Werewolf (Nazi organization)

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Symbol of the association

The organization Werwolf (more rarely: Wehrwolf ) was a National Socialist organization to build up an underground movement at the end of the Second World War , which was founded in September 1944 by Heinrich Himmler as Minister and Reichsführer SS . Calls for the formation of werewolf groups met with little response from the population and members of the Wehrmacht . After Hitler's death, on May 5, 1945 , Karl Dönitz prohibited other werewolf actions as illegal fighting.

Lineup

Werewolf lead story in the National Socialist Bozner Tagblatt dated April 3, 1945

In September 1944 the fronts in East and West had already reached Germany's borders. Himmler commissioned SS-Obergruppenführer Hans-Adolf Prützmann to set up small special commands to carry out sabotage behind enemy lines in the occupied territories of the German Reich and to prevent the population from cooperating with the occupation forces. As Higher SS and Police Leader, Prützmann led the fight against partisans in Ukraine. He received the title of General Inspector for Special Defense .

By the end of 1944, around 5,000 volunteers had been recruited in Berlin, including SS men, Hitler Youth , SA men and party officials. Since this number was too small, the Wehrmacht gave instructions for the deployment of partisan fighters. An instruction to a Volksgrenadier division fell into the hands of the Allies :

"To accelerate the development of the werewolf organization, the Div. the selection of particularly proven, brave soldiers of all ranks who are suitable as leaders of W troops and who are at home in enemy-occupied areas. Soldiers from the occupied eastern and western districts come into question. "

Despite the order, the number remained manageable, as each division only had to deploy one or two soldiers.

The National Socialist partisans were trained in the camps of the SS hunting associations by Otto Skorzeny , equipment, armament and food provided by the Wehrmacht. Members of the Wehrmacht, on the other hand, were trained in the Army School II for special tasks near Jablonove . According to Himmler's idea, the "werewolves" were a secret resistance movement. It should not trigger a general "people's war", but fight underground. Your tasks should consist of:

  • Assassinations and terrorist attacks against the occupying powers, their leaders, as well as against German collaborators ,
  • Sabotage behind the allied associations,
  • Disrupting the enemy deployment through military reconnaissance ,
  • Covering the retreat movements of the Wehrmacht by attacking the flanks of the pursuing attack leaders ,
  • Stopping the "wave of betrayal" by national comrades by means of terror against Germans

Goebbels, who suggested in his diaries that the werewolf movement was his initiative, had other ideas. On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, a radio roll call on the Werwolf station made the “werewolf” known as an alleged “spontaneous underground movement” of the German population in the occupied territories of the Reich. The slogan introduced here: "Hate is our prayer and vengeance is our campaign scream" should underline the fanatical mission of the company. On April 24, the station ceased operations.

Naming

A stylized wolf tang with a cross brace was used as a symbol of the “werewolf” .

In Germanic mythology, a werewolf is a person who transforms into a wolf.

There are also sources that bring the name in connection with the novel Der Wehrwolf (1910) by Hermann Löns .

Adolf Hitler's first name translates as "noble wolf"; he himself chose the code name "Wolf", from which the names of his headquarters - Wolfsschanze , Wolfsschlucht and Werewolf - were derived.

structure

The “werewolf” was headed by Hans-Adolf Prützmann as the “Reichs-werewolf”, who only had to answer to Himmler. The "werewolves" were organized in so-called packs, in which the commanding officer was referred to as the "lead wolf" or "lead werewolf". These were trained or “trained” in special “werewolf training gates”. One of the largest training centers was at Hülchrath Castle in Grevenbroich .

The smallest independently operating unit was the "Jagdgruppe"; it consisted of four men and a guide. The next larger unit was the “Jagdzug”. This united several hunting groups and a leadership team, the operational strength was between 10 and 40 hunters and their leaders. In the event of attacks on fortified positions or, for example, railroads, "patrol corps" should be formed. Their strength was based on the size and combat strength of the objects to be attacked.

Until the capitulation and in the turmoil of the last days of the war, only a few “lead wolves” were trained, so that many “packs” were without leadership and wandered aimlessly and indiscriminately through occupied Germany. In addition, the “packs” often consisted of young, inexperienced SS men, Hitler Youth and BDM girls who had little or no military power.

activities

Commands of the "werewolf" carried out isolated arson attacks (e.g. in Eberswalde ), in the last weeks of the war they were mainly directed against deserters and war-weary Germans. The only major action they succeeded in was the “ Penzberger Murder Night ” massacre on April 28, 1945, a war crime that killed 16 people. The "werewolf" had no influence on the war and the occupation of Germany.

