The Hungarian War of Independence

Holstein Incident/Border Incident 0363
Location	International Waters, near the coast of Denmark
Result	Ceasefire
Belligerents
Federal Republic of Germany	German Democratic Republic
Commanders and leaders
Admiral Tiedmann	Konteradmiral Felix Scheffler
Strength
Frigate 009 "Holstein"	Project 16 Lachs "Brummer" W-1 Class "Kyuichi Tokuda"
Casualties and losses
12 dead and partial damages	Partial damages

Assasination of Otto Gotsche
	; Free Hungary Insurgents in firefight after the assasination of Otto Gotsche
Date	25th of March 1964
Location	Parliament of Hungary
Government-Insurgents
Free Hungary	Nationale Volksarmee Hungarian People's Republic
Strength
18 Insurgents	6 East German Guards 10 Hungarian Guards
Casualties and losses
4 dead, 2 wounded	2 dead, 1 wounded

The Hungarian War for Independence
Date	10 December 1961
Location	German Democratic Republic, GDR Occupied Hungary, Baltic Sea
Status	Ongoing
Participants
German Democratic Republic Hungarian People's Republic	Federal Republic of Germany Free Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Willi Stoph Heinz Hoffmann Karl Donitz Matyas Rakosi Lajos Czinege	Nikolas Schiller Free Hungary
Casualties and losses
Nationale Volksarmee: 3 Dead, 2 Wounded	Bundeswehr: 12 Dead Free Hungary: 4 Dead, 3 Wounded

The Hungarian War of Independece is part of a general conflict part of the Cold War opposing the East German Occupation Forces and the Free Hungary resistence movement.

The Crush of the Royalist Coup

In 1961, Hungary was under the Soviet Sphere. The Royal members of Hungary had tried many times in shaping public opinion towards a restoration. But the Soviet authority refused such possibility. A coup was attempted and easily crushed by the intervention of East German forces. On the 11th of January 1962, the People's Republic of Hungary was officially proclaimed by East Germany. The East German Government decided to appoint Otto Gotsche to the head of the occupational Government.

East German Military Intervention

Following the royalist coup of King Karl von Habsburg, the East German Chairman Willi Stoph was highly concerned of the consequences of losing Hungary from the Eastern Bloc, believing that the downfall of the previous socialist goverment would fuel uprisings and rebellions in other countries of the Eastern Bloc. An emergency secret meeting was held in Warsaw between East German Chairman Willi Stoph and Soviet General Secretary Georgy Malenkov in the course of action that should be taken in order to restore power of the Socialist Goverment in Hungary. After a short discussion, Operation Auftrag had been chosen in order to resolve this political crisis, led by East German Armeegeneral der Landstreitkräfte Erich Mielke.

Operation Auftrag

In the early morning of the 10th of December 1961, the preparations of the NVA had been completed. The intervention force had been divided into three armies, Solomonovo Armee, Astei Armee and Vylok Armee, all named in accordance to their designated positions. Located on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, the intervention force had received orders from High Command to initiate the invasion at 5:24 AM. All armies had orders to not engage unless engaged first, thus resulting in a very low amount of casualties at the initial steps of Operation Auftrag. Following the invasion and occupation of Eastern Hungary, the Solomonovo Armee and the Vylok Armee rendevouzed outside the city of Budapest and combined the forces before heading into the heavily fortified by the royalists city. Heavy fighting broke out from street to street between the Hungarian Royalist Army and the NVA Intervention Force, with battles being fought for every road and major goverment building, with the Hungarian Militias receiving the most casualties with each battle. The conclusive battle was fought at the Hungarian Parliament, where Hungarian Royal Forces barricaded themselves inside the walls of the Parliament as the NVA laid siege upon the building. After three days of continuous siege and a complete lack of supplies and ammunition, the Royalist forces surrendered to the NVA intervention forces and King Karl von Habsburg was found inside his office and arrested. It was shortly after rumoured that the King attempted to commit suicide with a pistol he had gotten from a fallen officer but such rumours were shortly dismissed when closer inspection found no weapons inside the office.

Restoration of the People's Republic of Hungary

With the monarchy having been dissolved, the nation of Hungary had been placed under GDR military occupation for around a month while the new goverment was been set up by the Presidium of the GDR. Having the main goal of restoring order in the nation and bringing back a friendly and cooperative goverment towards the Soviet Union but also the GDR, the Presidium restored Matyas Rakosi, an ardent student of Stalinist methods, to his position as Chairman of the Hungarian Peoples Republic while also assigning Otto Gotsche, an East German Politician and High Ranked Official of the SED as his Deputy Chairman, as a sign of co-operation and friendship.

Many positions and titles were rearranged in order to organise a more centralised goverment while individuals were handpicked by the Presidium to fill the needed positions by Hungarian and East German Politicians, Hungarian army generals and East German Stasi Officers. Shortly afterwards, a new NVA detachment, the Vladimir Lenin Guards Regiment was created in order to act as the goverment new protection force in order to prevent the chances of a future coup by being able to fight against an rebelious elements.

