12/21/2024
I got another Soldbuch, this time for a very, very late war unit, one that fought in the Battle of Berlin. It belonged to a guy called Werner Fiebig. This is my research write-up.
Werner Fiebig was born on March 7th, 1911 into a Protestant family in Berlin. He had blue eyes, brown-blonde hair and stood 5 feet 8 inches tall. A resident of the Berlin borough of Wilmersdorf, he attended the Friedrich Wilhelm University, and had obtained his doctorate by the the issue date of his Soldbuch. Both of his parents lived at Mainzerstraße Nr. 24, and his father, Moritz, worked as a typesetter in a print shop. The building still stands today. While attending University, it appears that Werner lived at home in Wilmersdorf. By the time his Soldbuch had been issued by early 1942, he had married. His wife, Annemarie, accompanied him for portions of his military service.
Fiebig spent the vast majority of his time in the Army in various administrative and other non-combat roles. He had entered into the Wehrmacht no later than 1942, well after the war had begun. Through 1943, he was a guard or administrator at a German P.O.W. camp, Oflag VIII F, which was opened in 1942 in Moravská Třebová in occupied Czechoslovakia. Oflag VIII was an Offizierlager which primarily held British officers that had been captured in North Africa, as well as other American and French captives. Following service at Oflag VIII, Fiebig was at other points also assigned to a “Dolmetscherkompanie” or Interpreter Company. It is likely his extensive secondary education including the acquisition of a secondary language, probably English, was the reason for this transfer. It also appears that Fiebig spent several spells with a series of reserve, replacement, and Landeschuetzen units, including Ld.Sch.Btl. 715 which was active in the Hildesheim area in Wehrkreis XI. There, he was issued the majority of his combat equipment, to include rifle, helmet, and associated items. His last active non-reserve unit was Fahnenjunkerschule der Pionier I in Roßlau, where he found himself at the beginning of 1945.
On March 23rd, 1945, Fiebig was issued a variety of combat equipment to compliment items he had been issued earlier. The same day, the Fahnenjunkerschule was officially mobilized. This was likely a consequence of the “Leuthen” call-up of the Army’s last available manpower. Equipped with bicycles for transportation, and without machine guns or any heavy weapons, the Fahnenjunkerschule’s newly minted combat teams were ordered to the Netherlands, and promptly set out on a trek across Germany.
However, the rapid Allied advance across Western Germany meant that this journey was cut short. In Humfeld, the halt order was given, and the school was ordered to turn around. Retreating across the Weser through Hameln, the school found itself near Celle by April 9th, and had crossed into the Torgau-Wittenberg area, not far from their starting position, by April 13th. By this point, the school had fallen under the command jurisdiction of the newly re-organized 12th Army, under General of Panzer troops Walther Wenck. On April 19th, as the Russians were breaking through on the Oderfront, the school was formally re-designated “Sperrverband (blocking group) Schemmel, after its commanding officer, a Major Schemmel. It had spent the previous several days blowing bridges over the Elbe in the Torgau sector. The Sperrverband was now caught up in the final battles west of Berlin, but Fiebig himself was to play a more direct role.
At an unclear point almost certainly between April 19th and 21st, Werner Fiebig was reassigned. The circumstances of this reassignment are unclear, as his next unit is not marked in his Soldbuch, something not unusual for such a late stage of the war. Fiebig was now attached to Heeres-Panzer-Jagdverbad “S” which was in turn assigned to Panzer-Jagd-Brigade “Schneider”. Perhaps this was done as an effect of the reorganization of the Sperrverband, but it is unclear. However, Fiebig would soon be sent east from the Elbe, towards Berlin, which was then threatened from the south by Marshal Koniev’s First Ukrainian Front.
By April 21st, the Red Army had breached Berlin’s city limits in both north and south. Fighting continued in the city and at its outskirts. One of the few mentions of Werner Fiebig’s assumed frontline unit, the Panzer-Jagd-Brigade Schneider, is within documents prepared by the General Inspector of Panzer Troops for Hitler’s review in the Führerbunker. These documents state that the Jagd-Briagde was surrounded in or near Luckenwalde on April 21st-22nd. It had likely been transported by truck to this area the previous day, along with other local combat groups.
These same documents imply that the Brigade was attached, at least semi-officially, to Reich Labor Service Infantry Division Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. Other secondary sources, however, mention Panzer-Jagd-Brigade Schneider as a subordinate unit of Infantry Division Scharnhorst. The exact subordination of the Brigade is unknown. Given the chaotic state of the disintegrating Wehrmacht, it is possible that nobody knew, even contemporarily. What is probable, though, is that the Brigade was smashed by the Soviet advance and portions were widely dispersed.
Perhaps some elements ended up in the territory still controlled by Wenck’s Army, but I believe it is likely that the larger portion of the Jagd-Brigade were swept towards Potsdam along with the body of Infantry Division Jahn.
Once again, Fiebig’s specific whereabouts from April 22nd until the 29th are impossible to know for certain, but he was definitely involved in the 12th Army’s attack towards Potsdam, which intended to rescue the German soldiers and civilians there. Contact was made between the 12th Army and the Potsdam garrison on April 28th, and the commander there, General Reymann, wasted no time in escaping from the previously encircled town. The following day, Fiebigs’s unit, the Heeres-Panzer-Jagdverbad “S” was dissolved officially. The only reason we know for sure he ended up in this obscure, late-war bicycle mounted anti-tank unit are his discharge papers, where the reason given was “destruction of unit”.
I believe a likely reason for this is the dissolution of weak units that had been trapped inside Potsdam and mostly disintegrated, but it is impossible to know for certain. I also believe that, while Fiebig was discharged from the Wehrmacht officially, he likely continued to fight for several more days. Regardless, it can be said with a reasonable degree of certainty that he joined Wenck’s army for its withdrawal to the Elbe, and crossed into American captivity. Ironically, his previous unit, the Sperrverband Schemmel, was at least partially responsible for organizing the crossing, transferring some 8,000 people across the river by May 4th. Only a few days later, the war was over.
Fiebig’s story, though, is not. He was arrested in Hannover in July 1945, apparent proof that he made it across the Elbe, and following initial processing by the British military authority, he was given permission to travel on to Hamburg, where he was arrested again. This is probably due to his past employment as a prison guard. After this, the historical record loses track of him…almost. A Doctor Werner Fiebig, employed at the Free University of Berlin, published an article in 1953.
