The Journal of Neuroscience 33(3): 902-5, Jan 2013 Notes: Joesch M and Weber F are co-first authors. Without making specific promises, he offered salvation. However, he was never caught and lived a relatively peaceful life until his death in 1964. The interrogation was watched by a third man, who eventually took Mayer to the house of Franz Hofer, the local Gauleiter [Nazi Party boss]. Most of SIs missions had been failures with the operatives either killed or shipped off to concentration camps. "We all sat around and everybody had their scripts and lines," Roth said. World War II: Summary, Combatants & Facts - HISTORY Franz Weber was born on March 24, 1888 in Haspe, Germany. Here is the short version: two Jewish refugees to the United States, living in Brooklyn (Frederick Mayer, 23, and Hans Wijnberg, 22) enlist in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the postwar CIA, and parachute deep behind German lines into the Austrian province of Tyrol in February 1945. At the start of 1945, Mayer was a highly trained agent for the Secret Intelligence division of the OSS and became the leader of the Operation Greenup. In a scene that could have been ripped from the movie Where Eagles Dare, the team, clad in white ski parkas, parachuted onto the side of a 9,000-foot glacier. And 15 Other Iconic Lines From Tarantino's Films, The Real-Life Django Who Rebelled Against Slavery And No One Talks About Enough, 10 Lessons We Learned From The Bad-Ass Women In Tarantino's Universe, Olympe de Gouges, the Precursor of Feminism that Was Persecuted During the French Revolution. Bursting through the door and into the room, a dozen Gestapo agents, armed with MP-40 machine pistols, quickly surrounded and apprehended Mayer. Log In. He found and recruited deserter-volunteer, Franz Weber. But after several weeks behind enemy lines that provided reams of actionable intelligence, a knock on the door of Mayers safe house changed his life. M7/99 Franz Weinrank, Wien M7/100 Franz Pils & Sobn, Wien M7/101 Fritz Weber, Wien M7/102 Franz Pils & Sohn, Steinbach am St. M7/103 Josef Hack, Steyr M7/104 Ludwig Zeitler, Wien M7/105 Rudolf Wurzer, St. Christophen M7/106 Georg Kerschbaumer, Steinbach an der Steyr M7/108 Karl Oschmann & Co., Brotterode i. Th. His parents and younger brotherwere all murdered in the Holocaust. Birth, Baptism & Christening. Feigning the role of a captured German POW, Fred entered a camp and networked within its gates. When he realised for certain that his prisoner was an American officer, he had Mayer cleaned up, dressed, and fed. RecPak is a meal replacement for the outdoors that saves you weight, space and time in the most challenging environments, just add water. Do you want to create your own battlefield tour to sights of wars from the past? Unlike the strange and often idiotic Tarantinos movie, however, the truth was far more bizarre. The Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) in the European Theater was one of Americas bloodiest campaigns. Like many other Germans by the end of the war, Hofer was looking for a safeguard with the Allies to secure his own freedom. 2" caused serious injuries to Uma Thurman (Thurman has forgiven Tarantino). In April, Mayers superiors needed info on an underground factory that made jet engines. United States. In an article about the film in The Guardian, Tarantino is quoted as refusing to explain the "u" in "Inglourious" but does explain the "e" in "Basterds": "That's just the way you say it: basterds.". It was the scariest part of the entire mission.. The trio got off at the town of Oberperfuss near Innsbruck and split up. Do you have more information about this person? It was the perfect opportunity to kill Nazis, which was the reason many Jewish boys joined. Later, West learned that Mayer was a sergeant. One of the OSS men chosen for this mission was Frederick Mayer. One of the mainsprings of the group spoke eight different languages, had fought and escaped from the French Legion, and had previously worked as a matre d at the Copacabana nightclub. . You had to go on and on and on about your backstory. Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, Franz Weber, Inc. is a sports management and consulting company founded in 1984 by Franz Weber and his wife Janett. When youre a World War II hero, you can do whatever the hell you want. By this time Hofer, like many Nazis, realised that the war was lost and was interested only in surrendering to the Western Allies rather than the Soviets. The campaign in North Africa began with a daring Anglo-American commando raid code-named Operation RESERVIST. Over 16.5 million men and women served in the armed forces during World War II, of whom 291,557 died in battle, 113,842 died from other causes, and 670,846 were wounded. The "Inglourious Basterds" screenplay was a particular challenge both to write and to edit down