Karl Maaß
| Karl Maaß | |
|---|---|
 SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen SS Eicke | |
| Birth date | c. 1888 |
| Place of birth | German Empire |
| Death date | ⚔ 29 March 1921 |
| Place of death | near Gröbers, Saalkreis, Merseburg administrative district, Province of Saxony, German Reich |
| Allegiance | |
| Service/branch | .png){kind=small} Prussian Army Imperial German Army Freikorps Police
|
| Rank | Police Captain |
| Battles/wars | World War I |
| Awards | Iron Cross Baden Order of the Zähringer Lion House Order of Hohenzollern |
Karl Maaß (d. 29 March 1921) was a German officer of the infantry, the Fliegertruppe and the police. He was murdered by communist insurgents in March 1921.
Contents
Life
Maaß joined the Prussian Army, served with the 9. Badisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 170 and was commissioned as Leutnant (2nd Lieutenant) on 16 August 1907 in the 8th Company (II. Bataillon in Offenburg).[1] As of the rank list of 1909, he was in the 3rd Company, as of 1910, in the 7th Company. As of the rank list of 1912, he was back in the 3rd Company, as of 1913, in the 10th Company (III. Bataillon in Donaueschingen) and as of 1914, in the 5th Company.
In WWI, Maaß, now Oberleutnant (1st Lieutenant), was transferred to the Imperial German Air Service. It is presumed, that he served as an observer, but it cannot be ruled out (without documentation of his personnel file) that he was trained as a pilot. He served with the Feldflieger-Abteilung 25 (FFA 25) and Feldflieger-Abteilung 34 (FFA 34), later with the Kampfgeschwader 4 der O. H. L. or Kagohl 4, established in December 1915 at the air station (Fliegerstation) in Cöln (Butzweilerhof).Kagohl 4 was directly subordinated to the Supreme Army Command (Oberste Heeresleitung; OHL). On 25 November 1916, he was promoted to Hauptmann (Captain).[2] In March 1918, he was slighty wounded serving with the Fliegerabteilung (Artillerie) 264 (FA A 264).
Post WWI
After the war and Freikorps service, Maaß joined the Sicherheitspolizei (security police) in Kattowitz (Upper Silesia) where he served from October 1919 to October 1920. In August 1920, he was involved in the street fighting against Polish insurgents under Alfons Zgrzebniok (1891–1937). In November 1920, he transferred to the Schutzpolizei (protection police) in Halle an der Saale. Here he was appointed commander of the Technische Hundertschaft (technical hundred), specially trained, motorized and equipped with machine guns.
Battle of Gröbers
On 29 March 1921 (sometimes wrongly reported on 30 March) at 8.30 a.m., Captain Maaß was informed that insurgents were forming in Groebers. It was suggested to him that it was only a small group. Maaß decided to use the same tactics as the day before, when Ammendorf (the insurgents tried to capture the artillery barracks) was succesfully attacked and liberated, although the criminal terrorist Max Hoelz (1889–1933) had already looted the company treasury of the Buckau chemical factory (32,000 Marks). However, many of the insurgents were able to escape and met in Gröbers, reinforced by communists from Bitterfeld. Instead of a small group, around 400 heavily armed insurgents were waiting.
The command in Gröbers is taken over by Gerhard Thiemann, who sets up his headquarters in the Zum Hirsch inn on the road from Halle to Leipzig. He has the place secured militarily. Strategically important points and the town exits towards Halle and Merseburg are occupied and two machine guns are brought into position. In addition, a medical center was set up in the school, trenches dug and road surfaces torn up. At the same time as the storming of the Leuna works, the police operation began in Gröbers. The Leuna-Werke south of Halle was occupied by 2,000 (other sources state 4,000) communists. 21 police hundreds (over 2,000 men) under Colonel Bernhard Graf Poninski (1872–1955) supported by Reichswehr artillery. On the morning of 29 March, the Leuna works came under artillery fire, then the police stormed the factory. The remaining insurgents surrendered after a short fight. Because the Leuna police action need almost all the material, Karl Maaß was left with only three trucks, two machine guns and a mortar. Although he had 100 men, he could only take a part of them, one truck could only carry c. 15 men.
