Rudolf Egger-Büssing

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Rudolf Egger-Büssing , born as Rudolf Egger , (born October 13, 1893 in Marburg an der Drau ; † February 2, 1962 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was an Austrian entrepreneur. He was co-owner and general director of the Büssing-NAG automobile works in Braunschweig .

Life

After an apprenticeship, Egger was a secretary in the Graz Puch works between 1911 and 1913 . In 1920 he joined the Büssing works in Braunschweig and within a short time became Heinrich Büssing's closest collaborator . In 1923 he was appointed director and married a granddaughter of Büssing.

Entrepreneurial activity during National Socialism

In the course of arming the Wehrmacht in preparation for the Second World War, the Nazi regime forced a type restriction in the motor vehicle industry . Egger was involved in these measures. In 1941 he succeeded Paul Werner as general director of Büssing-NAG AG, a large commercial vehicle manufacturer in the German Reich , and in the same year became a member of the industrial council for air force production founded by Hermann Göring . From 1941 to February 1943 Egger was head of the "Vehicle Industry Economic Group" in Braunschweig. Büssing-NAG mainly produced 4.5 t trucks for the German armed forces . In June 1944, 49% of the Büssing workforce was made up of forced laborers . At the same time, the company received approval from the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office to deploy concentration camp prisoners . Among these prisoners were over 1,000 inmates of the Auschwitz concentration camp , many of them Polish and Hungarian Jews . According to a long-time Büssing employee, the Jewish prisoners were treated brutally by both the SS and the company management. Many forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners were housed in the subcamp Schillstrasse , a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp , which was located in the south-eastern part of the city. Others in the Vechelde subcamp a few kilometers west of Braunschweig . The prisoners from Schillstrasse had to a. work in the spare parts and machine repair departments as well as in the so-called "diesel bunker". Prisoners from Vechelde had to manufacture truck rear axles. As general director, Egger was responsible for this. According to a brigade leader, “driving the prisoners” was the most important thing for Egger.

During the Second World War, there were several executions of concentration camp prisoners and slave laborers on the factory premises. On Sunday, September 3, 1944, the largest known mass execution took place on the premises of the Büssing-NAG, when nine Russian forced laborers between the ages of 16 and 27 were hanged at the instigation of the Braunschweig Gestapo . In order to create as high a degree of deterrence as possible among the other prisoners, they were forced to attend the execution. There seems to have been a corresponding agreement between the Gestapo (Head of the Detective Inspector Fritz Flint) and the company's management (Rudolf Egger). Gerhard Wysocki suspects that both sides wanted to set an example with the mass execution .

Post-war activity

After Braunschweig was handed over to units of the 30th US Infantry Division without a fight on April 12, 1945 , the American military government allowed the resumption of production at the Büssing parent plant in Braunschweig, which had been inactive since April 9, from May 2, 1945 under Egger's direction .

With the approval of the British military government , Egger was elected president of the " Braunschweig Chamber of Commerce " in July 1945 , after having been one of eight vice-presidents since 1943. This was seen as a provocation by large parts of the Braunschweig workers and by the anti-fascist action founded in Braunschweig in 1945 (an association of members of different workers' parties) . In a letter dated October 24, 1945 to Hubert Schlebusch , the first post-war Prime Minister of the state of Braunschweig, the works councils of the large Braunschweig metalworks informed the politician that Egger was the "intellectual originator of the murders of the nine Russians" and that they regretted that the " war criminal " was reinstated. Egger was also accused of personally ensuring that a Büssing engineer was brought to the concentration camp. Finally, the works councils expressed their incomprehension that Egger, unlike Dietrich Klagges (former NSDAP Prime Minister) and Berthold Heilig (last Gauleiter of the Gaus Süd-Hannover-Braunschweig ) had not been arrested.

In autumn 1945 a former employee of the Büssing-NAG reported to the attorney general in Braunschweig about the mistreatment of prisoners in the camp. Thereupon former prisoners and employees of Büssing were interviewed. The investigations produced precise descriptions of the situation in the concentration camps and of individual abuse. However, one of those primarily responsible, Max Kirstein , camp commandant of the Schillstrasse satellite camp, had fled. In October 1945 Egger resigned from the office of IHK President due to illness.

Due to the events at Büssing-NAG during the war, the Braunschweig public prosecutor's office initiated an investigation against Rudolf Egger and several other Büssing directors in December 1945 . Egger was accused, among other things, of being responsible for the murder of 500 to 600 Jewish prisoners in the Schillstrasse satellite camp.

Egger put on record on January 7, 1946:

“The reports submitted to me were satisfactory and did not give rise to any special intervention. I knew that there were deaths in the camps of the concentration camp inmates, but I had no reason to look into the causes of death, because firstly, deaths occurred during the war years and secondly I had completely different tasks. "

On July 4, 1946, the Brunswick Attorney General wrote to the British Military Government asking whether the results of the investigation should now be heard before an Allied tribunal or a German court. After almost two years, the War Crimes Group (NWE) replied on March 1, 1948 :

"War Crimes Group (NWE) have decided that this case will not be proceeded with."

