Danube Yields 2 German Soldiers and Wehrmacht Motorbike in Budapest as Low Water Exposes IDs
Updated
Updated · Euronews · Aug 12
Danube Yields 2 German Soldiers and Wehrmacht Motorbike in Budapest as Low Water Exposes IDs
3 articles · Updated · Euronews · Aug 12
Summary
Two German soldiers' remains were recovered from the Danube in Budapest beside a well-preserved DKW NZ 350-1 motorbike, after exceptionally low water exposed the riverbed.
Complete identity discs were found on both bodies—an unusual discovery that could allow identification more than 80 years later and suggests their families may never have received official death notices.
One disc belonged to a Wehrmacht soldier and the other to a Waffen-SS member, but experts still must confirm whether the tags match the recovered bones through anthropological analysis and archival checks.
Tellerminen 35 anti-tank mines and other equipment were also found, raising the possibility the site was a wartime or post-siege dump rather than a straightforward battlefield grave.
A link to the 1944-45 Battle of Budapest is plausible but unproven; the remains will be buried at Budaörs war cemetery, and investigators expect more such finds as the Danube stays unusually low.