Rudolf Berthold (fighter pilot)

Rudolf Berthold (* 24. March 1891 in Ditterswind ; † 15. March 1920 in Harburg on the Elbe ) was a German fighter pilot in World War I and the leader of a volunteer corps , which at the Kapp Putsch involved. When his Freicorps marched into Harburg, they were opposed by a spontaneously formed resident army consisting of workers and democrats. There was an exchange of fire and Berthold and his troops were defeated. Berthold had to capitulate. When, during the process of this surrender, his troops shot several times without notice into a group of Harburg workers, Berthold, who had meanwhile tried to flee, was pursued by angry people and killed by several shots.

Life

First World War

Rudolf was born to the head forester Oskar Berthold (1857–1923) and his wife Helene Stief (1860–1945). He had a sister named Franziska and two brothers, Wolfram and Julius.

After graduating from the New High School in Bamberg, he graduated from the cadet corps and on January 30, 1910 was transferred as a lieutenant to the infantry regiment "Graf Tauentzien von Wittenberg" (3rd Brandenburgisches) No. 20 of the Prussian Army in Wittenberg . From the summer of 1914 he completed his training as a military aviator, in the course of which he met Oswald Boelcke .

After the mobilization at the outbreak of the First World War , Berthold's field pilot department 23 left on August 7th to the west . His department was assigned to the AOK of the 2nd Army under the command of Colonel General Karl von Bülow . During the war, he was promoted to first lieutenant on September 18, 1915 , and from October 12, 1916, he was appointed leader of Jasta 14. This was followed by a position as leader of the Jasta 18 and promotion to captain on October 20, 1917. On March 17, 1918, he was given command of Jagdgeschwader 2. Berthold himself was shot down several times and was seriously injured in some cases. He has received several awards for his 44 aerial victories. In addition to the two classes of the Iron Cross and the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords and the Knight's Cross of the Military St. Henry's Order , Berthold was also honored with the highest Prussian bravery award, the Order Pour le Mérite , on October 12, 1916.

Berthold was shot down for the last time on August 10, 1918, survived seriously wounded and returned home after a short stay in the field hospital. He experienced the end of the war in the Berlin University Clinic . His injuries did not heal completely; his right hand was permanently paralyzed.

Due to the 44 aerial victories that Berthold achieved during the First World War, he became one of the legendary flying aces like Manfred von Richthofen (80 victories), Ernst Udet (62 victories), Oswald Boelcke (40 victories), Werner Voss (48 victories) and Max Immelmann (15 wins).

Free Corps

The Kiel sailors' uprising , the November Revolution that followed , the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Compiègne armistice shook Berthold , who was nationalist and loyal to the emperor. He rejected the democratic parties, especially the left groups and their representatives, as "alley and street socialists".

In April 1919, Berthold founded the "Franconian Farmers Detachment Iron Schar Berthold" with the approval of the Reich Government, located in Hammelburg (district of Bad Kissingen). The Freikorps received equipment, food and pay from state funds. After deployments in Schweinfurt, Bad Kissingen and Munich, the “Iron Squad” should be disbanded in September. Berthold withdrew and moved the Freikorps to Königsberg . Berthold integrated his troops into the Iron Division and participated with this in the Latvian War of Independence in the Baltic States. For this reason one also counted Bertold's Iron Schar among the " Baltic States ".

Kapp putsch

Drive to Harburg

At the beginning of 1920, the Freikorps was moved to the interior of Germany for demobilization . The corps quartered itself in Kehdinger Land near Stade , at the gates of Hamburg. However, Berthold defied every order to dismiss. He developed a lively activity in nationalist military circles and intended to build a military dictatorship in Hungary based on the model of Horthy .

At the beginning of March 1920, Berthold negotiated in Berlin about the incorporation of his troops into the Loewenfeld Navy Brigade . In a letter dated March 6, 1920, he wrote: "As far as the political situation is concerned, thank God, everything now needs to be decided ... The situation has come to a head that the big blow may come in a few days."

