Dietrich Klagges
Encyclopedia
Dietrich Klagges (ˈdiːtʁɪç ˈklaɡəs) (1 February 1891 in Herringsen, now part of Bad Sassendorf
– 12 November 1971 in Bad Harzburg
) was a Nazi
politician
and from 1933 to 1945 the appointed premier (Ministerpräsident) of the now abolished state of Braunschweig.
teacher at the teaching seminary at Soest
and worked as such beginning in 1911 in Harpen near Bochum
. During the First World War he was badly wounded and therefore discharged from army service by 1916. In 1918 he joined the German National People's Party
and stayed with the party until 1924. After the First World War he became a Realschule
teacher in Wilster
in Holstein
. After leaving the German National People's Party, Klagge was for a short time a member of the extreme rightwing German Nationalist Freedom Party (Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei), which had been founded late in 1922. He soon left it, eventually joining the NSDAP in 1925. From 1926 until 1930 he worked as a deputy headmaster at a middle school in Benneckenstein
(now in Saxony-Anhalt
), where from 1928 to 1930 he also served as the local Nazi Ortsgruppe leader. Because of his membership in the Party, he was dismissed from the Prussia
n school service and furthermore stripped of his pension
. In the same year he first rose to prominence in Braunschweig, where he busied himself as a Nazi propaganda
speechmaker.
writings which appeared in right-wing newspapers and the like. He wrote for example for Die völkische Schule or Deutschlands Erneuerung and was himself the publisher of the magazine
Nordlicht. His partly theological publications were moulded by radical religious racism
.
and KPD
(18 seats between them).
breakdown.
intervened in the matter and gave the German National People's Party an ultimatum
, which in the end led to Klagges's being elected by the Braunschweig Landtag
(the state parliament) to State Minister for the Interior and Education, thereby also becoming a member of the Braunschweig State Government, on 15 September 1931. Shortly thereafter, in 1932, Klagges also became a member of the Reichstag
. Already in 1931, two years before the Nazis seized power
, came professional bans, through Klagges's actions, against Social Democrats and Jews, which struck, among others, many teaching staff at the Braunschweig Technical College
.
unfairly bears the stigma of having been responsible for the former Austria
n citizen – and since 1925, at his own instigation, stateless person – Adolf Hitler's getting fast-tracked by political scheming into a job on 25 February 1932 as Regierungsrat (low-rank government official) at the Braunschweig State Culture and Surveying Office, stationed as a staff member of the Braunschweig legation in Berlin
, which had the effect of granting Hitler German citizenship. It was not, however, the city's fault that this "naturalization" was brought about, but rather the Free State's, in whose name this deed was done by the State Minister for the Interior and Education, namely NSDAP member Dietrich Klagges.
Unlike in the City of Braunschweig, by 1930, the National Socialists were already quite politically influential in the Braunschweig Free State. For Hitler, appointment to a government office in Braunschweig was the only opportunity to get German
citizenship since the Free State was the only state in the Weimar Republic
with Nazis in government who could influence and control the "Führer
's" naturalization.
For this reason, the Free State's government – or more precisely its State Minister, Klagges – was given the direct request by the NSDAP party leadership for Hitler's naturalization. Joseph Goebbels
referred to the matter in his diary on 4 February 1932: The intention is to appoint the Führer an associate professor.
ship in the made-up position of "Politics and Organic Sociology" at the Braunschweig Technical College. This plan soon leaked out to the public and then failed miserably in the face of opposition from, among others, the technical college's own leadership and educators themselves (the now renamed University of Braunschweig did not want someone who had never finished school). The plan had to be dropped.
Without meaning to, Klagges had given the Nazi Party the very thing that they had wanted to avoid at all cost: their intentions had now been made public and Hitler had become a target of ridicule. Moreover, Hitler's reputation had been damaged – not only in Braunschweig – and Klagges would later get the "bill" for it.
