Siegfried Müller (mercenary)

Siegfried Friedrich Heinrich Müller (26 October 1920 – 17 April 1983) often called Kongo-Müller was a former German Wehrmacht officer-candidate who fought as a mercenary under Major Mike Hoare in the Congo Crisis.

Biography

Siegfried Müller was born in Crossen an der Oder, Germany (modern Krosno Odrzańskie, Poland) in 1920. After Hitler Youth and Reich Labour Service, Müller joined the Wehrmacht in 1939, fighting in the campaigns in Poland, France, and on the Russian Front. He claimed to have held the rank of First lieutenant by the end of the war, but this has not been verified. He was seriously wounded and captured by the Americans.

Released in 1947, he enlisted in the US Army Civilian Labor Group (CLG), an American Labor Service Unit of Germans; then became a Lieutenant in a CLG security unit. He was denied entry to the Bundeswehr in 1956, but found employment with British Petroleum, clearing mines planted by the Afrika Korps in the Sahara Desert during World War II.

Müller emigrated to the Republic of South Africa in 1962 and was recruited as a mercenary with the rank of Lieutenant for the Congo Crisis in 1964. At 44, Müller was the oldest of Mike Hoare's soldiers.[1] He was promoted to Captain after a successful operation to seize Albertville (now Kalemie) and led 52 Commando, a sub unit of No 5 Commando comprising approximately 50 soldiers. He was later promoted to Major. The activities of the mercenaries in the Congo are thought to have largely contributed to the predominantly negative connotation of the term 'mercenary' in contemporary debates, remaining deeply associated with arbitrary violence and killings, lack of transparency and absence of patriotic motivation, instead focusing solely on money. [2] Many pictures show Müller wearing his Iron Cross, a former military decoration which - established by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia in 1813 - in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945).

He died in Boksburg, Gauteng suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa of stomach cancer in April 1983.[3]

Major Müller wore his World War II Iron Cross First Class on his operations in the Congo, which attracted the attention of journalists from Time magazine[4] and Der Spiegel. Admitting that he had had too much to drink, Müller was interviewed by a GDR film crew for the 1966 documentary Der lachende Mann – Bekenntnisse eines Mörders. Müller also appeared in the film Africa Addio, Mal d'Africa and in the 1965 East German documentary Kommando 52.[5]


References
  1. "''Der "Kongo-Müller" und das "Kommando 52"''". Kriegsreisende.de. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  2. Bunnenberg, C. (2006): Der "Kongo-Müller": Eine deutsche Söldnerkarriere. Münster: Lit Verlag.
  3. p.23 Chiari, Bernhard & Kollner, Dieter H A Concise Guide to the History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Military History Research Institute
  4. "Moise's Black Magic". TIME. 1965-02-19. Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  5. Kommando 52 (1965)
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