Hans Lepperdinger

Hans Lepperdinger (* 29 June 1905, † 30 March 1984) was Colonel of the Wehrmacht in the Second World War and last combat commander in Salzburg. On May 4, 1945, he surrendered the city without a fight to the Americans, contrary to the order to defend them under all circumstances. The Americans let Lepperdinger know what had happened, he would have obeyed the General's command: 200 bombers were ready to bombard Salzburg on that day. The reason: for the Americans, Salzburg was the key town of the legendary Alpine fortress of the Wehrmacht. Lepperdinger's staff had also been assigned to two Salzburgers: Captain Norbert Nürnberger and Lieutenant Wolfgang Exner. They stood unconditionally behind the Colonel and risked their lives like this in order to save Salzburg from widespread destruction.

Already in the late evening of May 3, Lepperdinger had prevented SS units from breaking the bridges. The SS people joined, although an entire SS battalion was stationed in Glasenbach.

Lepperdinger took leave of the Salzburgers on the radio in the morning hours of May 4: "Salzburg! I do it for you, is unconditional to me. It is also all my officers and the entire police. "

Lepperdinger, from Aubing near Munich, remained connected Salzburg. On all the rounds of his courageous deed, he returned to Salzburg and met his old comrades in a wine cellar in the Toscaninihof, his former commando bunker. Honors Edit the source text

Salzburg thanked Hans Lepperdinger not with a monument, as was often demanded, but with the award of the honorary citizenship. He died in 1984. The town dedicated him an Ehrengrab at the Kommunalfriedhof.

But not only the city of Salzburg, Lepperdingers thought. The street in the Salzburg suburb of Wals-Siezenheim, where the new football stadium of the state capital is located, is named after the colonel. This was not the first appreciation Lepperdinger experienced in this neighboring community of Salzburg. In his first meeting after the war, and thus even before the Salzburgers, the town council had given him honorary citizenship.

Hans Lepperdinger spent his life in Marquartstein, Bavaria. Weblinks Edit sourcetext

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