The "werewolf" was primarily a propaganda phenomenon . Its effect was at best indirect, because the Allies, assuming a major military threat, took countermeasures to avoid guerrillas and took sabotage. The fears were heightened on March 25, 1945 by the murder of Aachen's Lord Mayor Franz Oppenhoff , whom the Allies had installed in late autumn 1944 after the city was conquered and who was therefore persecuted by the National Socialists as a "traitor". A special command , consisting mainly of SS and Luftwaffe members , was parachuted behind the western front on Himmler's orders. They pretended to be shot down German aviators at their victim's front door and shot Oppenhoff in front of his house. The murder was "undoubtedly the most spectacular act that is attributed to the werewolf to this day" and "did not fail to have an effect on the American army command".

On April 14, 1945, it was on a path between Dötlingen and Neerstedt the murder of Willi Rogge . The Dötlinger farmer was murdered by members of the "Kampfgruppe Wichmann". Allegedly Rogge had looted a camp of the Reich Labor Service . Since 1933 he had been noticed by the Nazis as a troublemaker, democrat and cross-driver. The perpetrators left the sign on the victim who betrays his people . On April 16, an article about the murder appeared in the Oldenburgische Staatszeitung under the heading “Traitors judged”. In it, the perpetrators were praised as "avenging German honor".

Also Himmler's speech of October 18, 1944 (“Like the werewolves, death-defying volunteers will harm the enemy and cut the strings of his life”) as well as the reporting of German radio stations and newspapers, which in the spring of 1945 tried to create the impression of a widespread “werewolf” uprising , contributed to the mistrust of the occupying forces. Parts of the US Army developed a "werewolf" hysteria that took months to subside. The historian Hermann Weiß sees the only effect of the organization in the indiscriminate equation of all Germans with fanatical National Socialists .

End of the association in Flensburg

As early as the end of 1944 to the beginning of 1945, seven werewolf groups were established in Schleswig-Holstein , namely in the cities of Flensburg , Rendsburg , Neumünster and Lübeck with five to six men each, in Itzehoe with ten men, in Kiel with fifteen men and in Husum with an unknown number. On March 10, 1945, all Nazi Gauleiter were asked to form werewolf groups from men, women of all ages and especially young people. In the last days of the war, primarily young people between 14 and 18 years of age were drafted into the "Werewolf" association in Schleswig-Holstein. They were given the task of ruthlessly fighting to the point of self-destruction. In truth, however, they should basically only serve as cannon fodder . In the following time, however, the seven werewolf groups were hardly active.

In the city of Flensburg young people were also trained for the "werewolf". On April 22, 1945, the so-called “ special guides ” were called up for a special course in a beach villa in Schönberg near Kiel. The young people were taught how to use explosives to blow up bridges and tanks. It is also known that the young people of the “Werewolf” group in Flensburg dug anti-tank trenches and foxholes. Up until May 5, the young people from Flensburg transported weapons and food on carts to the “werewolf” hiding places near Hürupholz and believed they had to be ready to fight. From the partial surrender in the northwest and the statement by the city of Flensburg to Open City on May 4, and the general prohibition of any activity of the werewolf on May 5 by the last Reich President Karl Doenitz, located in the city in special area Mürwik stayed, learned the Young people apparently late. Allied advance commandos reached the city of Flensburg on May 5th and 6th. It was not until May 8, the day of the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht , that two of the disaffected Flensburg youths buried their flag on the grounds of the former mill pond.

After the capture of Schleswig-Holstein, the British began looking for "werewolf" members. Some arrests have been made. In August the former Flensburg “werewolf” members, including the former youth members, were arrested and imprisoned for three weeks. The "werewolf" did not get the British into trouble in Schleswig-Holstein. In contrast to other parts of the country, there were apparently no murders of civilians by the “werewolf” in Schleswig-Holstein.

Denazification, internments and executions

In the years after the war, the Soviet occupation forces carried out numerous death sentences against young people who had been found guilty of werewolf activity in the Soviet occupation zone. Numerous young people, the youngest of them 13 years old, were arrested by the Soviet security organs after the end of the war, initially interned in East German prisons such as the “Gelben Elend” in Bautzen , where they were tortured and forced to confess that they were members of the “werewolf” organization be. Under the pressure of these interrogations, the names of other people were dropped, who were then dealt with in the same way. In this way, more than 10,000 young people were arrested and some of them were later taken to Soviet prison camps , from which the survivors were not released until 1950. In the meantime, those accused of partisan activity have been rehabilitated by Russia.

In the British occupation zone , fears of imminent attacks by the "werewolf" were a reason for the torture of suspects in the Bad Nenndorf internment camp .

Well-known "werewolf" members

Aftermath in right-wing extremism

In 1979 the neo-Nazi Michael Kühnen founded the military sports group Werwolf . The term has since been used in neo-Nazi fanzines and right-wing rock . There is a German band called Werwolf and the Austrian metal band Werwolf .