On March 13, 1920, the expected putsch began with the march of the Ehrhardt Brigade in Berlin under the command of General Walther von Lüttwitz . The putschists had appointed the landscape director Kapp as Reich Chancellor. Berthold decided to take part in the putsch with his officers. First the troops wanted to take the train from Stade to Altona to join the putschists under Colonel Wangenheim. That initially failed because the democratically minded railroad workers refused to provide a train. On the following day, the soldiers forced a train to be made available "with the brutal use of force and death threats, which also extended to the family members of the railway officials" - according to the Stader district president.

Berthold's first destination was Harburg. In the Prussian town of Harburg (Elbe) on the route to Hamburg , the officers of the approximately 900-strong pioneer battalion stationed there who were sympathetic to the Kapp Putsch had already been arrested and placed under house arrest. The NCOs and men had declared themselves in favor of the republic after their officers were arrested. Berthold intended to restore the officers' authority and remove all soldiers loyal to the government. He also planned to equip his people there from the Reichswehr.

In Harburg, the "Baltic residents" were forced to move into quarters at the Woellmerstrasse school. In negotiations, Berthold was asked by both the social democratic and the bourgeoisie to drive his troops directly to Berlin without stopping. Berthold refused. He made a deduction conditional. As a result, the mood in the city became radicalized - especially among the workers.

Memorial plaque at the Woellmerstrasse school in Hamburg-Heimfeld

The school in Woellmerstrasse in the Heimfeld district was besieged by onlookers, members of a pioneer battalion, and by the militia, which was now armed and led by Social Democrats . Berthold demanded: "Free space - there will be shooting." With machine guns warning shots were given over the heads of the crowd. The fire was returned, whereupon Berthold's Freikorps shot into the fleeing crowd. Several people collapsed dead or wounded. The school was under constant fire.

Failure of the coup and Berthold's death

Berthold was forced to negotiate surrender, which were supposed to allow the "Iron Schar" to return to Stade after all weapons had been surrendered. During the handover of weapons, shots were fired again, "which apparently were ambushed by the Baltic states" - according to the bourgeois Harburg announcements and news on March 16, 1920. In fact, it is not possible to clarify beyond any doubt from which side the shots were fired. In any case, another exchange of fire flared up. The Baltics had to stop fire after a short time due to a lack of ammunition. Nonetheless, the action had led to extraordinary excitement and bitterness among the largely unarmed crowd. Because, according to their perception, the Iron Company had shot twice into an unsuspecting crowd. The crowd started beating the withdrawing soldiers.

Protected by armed workers, Berthold tried to escape to an inn. Part of the angry crowd pursued them and got Berthold out of the building. When he was beaten and kicked in the street, Berthold drew a small pistol to defend himself. However, the pistol was snatched from him and shot at him. He was also hit by two rifle shots. The death certificate issued on March 16, 1920 as well as the autopsy report recorded severe, but by no means fatal bruises from blows, kicks and possibly blows with the buttocks. He was killed by the gunfire.

While the "Baltikumer" recorded ten deaths apart from Berthold, 14 people died on the part of the Harburgers. Both sides had about 20 injured, some seriously.

The new tombstone in the Invalidenfriedhof

Berthold was buried in the Berlin Invalidenfriedhof . His tombstone, a bronze plate, disappeared after 1945. Today a renewed stone commemorates him.

reception

The writer Ernst von Salomon , who had taken part in the operation of the Iron Schar under Berthold, wrote in his supposedly autobiographical first novel The Outlaws , published in 1930, about Rudolf Berthold, his "Iron Schar", the enterprises in the Baltic States, the failed participation in Kapp Putsch and the death of Berthold in Harburg-Heimfeld, which is now part of Hamburg. In it, Salomon justifies the putsch against the republic and the use of the Freikorps against the Harburg workers. Contrary to the findings of the death certificate from 1920, he claims that Berthold's throat was cut and his head was severed. During the Nazi era, too, various publications were published that distort the events. In addition to the details that Solomon claimed, it also referred to "vertebrate women". Under the title ... incomparable Franke ... - picture of a German soldier , the Nazi writer Thor Goote created a description of Berthold's life story in 1935, which was called a factual novel .

