Talk:Julius Ringel

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Can anyone add anything about the murder of civilians by Ringel's troops in Crete?

Regarding some other problems:

The part on his past in the Austrian Army is not correct and not complete:

1. At the outbreak of World War I his regiment was "Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 27". First in 1917 it was renamed "Gebirgs-Schützen-Regiment Nr. 2".

2. In the Federal Army of the first Republik of Austria there existed no "Gebirgsjäger-Brigade". "Gebirgsjäger" is a German miliary term, not an Austrian. The correct Austrian term ist "Alpenjäger", but this term was only in use for regiments and battalions. The name of Ringel's brigade was simply "5th Brigade".

3.Ringel was not only a "supporter" of the Nazi Party. During the time of his military service he joined - treacherously and against his military oath - the secret illegal "Nationalsozialistischer Soldatenring" and moreover in 1937 he became a "Führer" of the "Gaugruppe Süd" (Regional Group South) of this Nazi society. The widow of his division commander told that at the eve of the German occupation of Austria on March 11th he tried to arrest her husband, Ringel's military superior, with drawn gun. Otherwise there is no known negative evidence in this connection.

Ringel was doubtless a good professional officer and many of his comrades, even some who were dismissed or arrested in 1938 testified in his favour. The proceedings against him on high treason were dismissed 1955 on account of lack of evidence. But the facts specified in para. 3 should not be completely held back in a Wikipedia biography.

An interesting and rather unbiased source in this matter is: Marcel Stein, Österreichs Generale im Deutschen Heer 1938 - 1945, Bissendorf 2002, page 297 - 303 --Carlos Mayor (talk) 18:32, 26 February 2009 (UTC)