Veltheim ferry accident

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The Veltheim ferry accident was an accident with 81 dead on March 31, 1925 during a Reichswehr exercise to cross the Weser . In today's area of ​​the city of Porta Westfalica, soldiers were supposed to translate from the left bank of the Weser near today's Kalletal - Varenholz to the right bank at today's district of Veltheim .

Ferry failure during Reichswehr exercise

The flow speed of the Weser was 1.50 m / s. Four crossings were made before without any problems, the accident happened on the fifth. On a yaw ferry built from open pontoons by Minden pioneers , 167 fully equipped soldiers belonging to the 18th Infantry Regiment , including the ( Lippe ) training battalion in Detmold and a company in Hameln, were to be transferred . A civilian was allowed to ride. The ferry overturned due to severe overcrowding or, for this number of people, a faulty design (due to compliance with outdated regulations). 81 were killed, including the civilian. The victims in full gear could not save themselves, and numerous victims could not swim either. One of the survivors was Fritz Schmidt from Eisbergen , who later made a career in the NSDAP .

A memorial on the banks of the Weser in Veltheim and a memorial stone at the Scharnhorst barracks in Hameln still remind of the event.

consequences

Memorial near Veltheim to the ferry accident in 1925

Almost three months later, the first lieutenant in charge of the service stood before the Minden jury. He was acquitted, no negligence could be established. Faulty construction of the ferry and the flood were the causes of the disaster for the court. In the course of the legal proceedings, the situation at the scene of the accident was recreated, with the accused refusing to enter the pontoons.

A commission of inquiry exonerated the management of the 18th Infantry Regiment under Hans Kloebe with regard to responsibility for this accident. As regimental commander Kloebe assumed the political responsibility and was awarded the character as a major general , so a higher rank, retires.

As a result of the ferry accident, the Reichswehr regulations for river crossings with pontoons during military exercises were adjusted.

What was politically explosive was that many of the Reichswehr members were not legal under the Versailles Treaty . The journalist Berthold Jacob researched that the soldiers involved in the accident were mostly illegal volunteers . Due to the Versailles Treaty after the end of the First World War , the German army was only allowed to be 100,000 strong. With the time volunteers, this number was clearly exceeded, so the regulation was undermined. According to the later Nobel Peace Prize laureate Carl von Ossietzky , Chancellor Luther had declared a few months earlier that volunteers had been temporarily employed in the Reichswehr, but assured that this practice had ended. On April 11, 1925, the article Das Zeitfreiwilligengrab an der Weser appeared in the newspaper Das Andere Deutschland , followed by two further articles. Jacobs and the publisher Fritz Kuster were due this article for treason accused and by the Supreme Court in Leipzig on 14 March 1928 of nine months imprisonment sentenced ( pontoon judgment ) . Carl von Ossietzky wrote the essay The Ponton Trial on the Weltbühne about this judgment .

Later Carl von Ossietzky was sentenced to one year and six months in prison for other articles with similar findings on the illegal activities of the Reichswehr in the magazine, of which he was editor-in-chief, in the so-called “ Weltbühne Trial ” for betraying military secrets. He began his sentence on May 10, 1932 in Berlin-Tegel . Although he was released as part of a Christmas amnesty in 1932, he was taken into protective custody shortly afterwards on the night of the Reichstag fire on February 28, 1933 . On November 23, 1936, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for 1935. He died on May 14, 1938 of the consequences of years of GeStaPo and concentration camp detention.

In 1957, the Spiegel ruled in comparison to the Iller accident that had just taken place : "The 80 soldiers had died in a militarily sensible exercise that was secured according to precise regulations, without anyone being at fault." In 1957, the Spiegel went to the presence of irregular soldiers not a. There, the change in service regulations with regard to military exercises when crossing rivers is shown: "The death of the 80 was the reason that from now on when" crossing the river "- according to the new regulations - the rifle was carried in the right hand and the steel helmet in the left hand has been. The top two buttons of the tunic had to be open, knapsacks were not allowed. "

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The death of Kempten , Der Spiegel, June 12, 1957.
  2. ↑ Reinhold Kölling: The Reichswehr accident on March 31, 1925 in Veltheim and its consequences , Historical, Veltheim an der Weser.
  3. ↑ Reinhold Kölling (ed.): The terrible accident at the Veltheim ferry station. In: Leben am Fluss, Chronik von Veltheim, Volume I. Winterwork, ISBN 978-3-86468-474-6 .
  4. ↑ William Gerntrup: murder, suicide, accident? , Deister and Weser newspaper , December 14, 2013.
  5. ↑ Background information on the “Veltheim - 03/31/1925” memorial stone on the Scharnhorst site in Hameln , Hamelner Bote.
  6. ↑ Mundt: The 18th Infantry Regiment from 1921 to 1932. Detmold 1932, pp. 103-107.
  7. ↑ cited in excerpts under pontoon trial
  8. ↑ Bernd Brüntrup: From the Veltheim ferry accident on March 31, 1925 to the “Weltbühnen judgment” of November 23, 1931 against Carl von Ossietzky , introduction to the lecture on October 13, 2018 in Leipzig (PDF; 5.7 MB).