(DVP) Member of the Reichstag
, who suggested that a post be procured for Hitler in the Braunschweig Legation at the Reichsrat
in Berlin
.
This second try met with success in the end: On 26 February 1932, Hitler was successfully sworn in, thereby becoming a German citizen, and at the same time winning the right to stand as a candidate in the 1932 Reich presidential election.
In the Braunschweigische Landeszeitung newspaper, Klagges declared a short time later:
Obviously Hitler's job at the legation did not last long. On 16 February 1933 the new Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler requested in a short telegram discharge from the Braunschweig State Service, which was promptly granted "with immediate effect".
Some historians have brought into question whether indeed Hitler ever officially earned German citizenship – in hindsight a somewhat academic and idle question, but if it is true, then on 30 January 1933, Hitler managed to become Reichskanzler without so much as even being German.
Hitler never forgave Klagges this public exposure and personal humiliation and settled the score with him on 17 July 1935 on his last visit to Braunschweig, which resulted in Klagges's de facto disempowerment. Henceforth, Klagges was to submit all plans to Reichsstatthalter Wilhelm Loeper in Dessau
as well as Reichsminister Hanns Kerrl
for approval, thereby being degraded to provincial politician and being thrust off the stage of higher NSDAP politics. It is also likely that Klagges had only Hermann Göring
's pull in these matters to thank for not being dismissed by Hitler on the spot (which did not last much beyond 1940 anyway).
s took place in Braunschweig at the Schlossplatz.
. It would be called "Gau Ostfalen", its capital would be Braunschweig and the Gauleiter
would be, of course, himself. Klagges found support for his idea among Braunschweig educators, from the middle class
, the chamber of commerce, and even the Protestant Church.
To this end, Klagges undertook a number of things to strengthen Braunschweig's political and economic position in Germany: As of June 1933, a new suburb of Braunschweig, the "Dietrich Klagges Garden City
" (Gartenstadt Dietrich Klagges) was built. Furthermore, he brought many important Nazi institutions to the city, such as the Academy for Youth Leadership (Akademie für Jugendführung), the German Research Centre for Aviation
(Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt), the Führer School for German Trades and Crafts (Führerschule des deutschen Handwerks), the Regional Führer School of the Hitler Youth
(Gebietsführerschule der Hitler-Jugend), the Luftwaffe Command 2, the Reich Hunting Lodge (Reichsjägerhof, intended to impress passionate hunter Göring
), the SS Ensigns' School (SS-Junkerschule), the SS Upper Division "Middle", and also the Bernhard Rust College for Teacher Training.
Klagges also further developed Braunschweig's infrastructure
by connecting it to the newly built Autobahn and the Mittellandkanal. In the end, thanks to Klagges, Braunschweig also became a centre of the National Socialist armament industry, since important industrial hubs were growing right nearby, namely the Reichswerke Hermann Göring
in Salzgitter
(on whose board of directors Klagges was as of 1937), and the Volkswagen
Works in Fallersleben
(now part of Wolfsburg
).
A short time after the Nazis' seizure of power
, the first acts of terror were seen in both the City and Province of Braunschweig in which the so-called "Hilfspolizei" ("Auxiliary Police") stood out. This force was directly answerable to Klagges and consisted of SA
, SS
and "Stahlhelm
" men. Their actions were aimed mainly at members of various labour organizations, the SPD
, the KPD
, and also against Jews. They were carried out with extraordinary brutality. Klagges was therefore responsible for at least 25 Nazi régime opponents' deaths.
The murder of eleven communists and labour organisers in Rieseberg (about 15 miles east of Braunschweig) by members of the SS on 4 July 1933 was the most important of these events. There was to have been a judicial inquiry into the circumstances of the arrestees' deaths, but Klagges assisted in blocking and suppressing it.
Lawyer and SPD member Ernst Böhme (1892–1968) was from 1929 until 1933 the democratically elected Mayor of the City of Braunschweig.
