"Der Krieg war aus und niemand kam". Freie Republik Schwarzenberg und unbesetztes Westerzgebirge

Germany in the spring of 1945 World War II returned to its country of origin while Soviet troops had to cover every meter of combat in their advance towards Berlin, the 27 expressed the visions of the American Twelfth Army Group between Hannover and Coburg almost without being bothered Due to the resistance of the Reds, at best still Hitler fanatics, and the anti-tank barriers, in the last days of April the units of the 71st and 89th infantry divisions of the US Third Army in command of General George Pattons suddenly stopped their advance at Auerbach Zwickau. An unoccupied area emerged between the fronts, covering approximately 2,000 square kilometers in its widest extent.

At that time there were about 500,000 people. situation, the old order had collapsed and the representatives of the new power did not come, material for legends and novels, blank spaces for local researchers, military historians and art found in the center of this strange event was the city of Schwarzenberg Schwarzenberg is a Small town in the Erzgebirge region, south of Chemnitz, which at the end of April 1945 had almost 20,000 inhabitants, including more than 6,000 resettlers and refugees. The city was the administrative center of the Schwarzenberg official team, the district administrator and other administrations were based here. The war had left the structural beauty of the city almost intact.

Schwarzenberg was able to remember almost 800 years of history since the city was founded. The mayor of the city was Dr. Ernst Reach, who had held the position since 1921. The Nazis came to power in 1933, he was temporarily in office. He was deprived of police power because he refused to join the Nazi Party after joining the party in 1937. He performed official duties until he was called up as a wartime administrative official. He returned to the city on April 14, 1945. The most important businessman in the area was the manufacturer Friedrich E-mail Kraus bathtubs and raccoons have become a brand item in Germany, galvanized containers are raised from metal liquid in full The beard is not intended for the bathroom of the rich, but is a popular cheek and its invention by Karl Louis Kraus in Schwarzenberg is also because serious comrades wanted to ensure the well-being of the domestic base was a social day.

The first order, despite the Volkswagen Volkssturm and other miracle weapons, was yet to achieve final victory. Nobody in Schwarzenberg believed in that for a long time. The only question was whether the city would be occupied by the Americans or the Russians. During the Third Reich, the administrative bodies and the police collapsed, power was in the street, everything was still dominated and order little by little began to disintegrate not only among the people, but also in the circle. There were raids, looting and looting. In the morning and we were dry and here at the workers' house on the eleventh, a pleasant afternoon at 3 p.m.

They were here, but it was a wonderful place there and in the end they made room for us. It didn't take long. There was no chronic importance. First of all, the will is lost. And then other city dwellers also took the initiative? The district administrator, Dr. Albin Hühnchen, released 23 incriminated NSDAP members. from his office on May 8, 1945. At the end of April he had emergency Reichsmark notes of various denominations issued for possible special circumstances. On May 10, the district administrator had a telephone conversation with government advisor Schramm, the assistant to the Saxon Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann learned that the Saxon government was staying in the Sporthotel Oberwiesenthal and that, due to signs of dissolution, it was already I couldn't act.

The district administrator was independently charged and authorized in all matters relating to the district. district to act, but the chicken passed this information to the mayor, who then created a vigilante group on May 11 to protect the city from damage and looting by scattered Wehrmacht units and itinerant forced laborers outside the city in the gorges of the Erzgebirge, the Germans attempted to retreat In the final hours of the war, the Wehrmacht continued to wage war without regard for the civilian population. In Lobstein a barrier was going to be erected by explosions, which would not have made any sense militarily.

But it would have destroyed most of the settlement. I relied on my personal knowledge of what Zeithain had learned as a pioneer. We were looking for two kids like Klobenstein, two brave 16-year-olds, and the hand then removed these spray tubes, but that's how it was. It was very easy because the SS man kept his MPI pointed at us and I gave mine to a neighbor. I gave him a gun and with this gun the camera that came out of the metal master's house kept the SS man at bay and told him: if you move, finally the 7th.

Of course, he had explained to us that he would shoot people closer than your unit cell. When the unit had retreated and he lowered his gun like this in his face and we approached this line. Maybe we can have peace. and tell us how it happened before, when in this vacant place there were two bankruptcies about 70 meters away, tall fir trees were used, which we later removed, more blasting could follow because the two disappear, you could also see above The rocks behind us were even bigger, in principle everything was blocked here, so a cleaning would have been done to let someone pass.

Meanwhile, in the city of Schwarzenberg, the question of power was decided in a very pragmatic way. On the night of the 11th to the 12th, the anti-fascist action committee armed a few dozen workers and occupied the first or three windows of the town hall. The police station had wanted to stay here and also further away. that the police station, that later, since in Germany you cannot simply occupy the town hall and dismiss the mayor without permission, the gentlemen of the action committee tried to speak with the district administrator and the problem was discussed and it was established that For the moment no Russian or American occupation expected.

