Otto Ernst Remer
Otto Ernst Remer | |
|---|---|
Deceased | |
| Conviction(s) | Incitement of racial hatred |
| Criminal penalty | 22 months imprisonment |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves |
Otto Ernst Remer (18 August 1912 – 4 October 1997) was a German
Early life
Otto Ernest Remer was born at
Military career
Remer began his career in April 1933 as an ensign in the 4th Prussian Infantry Regiment. Remer took part in the
In February 1943, he commanded a battalion in the
20 July 1944 Plot
In March 1944, Remer was appointed as the commanding officer of Wachbataillon Großdeutschland. On 20 July 1944
In the evening of 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg, the officer who had carried out the attack upon Hitler arrived back in Berlin, and, believing that he had succeeded in killing him, issued orders to Remer to arrest several senior Nazi Government officials, claiming that they were part of a coup. Upon being ordered by General Paul von Hase to arrest Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, Remer went to Goebbels' office to do so. However, on arrival Remer was met by Goebbels' protestations that Hitler was still alive and had issued counter-orders to those Remer was enforcing. When Remer asked for proof, Goebbels picked up the phone and asked to be put through to Hitler at the "Wolf's Lair", then handed him the telephone receiver, upon which Remer heard Hitler's voice, ordering him to crush the plot in Berlin with the troops under his command. Remer with this realised that he had been taking orders from the mutineers and returning with his troops to the Berlin Military Headquarters, Bendlerblock, he arrested the plotters, including Stauffenberg. Colonel general Friedrich Fromm had the plotters immediately summarily executed by firing squad, despite Remer's protestations that he had been told to keep the plotters alive if possible pending further orders from Hitler, who was returning to Berlin. (General Fromm himself would subsequently be executed by firing squad.) That same night Remer was promoted two ranks to Oberst (Colonel), then to General in early 1945.
For the rest of the war, Remer commanded the Führerbegleitbrigade (FBB), a field unit formed from a Grossdeutschland cadre, in East Prussia, and during the Ardennes Offensive. He was captured by the United States Army towards the end of the war and remained a prisoner of war until 1947.
Postwar life
Political activities
After his release from allied captivity, he became involved in
Exile
With the party banned, Remer faced criminal charges from the West German government for being actively engaged in an attempt to re-establish a
"I know Mr. Arafat quite well, naturally," he asserted. "I saw him many times. He invited me to eat at his headquarters. I knew all his people. They wanted many things from us." For Remer, anyone who was an enemy of Israel was his friend, particularly when a profit could be turned. He claimed to have brokered several business deals between West German companies and the PLO, but Remer denied that he also arranged arms shipments for the PLO. "I couldn't have done so," he maintained. "Arafat gets all he wants from Russia. A German arms dealer can't get into business there."[5]
Criminal prosecution
He returned to West Germany in the 1980s, once more involving himself in politics with the setting up of an organization entitled the "German Freedom Movement" (G.F.M.), which advocated the reunification of East and West Germany and the removal of NATO military forces from West German soil. The G.F.M. was an umbrella organisation for multiple underground neo-Nazi splinter groups of varying descriptions, and Remer used it to influence a younger generation of post-war Germans.[1]
From 1991 to 1994, Remer published a political newsletter entitled the Remer-Depesche, conveying his political philosophy. Its content led to a court case where he was sentenced to 22 months' imprisonment in October 1992 for
Legacy and death
Helmut Friebe, a leader of the Alliance of German Soldiers and former Generalleutnant of the Wehrmacht, had the following to say about Remer: "No judgment will be made here as to whether his decision on 20 July was right or wrong. But the consequences of his decision were so terrible,... that we old soldiers had expected that a man to whom destiny gave such a burden to carry until the end of his life would recognize this, and would thereafter live quietly and in reclusion. We, his former comrades, lack any sympathy for the fact that Herr Remer fails to summon up this attitude of self-effacement".[7][8]
Remer died at
In popular culture
Oberst Remer was portrayed by German actor Thomas Kretschmann in the 2008 movie Valkyrie.
Awards
- Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (20 May 1940) & 1st Class (12 June 1940)[9]
- German Cross in Gold on 29 August 1942 as Hauptmann in IV./Infanterie-Regiment "Großdeutschland"[10]
- Close Combat Clasp in Silver
- Wound Badge in Silver
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g h Atkins 2004, pp. 273–274.
- ^ The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer, p. 1063 ff. 1960.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1998, p. 170.
- ^ a b c Lee 2000, pp. 73, 134, 151.
- ^ Lee, Martin A. The Beast Reawakens. p. 182.
- ^ ECmHR admissibility decision on the application 25096/94
- ^ Baigent, Michael and Leigh, Richard. 1994. Secret Germany. London, New York: The Penguin Group.
- ISBN 9781134996476. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
- ^ Thomas 1998, p. 195.
- ^ Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 373.
- ^ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 355.
- ^ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 74.
Bibliography
- Atkins, Stephen E. (2004). Encyclopedia of modern worldwide extremists and extremist groups. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-32485-7.
- Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
- Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (1998). Hitler's Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth, and Neo-Nazism. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-3111-6.
- ISBN 978-0-415-92546-4.
- Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.
- ISBN 0-13-089301-3.
- Searle, Alaric (2003). Wehrmacht Generals, West German Society, and the Debate on Rearmament, 1949–1959. Westport, CT: ISBN 978-0-275-97968-3.
- Thomas, Franz (1998). Die Eichenlaubträger 1939–1945 Band 2: L–Z [The Oak Leaves Bearers 1939–1945 Volume 2: L–Z] (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7648-2300-9.
External links
- Germany's New Nazis 1951 pamphlet about Otto Ernst Remer and other neo--nazis
- Newspaper clippings about Otto Ernst Remer in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
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