Robey Leibbrandt
Encyclopedia
Synopsis
Sidney Robey Leibbrandt (January 25, 1913, Potchefstroom – August 1, 1966) was a South African BoerBoer
Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...
of German and Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
descent who was an Olympic boxer and later an Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
member and fifth column
Fifth column
A fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within.-Origin:The term originated with a 1936 radio address by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General during the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War...
ist for Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
.
1934
Leibbrandt won the light heavyweight bronze medal for South Africa at the 1934 Empire Games,.1936
He also represented South Africa at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. He competed in the light heavyweight classBoxing at the 1936 Summer Olympics - Men's light heavyweight
The men's light heavyweight event was part of the boxing programme at the 1936 Summer Olympics. The weight class was the second-heaviest contested, and allowed boxers of up to 175 pounds . The competition was held from Monday, August 10, 1936 to Saturday, August 15, 1936.Twenty-one boxers from 21...
. He was not able to fight the bronze medal bout to Francisco Risiglione
Francisco Risiglione
Francisco Risiglione is an Argentine boxer who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics.In 1936 he won the bronze medal in the light heavyweight class after winning the third place fight against Sydney Leibbrandt.-References:**...
and finished fourth.
1937
He became South African heavyweight champion on 31 July 1937 in Johanesburg, beating Jim Pentz.Operation Weissdorn
Following the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Leibbrandt returned to Berlin in 1938 to study at the Reich Academy for Gymnastics, and stayed on when war broke out. He joined the German Army, where he became the first South African to be trained as a paratrooper.Admiral Wilhelm Canaris
Wilhelm Canaris
Wilhelm Franz Canaris was a German admiral, head of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service, from 1935 to 1944 and member of the German Resistance.- Early life and World War I :...
ordered Operation Weissdorn, a plan for a coup d'état to overthrow the government of General Jan Smuts
Jan Smuts
Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS, PC was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948...
, who had led South Africa into the Second World War on the side of the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
. In June 1941, under the code name Walter Kempf, Leibbrandt was dropped on the Namaqualand
Namaqualand
Namaqualand is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of 170,000 square miles/440,000 km². It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into two portions - Little Namaqualand to the south and Great Namaqualand to the...
coast north of Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
by a confiscated French sailboat under command of Abwehr asset Lieutenant "S"Christian Nissen
Christian Nissen
Christian Nissen aka Hein Mück was a German sailor and yachtsman, who served with the Abwehr and its special forces, the Brandenburgers in World War II.-Biography:...
aka Hein Mück, the Kyloe. He formed the Nasionaal Sosialistiese Rebelle drumming up support through fiery speeches and political campaigning, while secretly training members in bomb making.. He also made contact with another pro-German movement, the Ossewabrandwag
Ossewabrandwag
The Ossewabrandwag was an anti-British and pro-German organization in South Africa during World War II, which opposed South African participation in the war...
, but the leader, Johannes Van Rensburg
Johannes Van Rensburg
Johannes Frederik Janse Van Rensburg was a South African lawyer, and leader of the Ossewabrandwag....
, was unsympathetic .
Capture and imprisonment
After a confrontation, he went on the run and evaded the police for some time, until he was eventually betrayed and captured, the arresting officer was Claude Sterley, a fellow Springbok Boxer who was, at the time a Sergeant in the South African Police.He was armed at the time but did not resist his captures. The police arrested him in Pretoria.
In 1943 he was sentenced to death for high treason. Although Leibbrandt refused to give evidence at any stage in the trial, he claimed that he had acted "for Volk and Führer" and gave the Nazi salute when he first entered the court, to which several spectators responded. After being sentenced to death Leibbrandt shouted loudly and clearly "I greet death".
His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by General Smuts on 11 March 1943. In 1948, Leibbrandt was released in an amnesty of war offenders by the newly victorious Nationalist
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...
government, which had opposed South Africa's entry into the war on the side of the Allies and wanted to remain neutral.