Son of Oldenburg: The Life and World War Ii Diary of Gerold Meyer

By Charles P. Koubik

Our understanding of the Second World War has been influenced most often by the political and military leaders who made major decisions that changed the lives of millions. While this emphasis is critically important, we must also remember those innumerable people who were forever affected by the momentous events of that tumultuous period. Beginning at the turn of the 20th century, this book traces the era and life of a young man who was born in Oldenburg, Germany in 1925 and who came of age in the early 1940s during the largest global conflict in history. His personal photographs, documents and wartime diary illustrate the many joys and hardships of this one individual and his family. They speak to us through time; they tell his compelling story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 15, 2010
• ISBN: 9781477171226

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Copyright © 2010 by Charles P. Koubik. 38159-KOUB

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009901189

ISBN:    Softcover      978-1-4415-1053-2

              Hardcover     978-1-4415-1054-9

              ebook            978-1-4771-7122-6

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

Oldenburg and the Great War

1890s—1918

CHAPTER 2

Peace Without Victory

1919—1924

CHAPTER 3

Revival and Revolution

1925 – 1934

CHAPTER 4

German Youth

1935—1939

CHAPTER 5

Hitler Youth

1939—1943

CHAPTER 6

National Labor Service

1943

CHAPTER 7

Gerold’s Diary – Army Basic Training

Fall 1943

CHAPTER 8

Gerold’s Diary – Officer Candidate School

1943—1944

CHAPTER 9

Gerold’s Diary – Sport

Spring 1944

CHAPTER 10

Gerold’s Diary – Service

Spring 1944

CHAPTER 11

Eastern Front

Summer 1944

CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

In the early 21st century, World War II has begun to pass noticeably from living memory. Those who witnessed the dramatic events of the 1930s and 1940s are far fewer in number every year. Their recollections of that momentous time have offered younger generations a real link to historic changes that reverberate and affect us to the present day. We learned so much from them. We also appreciate the stories of those in the past who recorded their lives for the future to reveal.

The Meyer family in Oldenburg, Germany preserved some special remnants of the Second World War, especially those of their older son, Gerold. As he grew from a child in the 1930s into a young man in the 1940s, Gerold seemed fortunate to be one of the select Germans who were gathered by the Nazi state. He followed its new order, first as a member of the Hitler Youth, then in the National Labor Service, and finally as a volunteer in the German Army. In doing so, he was like millions of other young people of his era. Yet, like each of them, he wasn’t just another soldier, loyal to his country. He was Gerold Meyer – a name, a face, a life. So, this book is more than history, it is his story.

The efforts to display Gerold’s life in this work with his photographs and wartime diary are meant not only to add a common person’s experience to the historical record. They are also important in order to memorialize an individual who was a result of his times. As it should be for each of us, Gerold deserves to be remembered. Beginning with his parents’ generation, the stage was set for a series of acts that would come to affect him and the world. Thanks to the reader of this book for turning the pages of Gerold’s life and getting to know this son of Oldenburg.

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CHAPTER 1

Oldenburg and the Great War

1890s—1918

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the city of Oldenburg in northwestern Germany was a flourishing place of commerce and culture in a growing nation. The Grand Duchy of Oldenburg had joined with several independent states to form the North German Confederation in 1866 and the Deutsches Reich, the German Empire, in 1871. While this new Reich was a constitutional monarchy with the Kaiser as emperor, the people’s representatives in the Reichstag national assembly were granted minimal authority. By the 1890s, rapid industrialization and colonial expansion earned Germany its status as a prosperous economic and military power. In these auspicious circumstances was Georg Meyer born in Oldenburg on December 7, 1894. A few years later, Martha Epkes, who would become his future wife, was born there on January 8, 1899.

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City view of Oldenburg, Germany

As children during the early 1900s, they lived in a world dominated by the vast British Empire upon which the sun truly never set. Even after Queen Victoria’s death in 1901, her island kingdom ruled a global realm which reached to every continent. In a speech that same year, one of the late queen’s grandsons, Kaiser Wilhelm II, expressed the recent achievements of his ascendant Germany by declaring, We have conquered for ourselves a place in the sun. The Reich’s steady advances in manufacturing and trade had become real competition to British industry and markets. This rise in the German economy resulted in a growing middle class and the formation of large corporations, especially in steel and chemicals. These were critical factors in the expansion of Germany’s military, both on land and at sea, which would be able to meet any challenge, especially from Britain.

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Martha Epkes

In order to protect their divergent interests, the two rival empires joined with other European nations that were also attempting to expand their economies, influence and security. Germany allied itself with Austria-Hungary and Italy. The British desired to contain these Central Powers in the middle of Europe by forming the Triple Entente with France in the west and Russia in the east. Initially, these arrangements maintained a strategic balance promoting peace and stability. It was not appreciated how easily this system of alliances could become activated, almost automatically, to engage the whole continent and far-flung colonies in a modern war.

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Postage stamp with the British Empire in red

The key to opening a European cataclysm appeared one early summer day in 1914. On June 28, the heir to the imperial throne of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sofie were assassinated in Sarajevo. This city was the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina which Austria had acquired from the declining Ottoman Empire. The neighboring country of Serbia also claimed Bosnia as its own. Within weeks, an Austrian investigation determined that the murders had been a foreign plot directed by a secret group of Serbian nationalists. On July 23, Austria delivered to the Serbian government a series of demands to suppress violent subversive movements and radical propaganda. Serbia proudly responded by offering less than full cooperation and put its army on alert.

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Martha Epkes, (back row, second from left) Confirmation 1914

Events then began to move swiftly with the easiest part of a conflict its beginning. On July 28, Austria declared war on Serbia. The next day, Russia began to mobilize its military against Austria and, soon, on Germany as well. On August 1, Germany declared war on Russia and, on August 3, France. Britain, in support of its Triple Entente allies and in defense of neutral Belgium, entered hostilities on August 4 against Germany. Europe was at war. The relatively peaceful Victorian age of empires and colonization was coming to an end.

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Georg Meyer

In Oldenburg, the Kaiser’s subjects were swept into a nationalistic fervor of patriotism and defense of their Fatherland. One of Germany’s many army groups to be called to duty was the respected Oldenburg Infantry Regiment 91 which was on maneuvers that summer. The O.I.R. 91 traced its origins back to 1813 and the Napoleonic era. From 1893