Robert Limpert

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Leaflet by Robert Limpert from April 1945

Robert Limpert (born July 15, 1925 in Ansbach ; † April 18, 1945 there ) was a German resistance fighter against the dictatorship of National Socialism . He was executed in the last days of the Second World War because he cut the telephone lines of an abandoned command post of the Wehrmacht in Ansbach.

Life

Childhood and school days

Limpert's birthplace at Kronenstrasse 6 in Ansbach.

Robert Limpert's father was a Reichsbahn inspector , later he worked as an administrative clerk for the Ansbach district administrator . An uncle was first cathedral chaplain in Bamberg and then pastor in the Upper Palatinate. Robert Limpert was raised "strictly Catholic " by his parents in the predominantly Protestant town of Ansbach . Limpert was wearing glasses and possibly plump because of an early diagnosed heart disease.

Main portal of the Carolinum grammar school in Ansbach.

Limpert attended elementary school in Ansbach for four years and then transferred to the Carolinum humanistic grammar school . He achieved good to very good performances and was best of his class every now and then. He was exempt from physical education because of his heart disease. In 1943 Robert Limpert and his friend Wolfgang Hammer were suspected of damaging blackout curtains and putting up blackboard signs that were critical of the regime during the night watch in the grammar school, which was carried out because of the Allied air raids . In fact, for Limpert, National Socialism was incompatible with his beliefs. Together with other students in the class, Limpert and Hammer hid a microphone in the room where the teachers discussed the punishments for the alleged wrongdoers. The students were caught after a short time and Hammer and Limpert were expelled from school. According to Hammers, however, the headmaster and his deputy helped the two students to find a place at a grammar school in Erlangen . There Limpert passed “an excellent high school diploma. In Latin, Greek and German he graduated with a 1, in all other subjects, with the exception of mathematics, with a grade of 2. "

Study and resistance

Leaflet by Robert Limpert

Because of the heart disease Limpert was not called up for military service; The language talent (he mastered Latin, Greek, English, French and Italian, as well as a little Arabic, New Persian and Turkish) was unable, due to various problems, to start studying Oriental Studies in Vienna or German university cities or at the Swiss University of Freiburg to study. Therefore, he was a guest student at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg in the winter semester of 1944/45 .

On February 8, 1945, Limpert wrote his will with the knowledge that his political views constantly put his life in danger, but also under the impression of his serious heart disease. It also included his motto “ Pietas , Caritas , Castitas ”. He also wrote his obituary notice at this point.

When Limpert was finally obliged to do military service in March 1945, he suffered a severe heart attack in an air raid on Würzburg and was subsequently retired. After the bombing raid on Würzburg on March 16, 1945 severely damaged the city, Limpert returned to Ansbach. He made no secret of the fact that he was an opponent of the war; a defense of Ansbach against the superior Americans was pointless in his eyes, because the Allies had obviously overcome far greater obstacles in the course of the invasion. On February 22, 1945, the Ansbach station area was badly hit by Allied bombing raids. While American troops approached the city from Ochsenfurt , there were death sentences in court courts against people who wanted to avoid further senseless victims. Limpert distributed leaflets at night calling for the city to be surrendered without a fight.

Ansbacher town hall gate.

On April 18, American troops stood a few kilometers from Ansbach; only a few Wehrmacht units remained for defense. Not knowing that the command post of the combatant commanders had already been laid, severed Limpert with the pliers, the telephone connection between the former command post and the troops in the suburbs. He was noticed by two Hitler Youths , who passed their observations on to surrounding adults, who in turn informed the police. Limpert was arrested in his parents' house. The combat commandant Colonel Ernst Meyer sentenced Limpert to death in a court martial. Limpert was to be hung on a hook on the town hall gate ; he managed to break away from his guards and flee a few meters, but was brought back to the town hall. Colonel Meyer put the noose around his neck, but when Limpert was pulled up, the rope broke. Meyer tied a new noose, Limpert was pulled up again and died a few hours before American troops took over the city at around 5:30 p.m. and removed the body. Ian Kershaw described these processes with an eye to the circumstances of the time.