The gentlemen agreed until an occupying power received different instructions. The former communist councilor wants to use his image as acting mayor two more times and we have continued our tasks. page and, of course, it would now have to be called the investigation committee. More unfortunate, these old administrative functions would have to be performed by us and first you confessed the question of who makes the first master - and that was it, the producers said that we were wrong, so I had accepted as first church teacher, second mayor of our former city, Willi Krause, eighth second mayor, then and now it was about the police, I was worse there from the middle and not always military and then they made me head of the city. different police and gourmet normal use of the police the various incidents of the following days the new mayor irmisch addresses the residents of the city with an appeal in which he says that the previous mayors of our city are on leave from their offices due to a request From the circle of the population, the district administrator appointed me acting mayor of the city of Schwarzenberg as of May 12, 1945.

All National Socialist laws have been repealed. However, at the moment there is no time to approve and draft new laws. great speeches. The most urgent task is to guarantee food for our population. Everything possible is being done to manage the food supply in the context of the current great difficulties. The civilian population must be accepted with understanding to maintain peace and order. As well as discipline in all aspects for reasons of own security, security measures for the population have been largely adopted. The city's landmark, Schwarzenberg Castle, served as a prison for many years. and the leaders of local Nazi groups were sitting in the cells and had their final fate.

Many were here because some representatives of the new order had to settle personal scores. At the same time they were looking for the really important Nazis. The Saxon state government had disappeared. Dr. Schramm was found together with Hitler's brother-in-law, Dr. Mitch, who had diligently looted art objects in the occupied territories. At the same time, thousands of Germans. The soldiers arrived here near Oberwiesenthal and the cashiers, fleeing from Maria's Russian troops with Dio in a northwesterly direction through the unoccupied areas of construction chief Martin Mutschmann. On May 9 there was no trace of him. The last official offices in the castle were dismantled. and since then they disappeared.

We had hosted a former member of the Wehrmacht who was then full of students in the Sudetenland and I was with him on a 500 motorcycle with a machine that we found here in the forest, I went shopping and when we were. I returned I received my wives, my mother-in-law who was with her received us so Mutschmann was here I say that it is not even possible, yes he was here with another man and they definitely wanted to spend the night here. Yes, and there is the house Sure, little one, it could be easy for us to tell him that there is no place with us, but if you are up there, there is also a good merchant, surely there is a place for you.

So after informing the Oberwiesenthal auxiliary police, they told him that I was in office at the 90th hour, I sent myself because we knew that my wife had come here, I sent Mutschmann for the accompaniment and then they came. here and immediately they raised their hands, they didn't shoot, they didn't shoot and then they were arrested and the next day or the next day after Annaberg, that good man placed on the market square is perhaps interesting, the little episode here is this. The family prayer room for the villagers, so in a sense there are little community plaque houses on this panel with embossed biblical sayings that said: Blessed are those who have pure hearts for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

We had to pay for some internal contradictions. In any case, they turned around and realized that most people these days were worried about completely different issues: the district's food situation was catastrophic and Schwarzenberg's. The population had almost doubled due to refugees from the displaced and those affected by the bombs. Feeding them was an almost impossible task, since in the 75-year allocation period in May 1945 only 100 grams of meat could be distributed per inhabitant per week, another important one. question Were all the Schwarzenbergs asked to solve the food problem? The Neumann family, a former transport company, tried to help. with its possibilities and alleviate the greatest needs and then in the weeks of compensation we took what was here, the middle words and wooden boxes and brandy we, the citizens, because the soups were deep and so something simply came in, we only had great storage options and we still had to find who does it.

The inventories of various things were hacked and then sold and distributed around here, I still remember that there was a time in the robot war theater, everyone and the trains, the pharmacists, were full of soldiers. They were hanging outside, we save whoever can, we have them later with so much food and they spent the night in our haystack and, above all, they washed in the patio below. Schwarzenberger exports the products of the district factory. Wise foresight, the district has been producing anti-peace products since the year 43. We already have a fairly good stock of the household appliances that they share and, after the washing machines, the products could be requested by cities and communities, such as in particular in the north of Germany.

Exchange them for food. and sell it because the food for the population here in Erzgebirge was more than bad and the communities and the city of Rhede barely had food transportation and we have the coveted title when our production was delivered and many citizens used the new Libertad after twelve years of conformity with the press to write things and express thoughts that until recently were changed before the People's Court. The Schwarzenberger newspaper, published by Oskar Chic and Alfred Due, was also read on tours by military commanders in Auerbach and Annaberg. sequel novel Franziska and the SevenRaben was published continuously from February to June 1945.

On May 22, someone dreams of a German democratic republic with Leipzig as the seat of government, while in Leipzig, Berlin, Munich or Hamburg the phrase could already be pronounced "I wasn't a Nazi in Germany." In the Schwarzwassertal it was Russian, English or French. The official language remained German. To organize survival, contact was sought with the occupation forces and then, at that moment, he found himself with his truck on group 36 and the. two expelled soldiers took to the street with machine guns and leaning on a stick. Will this mission be there? 33 years ago I had shown the book and recorded it in Germany and with the name of the owner and everything that was seen there but not converted, I kept saying what the community was about to do so I completed that I had to do it now The trunk inside issexy and lobster as Sunday pointed out the combined sapphires that he already designed the standard caliber regulation and now Rebel has probably become the fourth most impartial to the detriment of him then He returned with a friendly face on the way to the Soviet command in Annaberg the members of the committee of action four times there are minutes of the discussions there are no direct attempts at interference are not proven the attempt to contact the US authorities is documented there is not much useful information can be found about the results.