"The Northwestern Europe War Crimes Group has decided not to pursue the case any further."

This legally settled the matter for the military government.

Honors

From the 1950s onwards, Egger received numerous honors. When the 10,000. Commercial vehicle was completed, it was given the name "Egger-Büssing". On October 13, 1953, his 60th birthday, the city of Braunschweig granted him honorary citizenship , the Technical University of Braunschweig the title of honorary senator, and he was also made honorary president of the Braunschweig Chamber of Commerce and industry and an honorary member of the Association of the Automotive Industry . In the same year he was awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. On July 19, 1961, Egger-Büssing was promoted to Dr.-Ing. E. h. appointed.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Norman-Mathias Pingel: Rudolf Egger-Büssing. In: Garzmann, Schuegraf, Pingel (ed.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon - supplementary volume. P. 39.
  2. ^ A b Norman-Mathias Pingel: The War Economy in the Land of Braunschweig 1939–1945. In: G. Fiedler, H.-U. Ludewig (Ed.): Forced Labor and War Economy in the State of Braunschweig 1939–1945. P. 58.
  3. ^ Norman-Mathias Pingel: The war economy in the country of Braunschweig 1939-1945. In: G. Fiedler, H.-U. Ludewig (Ed.): Forced Labor and War Economy in the State of Braunschweig 1939–1945. P. 27.
  4. ^ Karl Liedke: Braunschweig (Büssing). In: W. Benz, B. Distel (eds.): The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 5, p. 357.
  5. ^ Karl Liedke: Facets of forced labor. In: G. Fiedler, H.-U. Ludewig (Ed.): Forced Labor and War Economy in the State of Braunschweig 1939–1945. P. 234.
  6. ↑ Axel Richter: The Vechelde sub-command of the Neuengamme concentration camp. For the use of concentration camp prisoners in arms production . Ed .: Vechelde municipality . Vechelde 1985.
  7. ^ Karl Liedke: Facets of forced labor. In: G. Fiedler, H.-U. Ludewig (Ed.): Forced Labor and War Economy in the State of Braunschweig 1939–1945. P. 225f
  8. ^ Karl Liedke: Facets of forced labor. In: G. Fiedler, H.-U. Ludewig (Ed.): Forced Labor and War Economy in the State of Braunschweig 1939–1945. P. 226, p. FN 57.
  9. ^ Gerhard Wysocki: The Secret State Police in the state of Braunschweig. Police Law and Police Practice under National Socialism , p. 182
  10. ^ Gerhard Wysocki: The Secret State Police in the state of Braunschweig. Police law and police practice under National Socialism. P. 183.
  11. ↑ a b Gerhard Wysocki: The Secret State Police in the state of Braunschweig. Police law and police practice under National Socialism. P. 185.
  12. ^ Norman-Mathias Pingel: The war economy in the country of Braunschweig 1939-1945. In: G. Fiedler, H.-U. Ludewig (Ed.): Forced Labor and War Economy in the State of Braunschweig 1939–1945. P. 37.
  13. ↑ Gudrun Fiedler: From War to Peace. In: Leuschner, Kaufhold, Märtl (Hrsg.): The economic and social history of the Braunschweigisches Land from the Middle Ages to the present. Volume 3: Modern Times. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2008, ISBN 978-3-487-13599-1 , p. 560, FN 4.
  14. ^ Gerhard Wysocki: The Secret State Police in the state of Braunschweig. Police law and police practice under National Socialism. P. 185, footnote 365.
  15. ↑ a b Gudrun Fiedler: From War to Peace. In: Leuschner, Kaufhold, Märtl (Hrsg.): The economic and social history of the Braunschweigisches Land from the Middle Ages to the present. Volume 3: Modern Times. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2008, ISBN 978-3-487-13599-1 , p. 561.
  16. ^ Karl Liedke: Facets of forced labor. In: G. Fiedler, H.-U. Ludewig (Ed.): Forced Labor and War Economy in the State of Braunschweig 1939–1945. P. 234.
  17. ^ Karl Liedke: Facets of forced labor. In: G. Fiedler, H.-U. Ludewig (Ed.): Forced Labor and War Economy in the State of Braunschweig 1939–1945. P. 234.
  18. ↑ Büssing created social buildings . In: Die Zeit , No. 43/1953, p. 11.
  19. ↑ Appointments as honorary senator in 1953 and honorary doctorate in 1961 ( Memento from February 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 97 kB) on biblio.tu-bs.de
personal data
SURNAME Egger-Büssing, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Egger, Rudolf (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Marburg on the Drau
DATE OF DEATH 2nd February 1962
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau