Reinhold Eggers

Reinhold Eggers (born April 26, 1890 in Roklum ; † 1974 ) was a German educator, officer and writer. He became known as a security officer of the officer camp Oflag IV-C in Colditz Castle .

Live and act

Eggers was the son of a master blacksmith in Roklum. After graduating from elementary school, he attended the Weferlingen preparatory facility and the Neuhaldensleben teacher training college . From 1910 to 1913 he was a teacher at the one-class school in Siestedt in the Gardelegen district . In 1912 he passed the second teacher examination.

From April 1913 to April 1914 he served as a one-year volunteer with the 2nd Sea Battalion in Wilhelmshaven . He was dismissed as a sergeant and reserve officer candidate and began a job as a teacher in Halle an der Saale. Recalled on August 1, 1914 with the beginning of the First World War , he served in the Marine Infantry Regiment No. 1, including in Flanders and at the Battle of the Somme . In April 1915 he was promoted to lieutenant. In May 1915 he received the Iron Cross II. Class and in 1916 the Iron Cross I Class and the Hessian Medal of Bravery . With the demobilization he returned to Halle in December 1918.

From 1919 to 1932 he taught here at the Europaschule Friesenschule. In 1929 he passed the middle school teacher exams for English and French. He studied the English school system in two study stays in England lasting several months. From 1932 he worked at the monastery school in Halle, a middle school for boys. He lost this position in 1933 after being denounced as an "internationalist" and since then has only been allowed to teach in elementary schools.

In 1929 Eggers began studying philosophy and economics at the University of Halle . In 1934 he was awarded a doctorate in Great Britain with a dissertation on reform pedagogy in Great Britain , supervised by Paul Menzer . phil. PhD.

Colditz

Colditz Castle 1945

With the beginning of the Second World War , Eggers was reactivated as a reserve lieutenant. Because of his language skills, he was initially employed as an interpreter in Oflag IV A at Hohnstein Castle (Saxon Switzerland) . On November 22, 1940, he was transferred to Colditz Castle. He stayed here, meanwhile promoted to security officer and deputy commandant, until the end of the war.

As a security officer, it was his job to prevent the various escape attempts for which Colditz would later become famous. He created an extensive documentation of the successful and unsuccessful escape attempts.

After the end of the war

After the liberation of Colditz by the US Army, Eggers returned to Halle and initially took up his position as a teacher again. However, he was soon arrested by the Soviet military administration and sentenced to ten years of forced labor. From December 1946 to January 1950 he was a prisoner in special camp No. 7 Sachsenhausen and then until December 1955 in Fort Zinna in Torgau .

After his release, he made contact with former Colditz inmates and visited some of them in the UK. In 1961 the first edition of his book Colditz - the German story appeared and in 1973 a collection of outbreak reports compiled by him. He moved near Lake Constance , where he died in 1974.

Works

• From the Victorian Age to the Present. An examination of the educational reform movement in England. Halle: Akad. Verlag 1935; Zugl .: Halle, Phil. Diss. 1934.
• Colditz - the German story. 1961, several new editions ISBN 184415536-6 .
• Escape From Colditz: 16 first-hand accounts. Compiled by Reinhold Eggers. Edited by John Watton. London: Robert Hale, 1973.

Web links

• Literature by and about Reinhold Eggers in the catalog of the German National Library
• Archive photo