Werner Berger

Werner Alfred Berger (22 February 1901 in Konstanz – 10 June 1964 in Rottweil) was a German SS-Oberscharführer and a member of the command in the KZ Buchenwald.

Werner Alfred Berger
Werner Berger in April 1947
Born(1901-02-22)22 February 1901
Died10 June 1963(1963-06-10) (aged 62)
Rottweil
NationalityGerman
OccupationMilitary

Life

Berger, by profession a bank employee, was a member of the Nazi Party and also since April 1940 a member of the Waffen-SS. From January 1941 till April 1945 Berger belonged to staff of KZ Buchenwald.[1] Berger was in Buchenwald the head of the effect chamber, where personal possessions of the KZ prisoners were stored. He also belonged to "Kommando 99", they made executions.[2]

No later than the end of World War II, Berger was arrested. On 25 November 1947 he was accused with five more persons in the Dachau trials(a next process to the Buchenwald Trial). Process-objective in this process were the executions of command 99. On 3 December 1947, Berger was sentenced to lifelong prison because of his help and participation in KZ Buchenwald.[1] After the judgement Berger was brought to Landsberg Prison.

Berger was also accused in the assassination of Ernst Thälmann in KZ Buchenwald. The death of Thälmann on 18 August 1944 is however not enlightened. Former Buchenwald prisoner Marian Zgoda said in the Buchenwald Trial that he saw that Erich Gust, Wolfgang Otto and Werner Berger took part in the shooting of Thälmann. Otto was accused in the Buchenwald trial of crime against members of allied states and was sentenced. Gust submerged with a wrong name.[3]

Because of Zagoda's statements, on 13 November 1948 arrest warrants were made by the court of Weimar against Otto, Berger, Gust and more suspicious people.

Berger was set free earlier from Landsberg prison, in 1954. He found a job in a bank and raised at the Landeszentralbank in Baden-Württemberg.[3] The widow of Thälmann, Rosa Thälmann, filed charges in 1962 with the lawyer Friedrich Karl Kaul at the prosecution in Cologne against the suspected Thälmann murderers Otto and Berger.[4] However, Berger was not convicted, and eventually died in June 1964.

Literature
  • Falco Werkentin: Politische Strafjustiz in der Ära Ulbricht. Christoph Links-Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-86153-069-4. (in German)

References
  1. United States v. Werner Alfred Berger et al – Case No. 000-Buchenwald-50 (PDF; 4,8 MB) vom 20. Februar 1948
  2. Werner Berger auf www.buchenwald.de
  3. Falco Werkentin: Politische Strafjustiz in der Ära Ulbricht. Berlin 1995, S. 203ff
  4. René Börrnert: Wie Ernst Thälmann treu und kühn! Das Thälmann-Bild der SED im Erziehungsalltag der DDR. Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2004, ISBN 3-7815-1321-1, S.57

Literature
  • Falco Werkentin: Politische Strafjustiz in der Ära Ulbricht. Christoph Links-Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-86153-069-4.
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