Robert Bürger

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Robert Bürger (born April 10, 1914 in Duisburg , † February 25, 1992 in Undorf ) was a major in the Wehrmacht and a retired colonel . D. the Bundeswehr .

Life

Robert Bürger was born in Duisburg . After graduating from school, he joined the 10th Infantry Division in Regensburg in October 1935 . After attending the war school in Dresden, he came back to Regensburg as a lieutenant .

Bürger took part in the invasion of Austria in 1938 and Czechoslovakia in 1939. He experienced the attack against Poland as a battalion adjutant of an infantry regiment. After he was promoted to first lieutenant in April 1940 , he was used in the campaign against France and in 1941 as a company commander in the war against the Soviet Union . At the beginning of 1944, Major Bürger heads the field sergeant school for rapid troops in Rembertau near Warsaw , where members of the Waffen SS were also trained. Bürger did not follow his last order from April 10, 1945 to command a tank grenadier regiment on the Eastern Front, instead he stayed in Regensburg until the end of the war .
On April 23, 1945, Bürger was, according to his own statements, in the stand trial against cathedral preacher Johann Maier , who was executed the next day, as the deputy of the combat commandant .

In 1942 Robert Bürger married Helene Brodmerkel, the daughter of the Regensburg NSKK - Obersturmführer and NSDAP district leader Wilhelm Brodmerkel , with whom he had five children.

After the Second World War

After the end of the war he worked in his mother-in-law's company and joined the German Armed Forces as a major in April 1956 . In Koblenz he initially led the Panzergrenadier Battalion 342 . From October 1964, Bürger, meanwhile promoted to colonel , was the commander of the newly opened army non-commissioned school in Sonthofen . The buildings of these barracks had been erected from 1934 in the function of " NS-Ordensburg Sonthofen " (an Adolf Hitler school ).

Citizen's report at the end of the war in Regensburg

At the end of 1981 Bürger turned to the Military History Research Office (MGFA) in Freiburg with his subjective notes about the end of the war in Regensburg and asked for a publication. Since the MGFA showed no interest due to the lack of contemporary witnesses and "the sparse written records", Bürger tried the same material in Regensburg, where he was received with open arms. According to him, the director of the Episcopal Central Archives , Paul Mai , and his deputy, Werner Chrobak , encouraged him to do his study and supported him in adding sources, making corrections and making the typesetting.
In 1983 Bürger responded sensationally with the essay “Regensburg in the last days of the war”, in which he described the last days of the war in Regensburg. In doing so, Bürger relies on a copy of the war diary of Kampfgruppe Regensburg in his possession , which he submitted in excerpts and as a partially blackened copy. Since the publication, Bürger, without being able to name other contemporary witnesses or sources, has claimed the preservation of the city from destruction by US troops as his merit. According to this, after a flash of inspiration, as the deputy combat commander, he personally led the withdrawal of combat troops (approx. 1400 men) from Regensburg and thus saved the city. The NSDAP Mayor Otto Schottenheim made the troop withdrawal possible by providing city trucks at short notice. As a result, Bürger's account entered the local military historical literature.

Revision of citizen's representations

The detailed revision by Peter Eiser and Günter Schießl from 2012 comes to the conclusion that the citizen's portrayal is a subjective and self-serving account of a contemporary witness that is not secured by any reliable source base. Citizens wrote and fabricated his written evidence, such as the so-called war diary of the combat troops, himself. The revision also comes to the result that in April 1945 there were no trucks available in Regensburg for the troop withdrawal in question, and it is largely thanks to staff officer Othmar Matzke that the surrender and surrender of the city of Regensburg without a fight was initiated .
Werner Chrobak, on the other hand, who wrote the foreword to Bürger's essay and in 1983 made it possible to publish it in the publishing house of the Historisches Verein für Oberpfalz and Regensburg , holds on to Bürger's credibility.
The historian of the Institute for Contemporary History, Sven Keller, came to the conclusion in an essay that Bürger stylized himself as the “savior of Regensburg”. Citizens make themselves "a kind of God-sent savior, yes a tool of God." Citizens work, according to Keller, with unsubstantiated or implausible claims and with "obscure sources". According to Keller, there is no historical study "which attempts to reconstruct the events of 1945 using all available sources".
After researching the archive, Robert Werner came to the conclusion that Bürger had arbitrarily completed the written version of the so-called “war diary” only after his service in the Bundeswehr in 1975. The legend of the citizen could be considered "as a textbook example for the misrepresentation of history and systematic manipulation in an environment with similar interests".

