Siegfried Müller (mercenary)
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Siegfried 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.
He was interviewed in Der lachende Mann – Bekenntnisse eines Mörders.
Biography
Siegfried Müller was born in Crossen an der Oder, Germany (now 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 cannot be 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. 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.
References in popular culture
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 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/The Laughing Man. Müller also appeared in the film Africa Addio and the 1965 East German documentary Kommando 52.
He inspired the character of Heinlein in Wilbur Smith's Dark of the Sun, though Peter Carsten did not use Müller's jovial personality in his role.
He died in Boksburg, Gauteng suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa of stomach cancer in April 1983.
