The Ernst Thalmann Company (, ) was a company within

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...

composed of ethnic Germans from Slavonia (then

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia (, NDH) was a World War II–era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, ...

, modern day

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

). It belonged to the Podravina Detachment of Sixth Slavonian Corp of Yugoslav Partisans. The company was established on 15 August 1943 in Slatinski Drenovac, from the order of the Sixth Slavonian Corp and composed of 10 Germans, 5 of them being members of the Communist Party for many years. Its first commander was Rudolph Vanpotić. Initially it was composed of 40 soldiers, mostly of German ethnicity and a number of

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...

and

Croats The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

. The Ernst Thalmann Company was disestablished in Summer of 1944. This company was named after

Ernst Thälmann Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (; 16 April 1886 – 18 August 1944) was a German communist politician and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933. A committed communist, Thälmann sought to overthrow the liberal democr ...

, the leader of the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...

(KPD) during much of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

. The intention of Partisan command was to mobilize as many young Germans as possible, to prevent their participation in Waffen-SS units and German police. The members of the company included several women of German ethnicity. The commanders of Telman Company were Germans who issued orders on German language hoisting national flag of German minority in Yugoslavia. The company was reinforced with squad of heavy machineguns.: " »Ernst Thalmann« (ta je četa bila privremeno u sastavu naše brigade i kretala se na ovom terenu da bi narod tog kraja vidio kako u NOV postoje i nemačke partizanske jedinice; četa je formirana od pripadnika nemačke nacionalne manjine u Slavoniji). Četa je pojačana odeljenjem teških mitraljeza, i bila postavljena kao obezbeđenje prema Popovači, a jedan vod 2. bataljona prema Kutini."

In popular culture

The story of the company and its founding are a major plotline in the 2004 Croatian movie ''

Long Dark Night ''Long Dark Night'' () is a 2004 Croatian film dealing with World War II in Croatia and its aftermath. It was directed by Antun Vrdoljak and starred Goran Višnjić. It was Croatia's submission to the 77th Academy Awards for the Academy Award fo ...

'' directed by

Antun Vrdoljak Antun Vrdoljak (; born 5 June 1931) is a Croatian film actor and director, sports official, and head of Croatian Radiotelevision during the Yugoslav Wars. Between the 1960s and early 1990s he was mainly a film artist. In the early 1990s he became ...

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In popular culture

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