At 10 a.m., Maaß reached the road in front of Gröbers. The communists opened fire between 1000m and 600 m. Both officers, Maaß and police Leutnant Theodor Suchla, were killed, the men were now without leadership. Two of the three trucks had been knocked out and had to be abandoned. The two machine guns were lost. From the third truck, the mortar was salvaged, but was not operational. Nonetheless, the battle raged from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m, the policemen not wating to give up. But they really didn't have a chance. The decision was made: The last operable truck was loaded with the 10 severly wounded, the other men would walk, the truck behind them shielding them from rifle fire. They left behind eight dead (other sources state 11), or at least they thought they were dead.
The Jewish brothers Otto and Paul Goldstein as well as others, starting robbing the corpses: money, rings, watches, coat, boots and socks. Everything was taken. The brothers Goldstein were surprised to find four of the policemen still allive, although hardly. Otto Goldstein, after his arrest (hiding in the house of his grandmother), later testified, that his brother Paul (killed on 31 March / 1 April 1921) and he had dragged the men into an inn (Gasthof). The men begged for their lives, even dug out bandages and asked the brothers to bandage them, but Paul and Otto had other ideas. One would put his hand over the mouth of a policeman and hold him down, the other took his stiletto knife and cut off the ears, the nose, and then stabbed into the eyes. They took their time, all four would be given their turn. One of the policemen even had his belly cut open. Otto Goldstein died a short time later in his jail cell, presumably committing suicide.
Only after this battle, the self-proclaimed leader Max Hoelz and Joseph Schneider (1882–1939), communist editor at the party newspaper in Eisleben, arrived on site. Hoelz took command and ordered the occupation of the train station. All trains from Halle and Leipzig were stopped, checked and searched for uniformed people. When the insurgents were informed, that the Leuna works had been liberated, they knew, the troops would soon come to Gröbers. They had received reinforcements in the night, now 500 men were ready to leave the town at 4 p.m. on 30 March 1921. A half an hour later, 18 trucks, several cars, an ambulance and many on foot as well as on bicycles heading towards Halle. They would never make it.
The Hoelz troops tried in vain to advance to Halle and were wiped out by five police hundreds with artillery in a battle by the village of Beesenstadt near Wettin (western Saale district) on 1 April 1921. The insurgents suffered 18 deaths, 19 prisoners and numerous wounded, lost most of their equipment (31 vehicles, 5 machine guns, 150 rifles, 6 pistols, 2,000 rounds of machine gun ammunition, 1,200 rounds of infantry ammunition, 1 armored car, 1 mortar[3]), were able to escape across the river Saale 8at least 10 drowned), but were largely captured in the next few days. The KPD withdrew its call for a general strike on the same day. The state of emergency remained in effect until September 1921. Around 6,000 insurgents were arrested. 4,000 of them received prison sentences, only four received the death sentence.
Causa "Hoelzl"
Violent rabble-rouser Max Hoelz was initially able to escape. Soon afterwards, he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. In 1928, as a much criticized Weimar act of appeasement, he was released through an amnesty, became a member of the KPD and emigrated to the Soviet Union in 1929. Mass-murderer Josef Stalin received him there. The dictator initially had a heart for Hoelz because he himself came from a milieu in the Caucasus where the boundaries between robber captains and revolutionaries were fluid. But Hoelz, mentally anarchist, despaired of the authoritarian structures in Stalin's state. In 1933, he died under unclear circumstances, allegedly drowning.
Burial
On 5 April 1921 in Halle, the funeral service for the killed policemen took place. Five were buried in Halle, three were brought in a long solemn procession to the train station and transferred to their respective hometowns. Captain Karl Maaß was one of these three.
Awards and decorations
- Observer’s Badge (Abzeichen für Beobachtungsoffiziere aus Flugzeugen)
- Possibly Pilot’s Badge (Militär-Flugzeugführer-Abzeichen)
- Iron Cross (1914), 2nd and 1st Class
- Baden Order of the Zähringer Lion (Orden vom Zähringer Löwen), Knight's Cross 2nd Class with Swords (BZ3b⚔) on 27 April 1915
- House Order of Hohenzollern, Knight's Cross with Swords (HOH3⚔)
- Wound Badge (1918) in Black
Further reading
- Dr. Adolf Ehrt: Bewaffneter Aufstand! Enthüllungen über den kommunistischen Umsturzversuch am Vorabend der nationalen Revolution, Berlin / Leipzig 1933 (Archive)
- Dr. Adolf Ehrt / Hans Roden: Terror – Die Blutchronik des Marxismus in Deutschland, Eckart-Kampf-Verlag, Berlin / Leipzig 1934 (PDF)
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