Otto Weidinger

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Otto Weidinger, 1944

Otto Weidinger (born May 24, 1914 in Würzburg ; † January 10, 1990 in Aalen ) was an officer in the Waffen SS , most recently in the rank of SS Obersturmbannführer . During the Second World War , his unit, the SS regiment “Der Führer” , was involved in the Oradour massacre on June 10, 1944. Weidinger published "Das Reich" on this and on the SS Panzer Division in right-wing extremist publishers. In 1958, Weidinger was the federal chairman of the mutual aid community of the former Waffen SS (HIAG).

Life

Before World War II

Otto Weidinger signed up for the SS disposal force at the age of 20 and was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer in 1936 after attending the SS Junker School . At first he commanded a platoon in the SS regiment "Germany" until he received training as a pioneer and returned to his regiment shortly before the invasion of Austria . After a short stay in the Wehrmacht , he was finally transferred to the motorcycle rifle department of the SS regiment "Germany".

Second World War

With the motorcycle rifle division of the SS regiment "Germany" he took part in the attack on Poland , where he was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class.

For his participation in the German attack in the west he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class and shortly thereafter appointed as a division adjutant. In July 1940, he was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer and took part in the Balkan campaign .

Shortly after the invasion of the Soviet Union , Weidinger was appointed commander of the heavy company of the motorbike battalion and shortly afterwards returned to the SS Junker School in Bad Tölz to teach tactics there.

In June 1943 Weidinger was ordered back to the front and was given command of the 1st Battalion of the SS Regiment "Germany" - now with the rank of SS Sturmbannführer. This battalion experienced bitter fighting in the advanced positions in Operation Citadel . His head was badly injured in close combat at that time. On November 26, 1943, he was awarded the German Cross in Gold . At the end of 1943 he commanded SS Panzer Reconnaissance Division 2 as part of the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich".

In the spring the 2nd SS Panzer Division was relocated to France. On April 21, 1944, Weidinger was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer and took over command of the 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment "Der Führer" , which he commanded in the fighting in Normandy . The formal takeover of command of the “Der Führer” regiment from his predecessor Sylvester Stadler took place on June 14, 1944, but Weidinger had already been on duty there some time beforehand in order to prepare for the new task. The “Der Führer” regiment was involved in the Oradour massacre on June 10, 1944 , in which 642 children, women and men were murdered. The men were shot, women and children were driven into a church, which was then set on fire. Gunfire and locked doors prevented them from escaping. Before that, on June 9, 1944, another unit of the Panzer Division "Das Reich" had hung 99 men in Tulle in retaliation for an attack on the German garrison.

The regiment then fought at Saint-Lô , Coutances and Mortain, among others , and when retreating from the Falaise pocket . On December 26, 1944 he was awarded the Knight's Cross Oak Leaves.

After the failure of the Battle of the Bulge , Weidinger and his regiment were transferred to the Eastern Front, where they fought in Hungary and in Austria during the last days of the war .

After the Second World War

After the war he was brought before a French court to investigate possible involvement in the Oradour-sur-Glane and Tulle massacres and acquitted on all counts for lack of evidence.

Weidinger was a member of the mutual aid community of the members of the former Waffen SS (HIAG). After an intervention by Paul Hausser , whose confidante was Weidinger, he was elected the first national spokesman for HIAG in January 1958. In November 1958 he resigned. The background to this was internal conflicts over the inclusion of the death's head associations used as concentration camp guards in the HIAG. Kurt Meyer was his successor .

After 1958, Weidinger worked as an author and publicist for HIAG. Numerous articles by him can be found in the magazine " Der Freiwillige ", the HIAG association organ. Between 1967 and 1982 he published a five-volume, 2000-page history of the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" , which was published by the Munin Verlag , which was founded and operated by HIAG . In the preface, Weidinger states that he does not want to glorify war or glorify ideas and epochs. Against the background of public discussions, for example about the Oradour massacre, Weidinger wanted to take action against an allegedly one-sided view of history. He named not only the experience generation as the target group, but also the youth. The historian Karsten Wilke classifies Weidinger's publication in attempts by the HIAG to "occupy subject areas unprocessed by professional history [...] with their own representations". These attempts were largely successful; In the 1970s at the latest, the HIAG had achieved "a monopoly on the history of the Waffen-SS". Wilke names the “ topos of the 'apolitical' Waffen-SS”, its alleged elite role, the “staging of the troops as a 'European army'” and the “delimitation of war and Nazi crimes” as the four central elements of these “memory structures” ".

In 1984 Weidinger published a book about the massacres in Tulle and Oradour under the title Tulle and Oradour - The Truth About Two Retribution Actions by the Waffen SS . Initially self-published, it was published in 1999 by Nation und Europa- Verlag and in 2006 by Winkelried-Verlag . The translation “Tulle en Oradour” was published in 1993 by the right-wing Belgian publisher Vrij Historisch Onderzoek . The Pour le Mérite Verlag of the right-wing extremist publisher Dietmar Munier published an illustrated book of Weidinger under the title Division "Das Reich" im Bild.

literature

Web links

Commons : Otto Weidinger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.oradour.info/appendix/dasorder.htm List of the units of the SS division Das Reich in June 1944.
  2. ^ Ahlrich Meyer : Oradour 1944. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.): Places of horror - crime in the Second World War. Darmstadt 2003, pp. 176-185.
  3. ↑ Karsten Wilke: The mutual aid community (HIAG) 1950–1990. Veterans of the Waffen SS in the Federal Republic . Schöningh, Paderborn / Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-77235-0 , p. 60–66 (also dissertation, Bielefeld University, 2010).
  4. ↑ Karsten Wilke: The mutual aid community (HIAG) 1950–1990. Veterans of the Waffen SS in the Federal Republic . Schöningh, Paderborn / Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-77235-0 , p. 400 (also dissertation, Bielefeld University, 2010).
  5. ↑ Karsten Wilke: The mutual aid community (HIAG) 1950–1990. Veterans of the Waffen SS in the Federal Republic . Schöningh, Paderborn / Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-77235-0 , p. 398 (also dissertation, Bielefeld University, 2010).
  6. ↑ Karsten Wilke: The mutual aid community (HIAG) 1950–1990. Veterans of the Waffen SS in the Federal Republic . Schöningh, Paderborn / Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-77235-0 , p. 405 (also dissertation, Bielefeld University, 2010).
  7. ↑ Karsten Wilke: The mutual aid community (HIAG) 1950–1990. Veterans of the Waffen SS in the Federal Republic . Schöningh, Paderborn / Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-77235-0 , p. 408 (also dissertation, Bielefeld University, 2010).
personal data
SURNAME Weidinger, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS Obersturmbannführer
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 1990
Place of death Bask