After the Nazis had risen to power, however, he found himself the target of growing repressive measures and ever greater persecution by Klagges, who on 13 March 1933 ordered Böhme's ouster and had him taken to the disused AOK Building, which was being used by the Nazis as a "protective custody" prison, as they called it. Böhme had the dedication of former Braunschweig Ministerpräsident Heinrich Jasper (who had likewise been persecuted by Klagges) to thank for the return of his freedom a short time later.
Shortly thereafter, however, Böhme was once again arrested and this time taken to the SPD's own, but now disused, Volksfreundhaus where he was mishandled. He was forced to sign a document declaring that he had given up his mandate. After he was let go, Böhme left Braunschweig and only came back in 1945.
On 1 June 1945, Ernst Böhme was given back his mayoralty by the United States
military administration. He stayed on as mayor until 17 December 1948.
Lawyer and SPD member Heinrich Jasper (1875–1945) was, among other things, a city councillor since 1903, an SPD factional chairman in Braunschweig's Landtag, member of the Weimar National Assembly
as well as Braunschweig State Minister between 1919 and 1930 and several times the Braunschweig Free State's premier.
Jasper was, at Klagges's instigation, taken into "protective custody" on false pretenses on 17 March 1933, and taken to the AOK Building, where he was severely beaten in an attempt to force him to resign his political mandate, which Jasper, however, would not do. He was next taken to the Volksfreundhaus where he faced further mishandling until his temporary release on 19 April.
On 26 June 1933, Jasper was once again arrested and taken to Dachau concentration camp, from which he was released in 1939 under circumstances that have yet to be explained. Jasper then returned to Braunschweig where he was placed under constant surveillance and had to report daily to the Gestapo
.
The failed attempt on Hitler's life
at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia
on 20 July 1944 furnished another pretense on which to arrest Jasper yet again on 22 August 1944. After spending time in various concentration camps, he ended up at Bergen-Belsen
where he is believed to have died on 19 February 1945 of typhus
.
August Merges (1870–1945) belonged to various leftwing parties, was one of the leaders of the November Revolution
in Braunschweig and was President of the Socialist Republic of Braunschweig. After 1933 he moved out of active party work and joined the resistance against the Nazi régime.
In April 1935, he was arrested together with other resistance fighters and severely beaten. He was sentenced for high treason
but was released early, in 1937, for medical reasons. On Klagges's instructions he was arrested once more and taken into "protective custody".
After Merges had once more been set free, he was nevertheless repeatedly picked up by the Gestapo and detained for a short time. He died as a result of mishandling suffered at the Gestapo's hands.
, Braunschweig and Helmstedt
area. This was far and away the highest density at labour camps anywhere in the Reich. Indeed, a great number of the people killed in the massive air raid
on 15 October 1944 were forced labourers and camp inmates. When US
troops occupied Braunschweig on 12 April 1945, there were still 61,000 prisoners in the camps.
sentenced him to six years in labour prison (Zuchthaus) for crimes committed in his function as SS Gruppenführer
(the highest rank that he reached in the SS, in 1942, was actually Obergruppenführer
; he was furthermore "Honorary Leader" of the 49th SS Standard).
, who had come to Braunschweig in 1950, and who was later active in the 1960s, likewise as a prosecutor
, in the Auschwitz Trials
, contributed to a great extent to getting Klagges sentenced in a normal criminal trial on 4 April 1950 to a life term in labour prison for crimes committed by him as Braunschweig State Minister and Premier, including, among others, the Rieseberg murders.
The Bundesgerichtshof
(a federal court), however, overturned this sentence in 1952. In a second trial in which it could be proved that Klagges had taken part in murder
s, torture
, false imprisonment
, and so on, and that he had planned (by himself or with others) these deeds, his prison term was reduced to 15 years.
In his defence, Klagges put it to the court that he had known nothing about all that, as he had only worked from a desk and he was deceived by his underlings as to the true extent of the Nazi terror that was being perpetrated.
