Ernest Peter Burger (September 1, 1906 – October 9, 1975) was a German-American who was a

saboteur Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization, destabilization, division, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''sabo ...

for Germany during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

who defected to the United States. A

naturalized citizen of the United States Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constit ...

who returned to Germany during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, Burger was recruited along with seven others by the

Abwehr The (German language, German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', though the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context) ) was the German military intelligence , military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ...

for

Operation Pastorius Operation Pastorius was a failed German intelligence plan for sabotage inside the United States during World War II. The operation was staged in June 1942 and was to be directed against strategic American economic targets. The operation was n ...

, which sought to sabotage targets in the United States in 1942. However, after being deployed, he and fellow saboteur

George John Dasch George John Dasch (7 February 1903 – 1 November 1991) was a German agent who landed on American soil during World War II. He helped to destroy Nazi Germany's espionage program in the United States by defecting to the American cause, but was ...

defected and betrayed the other six agents involved to the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

. After some litigation, a

military tribunal Military justice (or military law) is the body of laws and procedures governing members of the armed forces. Many nation-states have separate and distinct bodies of law that govern the conduct of members of their armed forces. Some states us ...

sentenced all eight agents to death, but President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

commuted Burger's sentence to life in prison. In 1948, President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...

granted Burger

executive clemency A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...

conditional on his deportation to the

American occupation zone in Germany The American occupation zone in Germany (German: ), also known as the US-Zone, and the Southwest zone, was one of the four occupation zones established by the Allies of World War II in Germany west of the Oder–Neisse line in July 1945, aroun ...

, where he died in 1975.

Biography

Born in

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

, Burger was a machinist by trade. Burger joined the

Freikorps Oberland The ''Freikorps Oberland'' ("Highlands Free Corps"; also ''Bund Oberland'' or ''Kameradschaft Freikorps und Bund Oberland'') was a voluntary paramilitary organization that, in the early years of the Weimar Republic, fought against communist and ...

when he was 15, and became a member of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

at the age of 17.Cohen, Gary
The Keystone Kommandos
The Atlantic Magazine, February 2002, accessdate April 2, 2016. In 1923, he participated in the

Beer Hall Putsch The Beer Hall Putsch, also known as the Munich Putsch,Dan Moorhouse, ed schoolshistory.org.uk, accessed 2008-05-31.Known in German as the or was a failed coup d'état by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Erich Ludendorff and other leaders i ...

. Burger immigrated to America in 1927 and became a U.S. citizen in 1933. He had lived in the United States for some years, even serving in the

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and

Wisconsin Army National Guard The Wisconsin Army National Guard has dual state and federal roles, and is jointly funded and maintained by both governments. Its federal mission is to provide trained units to the United States Army in time of war or national emergency. Its sta ...

. During the Depression, Burger returned to Germany, he rejoined the Nazi Party and became an aide-de-camp to

Ernst Roehm Ernst is both a surname and a given name, the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian form of Ernest. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Adolf Ernst (1832–1899) German botanist known by the author abbreviation "Ernst" * Anton Ernst (born ...

, the chief of the Nazi storm troopers. Later, he wrote a paper critical of the Gestapo—a move that earned him seventeen months in a concentration camp. In 1941, Burger was released and conscripted into the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

. He served at a POW camp in Berlin, where he guarded Yugoslav and British prisoners. Despite his history as a survivor of a

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

internment camp and harassment of his wife by Nazi Party members, Burger was recruited by the

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

's intelligence organization. He took part in

, a plan by which eight German saboteurs were to be transported by

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

to the United States. Burger and the others landed with the intention of damaging United States economic targets.

Apprehension, trial, and deportation

, another German agent, called Burger into their upper-story hotel room and opened a window, saying they would talk, and if they disagreed, "only one of us will walk out that door—the other will fly out this window." Dasch told him he had no intention of going through with the mission, hated Nazism, and planned to report the plot to the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

. Burger agreed to defect to the United States immediately. Besides Burger, none of the other German agents knew they were betrayed. Over the next two weeks, Burger and the other six were arrested. FBI Director

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American attorney and law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau o ...

made no mention that Dasch had turned himself in, and claimed credit for the FBI for cracking the spy ring. The saboteurs were tried and convicted of

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

. All were sentenced to

execution by electrocution The electric chair is a specialized device used for capital punishment through electrocution. The condemned is strapped to a custom wooden chair and electrocuted via electrodes attached to the head and leg. Alfred P. Southwick, a Buffalo, New Y ...

; however, Burger's sentence was commuted by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

to life in prison and Dasch's to thirty years because of their cooperation. In 1948, President

granted executive clemency to Dasch and Burger on the condition they be deported to the

. They were not welcomed back in Germany, as they were regarded as traitors who had caused the death of their comrades. Although they had been promised pardons by J. Edgar Hoover in exchange for their cooperation, both men died without ever receiving them.

References

External links

*
FBI Famous Cases
* Operation Pastorius entry on German Wikipedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Burger, Ernest Peter 1906 births 1975 deaths 20th-century Freikorps personnel Abwehr personnel of World War II American people convicted of spying for Nazi Germany American prisoners sentenced to death German emigrants to the United States Loss of United States citizenship and deportation by prior Nazi affiliation Michigan National Guard personnel Nazis who participated in the Beer Hall Putsch German Army personnel of World War II German people imprisoned in the United States German prisoners sentenced to death Sturmabteilung personnel People from Augsburg Prisoners of Nazi concentration camps Prisoners sentenced to death by the United States military Wisconsin National Guard personnel Saboteurs Commutations granted by Franklin D. Roosevelt Commutations granted by Harry S. Truman