into a workable feature. The Nazi governor wined and dined his Jewish captive, then explained that he wanted to surrender but not to the Soviets. It added in one two-minute scene where the Basterds and Lt. Archie Hicox prepare for the rendezvous in the La Louisiana tavern, as well as a brief joke involving Joseph Goebbels having sex with his translator, while making around a minute's worth of small trims and adjustments for pacing elsewhere in the film. He was imprisoned and tortured. Their task was to penetrate one of the most secured areas of the Third Reich, an area of Austria near Innsbruck, where Nazis reportedly had been fortifying and massing vast quantities of troops and supplies. During World War II, the OSS twice nominated Fred Mayer for the Medal of Honor. Though it turned out to be a myth created by fanatical Nazis, the Allies couldnt have known that at the time. Ulmer asked them if they knew what would befall them if they were caught by the Nazis. Feeling he had achieved his speed skiing goals, Franz permanently retired from the sport following the 1992 Olympics. son. The story of Operational Greenup deserves greater attention than it has received. Franz WEBER | Extraordinarius | Prof. Dr. rer nat. | University of There are a few different reasons people have speculated on. Bahnhofplatz 9. Mayer convinced Hofer the war was over. September 1734 in Zell im Wiesental; 16. Dulles cabled OSS HQs in Italy, Fred Mayer reports he is in Gestapo hands but cabled Dont worry about me, Im really not bad off a remarkable message considering that it was coming from a Jew. Inhibition of osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption by N-methylpyrrolidone. . Tarantino is also dyslexic, and Scott Meyers of the screenwriting website The Black List speculated that the unique spelling of the title is a tribute to Tarantino's general way of writing. Hotels near Franz Carl Weber Geneva: (0.04 mi) Htel de la Cigogne (0.10 mi) CitizenM Geneva Centre (0.09 mi) Bel'Esperance (0.12 mi) Htel Les Armures (0.05 mi) Hotel Longemalle; View all hotels near Franz Carl Weber Geneva on Tripadvisor. A couple of excellent books on the subject are : This Grim And Savage Game: The Oss And U.s. Covert Operations In World War II by Tom Moon and. Life as a spy was not short of action. Operation Greenup brought the Allies real material benefits, transmitting dozens of radio messages with detailed accounts of Brenner traffic to the OSS listening station in the city of Bari in the heel of Italy. Thanks to his Intel, the Allies knew the schedules of troop and munition trains and bombarded them accordingly. He died on August 10, 1962 in West Berlin, West Germany. Eighty years ago, the Red Army managed to stop, contain, and ultimately defeat the largest German army on the Eastern Front. The pilot John Billings volunteered, and it nearly ended in disaster. They would use Weber and for this mission, it would be Mayer, Wynberg and Weber. OPERATION GREENUP | Sigma Film They didnt embark on any sort of killing spree, but they did succeed in their mission. Sally Menke edited every one of QuentinTarantino's movies from "Reservoir Dogs" in 1992 all the way up until "Inglourious Basterds" in 2009. Inform us! The Basel activist was responsible for over 150 campaigns but is best known for his defence of the alpine landscape, in particular . They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 8 daughters. Just dont hurt my family., Mayer was disgusted, What the hell do you think we are? Operation Greenup: a story better than Inglourious Basterds - and true It was difficult to find a suitable drop point, as the obvious places were all occupied by the enemy. John Billings, his command pilot on the mission, described Mayer as fearless about returning to Nazi Germany. Works at Arbeitete bei der Stadt Luzern. List of all German U-boat Commanders - The Men of the Kriegsmarine Avoiding roaming German fighters, flak, and forceful Alpine winds and backdrafts, Billings threaded through 9,000-foot high canyon-like mountains and found the drop zone. 1526 1526. Franz Weber Profiles | Facebook People Projects Discussions Surnames Franz Weber currently works honorary as a teacher at the Clinic for Nephrology , University Hospital Essen. ?, The GIs were not so merciful with the Gestapo, however, especially as some them were Jews. It did convince them that he was a spy since they knew most Americans were circumcised at birth. Frederick Mayer was a man described by some as fearless. Go to the front lines of World War II in this war documentary, chronicling a group of Jewish agents for the American OSS who infiltrated Nazi territories, many of them German Jews returning to avenge Hitler's sinister acts. Theyd be sent into Nazi-occupied Europe and they knew what awaited them there as most were Jewish. Being an actor in a Quentin Tarantino film means you're