I think the need was with the first product or two. I can't do that now. I was briefed on the first Ford and Commander Ishares was briefed on what was happening at Schwarzenberg, of course, why. I don't have black now because we can't occupy the Black Forest and he tells us that I give orders up the mountain and no more why after that. When people connected with the shock of unconditional surrender, the great miracle began. They were surprised that they were still alive, they were surprised that relatively little had been destroyed and, above all, that until the end of May 1945 no occupants arrived for 2,000 square kilometers of occupied land.

The western edge of the unoccupied zone was an assembly area for the divisions of Army Group Schörner, which with around 1.2 million soldiers was the most combat-capable and cohesive unit of the German Wehrmacht since the last time. These troops were deployed on the Eastern Front. According to the Allied agreements, the Russians would have taken them prisoners. At Schönheide, all units were captured by the Americans. Their commander-in-chief, Ferdinand Turner, who was promoted to field marshal by Hitler on April 5. 1945 received or in the Eastern Ore Mountains to resist the Russians beyond the surrender date if necessary to ensure an unimpeded withdrawal of its soldiers behind American lines when the commander-in-chief of the 1st Ukrainian Front Marsha Cognac and the commander- On May 5, 1945, near Torgau, it was agreed that the demarcation line in the Erzgebirge coincided exactly with the 13th degree of longitude, which meant that the Americans had to do it. occupy the area around Schwarzenberg, which Bradley did not mention in this conversation.

Already on April 13, the US Third Army subordinate to him received the order of the 71st Infantry, under the command of General Patton. The division stopped its advance until April 17 near Auerbach, is that the German troops in Schleswig-Holstein were also kept, so to speak, in reserve for negotiations with the allies, which is also documented by George Ende, who he definitely wanted to turn the tables now and The circumstances of the uninterrupted American advance, the delivery of almost a million combat-ready soldiers in organized units, and the relocation of art treasures and archives were not a matter that could be negotiated by the defeated Germans.

This required negotiations at the highest level. They were held in Bern and were officially led by SS Adjutant General Karl Wolf, to Hitler's left in this photo. between wolf and alles were based on the partial surrender of the german armed forces in italy, but they have proven to be the end of the war in italy not shortened by a single day one point is that on april twelfth roosevelt sent a telegram to Stalin, so to speak, as the last measure he took before his death, which only came after his death, when the State arrived, after which he gave the order for these special negotiations that Stalin, of course, had discovered through his spies to break. and there would have been many reasons after said official letter was issued, where the possible final negotiations that would then have taken place with Dönitz would have been kept secret when the Berne negotiations ended on April 12 in the presence of Admiral Karl Dönitz.

So it can hardly be seen as a coincidence that a day later the American Third Army was halted and thus an open space was created for well-trained and battle-tested German troops for later use when the provisional Reich government with its successor Karl Dönitz emerged. at the end of May 1945 Three weeks after the unconditional surrender, at the insistence of those now finally deposed and arrested, the unoccupied area in the western Ore Mountains had fulfilled its objective. Almost a million German soldiers were ready for combat and were incorporated. American captivity based on the June 5 Allied Control Council agreement.

The American military evacuated the parts of Thuringia and Saxony that it had occupied and these areas were occupied by the Red Army as agreed at Yalta. This also happened at the end in Schwarzenberg. June 1945. The occupation period came to an end. It was Sunday and it was coming, we found out in the afternoon. When our garden was behind the town hall and where we went out onto the street, there were barely two people on horses. Now the soldiers were not waving sabers with their butts, but were involved with the horses and at the end a uniformed woman with a cow in the morning.

They have the right to us and the old people and we take care of ourselves, but on foot in the direction of Weiler Street. It was the first contact with the afternoon they called me to the factory here I had a telephone with an employee who attends here in the two lower rooms the useful employees who had to be accommodated here in the afternoon at 10:00 We had to reorganize ourselves. and we moved the offices to other rooms and had to urgently get ten men to sleep here. We couldn't complete the night shift, so two gentlemen did ours as well.

You can't go so far that we young girls were all a scaffold, we went to the foundation and we didn't want to be seen at all and a hammer realized that it was normal it was no longer there, that means again, yes, I mean that. They didn't do anything to us, we had heard that everything was bad As an interpreter against rape and so on, but those were the ones who were not here for the Anti-Fascist Action Committee, the end of his reign came to an end For Schwarzenberg, who was given the proper command, everything we did was illegal, armed people were legally a contradiction with unconditional surrender, everything illegal we did not do well, even if the provisional community in the occupied region had no slogans. future possibilities in the game of the great powers Anti-fascist action committees help prevent chaos in a situation of turmoil and guarantee the survival of the population.

The city of Schwarzenberg has been a rich legend ever since.