Jepsen, Asmus, born 18-10-1901 in Fruerland, 
which at that time was only a suburb of the city of Flensburg. Before the beginning of World War II Asmus worked as a police chief secretary. In 1939 he signed up for the Navy/Kriegsmarine 
for twelve years and initially served as a naval instructor. From June 1941 he was commander of the Auerhahn special train, the command special train of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Erich Johan Albert Raeder.
His successor Karl Dönitz, 
who had been Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy since early 1943, rarely used the special train. The personal relationship between Dönitz and Jepsen was not considered tense and should not have been bad. Shortly before the end of the Second World War, Lieutenant Asmus Jepsen lived with his family in an emergency quarters in Neukirchen near Steinbergkirche and was still commander of the special train Asmus was a Kapitänleutnant zur See and was condemned to death because of desertion and shot by a German firing squad on 06-05-1945, age 44, by orders of Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz himself. Asmus Jespen was until 1939 for twelve years a police head administration secretary and joined the Kriegsmarine 
in 1939. Since 1941 he was the commander of the special train “Auerhahn” 
for Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz
which whom he had a confidential relation. At the end of the war as Hitler had committed suicide and Karl Dönitz organized the new German government in Flensburg. Kapitänleutnant Asmus Jespen was still the commander of the special train, which was standing ready to transport the new High Command of the Kriegsmarine and driving between Potsdam and Sörup in the region of Flensburg. On 30-04-1945 the train was in Plön where Dönitz had his temporary headquarters and got the order to bring the new government to the Kriegsmarine School Murwick in Flensburg, the new headquarter place
.
As the train was strafed by British airplanes the train had to stop at Sörup railway station which was filled up with fugitives on Mai the 4th. In Sörup Jespen didn’t have contact with Murwick anymore and there was no other locomotive to bring the train to Flensburg. The fugitives tried to plunder the train, which was full of foodstuffs, but Jespen forbid his men to shoot at them. In deliberation with the mayor of Sörup with the conclusion that the war was over, they allowed the many fugitives to take all the food from the train, after Jespen rescued the secret documents from the safe in the train. He burnt the papers and ordered his men to go home as the war was over. Jespen himself returned home to his family in in Neukirchen. The next morning he reported himself to the mayor of Neukirchen to avoid a charge of desertion, but was arrested by the Fieldgendarmerie 
only a few hours later.
Death and burial ground of Jepsen, Asmus.
He was brought for the military court on 05-05-1945 and despite his honourable career and his motivated defence he was sentenced to death as Dönitz wanted to put a standpoint for other desertions. In prison he wrote a last letter for his wife Margarete and children, three daughters, Gisela, Inge and Helga, and on 06-05-1945 at 20.30 he was executed on the Kriegsmarine shooting ground of Tweder Feld and buried there. 
From the shooting range, where Asmus Jepsen was shot, only the shooting range wall is preserved today. The same night his family took his body to Adelby were he on the first day of the peace was buried on the cemetery of Adelby. The funeral of Asmus Jepsen in the Adelby Cemetery finally took place on 08-05-1945, the day on which the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht was finally carried out. His family and special his wife tried since to rehabilitate her husband. On 25-06-1993 his wife Margarete, born Jacobsen died old age 86 and rest with him now. At least 50,000 German soldiers were convicted in the war for alleged desertion and more than 20,000 of them were executed by their own comrades, Close by Jepsen’s grave, the graves of Admiral, Hans Friedeburg,
Kapitän zur See, U Boot Ace. Kommandeur Marineschule Mürwik, Wolfgang Lüth 
U boat captain, Kommandeur 2nd Schnellboot, Rudolf Petersen.
Message(s), tips or interesting graves for the webmaster: robhopmans@outlook.com
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