Siegfried Kabus

Siegfried Kabus at his court hearing, 1947

Siegfried Kabus (* 1923 in Pforzheim ) perpetrated in 1946 with a group of like-minded attacks on US occupation forces and on the denazification entrusted tribunals in Stuttgart , Backnang and Esslingen . In previous years, the former member of the Waffen SS had created a false identity as an alleged SS leader. He was initially sentenced to death in the so-called Spruchkammer bombing trial . The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment .

Life

Siegfried Kabus was born in Pforzheim in 1923 . From the age of 14 (1937) he lived in Vaihingen near Stuttgart. He dropped out of high school , also an apprenticeship as a technical draftsman.

In 1941, Kabus volunteered for the Waffen SS. Due to a shrapnel injury, he had to return involuntarily from the front and give up the hoped-for career as a soldier. He took over the management of a HJ dormitory in Bohemia . Dissatisfied with his situation, he began a double life as an alleged SS leader. For this he kept a second pay and diary in which he recorded his alleged deeds against the Allies . After the end of the war, Kabus could not cope with the return to a bourgeois existence and continued his life as a con man .

Attacks in 1946

Weimarstrasse 20 (former headquarters of the American military police)

From August 1946 onwards, Kabus gathered young people who still adhered to National Socialist ideas, including former students at the national political educational institution in Backnang. In September 1946, the group committed an attack on an American officer's vehicle. Under the impression of the Nuremberg war crimes trials , the members began to circulate posters against the trials in the city of Stuttgart.

On October 19, 1946 at 8:30 p.m. Kabus's group detonated a bomb in front of the Spruchkammer office in Stuttgart's Stafflenbergstrasse. Ten minutes later, another explosive device detonated in front of the headquarters of the American military police ( Weimarstrasse 20 , Stuttgart) and the tribunal in Backnang. The explosives were constructed from artillery shells to which a time fuse was attached. Nobody was injured in the attacks, and the files in the ruling chambers remained intact.

Together with the German criminal police, the American military police carried out large-scale raids in which several people were arrested. The mayor of Stuttgart, Arnulf Klett, offered a reward of 25,000 Reichsmarks for catching the perpetrators . Although the courthouses were then secured by guards, another attack occurred on October 27 at 8:28 pm. It was directed against the Spruchkammer in Esslingen am Neckar. Again, the explosive devices did not cause any significant damage.

Arrest, trial and conviction

Evidence from the population drew suspicion to the alleged SS major Siegfried Kabus. Kabus was arrested on November 19 in Stuttgart and made a comprehensive confession. That same night, ten accomplices between the ages of 17 and 23 were captured in the Möhringen and Vaihingen districts . They came from Stuttgart or the surrounding area and were former members of the Hitler Youth and Waffen SS.

On January 3, 1947, the trial of the assassins began at Weimarstrasse 20 in Stuttgart. In addition to Kabus, two 17-year-olds, three 18-year-olds, three 19-year-olds and one 57-year-old were indicted. All of the defendants pleaded not guilty. The co-defendants only found out about Kabus' imposture during the trial. In addition to this realization, plans were also discovered for a new Nazi government with Kabus as the leader. Kabus claimed that Hitler was still alive and was in critical condition in Spain. This made him take his place. However, he emphasized that Hitler was above him. He clearly showed psychopathic traits during the interrogation and trial.

Siegfried Kabus was sentenced to death by hanging. However, the enforcement has been postponed again and again. On the orders of General Clay , the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in April 1948. On August 1, 1953, Kabus was released on parole after about seven years .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Works by and about Siegfried Kabus  in the German Digital Library
2. ↑ LEO-BW: "Terrorist attacks against arbitration chambers in Stuttgart and the surrounding area: the Kabus case"
3. ↑ Perry Biddiscombe: The Last Nazis . Ed .: The History Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7524-1793-6 .
4. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 2/1947: "Bombs on arbors / Kabus was just a clerk in the office"
5. ↑ Stuttgart trial hears Kabus fired church. Retrieved November 11, 2020 . 

literature

• Volker Koop: Himmler's last line-up: the Nazi organization "Werewolf". Böhlau, Cologne [a. a.] 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20191-3 , pp. 261-264.
• Albrecht Ernst: Terrorist attacks against arbitration chambers in Stuttgart and the surrounding area: the Kabus case . In: Archivnachrichten 36, 2008, 36, pp. 10-11.
• Perry Biddiscombe: The Last Nazis. Ed .: The History Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7524-1793-6