Raymond J. Bowman

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Raymond J. Bowman (born April 2, 1924 in Rochester , New York , † April 18, 1945 in Leipzig , Germany ) was an American soldier . He gained notoriety because his death became world famous through the photos of the famous war reporter Robert Capa . The photos were published in Life Magazine on May 14, 1945 .

Raymond Bowman memorial plaque at Capa-Haus Leipzig (2016)

biography

Raymond Bowman attended high school for four years , was unmarried and had no children. He was drafted into the military on June 21, 1943 with service number 32846512 . The soldier served in Company D of the 1st Battalion of the 23rd Infantry Regiment . They were armed with heavy machine guns (MG). His regiment belonged to the 2nd US Infantry Division ("Indianheads"), which was involved in the Normandy landing in June 1944 . They liberated large parts of France and Belgium. On April 18, 1945, they finally moved into Leipzig from the west. On that day, Raymond Bowman lost his life. He was with his unit on a balcony at today's Jahnallee 61, where he covered the storming of the Zeppelin Bridge as a member of a machine-gun squad . A German sniper level with the Zeppelin Bridge had hit Bowman between the eyes. He was killed instantly. Raymond J. Bowman was 21 years old.

Robert Capa's photo series

Robert Capa accompanied the troops as a war reporter . It was no coincidence that he came to Leipzig, of all places: his lover came from there. On May 5, 1945, Capa sent the pictures to New York with the following telegram: “Death blows. The war goes on. Only a few seconds after these American soldiers loaded cartridges into a machine gun in Leipzig. The rifle was placed on an open balcony. A Nazi sniper targeted it, fired a bullet and the American died on the floor, a shot between the eyes. "

background

Until December 10, 2011, the identity of the killed soldier was unknown in Germany. It was only through research by interested people from Leipzig, above all the military historian and author Jürgen Möller and the Leipziger Volkszeitung , that the contemporary witness Lehman Riggs was found, who reported on the events on an American radio station. Raymond J. Bowman was first buried in a US military cemetery in Frankfurt am Main . He was transferred to the United States in 1948 and is now buried in Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Rochester.

The house at Jahnallee 61

The house in which the photos were taken is located at Jahnallee 61 . It had been empty for years and threatened to collapse since a fire on New Year's Eve 2011/2012. The city of Leipzig had agreed to demolish it, but still wanted to secure the house in a makeshift way and to maintain or renovate it in the long term. On August 31, 2012, the eve of World Day of Peace, citizens of Leipzig held a poster campaign to remind them of the importance of the house for the preservation of history.

From 2013 to 2016, the building at Jahnallee 61 - also known as Capa-Haus - including the neighboring properties in Luppenstrasse, was renovated in accordance with the listed buildings. 26 and 28 from the ls real estate group under the name Palmengartenpalais

According to Leipziger Volkszeitung online of April 6, 2014, a museum was also planned to be housed in the building and a bronze plaque was planned on the facade. On April 17, 2016, an exhibition room was opened and a memorial plaque was unveiled in the presence of two war veterans (Lehman Riggs from the USA and Franz Caspari from Germany).

Bowman Street since April 17, 2016

Since 2012, the city administration has had a proposal to rename a street near the Capa House to Raymond-J.-Bowman-Strasse. The supporters of the application included a. US Army veteran Lehman Riggs, a comrade Bowman and the cabaret artist Meigl Hoffmann . On April 17, 2016, the street was renamed Bowmanstrasse in the presence of 96-year-old US Army veteran Lehman Riggs. It affects a part of the street from Lützner Straße / corner of Jahnallee. His friend Lehman Riggs turned 100 on January 18, 2020 in Tennessee . The Leipziger Volkszeitung remembered him and the filmmaker Alina Cyranek surprised with a video on the occasion of his birthday party.

literature

  • Jürgen Möller: Theater of war in the south of Leipzig in 1945. The advance of the V. US Corps to the White Elster in April 1945, the fighting in the south of Leipzig, the last days of the war on the Mulde and Elbe and the American occupation in the south of Leipzig . 3rd, edited edition. Deutsch Rockstuhl Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86777-168-9 (320 pages, 155 black-and-white illustrations, dimensions: 15.9 cm × 21.8 cm, bound).

Web links

Commons : The Capahaus in Leipzig-Lindenau where Bowman died  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ drafting documents. In: The NATIONAL ARCHIVES. Retrieved January 20, 2020 .
  2. ^ Jürgen Möller: Theater of war in the south of Leipzig in 1945.
  3. ^ Raymond J. Bowman in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  4. ↑ http://www.lvz-online.de/leipzig/citynews/notsicherung-am-capa-haus-in-leipzig-lindenau-stadt-will-einsturz-verhommunik/r-citynews-a-123560.html
  5. ↑ http://www.lvz-online.de/leipzig/polizeiticker/polizeiticker-leipzig/brand-am-weltberuehmten-capa-haus--dachstuhl-des-gebaeudes-droht-einzusuerzen/r-polizeiticker-leipzig-a- 119663.html
  6. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oYKcM2rmOU&feature=plcp
  7. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/groups/capa.haus/
  8. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 1, 2016 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.palmengartenpalais.de
  9. ↑ http://www.lvz-online.de/leipzig/citynews/der-letzt-tote-des-krieges-sanierung-des-capa-hauses-in-leipzig-beginnt-am-dienstag/r-citynews-a -233764.html
  10. ↑ US war veteran Riggs turns 100. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung. Retrieved January 20, 2020 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 17.8 "  N , 12 ° 20 ′ 31.3"  E

personal data
SURNAME Bowman, Raymond J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American soldier
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Rochester , New York
DATE OF DEATH April 18, 1945
Place of death Leipzig , Germany