going to be in for an intense experience. Channel 5s website describes the programme as follows: Documentary exploring one of the hundreds of undercover missions launched by the US governments Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Or are you interested in war medals and their recipients? Part of the reason Tarantino decided to make "Kill Bill" first was due to the fact the story for his epic was growing so large in scale that he was having trouble cutting it down. Posing as a recovering German officer, Mayer befriended an Engineer Officer who worked on the Fuhrer Bunker in Berlin. There were some contributions from historians, mainly to set things in context, and some re-enactments in the absence of archival footage, but the story was told largely in Mayer and Wijnbergs own words. Between "Jackie Brown" in 1997 and "KillBill Vol. A native Austrian, Weber fought on the Eastern Front but was convinced that Austria needed to be free of Hitler and the Nazis. You really would have to quit your job and become a monk to get through them all. This was worn by civilians in the employment of the Waffen SS. The largest of the ghettos where Eastern European Jews were first confined and, later, deported to extermination camps by the Nazis was set up in Warsaw, Poland. Looking for reliable information or news facts about WW2? Mayer gave what perhaps was the best answer of all, This is more our war than yours.. Mayer was then betrayed and captured. An Olympian, six-time consecutive World Speed Skiing Champion and former world record-holder, Franz Weber still holds the North American record, at 129.303 mph/208.092 kph which he set in 1983 in Silverton, Colorado. Hofer was later judged in absentia and sentenced to death in Austria in 1949. But at the radio station, Mayer persuaded the Nazi to declare Innsbruck an open city, and place himself under his arrest, effectively surrendering the city and his forces to Mayer. Thanks to their intelligence, the Allies were able to bomb over 25 supply trains trying to get into Italy. During World War II, he led one of the greatest missions of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). One of the guards saw him, reported him to the authorities, and he was arrested. As you can see, there are some similarities with Tarantino's film. One of their pieces of intelligence enabled the Allied air forces to bomb a large number of trains in a nearby marshalling yard. Finally, an intrepid American Air Corps pilot, Lt. John Billings, and his crew stepped forward and volunteered. Design, construction and validation of a computer controlled system for functional loading of soft tissue. See Photos. Service on a half-dozen fronts, including the bloody struggle against Marshal Tito's partisans in occupied Yugoslavia, has opened Weber's eyes. Franz Weber (1826-1887) - Find a Grave Memorial Do you want to create your own battlefield tour to sights of wars from the past? The governor was about to go on the radio to tell his troops to fight to the last man. This function has been disabled for WW2 Gravestone. When Fridolin Weber was born in 1526, in Beglingen, Glarus, Switzerland, his father, Georg Weber, was 20 and his mother, Anna Maria Kohl, was 21. Edit your search or learn more. Data gleaned from these reports helped US intelligence officers explode the myth that the Germans were concentrating men and weapons in the south for the Alpine redoubt. Despite being captured by the Gestapo and nearly tortured to death, Mayer was able to make contact with a number of local officials, including Franz Hofer, the Nazi Gauleiter(district leader) of Tyrol. In zweiter Ehe war er mit Genovefa Brenner verheiratet; aus dieser . For the next several months, Mayer and his best friend Hans Winberg went about planning Operation Greenup. According toIndieWire, in Tara Wood's Tarantino-focused documentary "QT8: The First Eight," Eli Roth recounts the story of one extra who got fired for not developing a backstory for his non-speaking character. And although he was circumcised, the Gestapo thought nothing of it since many non-Jews also practiced circumcision. At the film's premiere at the Cannes FilmFestival, he compared the spelling of the title to an "artistic flourish" by an artist like Jean-Michel Basquiat, saying (via Today), "If he describes why he did it, he might as well not have done it at all." Around the beginning of October 1944, the 8./Jger Regiment 28 received the order to recapture the Hill 1587 (which had recently been taken by the Soviets) in order to reopen the Rodna Pass Road, an important German supply route. Then he posed as a French electrician to infiltrate a Messerschmitt factory. A long-time resident of Lake Tahoe, Weber and his wife, Janet, founded Franz Weber Inc., a Reno-based sports management and consulting company, in 1984.Today, the company represents world-class . Privacy statement, cookies, disclaimer and copyright, On a journey of discovery to historical sites? OSS was the forerunner to both the Special Operations Command of the military, OSS Jedburgh and Operation Groups were the units that became the US Army Special Forces and Navy SEALs owe part of their legacy to OSS Maritime Group operatives, where one of them invented the US version of SCUBA. As the Germans surrendered, the Gestapo officer who had savagely beaten Mayer was taken to the very cell where he tortured him. Franz Josef Huber, responsible for deporting tens of thousands of Jews, escaped punishment with U.S. backing and went on to work for West German intelligence, newly disclosed records reveal. He and Mayer negotiated the peaceful surrender of Innsbruck, the Tyrolean provincial capital, to the US 7th Army on May 3, 1945. They were joined by Franz Weber, an ex-Wehrmacht officer turned freedom fighter comparable to the Basterds' Hugo Stiglitz. All results for Franz Weber. The team needed somebody with local knowledge,and Franz Weber, ananti-Nazilocal who haddeserted from the German Army to the Allies, volunteered to join it. The Life of Fridolin. Franz Weber - Ancestry.com They teamed up with Franz Weber a Germany army officer that became a "deserter-volunteer" OSS agent. . The Germans even broke his teeth with a powerful haymaker punch while stuffing a pistol in his mouth. By now, those of you have seen Tarantinos film should be thinking Inglourious Basterds. Mayer, Wijnberg, and Weber are the real thing, the actual basterds, and indeed, Mayer himself is once supposed to have said that the three of them just wanted to kill Nazis.. OSS was the forerunner to both the Special Operations Command of the military, OSS Jedburgh and Operation Groups were the units that became the US Army Special Forces and Navy SEALs owe part of their legacy to OSS Maritime Group operatives, where one of them invented the US version of SCUBA. Their mission: to compile reports on German rail traffic over the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria. The head of SI was a LT. Alfred Ulmer. He described these men: A more eclectic group of desperados could not be found: former Luftwaffe pilots, Jewish escapees from German death camps, Polish deserters, world-class athletes, and even a former convict. One recruit referred to the group as the craziest people he ever met. The tables turned, the Gestapo man shaking, told Mayer to do with him as he would, but to please leave his family alone. She was only 56 years old when she passed away. After arriving in New York, Mayer changed his name to Frederick. The wrong tug on their chutes or a miscalculation of the pilot by mere seconds could have sent the men to their deaths. Jason Dawsey, PhD. Eventually, they transferred to Italy and once again continued to sit out the war. Fondation Franz Weber - ein Begriff fr effizienten Schutz der Tierwelt und ihrer Lebensrume Fondation Franz Weber -. But unlike other refugees, Mayer decided to return to German-occupied Europe to strike back at the very individuals who imprisoned some of his family members in concentration camps. I couldn't stop writing. We invite you to share some of Franz Webers career. Sein Leben war durch eine umfangreiche Reisettigkeit geprgt. In 1944, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) of the United States Army trained three soldiers: Frederick Mayer, Hans Wynberg, and Franz Webe. Now, a new History Channel film, The Real Inglorious Bastards, returns to the true story chronicled in the book and captures Mayers amazing exploits in historically accurate detail. U.S. Military. Genealogy for Franz Weber (1616 - 1698) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. Franz was the only son of this couple to survive into adulthood. Mayer was allowed to send a message to the OSS. The Gestapo burst in and arrested Mayer and took him to their HQs. The third soldier was the Austrian Franz Weber, a Nazi officer who had deserted the army. Nonetheless, this story has made some people uncomfortable. He parachuted into the Third Reich, where he impersonated a German officer, blew up trains, sent back intelligence on Hitlers bunker, and even accepted the surrender of Innsbruck, Austria. Service on a half-dozen fronts, including the bloody struggle against Marshal Titos partisans in occupied Yugoslavia, has opened Webers eyes. A secondary mission was to monitor all of the rail traffic from Innsbruck traveling thru the Brenner Pass into Italy. There was also Franz Weber - a Catholic Austrian Wehrmacht officer and POW, who felt loyal to . Deutsches Kreuz in Gold . Major Bland West, an intelligence officer, saw a young man with a swollen face jumping out of the car. All rights reserved 2022 Collective Culture. By using our Services, you agree to our use of cookies. Inside one of World War II's most daring spy