In 1955, Klagges's wife applied for her husband's early release from prison without further probation
ary conditions. This first application was rejected, as was another one made the next year. In 1957, however, Klagges was released after having served about 80% of his prison term, and moved with his wife to Bad Harzburg
, where he busied himself mainly with editing rightwing writings and maintaining contacts with neo-Nazi
groups in Lower Saxony
until his death in 1971.
In 1970, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht
(another federal court) decided that Klagges had to receive an amount accumulated from his pension as premier (Ministerpräsident), approximately DM
100,000.
Bad Sassendorf
Bad Sassendorf is a municipality in the district of Soest, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-History:From February 15th, 1944 to April 4th or 5th 1945 inmates of the Neuengamme concentration camp used as the Eisenbahnbaubrigade 11 repaired rail tracks at the railway station Soest and between Bad...
– 12 November 1971 in Bad Harzburg
Bad Harzburg
Bad Harzburg is a town in central Germany, in the Goslar district of Lower Saxony. It lies on the northern edge of the Harz mountains and is a recognised saltwater spa and climatic health resort.- Location :...
) was a Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and from 1933 to 1945 the appointed premier (Ministerpräsident) of the now abolished state of Braunschweig.
Youth and early career development
Klagges was the youngest of a forest ranger's seven children. He underwent training as a VolksschuleVolksschule
A Volksschule was an 18th century system of state-supported primary schools established in the Habsburg Austrian Empire and Prussia . Attendance was supposedly compulsory, but a 1781 census reveals that only one fourth of school-age children attended. At the time, this was one of the few examples...
teacher at the teaching seminary at Soest
Soest, Germany
Soest is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the Soest district. After Lippstadt, a neighbouring town, Soest is the second biggest town in its district.-Geography:...
and worked as such beginning in 1911 in Harpen near Bochum
Bochum
Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area and is surrounded by the cities of Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, Castrop-Rauxel, Dortmund, Witten and Hattingen.-History:...
. During the First World War he was badly wounded and therefore discharged from army service by 1916. In 1918 he joined the German National People's Party
German National People's Party
The German National People's Party was a national conservative party in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the NSDAP it was the main nationalist party in Weimar Germany composed of nationalists, reactionary monarchists, völkisch, and antisemitic elements, and...
and stayed with the party until 1924. After the First World War he became a Realschule
Realschule
The Realschule is a type of secondary school in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia , Denmark , Sweden , Hungary and in the Russian Empire .-History:The Realschule was an outgrowth of the rationalism and empiricism of the seventeenth and...
teacher in Wilster
Wilster
-History:Wilster was granted town rights under Lübeck law in 1282, and thereby counts itself among Schleswig-Holstein's oldest towns. Wilster forms the centre of the Wilstermarsch, a major cattle raising area in Germany....
in Holstein
Holstein
Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....
. After leaving the German National People's Party, Klagge was for a short time a member of the extreme rightwing German Nationalist Freedom Party (Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei), which had been founded late in 1922. He soon left it, eventually joining the NSDAP in 1925. From 1926 until 1930 he worked as a deputy headmaster at a middle school in Benneckenstein
Benneckenstein
Benneckenstein is a town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it has been part of the town Oberharz am Brocken. Benneckenstein is in the eastern Harz, 14 km southeast of Braunlage, and 24 km south of Wernigerode....
(now in Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of...
), where from 1928 to 1930 he also served as the local Nazi Ortsgruppe leader. Because of his membership in the Party, he was dismissed from the Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n school service and furthermore stripped of his pension
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
. In the same year he first rose to prominence in Braunschweig, where he busied himself as a Nazi propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
speechmaker.
Writings
From 1921 on, Klagges was busy writing völkisch, antidemocratic, and anti-SemiticAnti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
writings which appeared in right-wing newspapers and the like. He wrote for example for Die völkische Schule or Deutschlands Erneuerung and was himself the publisher of the magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
Nordlicht. His partly theological publications were moulded by radical religious racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
.