Even in the period after 1945, the events were often treated primarily as “lynch justice to Captain Berthold”. Even the tale of the severed head was found again. Even today it is sometimes reported that he was strangled by communist forces with the ribbon of his Pour le Mérite.

In the time after the Nazis came to power, various memorial stones were erected for Berthold. On May 31, 1933, a memorial stone was erected in front of the school in Harburg-Heimfeld, which had already been renamed the Berthold School shortly before. There were real Berthold commemorations on the anniversary of the Kapp Putsch in Harburg. While the stone from the school, which was badly damaged in the war, was removed at the end of the war and has been lost since then, the stone still exists in the “New Cemetery” there. There it says: “Naer Oostland wyllen wy ryden”.

In Würzburg , where commemorations for Berthold were also held, a new elementary school, built on January 3, 1938, was also named after Rudolf Berthold in the Frauenland district .

In 1981, the events in Harburg as a result of the republic-loyal residents of Harburg defending against the Kapp Putsch were described for the first time after the Nazi era with a representation in the book “Das Andere Hamburg.” (See literature and sources).

By resolution of all parties in the Hamburg-Harburg district assembly in 2007, a memorial plaque was attached to the school to commemorate the victims of the "Harburg Blood Sunday".

See also

• List of German fighter pilots in the First World War

literature

• Jörg Berlin: "Lynch justice to Captain Berthold" or defense against the Kapp Putsch? The events in Harburg in March 1920. In: Jörg Berlin: The other Hamburg. Efforts for freedom in the Hanseatic city since the late Middle Ages. (= Small library - politics, science, art. 237). Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1981, ISBN 3-7609-0654-0 , pp. 209-234.
• Emil Julius Gumbel : Conspirators. On the history and sociology of the German secret societies 1918–1924 . Malik, Vienna 1924 (reprint 1971). In it letters to Berthold (in Gumbel wrongly Berchthold), which were found with him after his death.
• Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order pour le mérite of the First World War . Volume 1: A-G. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1999, ISBN 3-7648-2505-7 . Pp. 109-110.
• Uwe Ruprecht: Captain Berthold's death. In: ders., Else's laughter. True criminal cases. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8378-4008-7 .
• Peter Supf :  Berthold, Rudolf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 167 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Arch Whitehouse: Flieger-Ase 1914-1918 . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1970, pp. 363–365.
• Association of those persecuted by the Nazi regime - Bund der Antifaschisten eV (Ed.): “The others” - Resistance and persecution in Harburg and Wilhelmsburg - Testimonials and reports 1933–1945. Sixth and enlarged edition. Self-published, 2005, p. 13 ff.

Web links

• Newspaper article about Rudolf Berthold in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736–1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, p. 151.
2. ↑ Bruno Thoss : Iron Schar Berthold. Published on September 10, 2012 in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns. URL: historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de (accessed on November 26, 2017).
3. ↑ Jörg Berlin: "Lynchjustiz an Hauptmann Berthold" or defense of the Kapp Putsch? The events in Harburg in March 1920. In: Jörg Berlin: The other Hamburg. Efforts for freedom in the Hanseatic city since the late Middle Ages. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1981, ISBN 3-7609-0654-0 , p. 223f.
4. ↑ Jörg Berlin: "Lynchjustiz an Hauptmann Berthold" or defense of the Kapp Putsch? The events in Harburg in March 1920. In: Jörg Berlin: The other Hamburg. Efforts for freedom in the Hanseatic city since the late Middle Ages. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1981, ISBN 3-7609-0654-0 , p. 229.
5. ↑ Jörg Berlin: "Lynchjustiz an Hauptmann Berthold" or defense of the Kapp Putsch? The events in Harburg in March 1920. In: Jörg Berlin: The other Hamburg. Efforts for freedom in the Hanseatic city since the late Middle Ages. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1981, ISBN 3-7609-0654-0 , p. 233f.
6. ↑ So in press reports in the press kit, which is given under links.
7. ↑ Peter Weidisch: Würzburg in the "Third Reich". In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Volume I-III / 2, Theiss, Stuttgart 2001-2007; III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , pp. 196-289 and 1271-1290; here: p. 210 and 1272.