missions: The men who made It was "The Fifth Element" director Luc Besson who encouraged Tarantino to finish "Inglourious Basterds" as a movie rather than a miniseries. The top and bottom have been folded over and stitched together. "Say 'What' Again!" As the war ended, the people of Vietnam looked to the United States to support their dreams of independence. That mans a bigshot in the US Military. The third soldier was the Austrian Franz Weber, a Nazi officer who had deserted the army. In February, 1945, an odd trio parachuted onto a vast Austrian glacier and kicked-off one of the most spectacular clandestine missions of World War II. A pilot called Billings volunteered to drop them on a glacier. They had to walk down the glacier, sometimes waist deep in snow. When he is not skiing, Weber's schedule is filled with promotional and personal appearances for sponsors, celebrity sports events, speaking engagements and charity events. The rectangular shaped obverse reads: "Waffen-SS" in black ink on a yellow backing. A former German commando and officer, Weber had fought on the Eastern Front but now was convinced that it was his duty to defeat the Third Reich for the sake of his country, Austria. He radioed the exact locations and dimensions back to HQs. Out jumped a bruised and battered Mayer, who offered the formal surrender of the entire regions German Army. Fred Raskin, Menke's assistant editor on "KillBill," would become Tarantino's go-to editor following her death, starting with "Django Unchained" in 2012. Fondation Franz Weber - UNESCO World Heritage Centre Franz Weber. Tarantino takes all of his characters very seriously, even the most minor ones, and expects the actors he casts to prepare for their roles with similar seriousness. They jumped in on February 26, 1945. Do you want to create your own battlefield tour to sights of wars from the past? Meyer is on record of saying he just "wanted to kill Nazis," an attitude paralleling that of the Basterds. In the nomination was written, In constant danger of his life, he exhibited almost unbelievable courage, resourcefulness and enterprise. Mayer received the Legion of Merit and the purple heart, among a number of other awards. The OGs were the Special Forces of WWII, theyd support resistance groups and train for guerrilla warfare. It was April 1945, and Germany was finished. Theres no doubt that Operation Greenup saved many thousands of lives, Austrian and American, civilian and military. In an interview, Mr. Mayer stated that he had a good combination of hatred and love: a hatred of the Nazis and a love for America. His father fought valiantly in World War I, and Mayer had seen his family forced from their homeland by an evil regime that later murdered 6 million European Jews in the Holocaust. By then it was April of 1945 and the Germans knew they were done. Mayer died in 2016, aged 94. The only area to infiltrate was a small lake frozen over in the winter between the mountains. Air Force Special Operations Commandos owe part of their heritage to OSS pilots who flew many dangerous missions during the war. Ittrained them for operations behind enemy lines. info@nationalww2museum.org I made the argument for the medal in my book They Dared Return, and now Sen. John Rockefeller is championing the cause. Mayer was asked to dine with Hofer, his wife and the German Ambassador to Italy, Rudolph Rahn. Quentin Tarantino's 2009 war film was partly based on a real story. franz weber ww2 Weber F, Machens CK, Borst A: Disentangling the functional consequences of the connectivity between optic-flow processing neurons. Will King Charles IIIs Reign See the End of the Commonwealth. The team needed somebody with local knowledge, and Franz Weber, an anti-Nazi local who had deserted from the German Army to the Allies, volunteered to join it. Contributor. He says Waltz was also instructed to not show up to rehearsals with any of his co-stars, with the one exception ofDenis Mnochet (who played the dairy farmer Perrier LaPadite and shares the film's suspenseful opening scene with Waltz). Does anyone out there have Quentin Tarantinos cell? Frederick Mayer (spy) - Wikipedia He asked if they were willing to kill. He called in air strikes, destroying dozens of them. In 2005, he and five others were honored by Austrian Chancellor Dr. Wolfgang Schssel for their athletic achievements and economic contributions to Austria. Mollis, Glarus, Canton of Glarus, Switzerland. So I was trying to keep taming it, and I couldn't My idea at the time, because it was just so big and so unwieldy, was to do it as a miniseries, and that really was what I was planning on doing." Franz Weber || Department of Neuroscience || School of Medicine Journal of Biological Chemistry, 286 (27):24458-24466. Franz Weber remains very active in numerous alpine skiing events and competes on the popular Legends/Champions Tour.