In July 2013, the Federal Prosecutor's Office initiated a search of apartments, prison cells and business premises in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany as a result of an investigation against a werewolf command . In Germany, 50 police officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office and the state criminal police offices involved were deployed.

media

Movie

literature

  • Alexander Perry Biddiscombe: Werewolf! The history of the National Socialist guerrilla movement; 1944-1946 . Univ. of Toronto Press, Toronto / Buffalo 1998, ISBN 0-8020-0862-3 .
  • Michael Hesemann: Hitler's lies: how the “Führer” deceived the Germans . Area, Erftstadt 2005, ISBN 3-89996-481-0 .
  • Roderick H. Watt: Wehrwolf or Werewolf? Literature, Legend, or Lexical Error into Nazi Propaganda? In: Modern Language Review . tape 87 , no. 4 , 1991, ISSN  0026-7937 , pp. 879-895 .
  • Volker Koop : Himmler's last line-up. The Nazi organization "Werewolf" . Böhlau, Köln / Weimar / Wien 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20191-3 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  • Mike Schmeitzner, Andreas Weigelt, Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt: Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944–1947): A historical-biographical study . Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 3-647-36968-3 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  • Wolfgang Benz: The 101 most important questions. The Third Empire. Beck-Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-406-56849-1 .
  • Arno Rose: Werewolf 1944–1945. A documentation. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-87943-700-9 .
  • Georg Etscheit: The German "Werewolf" 1944/45. In: Herfried Münkler (Ed.): The Partisan. Theory, strategy, shape. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1990, ISBN 3-531-12192-8 , pp. 148-165.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from: Klaus-Dietmar Henke: The American occupation of Germany. Munich 1995, ISBN 3-486-54141-2 , p. 946.
  2. ↑ a b Volker Koop: Himmler's last contingent. The Nazi organization "Werewolf". Cologne u. a. 2008, p. 44.
  3. ^ Peter Longerich: Goebbels. Munich 2010, p. 668.
  4. ↑ Quoted from Klaus-Dietmar Henke: The American occupation of Germany. Munich 1995, ISBN 3-486-54141-2 , p. 943.
  5. ^ German Historical Museum, Lemo-Online-Museum
  6. ↑ Volker Koop: Himmler's last contingent. The Nazi organization "Werewolf" . Cologne u. a. 2008, pp. 122-136 (citation: p. 122).
  7. ↑ Cordt Schnibben : My father, a werewolf . In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 2014, p. 62–73 ( online - cover story).
  8. ^ Klaus-Dietmar Henke: The American occupation of Germany. Munich 1995, p. 953.
  9. ↑ Hermann Weiss: Werewolf. In: Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Legends, Lies, Prejudices. A dictionary on contemporary history. dtv, Munich 1994, p. 222.
  10. ↑ a b Volker Koop: Himmler's last contingent. The Nazi organization "Werewolf". Cologne u. a. 2008, p. 176.
  11. ↑ a b Gerhard Paul , Broder Schwensen (Ed.): May '45. End of the war in Flensburg. 2015, page 79 f.
  12. ↑ a b NDR. Time travel: "Werewolves" in Schleswig-Holstein. dated July 28, 2013; accessed on May 8, 2017.
  13. ↑ Gerhard Paul, Broder Schwensen (Ed.): May '45. End of the war in Flensburg. 2015, pp. 80, 82. and p. 210.
  14. ↑ Gerhard Paul, Broder Schwensen (Ed.): May '45. End of the war in Flensburg. 2015, p. 210 f.
  15. ↑ Gerhard Paul, Broder Schwensen (Ed.): May '45. End of the war in Flensburg. P. 82 f.
  16. ↑ State Center for Civic Education Schleswig-Holstein (ed.): The downfall 1945 in Flensburg. (PDF) Lecture on January 10, 2012 by Gerhard Paul, p. 16.
  17. ^ A b c Volker Koop: Himmler's last contingent. The Nazi organization "Werewolf". Cologne u. a. 2008, p. 182.
  18. ↑ Gerhard Paul, Broder Schwensen (Ed.): May '45. End of the war in Flensburg. P. 83.
  19. ↑ A. Kilian: Stalin's prophylaxis. Measures by the Soviet security organs in occupied Germany . In: Germany Archive : Journal for United Germany . No. 4 , 1997, p. 558 .
  20. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: The lie of the werewolf . swr.de (radio broadcast incl. script)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.swr.de
  21. ↑ Josef Hufelschulte: Torture to death in the name of majesty. In: Focus , January 21, 2013 ( online , accessed February 8, 2013).
  22. ^ The forbidden village - report on the interrogation center Wincklerbad in Bad Nenndorf. Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance ; accessed on May 30, 2017.
  23. ^ Raid against werewolf command , Handelsblatt, July 17, 2013
  24. ↑ Investigators take up werewolf command . n-tv.de
  25. ↑ Suspected terror network: Europe-wide raid against right-wing extremist "werewolf" cell . Spiegel Online , July 17, 2013.
  26. ^ Raid against Nazi organization "Werewolf". In: Sächsische Zeitung, July 18, 2013.
  27. ↑ “Werewolf Command” - raid against Nazi terrorist group. Zeit Online Blog , July 18, 2013.