Margret Bechler

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Margret Bechler (born February 2, 1914 in Altona , † 2002 in Wedel ) was a German officer and teacher.

Life

Margret Bechler was born as the daughter of a marine engineer Dreykorn. After the First World War, his father left the Navy as a corvette captain due to his monarchist attitude and moved with his family to Dresden, where he worked as a chief engineer. Margret met the senior ensign Bernhard Bechler in 1935 and got engaged to him in 1936. In 1938 both married and moved to Chemnitz . The marriage had two children: Heidi (* 1939) and Hans-Bernhard (* 1940). The talented officer, who was very concerned about his advancement, quickly made a career after the outbreak of World War II , but as a major in the pocket of Stalingrad, he became a Soviet prisoner of war and was then co-founder of the National Committee for Free Germany (NKFD) and the Association of German Officers . His wife was therefore asked by the Nazis in 1944 to divorce the "traitor", but stuck to him despite harassment.

When the communist Anton Jakob tried to get in contact with the NKFD through her, she assumed a Gestapo trap and therefore reported the incident to the Nazi authorities out of fear for herself and her children. Jakob was arrested and sentenced to death by the People's Court a year later . When his wife Margret Bechler asked to support a pardon, she refused for fear of reprisals. Neither woman knew that Jacob had already been executed at this point .

After the occupation of Thuringia by US troops, Margret Bechler was arrested on June 9, 1945 at her home in Altenburg for her contribution to the fate of Jacob . On July 1, the United States surrendered Thuringia to the Soviet occupation forces. Margret Bechler had not been released by then, but was taken to the Zwickau remand prison and then to the special camps in Bautzen , Jamlitz , Mühlberg and Buchenwald . Bernhard Bechler had her declared dead on his return and remarried. He left his former wife in the lurch “for the sake of his new career”, although he would have had “every opportunity” in his position. He prevented contact with their children. In 1950, Margret Bechler was sentenced to death by hanging by the GDR judiciary and taken to the Waldheim prison. In the Waldheim trials , the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment , and she was taken to the Hoheneck prison to serve it .

After the start of de-Stalinization , she was pardoned in 1955 and released in April 1956 as one of the last victims of the Waldheim trials. She moved to the Federal Republic and became a teacher in Wedel . In 1978 she published her memoirs under the title Waiting for an Answer . She could only see her son again after the fall of the Berlin Wall .

In 1992 her sentence was overturned by the Criminal Rehabilitation Act.

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Single receipts

  1. ↑ In the 1992 trial against the former Waldheim judge Jürgens, Ms. Bechler testified before the Leipzig District Court that the public prosecutor had initially threatened her with the death penalty for denouncing her. In the minutes, however, only “for life” is mentioned. See Neues Deutschland , December 10, 1992.
personal data
SURNAME Bechler, Margret
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dreykorn, Margret (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer's wife and teacher
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Altona
DATE OF DEATH 2002
Place of death frond