Siegfried Müller (mercenary)

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For other people named Siegfried Müller, see Siegfried Müller (disambiguation).
Siegfried Müller
Born26 October 1920 (1920-10-26)
Crossen an der Oder, Germany
Died17 April 1983(1983-04-17) (aged 62)
Johannesburg, South Africa
Military career
AllegianceGermany
Service/branchGerman Army
Years of service1939–1945
RankOberleutnant
Battles/warsWorld War II
Mercenary career
Nickname(s)Congo Müller
Allegiance Congo-Léopoldville
RankMajor
Battles/warsCongo Crisis

Siegfried Friedrich Heinrich Müller (26 October 1920 – 17 April 1983), often called Kongo-Müller, was a former German Wehrmacht officer-candidate who fought as a mercenary under Major Mike Hoare in the Congo Crisis.

Biography[]

Siegfried Müller was born in Crossen an der Oder, Germany (modern Krosno Odrzańskie, Poland) in 1920 to a conservative Prussian family. His father served in the first World War and later served in the Wehrmacht as a Lieutenant-Colonel. Siegfried was enrolled in bordering schools in Freiburg and was in the Jungvolk, reaching the rank of Fähnlein-Fuhrer. He later served in the Reich Labour Service, and joined the Wehrmacht in 1939. He first experienced action during the German invasion of Poland, where he says he saw very little combat. After this, he claimed he would sometimes dress as a Polish peasant and walk along the lines of the Soviet held Poland in order to scout them out. He also fought in Operation Barbarossa and spent the rest of the war fighting against the Soviets. He claimed to have been promoted to the rank of First lieutenant on April 20, 1945, Hitler's birthday. After being seriously wounded from being shot in the back, he was evacuated from East Prussia to Frankfurt, where he was captured by the Americans.

Released in 1947, he enlisted in the US Army Civilian Labor Group (CLG), an American Labor Service Unit of Germans; then became a Lieutenant in a CLG security unit. He also worked as an Industrial Police watchman and trained NATO troops in Paris. He was denied entry to the Bundeswehr in 1956, but found employment with British Petroleum, clearing mines planted by the Afrika Korps in the Sahara Desert during World War II.

Müller emigrated to the Republic of South Africa in 1962 and was recruited as a mercenary with the rank of Lieutenant in 5 Commando in 1964. At 44, Müller was the oldest of Mike Hoare's soldiers.[1] He was promoted to Captain after a successful operation to seize Albertville (now Kalemie) and led 52 Commando, a sub unit of 5 Commando comprising approximately 53 soldiers. He was later promoted to Major. The activities of the mercenaries in the Congo are thought to have largely contributed to the predominantly negative connotation of the term 'mercenary' in contemporary debates, remaining deeply associated with arbitrary violence and killings, lack of transparency and absence of patriotic motivation, instead focusing solely on money.[2] Many pictures show Müller wearing his Iron Cross, a former military decoration - established by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia in 1813 and used in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945).

He died in the Boksburg, Gauteng suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa of stomach cancer in April 1983.[3]

In popular culture[]

Major Müller wore his World War II Iron Cross First Class on his operations in the Congo, which attracted the attention of journalists from Time magazine.[4]

He was interviewed for, and is the subject of, the 1966 East German documentary The Laughing Man-Confessions of a Murderer.[5]

The character Capt. Henlein from the 1968 film Dark of the Sun was based on Müller.[6]

References[]

  1. ^ "''Der "Kongo-Müller" und das "Kommando 52"''". Kriegsreisende.de. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  2. ^ Bunnenberg, C. (2006): Der "Kongo-Müller": Eine deutsche Söldnerkarriere. Münster: Lit Verlag.
  3. ^ p.23 Chiari, Bernhard & Kollner, Dieter H A Concise Guide to the History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Military History Research Institute
  4. ^ "The Congo: Moise's Black Magic". Time. 1965-02-19. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
  5. ^ Heynowski, Walter; Scheumann, Gerhard (1966-03-18), Der lachende Mann – Bekenntnisse eines Mörders (Documentary, War), Siegfried Müller, DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme, Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF), retrieved 2021-05-22
  6. ^ Tickler, Peter (1987). The Modern Mercenary: Dog of War, Or Soldier of Honour?. P. Stephens. pp. 23–24. ISBN 9780850598124.

External links[]

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