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KM/WH Soldbuch 212VGD

Peter U

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Staff member
The weather isn't great today, so a perfect day to write another Soldbuch thread.

Hans Mauckner (°1926) a bricklayer from Uffenheim was drafted in to the army in July 1944, he was assigned to the Kriegsmarine and joined the 1/21 Schiffstammabteilung which was based in Leba in Pomerania, it was unit that gave basic training to sailors.
At the end of September 1944 the Wehrmacht is desperately searching for new soldiers to replace those lost in the debacles of the summer of 1944; Hans Mauckner is one of the many KM sailors that is transferred to the WH in this period.
On September 25 1944 he returns his blue and field grey KM uniforms and then joins the staff company of Grenadier Regiment 423 in Schieradz, in this Polish town the 212 Volksgrenadier Division is being build from the remainders of the 212ID and new recruits, many of them former KM sailors.
In early November they depart for the western front, towards the Westwall across Echternach in Luxemburg; it is in this period that he is issued a MP44, entered in his Soldbuch with the odd abbreviation M.K.P.44.
As part of the 7th Army they have to secure the southern flank in the Ardennes offensive, but their advance is almost immediately halted by US Army units (9 Armoured - & 4 Infantry Division).
Echternach is a hikers paradise and nicknamed "little Switzerland" this says a lot about the terrain in which they tried to advance in bad winter conditions.
After Christmas the US Army takes back the terrain it lost in this sector of the Ardennes and pushes back the 212VGD units to their starting positions.
It is in this period that Hans Mauckner is taken POW, you can see his POW serial number on the bottom of page 2 of the Soldbuch; his company commander writes a letter to his father on February 12 1945 to inform that his son is MIA since they were pushed out of Berdorf a small village just west of Echternach.
 

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Thanks Peter, for another interesting read. Do you know what became of him after his release from the POW camp?
 
Thanks Peter, for another interesting read. Do you know what became of him after his release from the POW camp?

Thanks, I have no clue about what happened to him after the war but I presume being a bricklayer he would have had lots of work in the post war years.
 
Thanks, I have no clue about what happened to him after the war but I presume being a bricklayer he would have had lots of work in the post war years.

Uffenheim is not far from my hometown and I researched a bit.

Found one website, where Hans Mauckner from Uffenheim is listed as MIA. But there are also evidence that Hans Mauckner is still alive and lives in a small village near Uffenheim.
If I can find out more, I'll let you know.
 
Hilarious observation, - and very true... he probably didn't starve like most Germans did 1945-1948, where most couldn't find a job that didn't involve hard labor and starvation rations (the average caloric intake was just over 1000, and that was with $500,000,000 of "reluctant" aid from Congress... in no small measure because of the 8 million ethnic Germans Stalin dumped on western Germany, the ones he didn't murder outright...); but thanks to the North Koreans, salvation was only 5 years away. Who could have imagined that the North Koreans would be the saviors of Germany, both east and west, - they, the Germans became the indispensable pawn everyone wanted in the new Cold War and soon west Germans would be eating better than their "conquerors", so much so the English occupation forces complained about it in the early 1950's.

Considering the fact that few educated men could actually work in a profession, almost every one (educated) was classified as a "nazi", and most couldn't work anywhere near government or teaching, not before 1948 anyway, this brick layer was probably as fortunate as a man got in 1946 Germany, they and coal/steel workers.

Oh, and excellent work on the story of this man.

Thanks, I have no clue about what happened to him after the war but I presume being a bricklayer he would have had lots of work in the post war years.
 
Uffenheim is not far from my hometown and I researched a bit.

Found one website, where Hans Mauckner from Uffenheim is listed as MIA. But there are also evidence that Hans Mauckner is still alive and lives in a small village near Uffenheim.
If I can find out more, I'll let you know.


I hope there is an update and it is him!
 
But there are also evidence that Hans Mauckner is still alive and lives in a small village near Uffenheim.
If I can find out more, I'll let you know.

Some days ago I met Hans Mauckner, but it was not the same one as from the SB. He was born in 1929 and did not serve with the Wehrmacht.
Today I got a call from the administration office of the protestant church in Uffenheim. They told me that Hans Mauckner is still listed as MIA. No other family members listed in their files.
Sorry!


PS:
The lady on the phone told me that there is only one Hans Mauckner born 12.3.26 listed in their files. His true first name was Johannes. With his protestant confirmation in 1940 they lost track of him. No further records.
 
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According to the FP.-Nr. 20045 A (letter), Hans Mauckner was in the 14th company, Grenadier Regiment 423 when he was MIA.
The post war tracing service of the German Red Cross does not list him for that unit as MIA anymore.
Very strange, because on this memorial he is still listed as MIA.
http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/2014/...der-aisch-bad-windsheim_1870_wk1_wk2_bay.html

Hope this link works for the DRK search site.
http://193.159.223.62:8081/vbl/Truppenanschrift-Heer/TA_H.aspx

@ Peter U: Thanks for all the documents and your work!
 
great work

According to the FP.-Nr. 20045 A (letter), Hans Mauckner was in the 14th company, Grenadier Regiment 423 when he was MIA.
The post war tracing service of the German Red Cross does not list him for that unit as MIA anymore.
Very strange, because on this memorial he is still listed as MIA.
http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/2014/...der-aisch-bad-windsheim_1870_wk1_wk2_bay.html

Hope this link works for the DRK search site.
http://193.159.223.62:8081/vbl/Truppenanschrift-Heer/TA_H.aspx

@ Peter U: Thanks for all the documents and your work!

It is amazing how millions of people simply ceased to exist and no record of what happened... Is there a way to find out his home address before the war ?
 
According to the FP.-Nr. 20045 A (letter), Hans Mauckner was in the 14th company, Grenadier Regiment 423 when he was MIA.
The post war tracing service of the German Red Cross does not list him for that unit as MIA anymore.
Very strange, because on this memorial he is still listed as MIA.
http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/2014/...der-aisch-bad-windsheim_1870_wk1_wk2_bay.html

Hope this link works for the DRK search site.
http://193.159.223.62:8081/vbl/Truppenanschrift-Heer/TA_H.aspx

@ Peter U: Thanks for all the documents and your work!


Hello Amberg,

Would it be another Hans Mauckner on the Offenheim city memorial?
He was taken POW by the US Army and he sure was able to contact his family through the IRC with the typical "I'am taken POW"- postcard.
Some names are very common in certain villages.


Cheers,
Peter
 
It is amazing how millions of people simply ceased to exist and no record of what happened... Is there a way to find out his home address before the war ?


Yes, his war time address is in the Soldbuch, I never post those pages in my threads.
 
Would it be another Hans Mauckner on the Offenheim city memorial?
Some names are very common in certain villages.

Hello Peter,

No, I don't think so.
There is no other Hans Mauckner listed in the birth records of the protestant church for this period/city. Or anything similar.
The strange thing is that his christian name was Johannes, not Hans as in the Soldbuch.
If I can find out more, I'll let you know.
Thanks
Wolfgang
 
Had a short stop at the war memorial in Uffenheim today.
 

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Hello Peter,

No, I don't think so.
There is no other Hans Mauckner listed in the birth records of the protestant church for this period/city. Or anything similar.
The strange thing is that his christian name was Johannes, not Hans as in the Soldbuch.
If I can find out more, I'll let you know.
Thanks
Wolfgang

Neat investigative work you're doing! I'm continually surprised by how inconsistent German authorities were with full names and common nicknames. If searching for war graves or WWI Verlustlisten, it's always a matter of searching for both "Fritz" and "Friedrich," etc.
 

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