Special leader
Sonderführer was a function created by the German Wehrmacht in 1937 (mobilization plan for the army of March 12, 1937) in the event of mobilization. With the appointment as a special commander, the civilian special knowledge of soldiers who had no or only insufficient military training should be used. This group of people was transferred to an officer or non-commissioned officer rank.
The common abbreviations were:
- Sdf = special leader
- Sf = special leader with military command authority.
Special leader categories
There were special leaders in all branches of service, namely with the ranks for ...
-
Officers :
- Special Leader (B), corresponding to a major or lieutenant colonel in the army hierarchy,
- Special Leader (K), corresponding to a captain or Rittmeister in the army hierarchy,
- Special leader (Z), corresponding to a lieutenant / first lieutenant or platoon leader in the army hierarchy.
- NCOs :
An ideologically oriented special task for the special leader is not to be proven. However, the "National Socialist umbrella" was curious about any task. If there were literary or photographic-graphic qualifications, special leaders were deployed in a propaganda group of the Wehrmacht. So special guides were mainly used:
- as an interpreter ,
- in civil engineering ,
- for financial and administrative tasks ,
- for scientific tasks such as archeology and culture - conservation ,
- in agriculture ,
- in railways , especially light railways .
The case of the Special Leader Leo Weisgerber , who wanted to standardize the Breton language , which has repercussions in the debate on this subject in the French region of Brittany , shows that he had a particular influence even in the language of the occupied area .
Position and uniform
When he was called up as a special leader, it was always a question of a transitional measure, which could be revoked at any time, with the purpose of filling positions that could otherwise not be covered by regular military personnel. If the situation changed in this regard, the special leader was reintegrated into the "normal" process with military training etc. The position as a special leader - this did not include a grade , only the rank - was not to be taken into account.
In 1942 it was ordered that the special leaders should be given military training in order to be accepted into the reserve officer corps.
In the local language , special leaders as well as Wehrmacht officials were called "narrow-gauge officers" for the duration of the war.
The legal status of the Sonderführer was that of a soldier within the meaning of the National Socialist Defense Act, from which his classification as a combatant also follows. According to the supply law of the Federal Republic of Germany, the special leaders are expressly equated with the soldiers.
The uniform of the Sonderführer was very similar to that of regular corresponding NCOs or officers, only the collar tabs had not come out.
Special leaders were also used in the Todt Organization .
Russian emigrants who served as interpreters in the Wehrmacht were often given the rank of special leader.
SS special leader
The term "SS-Sonderführer" has a different reference than that of the special leader in the Wehrmacht; he joins the rank order of the " Schutzstaffel ", which consistently uses the same ending "-führer". With the designation "SS-Führer im Sonderdienst", abbreviated "SS-Sonderführer" (from 1942 "SS-Fachführer" (F) in the Waffen-SS ) was z. B. characterizes the technical, medical or legal leadership career of an SS member (SS judge, SS doctor, SS leader of the technical services, SS music leader, SS military geologist). Sleeve diamonds on the uniform introduced by the Allgemeine SS in 1935 served as a badge of activity, also known as "special career badge ", e.g. B.
- Aesculapian staff = leader in the medical service
- Negative Aesculapian staff = medical staff
- Gothic Z = leader in the dental service
- Gothic A = pharmacist
- Snake = leader and subordinate in the veterinary service
- Harp = music guide
In principle, there were SS special leaders or SS specialist leaders in every SS rank. There was no separate convocation for these tasks, rather the functionaries were recruited from within their own ranks.
Well-known former special leaders
- Lothar-Günther Buchheim , painter, photographer, writer, publisher and art collector, was a war correspondent as a special leader in a Propaganda Company (PK) of the Navy. His well-known, also filmed novel Das Boot draws from the experiences, especially during the submarine trips .
- Hans von Dohnanyi , special leader on the staff of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris , executed as a resistance fighter in 1945.
- Hans Fallada , novelist, special leader (B) with the Reich Labor Service in France, lived in the Soviet occupation zone after the war, but died in 1947, mentally and physically shattered.
- Joachim Fernau , was a war correspondent as SS special leader in the propaganda troop, after the war a very successful non-fiction author (including Germany, Germany on everything ... ) and painter.
- Hans Bernd Gisevius , was drafted as a special leader in the foreign / defense department in the OKW under Admiral Canaris, was involved in the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 , wrote the book Until the bitter end .
- Gerhard Heller , was special leader in the Paris Propaganda Squadron, responsible for literary censorship and paper allocation; after the war publishing director.
- Robert Pilchowski , as a tea and gum planter, predestined for the task of special leader in the “Working Group of Dutch-Indian Companies” in Amsterdam for the administration of overseas tea companies; post-war writer.
- Fritz Piersig , the musicologist, has been in charge of French musical life as Sonderführer Z since the end of 1940.
- Eberhard Taubert , was a senior employee of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda , and worked as a special leader for propaganda in occupied Norway . He wrote the manuscript for the propaganda film The Eternal Jew . Initially submerged after the war, he became an advisor to the then Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss .
- Wolfgang Willrich , fanatical advocate of the National Socialist conception of art, but idiosyncratic expression, which z. B. showed that Willrich had his appointment as a special leader canceled.
literature
- Rudolf Absolon: The Wehrmacht in the Third Reich (= publications of the Federal Archives), Volume 5: September 1, 1939 to December 18, 1941 . Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1988, ISBN 3-7646-1882-5 , pp. 161 and 183 ff. (Section Die Sonderführer ).
- Adolf Schlicht, John R. Angolia: The German Wehrmacht: Uniforms and Equipment 1933-1945 Volume 1: The Army . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1992, p. 304 f (section special guide ).
- Werner Müller: Special Leader Günter Krüll . In: Wolfram Wette (ed.): Moral courage. Outraged, helpers and rescuers from the Wehrmacht, police and SS . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-596-15852-4 , pp. 128-144. - Günter Krüll rescued a young Jew from the Pinsk ghetto as a special leader .
Literary representations
- Willi Bredel : The special leader . Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 1948.
- Walter Kempowski : All in vain . Knaus Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-8135-0264-0 . The fictional character Eberhard von Globig was a special leader in World War II.
Movie
In the last night plays Peter Schütte 1949 the special guide and interpreter Captain Vener.
"Sonderführer" as a name for publications
The term "Sonderführer" is also used for printed works on the occasion of exhibitions or trade fairs, e.g. B. Special leader of the Agriculture Group for the International Hygiene Exhibition Dresden 1930 and 1931.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ [1] Abbreviations.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. L'origine historique et politique du> H <de BHZ.
- ^ Promotion of special guides: HM October 26, 1942, HM 1942. Quoted from: Dirk Richardt, Selection and Training of Young Officers 1930–1945 , Dissertation Marburg, 2002, p. 504.
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Law on the Care of Victims of War, p. 7, No. 3.
- ↑ [2] Badge of rank of the German Wehrmacht (1935–1945).
- ↑ Oleg Beyda: 'Iron Cross of the Wrangel's Army': Russian Emigrants as interpreter in the Wehrmacht. In: The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. 27, 2014, pp. 430–448, doi : 10.1080 / 13518046.2014.932630
- ^ Wolfram Wette: Civil courage in uniform . In: The time of November 9, 2006.
- ↑ Special Leader of the Agriculture Group , published by the Chamber of Agriculture for the Free State of Saxony. Verlag Internationale Hygiene-Ausstellung Dresden 1930.