The German Federal Armed Forces Association has been remembering Robert Bürger and his alleged services in the rescue of Regensburg with an annual prayer for peace since 1994 in Adlersberg .

Publications

literature

  • Peter Eiser, Günter Schießl: End of the war in Regensburg, Verlag Friedrich Pustet Regensburg , 2012. ISBN 978-3-7917-2410-2 .
  • Helmut Halter: City under the swastika. Local politics in Regensburg during the Nazi era , Universitätsverlag Regensburg, 1994, ISBN 3-9803470-6-0 .
  • Sven Keller: "Dispute: End of the war in Regensburg - a throw in", in: Regensburger Almanach, MZ-Verlag 2013, pp. 158–167. ISBN 978-3-934863-50-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Eiser, Günter Schießl: End of the war in Regensburg. 2012, pp. 26-29.
  2. ^ Peter Eiser, Günter Schießl: End of the war in Regensburg. 2012, p. 33.
  3. ↑ Werner Sturm: War and Peace. 60 years after the end of the war. Heimat- und Kulturverein eV, Bad Abbach 2005, p. 20.
  4. ^ Peter Eiser, Günter Schießl: End of the war in Regensburg. 2012, p. 26.
  5. ^ Obituary in the Mittelbayerische Zeitung from February 29, 1992
  6. ^ History of the Panzergrenadierbataillon 342 (website of the interest group of comrades of the former PzGrenBtl (142) 342 with a picture of Robert Bürger)
  7. ^ Army Sergeant School I - Memories of Sonthofen IF - Journal for Internal Leadership of the Bundeswehr, 2006 (last accessed December 2013)
  8. ↑ Peter Eiser, Günter Schießl: End of War in Regensburg , 2012, p. 78.
  9. ↑ Robert Werner: Historical clutter in a scientific guise (report on Regensburg-Digtial from June 21, 2012, last accessed in Dec. 2013).
  10. ↑ Harald Raab: How Regensburg was saved in 1945 , in: DIE WOCHE, February 1, 1984
  11. ↑ Werner Chrobak: Foreword to Regensburg in the last days of the war , in: Negotiations of the Historical Association of Regensburg and the Upper Palatinate (VHVO) 123, 1983, p. 380.
  12. ^ Robert Bürger: Regensburg in the last days of the war , in: Negotiations of the Historical Association of Regensburg and the Upper Palatinate (VHVO) 123, 1983, p. 389.
  13. ↑ Joachim Brückner: End of War in Bavaria 1945 , Verlag Rombach Freiburg, 1987, p. 154.
  14. ↑ Peter Eiser, Günter Schießl: End of War in Regensburg , 2012, p. 149.
  15. ↑ Peter Eiser, Günter Schießl: End of War in Regensburg , 2012, p. 111.
  16. ^ Gustav Norgall: Revision of the legend of a heroic deed , in Mittelbayerische Zeitung of April 25, 2012.
  17. ^ Sven Keller: Dispute: End of the war in Regensburg - a throw in , 2013, pp. 158–167.
  18. ^ Bundeswehr comradeship sticks to war diary forger Robert Bürger (research by Robert Werner from December 2, 2013 on regensburg-digital )
personal data
SURNAME Citizen, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Duisburg
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1992
Place of death Undorf