When the war came to Denmark on April 9, 1940, Lieutenant Johannes Brennecke was serving as a professional officer in the Royal Danish Army in the 4th Artillery Battalion, 2nd Field Artillery Regiment, in Ringsted, Denmark.<\/p>\n
The advance of the German troops was met only with prepared exchanges of fire, and only on Zealand did fighting continue for two hours. Lieutenant Brennecke did not see action. <\/p>\n
Johannes Brennecke was born on November 20, 1911, as the eldest son of a convinced anti-communist, and followed the example of many of his countrymen by becoming a member of the National Socialist Workers’ Party of Denmark (DNSAP) on November 26, 1940. He was assigned membership number 37,386. <\/p>\n
In May 1941, a relatively large number of Danish professional officers volunteered for the Waffen-SS. The Danish lieutenants Brennecke and Batz were sent to Germany for retraining. <\/p>\n
After successfully completing his training, Johannes Brennecke was promoted to SS-Untersturmf\u00fchrer on June 27 and transferred to the SS Motorized Division “Wiking.” There, he served in the SS Artillery Regiment as an artillery officer, later as a battery commander, and finally in the 3rd Battery of the 1st Battalion under SS-Hauptsturmf\u00fchrer Hans B\u00fcnning. <\/p>\n
In Division “Wiking,” SS-Untersturmf\u00fchrer Brennecke often distinguished himself through his calm and precise manner, alongside some of the most respected officers such as SS-Sturmbannf\u00fchrer Wodschow, SS-Hauptsturmf\u00fchrer Christians Frederik von Schalburg, and SS-Hauptsturmf\u00fchrer Poul Rantzau Enghant.
He participated in many national events organized by the official DNSAP publications F\u00e6drelandet and Kamptegnet, and over time became one of their most prolific contributors. <\/p>\n
It was noteworthy that the young SS officer was greatly admired. “John” was described as a “blond, athletic, angel-like, and handsome German with an English accent,” even though at that time he had been living in the Finnish region above the Arctic Circle. <\/p>\n
The division consisted primarily of Germans and ethnic Germans from Southern Europe. In addition, it included the famous Norwegian SS Ski Jaeger Battalion, as well as several Norwegian SS police companies. <\/p>\n
His service as an officer in a mountain division in the harsh climate had made SS-Obersturmf\u00fchrer Brennecke a friend of the Finns, with particularly strong ties to the old royal city of Viborg.<\/p>\n
In the spring of 1944, SS-Obersturmf\u00fchrer Brennecke was transferred to SS Artillery Regiment 11 of the SS Panzer Grenadier Division “Nordland” in the area around Narva. There, he served as the regiment’s combat officer in the III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps at Narva and in the Blue Hills. <\/p>\n
In the autumn of 1944, he was once again in Munich. There, he served with the SS Artillery Replacement Regiment, where he was also promoted to SS-Hauptsturmf\u00fchrer. <\/p>\n
In the final phase of the war, he was assigned to SS Artillery Regiment 11, where he took part in the defense of Berlin.<\/p>\n
On May 1, 1945, Johannes Brennecke attempted to gain entry to the Danish Embassy in Berlin. However, he was turned away by the ambassador. <\/p>\n
On May 2, 1945, he was struck by a Russian artillery shell explosion at the bridgehead in Berlin and died shortly afterward. Whether he was killed by Russian shell fragments or by one of his own companions was never established. <\/p>\n
His honour is called loyalty.<\/p>\n
The Danish SS-Hauptsturmf\u00fchrer Johannes Brennecke, shown here on home leave in 1942 as an SS-Obersturmf\u00fchrer.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2850,"template":"","personer":[111],"class_list":["post-2848","litteratur_og_kilder","type-litteratur_og_kilder","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","personer-johannes-brennecke"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/litteratur_og_kilder\/2848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/litteratur_og_kilder"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/litteratur_og_kilder"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"personer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/personer?post=2848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}