The Oberland in May 1945: suddenly the war was on the doorstep. Would there be fights? Will you survive? We have contemporary witnesses told. Here: Siegfried Wäninger.
Gmund - "I was incredibly lucky." Siegfried Wäninger is 92 years old. The fact that he survived the dramatic and dangerous last days of the war 75 years ago, the amazement and relief at it can still be seen today. Wäninger grew up in Miesbach, today the 92-year-old lives with his wife in Gmund. He experienced the end of the war twice, as a 17-year-old soldier, first in Holzkirchen and a day later in Miesbach.
Before the invasion
When the war raged on distant fronts, Wäninger wanted to be there. The Air Force had done it to him. "I wanted to fly the Messerschmidt 109, the fastest German fighter plane." As a young man, he had already passed the preliminary test as a reserve officer.
In the autumn of 1944, he finally had to engage. But not to the fast planes, but to the Panzergrenadiers in Freimann. He put all the levers in motion to be transferred to the Air Force. His luck: "The military district command in Starnberg first sent me back home." Wäninger later learned that the Freimanner troops on the eastern front were being burned. "Only one came back."
Siegfried Wäninger.
© Thomas Plettenberg
It was already at the end of April when the call came - again to a tank unit, this time to Freising. There he experienced what he calls "the most terrifying sight of my life". From a truck, the young soldier watched SS guards driving prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp. "If someone fell, he was shot." Dogs would have set them on the emaciated prisoners. "It was horrible."
His unit came to Hartpenning, close to home. The US Army pressed the remains of German units against the mountains. The 17th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Götz von Berlichingen" was particularly opposed. When Wäninger's group stopped in Hartpenning, "the door suddenly opened, the SS took our sergeant outside and shot him."
The soldiers of scattered Wehrmacht units were finally drawn together in wooden churches. There they were looking for a detector with local knowledge who would transmit messages between the units. Wäninger got the risky job, he was stationed in the Holzkirchner Oberbräu.
The day
On May 1, 1945, Wäninger was to cycle to Westerham. He didn't get very far. Already at Föching he met American tanks. He immediately turned around and reported. "Then the war will be over," answered a German officer.
Soon afterwards, US soldiers drove fighting SS men through the town. “The SS students shouted that we should help them,” recalls the Gmunder, “but we didn't want to.” Later that day, Americans searched the houses and took watches and jewelry. "And what looked like Hitler was burned."
Another eyewitness: students with bazookas against the US Army
The next day Wäninger tried to make his way to Miesbach's mother. At Thalham he suddenly found himself on the main line of battle. "Suddenly I'm emaciated in front of the Americans." They were "incredibly friendly". "Because I spoke English, I could even talk to them."
When he finally arrived in Miesbach, he first buried his mother's jewelry; the day before he had seen in Holzkirchen how the US soldiers let everything go. He heard a cannon blow from Tölz, then it was over. Shortly afterwards the victors marched in and took possession of the Wäninger house. In the early days it served as a military hospital. The 13 parties who lived in it had to move to the store.
The days after
Wäninger describes the relationship with the US soldiers as very good. "Once a military doctor called me because I had a boil," he recalls, "he healed me." The Americans would also have cooked for the residents.
Another eyewitness report: barter at the large kitchen tent
His later path led Wäninger to play ice hockey in Bad Nauheim. After some time in Munich, he finally moved to Gmund with his wife in the 1970s. There you can experience Wäninger as a happy person. Anyone who knows his story knows the reason.
Andreas Wolkenstein