Aftermath and controversy

After the end of the war, Colonel Ernst Meyer was sentenced to 10 years in prison for manslaughter and released early after six years. His daughter Ute Althaus dealt with the deed of her father, who never regretted the step, in the book "I wasn't a Nazi officer." The daughter investigates .

A private memorial plaque for Robert Limpert was placed on the house where he was born at Kronenstrasse 6 in Ansbach in 1970. Another plaque has been in a chapel in the parish church of St. Ludwig since 1985. For various reasons, the city of Ansbach could not make up its mind to commemorate Robert Limpert's work until the 1980s. Projects with this aim "could only be implemented against strong resistance or implemented in hidden places." On the one hand, the rumor, with which Colonel Meyer also justified his act afterwards, persisted: Limpert's action would have prevented the withdrawal of Wehrmacht units and thus prevented them Sentenced to death - in fact, the command post from which the cut telephone lines originated had already been cleared. On the other hand, “too many respectable citizens […] were fatally involved in the case; therefore Limpert was not allowed to erect a memorial. ”A memorial stone donated in 1986 by the Ansbach peace movement for the town hall was erected at the forest cemetery; In the passage to the inner courtyard behind the archway of the town hall there is a donor board because, according to a councilor, "no Cain's mark on the town hall" was desired. Another official memorial plaque was placed next to the private one at Kronenstrasse 6. At the forest cemetery there is a memorial stone at the driveway to the funeral hall on the left. There is a plaque on the first floor of the Carolinum grammar school with the inscription:

Ruinam patriae prohibiturus
infamem mortem pertuli.
In memoriam Robert Limpert.
15. VII. 1925 - 18. IV. 1945
1935-1943 pupils
this high school.
Pietas. Caritas. Castitas

On April 11, 1989, after a long debate , the Ansbach city ​​council decided with a majority of only one vote to publicly honor Robert Limpert. This was preceded by a strong commitment by a group of students from the Luitpold School in Ansbach.

The Ansbach regional group of the citizens' movement for human dignity in Middle Franconia has been awarding the "Robert Limpert Prize for Civil Courage" since 2002.

  • Private commemorative medal at the birthplace.

  • Memorial plaque in the Church of St. Ludwig.

  • Official memorial plaque on the birthplace.

  • Board of donors at the town hall.

In 1999 the Catholic Church accepted Robert Limpert as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

The “State Vocational School for Special Needs Education” was given the name “Robert Limpert Vocational School” on May 7, 2015.

In the song of the same name Robert Limpert from 2015, Heinz Rudolf Kunze and his band Räuberzivil remember the Nazi crime and his victim.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fröhlich / Broszat 1983, p. 228.
  2. ↑ See Fröhlich / Broszat 1983, p. 229.
  3. ^ A later pastor and doctor of theology.
  4. ↑ Fröhlich / Broszat 1983, p. 228f.
  5. ↑ See Fröhlich / Broszat 1983, p. 230.
  6. ↑ See Fröhlich / Broszat 1983, p. 228.
  7. ↑ See Fröhlich / Broszat 1983, pp. 230f, 240.
  8. ↑ See Fröhlich / Broszat 1983, pp. 245ff.
  9. ↑ Ian Kershaw: The Eternal Question "Why?" SRF, June 3, 2012, minute 12:50 to minute 19:40
  10. ↑ See Wairer 2007.
  11. ↑ Puvogel / Stankowski 1996, p. 113.
  12. ↑ Fröhlich / Broszat 1983, p. 253.
  13. ↑ Puvogel / Stankowski 1996, p. 114.
  14. ↑ The German version of the Latin text can be found on the donor's board at the town hall: I wanted to turn disaster from my hometown, for it I suffered dishonorable death.
  15. ↑ Puvogel / Stankowski 1996, p. 113.
  16. ↑ See Puvogel / Stankowski 1996, p. 114.
  17. ↑ See Wairer 2007.
  18. ^ Homepage of the Robert Limpert Vocational School Ansbach


personal data
SURNAME Limpert, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter in the time of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Ansbach
DATE OF DEATH April 18, 1945
Place of death Ansbach