Bruno Ernst Buchrucker (5 January 1878 in Bad Sobernheim, German Empire – 19 February 1966 in Bad Godesberg near Bonn, West Germany) was a German military officer known for leading the 1923 Küstrin Putsch.
Military career Buchrucker became an officer in the Prussian Army on 20 July 1897 and was assigned to its General Staff in April 1909.Bernhard Sauer: Schwarze Reichswehr und Fememorde. Eine Milieustudie zum Rechtsradikalismus in der Weimarer Republik. Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-936411-06-9, p. 48. On 20 March 1911 he was promoted to captain and became head of a company of infantry stationed in Alsace–Lorraine, which had been annexed from France by Germany in 1871 as a result of the Franco-Prussian War.Rangliste der Königlich Preußischen Armee und des XIII. (Königlich Württembergischen) Armeekorps für 1914. Hrsg.: Kriegsministerium, E.S. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1914, p. 272. In December 1913, he witnessed the Zabern Affair in the course of which officers of the regiment seized civil power, and the military acted with disproportionate severity against the local population for protesting insulting remarks made by a German officer. To defuse tension during the conflict, Buchrucker's unit was withdrawn from Saverne (German: Zabern) and temporarily relocated to Bitsch, also in Alsace–Lorraine. Buchrucker returned to his regular position in April 1914.
At the beginning of the First World War, he was assigned as a staff officer to the XIV Reserve CorpsJanet & Joe Robinson: Handbook of Imperial Germany. Bloomington (Indiana) 2009, p. 288. which initially operated in Alsace but was soon moved to the Somme. During the course of the war, he was employed in various general staff positions, and he was promoted to major on 22 March 1916 "after rigorous combat leadership".Kurzbiografie Ernst Buchrucker, in: Lausitzer Rundschau, 3. Januar 2008, accessed 15 April 2017. After the end of the war, Buchrucker led the 1st Battalion of the Freikorps in the Baltic, an anticommunist paramilitary unit that fought in the Baltic states. When he returned to Germany, he was accepted into the provisional Reichswehr, the precursor of Germany's official army during the Weimar Republic.
Kapp Putsch in Cottbus
As garrison commander in Cottbus, Buchrucker supported the March 1920 Kapp Putsch against the German government.Erwin Könnemann (Hrsg.): Der Kapp-Lüttwitz-Ludendorff-Putsch. Dokumente. Olzog, München 2001, ISBN 3-7892-9355-5, abgedruckten Zeitungsberichte: Nr. 517: Die „Märkische Volksstimme“ (SPD) über Blutopfer in Cottbus am 15. März 1920. Cottbus, 16. März 1920. Nr. 521: Bekanntmachung des Garnisonsältesten von Cottbus, 17. März 1920. Abgedruckt im Cottbuser Anzeiger vom 19. März 1920, unterzeichnet von Buchrucker. Nr. 527: Auszug aus der „Märkischen Volksstimme“ (SPD) über die Kämpfe der Niederlausitzer Arbeiterwehren. Cottbus, 21. März 1920 On 13 March mutinous troops occupied the Berlin government district and the Reich government fled to Stuttgart via Dresden. Buchrucker banned demonstrations and rallies in Cottbus and took over executive power. In response to the general strike, which the Majority Social Democratic Party (MSPD) government and trade unions called to protest the putsch, he used posters that promised, "Protection for those willing to work!" As Reichswehr patrols encountered resistance on 15 March, they, at Buchrucker's instigation,Könnemann, Putsch, Fußnote zu Dokument 517, p. 795. fired with machine guns at a fleeing crowd. Four people died and five were seriously wounded. Meanwhile, Reichswehr troops broke into the printing house of the newspaper Freier Volkswille belonging to the more radical Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) and destroyed its high-speed printing presses with hand grenades.
On 16 March, fights that claimed additional victims developed on the outskirts of Cottbus between the Reichswehr and workers from Niederlausitz. "Large gatherings... brought a tremendously enthusiastic crowd together. The decision was made to set up a Red Guard, the ruler of Cottbus then forbade any gathering with instructions to disperse every crowd with rifle fire" – so said the social democratic "Märkische Volksstimme" on 21 March.Märkische Volksstimme vom 21. März 1920, quoted from Könnemann, Putsch, Dokument 527, p. 803. On 17 March a social democratic delegation tried to negotiate with Buchrucker. According to information from a deputy who took part, Buchrucker uttered sentiments such as "My comparison is the murder weapon. The more of the rabble I gun down, the better I like it". "This red army consists of criminals and bushwhackers, shooting is the radical remedy". "I'll let every picketer be shot point blank".Könnemann, Putsch, Fußnote zu Dokument 527, p. 803. On 18 and 19 March, the fighting was concentrated in the Sandow district of Cottbus. Given the resistance and the failure of the Kapp Putsch in Berlin on 17 March, Buchrucker publicly announced the lifting of his extraordinary measures and his resignation of executive power in Cottbus. His unit was temporarily relocated to Vetschau.Könnemann, Putsch, Fußnote zu Dokument 527, p. 805.
