Siegfried Müller (mercenary)

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For other people named Siegfried Müller, see Siegfried Müller (disambiguation).
Siegfried Müller
Nickname(s)Kongo Müller
Born26 October 1920 (1920-10-26)
Congo-Léopoldville
Service/branchGerman Army
5 Commando
RankOberleutnant (Germany)
Major (Congo)
Battles/warsWorld War II
Simba rebellion

Siegfried Friedrich Heinrich Müller (26 October 1920 – 17 April 1983), referred to as "Congo Müller" (Kongo-Müller), was a German-born mercenary who served as an officer with 5 Commando during the Congo Crisis. A former officer-candidate in Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht who continued to wear his Iron Cross, Müller acquired particular notoriety in West and East Germany in the mid-1960s amid extensive press coverage of his involvement in war crimes in the Congo and overt nostalgia for the Nazi era.

Early life and military career

Siegfried Friedrich Heinrich Müller was born in

Crossen an der Oder, Germany (modern Krosno Odrzańskie, Poland) in 1920 to a conservative Prussian family. His father served in World War I and later served in the Wehrmacht as a lieutenant-colonel. Siegfried was enrolled at a boarding school in Freiburg and was in the Jungvolk, reaching the rank of Fähnleinführer. He later served in the Reich Labour Service, and joined the Wehrmacht in 1939. He first experienced action during the German invasion of Poland, where he says he saw very little combat. After this, he claimed he would sometimes dress as a Polish peasant and walk along the lines of the Soviet-occupied Poland in order to scout them out. He also fought in Operation Barbarossa and spent the rest of the war fighting against the Soviets. He claimed to have been promoted to the rank of first lieutenant
on April 20, 1945, Hitler's birthday. After being seriously wounded from being shot in the back, he was evacuated from East Prussia to Frankfurt, where he was captured by the Americans.

Released in 1947, he enlisted in the

Sahara Desert during World War II
.

Congo Crisis

Müller emigrated to

war crimes.[2]
Pictures show Müller wearing his Iron Cross in the Congo.

As news of atrocities committed by mercenaries in the Congo spread, Müller became a hate figure among socialists and student activists in

Rolling Stones.[5]

He died in the

Johannesburg, South Africa of stomach cancer in April 1983.[6]

In popular culture

Major Müller wore his World War II Iron Cross First Class on his operations in the Congo, which attracted the attention of journalists from Time magazine.[7]

He was interviewed for, and is the subject of, the 1966 East German documentary The Laughing Man-Confessions of a Murderer.[8]

The character Capt. Henlein from the 1968 film Dark of the Sun was based on Müller.[9]

References

  1. ^ "Der "Kongo-Müller" und das "Kommando 52"". Kriegsreisende.de. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  2. ^ Bunnenberg, C. (2006): Der "Kongo-Müller": Eine deutsche Söldnerkarriere. Münster: Lit Verlag.
  3. ISBN 9780822351849
    .
  4. ISBN 9780822351849
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-241-34342-5
    .
  6. ^ p.23 Chiari, Bernhard & Kollner, Dieter H A Concise Guide to the History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Military History Research Institute
  7. ISSN 0040-781X
    . Retrieved 2021-05-23.
  8. ^ Heynowski, Walter; Scheumann, Gerhard (1966-03-18), Der lachende Mann – Bekenntnisse eines Mörders (Documentary, War), Siegfried Müller, DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme, Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF), retrieved 2021-05-22
  9. ISBN 9780850598124
    .

Further reading

External links
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