Walter Braemer

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Walter Braemer (born January 7, 1883 in Königsberg , † June 13, 1955 in Hamburg ) was a German cavalry general and SS group leader who participated in war crimes during the Second World War .

Life

Braemer joined the 2nd Hanover Dragoons Regiment No. 16 of the Prussian Army on March 2, 1901 as an ensign . From October 1906 he did a two-year training at the military riding school and was then assigned to the military academy . In 1912 he was assigned to the General Staff , where he trained as a General Staff Officer . During the First World War he served in various divisional headquarters.

After the war, Braemer was accepted into the Reichswehr with the rank of captain . At first he worked in the Reichswehr Ministry, was transferred to the 2nd (Prussian) Cavalry Regiment in April 1922 and was a member of the 6th Division in Münster from the beginning of October 1923 . So he commanded u. a. the 6th (Prussian) cavalry regiment in Pasewalk from the beginning of February 1927 to December 31, 1930. Braemer then became the commandant of Insterburg . Shortly after his promotion to major general , he retired in November 1932.

During the time of National Socialism , he joined the Schutzstaffel (SS No. 223.910) on October 1, 1935 with the rank of SS-Standartenführer (SS-Standartenführer) and in 1937 the NSDAP ( membership number 4.012.32). At the beginning of July 1938 Braemer was reactivated as major general in the Wehrmacht .

Announcement of the public execution of 20 Polish hostages in Bydgoszcz, signed on September 10, 1939 by Major General Braemer

At the beginning of World War II was Braemer commander of the Rear Army area 580 ( Korück 580) and came in the wake of the invasion of Poland with the 4th Army two days after the Bromberg Bloody Sunday on 5 September of 1939 Bromberg . There the “fanatical National Socialist” appeared with “unheard of brutality”: In retaliation, units subordinate to him also took part in the shooting of hundreds of Polish civilians, who allegedly either carried weapons or resisted. In this context, the historian Christian Hartmann writes of an ordered war crime and states that it was not a spontaneous outbreak of violence. In May 1941 Braemer was transferred to the OKH's Führerreserve . On July 1, 1941 he was promoted to lieutenant general and on September 1, 1942 to general of the cavalry zV.

Braemer acted in Riga as Wehrmacht commander in the Reichskommissariat Ostland from the summer of 1941. Together with his subordinate Gustav Freiherr von Mauchenheim, known as Bechtolsheim , he promoted the murder of Jews there . Braemer himself wrote in September 1941 that “Jews and Jewish-friendly circles” were also included in all “factors that endanger peace and order” and that these should be rendered harmless by “acting quickly and ruthlessly brutal”. On November 20, 1941, he informed Reich Commissioner Hinrich Lohse that the “Jewish population of White Ruthenia [...] was Bolshevik and capable of any anti-German attitude”. Baemer's relationship with Lohse was very tense, however, as early as August 1942 Lohse complained about the "reluctant military administration". After a festivity in Riga on the Fuehrer's birthday on April 20, 1944, there was an argument between Braemer and Lohse, in which Lohse publicly slapped Braemer. On April 20, 1944 Braemer was promoted to SS-Gruppenführer. On May 1, 1944, Werner Kempf replaced him as Wehrmacht commander in the Reich Commissariat Ostland. Then he was in the Führerreserve until January 1945. Afterwards he was the commanding general of the Deputy General Command of the II Army Corps and, in personal union, of the Military District II (Stettin) . At the beginning of February he was again briefly in the Führerreserve and was then a few weeks in command of the rear army area of ​​the 11th Army .

In early May 1945 he was taken prisoner by the British in Lübeck and was transferred to Island Farm Special Camp 11 in January 1947 and from there to the Neuengamme internment camp in October 1947 . During the Nuremberg Trials , Braemer was questioned several times in the spring of 1948.

Awards

Braemer's SS ranks
date rank
October 1935 SS standard leader
September 1936 SS-Oberführer
June 1938 SS Brigade Leader
April 1944 SS group leader

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl Friedrich Hildebrand and Markus Brockmann: Die Generale des Heeres 1921-1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 2: von Blanckensee-von Czettritz and Neuhauss. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1993, ISBN 3-7648-2424-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Hartmann: Wehrmacht in the Eastern War. Front and military hinterland 1941/42. Oldenbourg, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-486-70225-5 ; P. 106f.
  2. ↑ Hannes Heer : Dead zones. The German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. Hamburg 1999, pp. 30-37.
  3. ↑ Dieter Pohl: The rule of the Wehrmacht. German military occupation and local population in the Soviet Union 1941–1944. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 3-486-58065-5 . P. 39
  4. ↑ Quoted by Rolf-Dieter Müller , Hans-Erich Volkmann (ed. On behalf of the MGFA): Die Wehrmacht. Myth and Reality. Oldenbourg, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-486-56383-1 , p. 847
  5. ↑ Quoted by Rolf-Dieter Müller, Hans-Erich Volkmann (ed. On behalf of the MGFA): Die Wehrmacht. Myth and Reality. Oldenbourg, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-486-56383-1 , pp. 847f.
  6. ^ Andreas Zellhuber: "Our administration is heading for a catastrophe -": the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories and the German occupation in the Soviet Union 1941–1945 , Vögel, 2006. P. 132, 357
  7. ↑ SOME OF THE PRISONERS HELD AT SPECIAL CAMP 11 - Walter Braemer (1883–1955)
  8. ↑ Publication Number: M-1019, Publication Title: Records of the United States Nuernberg War Crimes trials Interrogations, 1946–1949, Date Published: 1977 (PDF; 186 kB)
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1930, p. 111.
personal data
SURNAME Braemer, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cavalry general, SS group leader, war criminal in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Koenigsberg
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1955
Place of death Hamburg