Hermann Wilhelm Souchon (; 2 January 1895 – 1982) was a German Naval officer and the suspected

assassin Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

, according to the testimonies of two accomplices, of Marxist theorist

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg ( ; ; ; born Rozalia Luksenburg; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary and Marxist theorist. She was a key figure of the socialist movements in Poland and Germany in the early 20t ...

on 15 January 1919 in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Biography

Souchon, a nephew of Admiral

Wilhelm Souchon Wilhelm Anton Souchon (; 2 June 1864 – 13 January 1946) was a German admiral in World War I. Souchon commanded the '' Kaiserliche Marine''s Mediterranean squadron in the early days of the war. His initiatives played a major part in the entry ...

, was born in

Bromberg Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its left-bank tributary, the Brda, the strategic location of Bydgoszcz has made it an inland ...

Province of Posen The Province of Posen (; ) was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920, occupying most of the historical Greater Poland. The province was established following the Greater Poland Uprising (1848), Poznań Uprisi ...

(Bydgoszcz, Poland). He served in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

as lieutenant in an artillery regiment. In 1915, he went to the Imperial Navy as an

ensign Ensign most often refers to: * Ensign (flag), a flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality * Ensign (rank), a navy (and former army) officer rank Ensign or The Ensign may also refer to: Places * Ensign, Alberta, Alberta, Canada * Ensign, Ka ...

. After the end of the war, he was discharged and became a member of

Marinebrigade Ehrhardt The Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, also known as the Ehrhardt Brigade, was a Freikorps unit of the early Weimar Republic. It was formed on 17 February 1919 as the Second Marine Brigade from members of the former Imperial German Navy under the leade ...

. This

Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European paramilitary volunteer units that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenaries or private military companies, rega ...

was active in Berlin in January 1919, as part of the ''Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division'' under General Lieutenant Heinrich von Hofmann. On 15 January 1919, Rosa Luxemburg and

Karl Liebknecht Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht (; ; 13 August 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a German politician and revolutionary socialist. A leader of the far-left wing of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Liebknecht was a co-founder of both ...

were captured at

Berlin-Wilmersdorf Wilmersdorf () is an inner-city locality of Berlin which lies south-west of the central city. Formerly a borough by itself, Wilmersdorf became part of the new borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf following Berlin's 2001 administrative reform. H ...

by the Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision and brought to their headquarters at Hotel Eden. Captain

Waldemar Pabst Ernst Julius Waldemar Pabst (24 December 1880 – 29 May 1970) was a German soldier and political activist who was involved in extreme nationalist and anti-communist paramilitary activity in both the Weimar Republic and in Austria. As a Freikor ...

, along with

Horst von Pflugk-Harttung Horst Gustav Friedrich von Pflugk-Harttung (17 June 1889 – 9 March 1967) (alternate spelling Pflug-Hartnung) was a German intelligence officer and spy. Weimar Germany After serving in the army during the World War I, Pflugk-Harttung had become ...

questioned them and gave the order to execute them. When they were being transported, Souchon jumped onto the car. He is one of two people accused of having shot Luxemburg in the head after Otto Runge had knocked her down with a rifle butt. In 1920, he flew to

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

where he worked as a bank clerk and became a sympathizer of the

Lapua Movement The Lapua Movement (, ) was a radical Finnish nationalist, fascist, pro- German and anti-communist political movement founded in and named after the town of Lapua. Led by Vihtori Kosola, it turned towards far-right politics after its founding ...

. Souchon became the leader of the chapter of the NSDAP/AO in Finland. After

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

granted amnesty to those involved in the murders of Liebknecht and Luxemburg, Souchon returned to Germany in 1935 and joined the

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

, where he rose to the rank of colonel (''

Oberst ''Oberst'' () is a senior field officer rank in several German language, German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Colonel. It is currently used by both the Army, ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, a ...

'') during the war. After the war, he lived in

Bad Godesberg Bad Godesberg () is a borough () of Bonn, southern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From 1949 to 1999, while Bonn was the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, most foreign embassies were in Bad Godesberg. Some buildings are still used as br ...

. When a documentary report on the Liebknecht-Luxemburg story was first shown in 1969 on German television ARD, Souchon with his lawyer

Otto Kranzbühler Otto Heinrich Kranzbühler (also spelled Kranzbuehler, ; 8 July 1907 – 9 August 2004) was a German naval judge who represented defendant Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz before the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg Trials. Early lif ...

sued the broadcaster, which had to retract their statement of Souchon's guilt in February 1970. Since the 1980s, the documentary has been shown again a few times and is now publicly available.''Der Fall Liebknecht-Luxemburg. Eine Semidokumentation von Dieter Ertel und Gustav Strübel. Fernsehspiel für das Deutsche Fernsehen vom SDR / SWR.'' Documentary by Süddeutscher Rundfunk and

Südwestrundfunk (; ), shortened to SWR (), is a regional public broadcasting corporation serving the southwest of Germany, specifically the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The corporation has main offices in three cities: Stuttg ...

References

External links

''Die Mörder Rosa Luxemburgs''
. In: Geo Epoche, Nr. 27, August 2007

Wolfram Wette Wolfram Wette (born 11 November 1940) is a German military historian and peace researcher. He is an author or editor of over 40 books on the history of Nazi Germany, including the seminal '' Germany and the Second World War'' series from the G ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Souchon, Hermann 1890s births 1982 deaths 20th-century Freikorps personnel Military personnel from Bydgoszcz Military personnel from the Province of Posen German expatriates in Finland German fascists German nationalist assassins German Army personnel of World War I Imperial German Navy personnel of World War I Luftwaffe personnel of World War II Rosa Luxemburg

Biography

Further reading

References

External links