Kurt Vogel (German officer)

Kurt Vogel (11 October 1889 – 1967) was a German officer in World War I. He was a member of the Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division, and was involved in the execution of Rosa Luxemburg. Sources disagree about whether or not he pulled the trigger.

Early career[]

Vogel served in World War I as a flying officer.^[1] After the war he was released as Oberleutnant decommissioned and entered subsequently into a Free Corps. This Freecorps is assumed to be the Guard Cavalry Rifle Division under Lieutenant General Heinrich von Hofmann, and which was active in Berlin.

Execution of Rosa Luxemburg[]

On 15 January 1919 Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were discovered in Berlin-Wilmersdorf and brought by members of the Guard Cavalry Rifle Division to their headquarter in the Eden Hotel. This was under the command of the First General staff officer, Captain Waldemar Pabst. Luxemburg and Liebknecht were interrogated and severely mistreated. After their removal from the Hotel Eden by members of the Division, Rosa Luxembourg was shot in the car; her body was found in the Landwehr Canal at the end of May 1919. For years, the transport leader Kurt Vogel was named as the gunman. In 1959, it was announced at a confession of Waldemar Pabst that after the removal of the abused communist leaders Hermann Souchon jumped on the car and shot Rosa Luxemburg with a pistol in the head.

Process[]

On 17 January 1919 Kriegsgerichtsrat Paul Jorns concerned himself at the field court martial of the Guards Cavalry Rifle Division with the executions of Luxembourg and Liebknecht. A criminal case against the alleged perpetrators became not initially in transition. Jorn released Kurt Vogel and Horst von Pflugk-Harttung.

KPD members demanded since 16 February 1919 due to danger of collusion vainly an independent investigation by a non-military special court. Hoffmann and Jorn saw therefore themselves forced to add two members of the "Zentralrat der deutschen sozialistischen Republik" and the "Berliner Vollzugsrat". Jorn himself refused requests by the civilian members of the inquiry commission. On February 15 the front page of the Die Rote Fahne had the following headline: "The murder of Liebknecht and Luxembourg. The act and the perpetrators", written by Leo Jogiches. For this reason Oskar Rusch, Paul Wegmann and Hugo Struve stepped back from participating in the investigation. Hermann Wäger did not step back. The civilian members of the commission noted that advocate Jorn did nothing to prevent obscuring the facts.

In May 1919, some of the accused – including Otto Wilhelm Runge and Lieutenant Kurt Vogel – were tried by a military tribunal of their own division. The trial was held from 8 to 14 May 1919. Wilhelm Pieck became one of the most important witnesses to the incidents at the hotel, which preceded the executions. He and hotel employees had noticed the mistreatment of the executed and telephone conversations between officers and their superiors.^[2]

Vogel was sentenced to two years and four months in prison on 14 May 1919 because of the removal of a corpse, a false statement and other offenses. Runge received a two-year prison sentence, Souchon was fined. The involved officers Horst and Heinz von Pflugk-Harttung were acquitted.^[3] As supreme commander of the troops confirmed Gustav Noske the judgment personally with his signature.

Escape[]

On 17 November 1919 Wilhelm Canaris came, with the code name "Lieutenant Lindemann", to Moabit prison. He showed an order signed by Jorn to move prisoner Vogel. He boarded with Vogel a car and gave him an identification card issued by the passport office of the war department. Vogel went to the Netherlands.

Aftermath[]

Two years after the trial of Vogel, Runge, and other drivers of the Luxemburg-carriage, a soldier named Janschkow said during a new investigation, that the "third man" was Hermann Souchon. Souchon did not appear despite summons to this process. In 1934, a year after the coming of the Nazi regime, Adolf Hitler granted the executioners of Luxembourg and Liebknecht amnesty and even paid Otto Runge compensation and granted Vogel a tax break.

References[]