West German Response

The East German occupation was directly a concern for West Germany and especially for Nikolas Schiller who saw the occupation as a dangerous extension of East German influence in Europe. A day after the proclamation of the People's Republic of Hungary, Nikolas Schiller made a statement in an emergency meeting in the Bundestag. He stated "The German Government along with the approval of the Bundestag, officially condemns the illegal attack, occupation and usurpation of power by an illegally created entity and non-recognised by this Government. Germany, the only one, is devoted to the principles of freedom and sovereignty to which the GDR has violated. It has violated its own name by calling itself democratic. Nothing can justify the terror and the humiliation GDR is doing again to a country. These actions reflect a terrible Germany that existed before under national socialism. It occupies foreign land, installs its system and imposes it by force. The Fourth Reich is in GDR. If such actions of terror and violence are possible in Hungary, they are also possible against the German people. West Germany represents the general interest of the German people. Their suffering, their pain, their strive for freedom shall be upheld when the limit of tolerance will be breached. Already GDR violates the free thinking and free movement of people, it violates its own existence. Germany welcomes all Hungarian refugees striving for freedom and for the expression of their thinking. Germany is a land of respect, of law, of freedom that is upheld in Western Europe."

The Assasination of Otto Gotsche

The morning of the 25th of March 1964, Otto Gotsche, the Deputy Chairman of the Hungarian People's Republic, was assasinated by Free Hungary insurgents during an ambush. After leaving the Parliament of Hungary with the completion of the First Infastructure Congress, Otto Gotsche was heading towards his parked car before stopping at his car door. A truck and two cars began speeding towards him and as one of the cars passed next to him, one of the insurgents inside opened fire, killing him instantly. Later autopsy would show that he had been shot 13 times with the killing factor being the initial blow to the heart.

As soon as the sound gunfire was heard, guards from the Vladimir Lenin Guards Regiment began to fire back at the insurgents who had left their vehicles as the Parliaments alarm was pressed. Soldiers and Insurgents run for cover as the firefight ensued, with the modern firepower and better position of the Guards benefitting them against the insurgents. The initial combat saw 2 insurgents being killed and 1 wounded before an organised retreat began by the insurgents towards the vehicles. Two Guards begun to push forward as the insurgents fell back, killing 2 and injuring 1. Both were shortly after killed by counter-fire due to their exposed position while another Guard was wounding attempting to retrieve one of the two behind cover. The insurgents managed to get on their vehicles and run out of the location while a state of firefighting remained.

With this being the first official hit of the Free Hungary movement, the Hungarian Goverment was pushed by Chairman Willi Stoph of the GDR to push for harsher measures and strictrer methods of policing and demanded that an investigation on the organisation begin. Shortly after, the Vladimir Lenin Guards Regiment was reenforced and equipped with newer equipment and supplied with two PT-76's from the Garisontruppen. No official statement was made by Hungarian nor the East German goverments, keeping it under the radar until the chaotic enviroment would calm down and a new Deputy Chairman was found, with Ernő Gerő being handpicked by the Central Committee as Mátyás Rákosi successor.

The Holstein Incident/Border Incident 0363

The Fregate 009 Holstein

The Raid of Checkpoint Bizcke

Part of The Hungarian War for Independence

The Bizcke checkpoint after the NVA occupation.

Date	15 September 1964
Location	Bizcke,Hungary
Result	Ceasefire

Belligerents

Free Hungary

Hungarian People's Republic

Strength

6 Free Hungary Insurgents

2 Hungarian Army Guards

Casualties and losses

1 wounded

1 dead, 25 Karabiner-S and 35 Hand Grenades stolen

As part of the newly created Deutsche Marine, the Fregate was relatively new and built by Meyer-Weft in 1958. At the time, the Deutsche Marine only had 4 fregates with three of them remaining in port. The Holstein was then the only fregate deployed secretly in international waters. The general public and also the international community did not know about the presence of the Deutsche Marine in international waters. The presence of the Holstein was part of a double program called Training & Checking. The 168 crew members were all relatively new in the service and graduated nearly three months ago from the Naval Academy of Hamburg. This was not the case of Admiral Tiedmann who was a former sailor during World War II but was appointed for the first time as admiral. The "checking" part of the mission originated from the suspicion of the Schiller Governement that the East German Navy was intruding West German territorial waters. Therefore, the Holstein was on a mission to check its own waters and check in international waters the presence of the East German Navy.

The ship left harbor two days before and was heading to the international waters nearly Finland as part of its T&C mission. Admiral Tiedmann had reported 24 hours ago before the incident that the sitation was calm and had not reported any single East German ship either in German territorial waters or adjacent to international waters. At 0200, the Holstein is in international waters not so far from the Danish coast.

The Budapest Sports Complex Raid

Part of Part of The Hungarian War for Independence

Date

28 February 1973

Location

Budapest

Caused by

Propaganda Activity done by members of the Free Hungary Insurgency towards the Hungarian Youth.

Goals

Crackdown on the spread of Free Hungary Propaganda

Methods

Arrests, Use of Non-Lethal Means

Status

Ended

Parties

Hungarian Police

Free Hungary Movement Hungarian Student Unions

Hungarian Youth Tennis Clubs

Lead figures

Oberleutenant Antonescu

Lars Netiz

Number

100 Police Officers including SWAT

400 Students

Casualties and losses

Injuries: 7

Arrested: 400

The Budapest Sports Complex Raid

Origins of the Meeting

In 1970, Radio Free Hungary was created with the implicit support of German Radiotelecommunications Office. Emitting from München, it aired national bulletins with secret messaging destined to organise the insurgants or recruit more. This was the objective when on the 28th of February 1973 it transmitted a message suggesting a tennis game.

The message was received by Lars Netiz who met couple days ago with some representatives of Free Hungary in Budapest. Lars Netiz was medical student deeply involved in politics and was arrested already mutliple times for listening to unapproved artworks. These multiple arrests encouraged Lars to pursue the objectives of Free Hungary and act as a communication officer. On the morning of the 23rd of February 1973, Lars organised a tennis game and managed to print by a friend some guides which contained information about Free Hungary, its ideals and objectives. In the past the tennis complex was used for sporting events but also for some gatherings of philosophical nature.