Articles about the spanish civil war (in german)

[Käpt'n Korky]

First off apologies, but I really don't have the time to translate all of this. Use google translate and search for names and places you can find in the text if you're stuck.

I come up with this thread, because I found them searching for "him", mentioned by Canarias in the recent Update.

The first, short article is about the sinking of the Baleares. It's from 2017 and mentions as an introduction a memorial everyone knows who ever visited Palma de Mallorce for more than a day. It remembers the fallen sailors from the battle of Cabo Palos, where Canarias had to witness the sinking of the Baleares. The article mentions the move of the local opposition parties to remove the memorial. I don't know if they suceeded. Maybe @Dmnt knows more?
Then it moves on to it's main story: The presence of the german engineer Jensen. He was part of the Legion Condor, but a civil engineer. A fact the article uses to explain, that Legion Condor was not entirely made up by the Luftwaffe or even soldiers, but by civilians too. The maritime forces of Legion Condor had the codename "Nordsee". "Nordsee", according to the article build a military base on Mallorca which is used to this day. The engineer was deployed to install a newly designed german sonar system, which needed some "practical exercise". Well it didn't hear republican destroyers and the sonar section of the Baleares was entirely destroyed by the explosion of the ship, so Jensen was declared dead. His body never to be found, natürlich.

The second, much longer article is about the civil war inside the civil war on republican side. The article is from 1986(!) and describes how Stalin messed up the republican forces with his influence over them. How the communists divided the republican movement and overtook it with force and terror. How the anarchists harrased their own people by literally not listening, but talking into telephone calls. How Barcelona was home of a dreaded torture prison - in a Hotel. How the left fought against itself as a civil war inside a civil war. And of course it metions a lot of famous spanish, russian and of course german names. It tells a bit of what they did or how they reacted. How a later chancellor of the federal republic of germany resignated and got away from the fights to talk about the madness in his refuge in Paris. How the republic suddenly introduced a pay of 100psts to generals, but cut the pay for the common soldier from 10 to 7. 
in the second part the article talks about Legion Condor. How the germans wanted to repay the rapublic for beating the italian fascists and transformed the town of Durango into ruins with 300 dead and 2500 wounded. (Durango had 8.800 inhabitants prior to the attack) How the soldiers of Legion Condor kept to themselves, unlike the italians. 
 

Spoiler

Quote of a german soldier: "No contact with the locals, aside from the brothel."

The article gives examples of various sources about the Legion Condor. How all the soldiers were exchanged after 6-9 months to train as much pilots and personnel as possible. How germany tested new weapons and bombs or the general in command von Richthofen demanded to use his forces "with no regard of civilians". And how all of this lead up to Guernica and how proud the Legion command was of that bombing. While the world was horrified by it. How Condor helped to crack the Bilbao defenses and how they conquered Asturia, reinforced by the italians. And how they did very systematical research of technical equipment, tactics and strategies. How the republican army became the guinea pig of the german army. And how the Führer nearly gave el Caudillo more help than wanted. The neutrality fleet ships (you might have heard of them if you actually read the VB updates) of germany and italy of all nations guarded the republican  coast in the mediterranean. And the german ship "Deutschland" was mistaken for Canarias by spanish republican bomber pilots. So Hitler was mad about that attack and wanted to declare war on the republic but was "talked into" just retaliation by bombarding Almeria with ships. And the republic thought "wouldn't it be great to have an international conflict in which we will win with the help of our mighty allies UK and USSR?" Well the Stalin said njet and they didn't do it. Franco was happy, won the war and kept neutral when all hell broke loose in autumn 1939. 

Then the article talks about the brutal fight of Madrid and how Legion Condor finally got air supremacy. And it continues with a long lists of battles and atrocities on both sides. In between it make "honorable mentions". interesting details like the war legend "Campesino" (farmer), who was definitively a man, so probably not who Canarias is looking for? Although he was declared dead twice and his unit once lost 90% of it's men.... but not him. Then mentions how the italians "got back" in the fight by bombing Barcelona. They never really left btw. And if you need a Mussolini quote "Italians finally spread fear by their aggressiveness, instead of provoking a favor as a mandolin player". And how, when all was lost the republicans reached a lift of the weapons embargo and got supplies via France. How that nearly turned the tide against the surprised spanish fascists who were, according to the article, saved by grim italians and, of course, even fiercer germans who stopped the newly equipped republic for Franco and allowed him to get a mad amount of supplies by germany and italy. And how the republic was beaten by this at the river Ebro and the weapons embargo was reinstalled. And the League of nations demanded all "foreign fighters" to be withdrawn. And they withdrew. Two italian divisions "nobody missed" (unnamed german member of Legion Condor) were withdrawn and the republic disbanded the international brigades. Who made up a good part of it's fighting power. 20000 foreigners stayed forever, dead, on spanish soil. Of the remaining 12000 foreigners, about 6000 from all over the world left spain..... and the remaining 6000? They had nowhere to go. They were from countries ruled by fascists and died in the last battles or were interned by France and later send into the concentration camps of nazi-germany. And only a few, very few made it to Moscow. And even fewer survived that. (But the germans who did became mighty figures in the german democratic republic).

In the last part the article describes how Franco then mopped up the remains of the republic. And how it triggered a big refugee movement out of spain into france, belgium and other countries. How a part of the republic fought on in the hope(!) for a world war(!!!) n which the republic would survive at the side of the allies. They missed it closely by a few months. The republican forces were demoralised and the fascists just took what was badly or even undefended. Madrid fell nearly without a fight. And after the victory Franco took brutal revenge on that part of Spain which had fought him. And the article ends with the words of Franco, receiving the message of his victory, saying: "Very good. Thank you." to the messenger.

That's it.

Please note everything I wrote is not my research but just me describing the content of the articles from 2006 and 1986 respectively.

Te leeré mañana, Korky

[Ninjapacman]

That was an incredible read, full of excellent information.  Great find, Korky.  If only I could read German...

[Dmnt]

I'll try to read the articles (with Google translate, of course) when I have time.

As for now, on the monument to the fallen of the Baleares, it is still standing. Those parties on the opposition that were pushing for its removal, right now are the parties in power, with the current opposition desperately trying to save it. At 2010, all fascist symbols were removed, abiding by the Ley de Memoria Histórica, which was approved at 2007. Right now, it is cataloged as "not protected", and it is planned to be demolished in the near future, unless something changes(which is unlikely), of course.