. and lasted less than an hour. The investigation was based primarily on the statements of an officer on watch, Lieutenant for the Sea Helmut Suss, who gave information on the participation in the mutiny. Eleven crew members were sentenced to death and four crew members were sentenced to three years in prison. Five men were acquitted . As court lord, Captain Hugo Pahl confirmed the judgments and did not make use of the possibility of a pardon .

After the officers had arrived with the verdict confirmed on board, began at 23.35 the 5th May 1945 shooting death of the condemned man on illuminated by searchlights back of M 612 . The entire crew of M 612, including the convicts, had to attend the execution. The condemned to death stood in twos, unbound and blindfolded in front of the firing squad. A doctor to determine the death was not on board. After the shootings, the four crew members sentenced to prison had weighed down their dead comrades with basic weights in the sea before the next two convicts had to appear before the firing squad.

Those condemned to death

Wilhelm Bretzke, sailor * October 20, 1922 in Dortmund
Heinrich Glasmacher, Machine mate * February 21, 1924 in Neuss
Reinhold Kolenda, Boat mate * November 20, 1924 in Beuthen OS
Gustav Kölle, Seaman Corporal * July 14, 1923 in Dreilingen
Helmut Nuckelt, Fireworks corporal * April 19, 1921 in Essen
Rolf Peters, Seaman Corporal * February 6, 1924
Gerhard Prenzler, Seaman Corporal * April 1, 1924
Gustav Ritz, Seaman Corporal * August 5, 1922 in Milaszew
Anton Roth, Seaman Corporal * October 22, 1924
Bruno Rust, Machine mate * March 1, 1923 in Berlin
Heinz Wilkowski, Seaman Corporal * October 25, 1923

After the execution

After the execution of the death sentences, M 612 ran to Sønderborg. There Lieutenant Suss disembarked. After it was initially said that the M 612 should still run to Kurland, the M-boat went to Flensburg, where the remaining crew was disembarked and taken prisoner.

In the course of 1945 seven of the bodies were washed up on the beach and initially buried anonymously. After the events became known in October 1945, the military justice victims were reburied and now have their final resting place in the cemetery of Christian's church in Sønderborg.

Investigations against the court lord of the court martial, Hugo Pahl , were discontinued in 1949.

Reception and honor

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jörg Friedrich: acquittal for the Nazi judiciary. Ullstein, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-548-26532-4 , p. 189
  2. ↑ a b c Dieter Hartwig: At the end of the war: Commemoration of eleven victims. Naval Forum. No. 4, 1990.
  3. ↑ According to information in the grounds of the court court judgment of May 5, 1945.
  4. ^ A b Manfred Messerschmidt: The Wehrmacht Justice 1933–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2005, ISBN 3-506-71349-3 , p. 438f.
  5. ↑ Der Augenzeuge 1967/12 , DEFA-Studio for newsreels and documentaries, March 17, 1967
  6. ↑ dtv-Verlag, ISBN 3-423-11175-5
  7. ↑ Annette Bruhns: These people were not thought of for 75 years . In: Der Spiegel, issue 37 of September 5, 2020, p. 22