Buchrucker was dismissed from the Reichswehr in September 1920. He was one of the few Reichswehr officers to be dismissed as a result of his behavior during the Kapp Putsch.Sauer, Reichswehr, p. 48. See also: Emil Julius Gumbel: Verschwörer. Beiträge zur Geschichte und Soziologie der deutschen nationalistischen Geheimbünde seit 1918. Malik-Verlag, Wien, 1924, p. 41. (Reprint im Verlag Das Wunderhorn, Heidelberg 1979, ISBN 3-88423-003-4)
In May 1921, Buchrucker headed a supply centre in Cottbus for the Freikorps fighting in the Silesian Uprisings.Irmela Nagel: Fememorde und Fememordprozesse in der Weimarer Republik. Böhlau-Verlag, Köln 1991, ISBN 3-412-06290-1, p. 35 He and his longtime friend Wilhelm von Oppen were the leading functionaries of the Brandenburg homeland association (Heimatbund).Sauer, Reichswehr, p. 32. The homeland associations were successor organisation to the civil guards (Einwohnerwehren) that had been dissolved on 8 April 1920 under pressure from the Entente Powers. Buchrucker also maintained contacts with Gerhard Roßbach and his officially-dissolved Freikorps, whose members were disguised on agricultural estates in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg and Pomerania.Bernd Kruppa: Rechtsradikalismus in Berlin 1918–1928. Overall, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-925961-00-3, p. 177.
Black Reichswehr
In the summer of 1921, Buchrucker was employed by Military District III of the Reichswehr under a private service contract.Nagel, Fememorde, p. 39f. Subordinate to Fedor von Bock, Buchrucker was in command of the so-called labor commandos (Arbeitskommandos), whose official role was defined by Defense Minister Otto Geßler in 1926 to be the "clearing up, sorting out and destruction of the countless pieces of war equipment scattered and hidden, especially in the area of Berlin, the Ostmark, and Silesia". In addition, according to Geßler, "a kind of refuge for the forces that had become rootless as a result of the dissolution of the Freikorps and the self-protection units (Selbstschutz) of Upper Silesia" should be created. By the summer of 1923 – contrary to the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles which limited the size of German's armed forces – a Black Reichswehr was established with a permanent base of 2,000 men and an additional 18,000 men in quick response units. The latter came predominantly from nationalist associations and had received military training in four to six-week courses.Sauer, Reichswehr, p. 50.
Within the Black Reichswehr, which was kept secret, Buchrucker was responsible for organisation and management. His most important colleague was Paul Schulz, who had been in the same Freikorps as Buchrucker in 1919 and had worked with him to support the Freikorps in Upper Silesia in 1921. Buchrucker dealt with political questions, and Schulz was considered the "head of it all".Sauer, Reichswehr, p. 48.
In an atmosphere, which, according to Buchrucker's later statements,Sauer, Reichswehr, pp. 70f. was characterised on the part of the responsible Reichswehr officers by internal agreement but rejection of official responsibility, the size of the labor commandos was expanded beyond what had been intended and military exercises unnecessary for their original purpose were held. At the end of September 1923, higher-ranking offices of the Reichswehr noticed the large size of the commandos. Buchrucker was taken to task and admitted that he had made budgetary adjustments to the troops on his own initiative with the idea of creating help for the Reichswehr in the event of a communist uprising, which he expected immediately. He promised to reduce the reinforcements, but for Reichswehr Minister Geßler, "faith in the reliability of Major (ret.) Buchrucker [...] was shaken",Denkschrift des Reichswehrministers vom 2. März 1926 beim Bundesarchiv. and he ordered the arrest of Buchrucker and Schulz.
Küstrin Putsch
The Küstrin Putsch, also known as the Buchrucker Putsch, was prompted by anger over the Reich government's decision to call an end to passive resistance to the French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr, the Reichswehr's order to disband the labor commandos, and the arrest warrant against Buchrucker for misuse of the labor commandos. According to his own account, Buchrucker learned of the warrant on 30 September 1923 in Berlin, drove to Küstrin and ordered for the labor commandos housed in the outer part of the Küstrin Fortress to move into the fortress in the Old Town of Küstrin on the morning of 1 October 1923.Sauer, Reichswehr, pp. 57ff. The putsch began with a speech by Buchrucker in front of the labor commandos that, according to statements at his trial from some who heard it, was barely comprehensible:
"He started to speak, produced sounds, lined up the words senselessly, emphasized incorrectly and gesticulated. Nobody knew what the accused [Buchrucker] wanted to say".Sauer, Reichswehr, p. 58.
Buchrucker then went to the fortress commander Colonel Gudowius, pointed out the superior strength of his units and told him that he should not stand in his way and that the great national moment had now come. He also declared that he would strike in Küstrin but everywhere else at the same time. The commandant refused to join Buchrucker, even after several officers who supported him forcibly entered the office. When asked for instructions by his subordinates, Buchrucker could not to give any. This prompted some of them to put themselves under Gudowius's command. Later that day, a regular Reichswehr unit, which had been summoned to Küstrin, fired on a group of Black Reichswehr labor commandos, killing one and wounding seven others.
Between 22 and 27 October 1923, the trial of 14 people arrested in Küstrin took place before an extraordinary court in Cottbus.Sauer, Reichswehr, pp. 61ff. Buchrucker was sentenced to ten years imprisonment and a fine of ten gold marks for perpetrating high treason. He had declared in court that he had wanted only to put pressure on the Reichswehr Minister to have the arrest warrant against him withdrawn. That was in the interests of the state, he said, because there were "daredevils" in the ranks of the labor commandos from whom violence was to be feared if he was arrested. The court did not accept his account. According to the reasons given for the verdict, there were sufficient indications that "the events in Küstrin were indeed only part of a large-scale enterprise".Sauer, Reichswehr, p. 62. Buchrucker's overall efforts and his one-hour period of indecision were indications that he had more serious decisions that he needed to consider. It was thought that Buchrucker had also assumed that the Reichswehr would join him or remain neutral. He was given amnesty in October 1927 on the 80th birthday of President Paul von Hindenburg.Nagel, Fememorde, p. 326.