Political office in Braunschweig
In the municipal elections in the state of Braunschweig on 1 March 1931, the Nazi party against expectation emerged as the third strongest party (10 seats) behind the SPDSocial Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
and KPD
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(18 seats between them).
Appointment to a government office
On 1 January 1931 Klagges was appointed Regierungsrat (a lower rank government official) in the Education Ministry by Anton Franzen, the Interior and Education Minister of the Braunschweig Free State and a fellow member of the NSDAP. After long political quarrels and intrigues, however, Franzen had to step down only a few months later owing to favouritism for a fellow party member. Franz Groh, chairman of the NSDAP faction, also had to step down; this triggered an internal political crisis in the Free State, threatening a coalitionCoalition
A coalition is a pact or treaty among individuals or groups, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest, joining forces together for a common cause. This alliance may be temporary or a matter of convenience. A coalition thus differs from a more formal covenant...
breakdown.
Election to State Minister
Owing to the imminent crisis in the Free State, Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
intervened in the matter and gave the German National People's Party an ultimatum
Ultimatum
An ultimatum is a demand whose fulfillment is requested in a specified period of time and which is backed up by a threat to be followed through in case of noncompliance. An ultimatum is generally the final demand in a series of requests...
, which in the end led to Klagges's being elected by the Braunschweig Landtag
Landtag
A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
(the state parliament) to State Minister for the Interior and Education, thereby also becoming a member of the Braunschweig State Government, on 15 September 1931. Shortly thereafter, in 1932, Klagges also became a member of the Reichstag
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
. Already in 1931, two years before the Nazis seized power
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
, came professional bans, through Klagges's actions, against Social Democrats and Jews, which struck, among others, many teaching staff at the Braunschweig Technical College
Technische Universität Braunschweig
The TU Braunschweig is the oldest University of Technology in Germany. It was founded in 1745 as Collegium Carolinum and is a member of TU9, an incorporated society of the most renowned and largest German Institutes of Technology. Today it has about 13,000 students, making it the third largest...
.
Naturalizing Adolf Hitler
The City of BraunschweigBraunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
unfairly bears the stigma of having been responsible for the former Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n citizen – and since 1925, at his own instigation, stateless person – Adolf Hitler's getting fast-tracked by political scheming into a job on 25 February 1932 as Regierungsrat (low-rank government official) at the Braunschweig State Culture and Surveying Office, stationed as a staff member of the Braunschweig legation in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, which had the effect of granting Hitler German citizenship. It was not, however, the city's fault that this "naturalization" was brought about, but rather the Free State's, in whose name this deed was done by the State Minister for the Interior and Education, namely NSDAP member Dietrich Klagges.
Unlike in the City of Braunschweig, by 1930, the National Socialists were already quite politically influential in the Braunschweig Free State. For Hitler, appointment to a government office in Braunschweig was the only opportunity to get German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
citizenship since the Free State was the only state in the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
with Nazis in government who could influence and control the "Führer
Führer
Führer , alternatively spelled Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with Adolf Hitler, who modelled it on Benito Mussolini's title il Duce, as well as with Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also...
's" naturalization.
For this reason, the Free State's government – or more precisely its State Minister, Klagges – was given the direct request by the NSDAP party leadership for Hitler's naturalization. Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
referred to the matter in his diary on 4 February 1932: The intention is to appoint the Führer an associate professor.
Professor Hitler
Klagges first tried to procure for Hitler an associate professorProfessor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
ship in the made-up position of "Politics and Organic Sociology" at the Braunschweig Technical College. This plan soon leaked out to the public and then failed miserably in the face of opposition from, among others, the technical college's own leadership and educators themselves (the now renamed University of Braunschweig did not want someone who had never finished school). The plan had to be dropped.
Without meaning to, Klagges had given the Nazi Party the very thing that they had wanted to avoid at all cost: their intentions had now been made public and Hitler had become a target of ridicule. Moreover, Hitler's reputation had been damaged – not only in Braunschweig – and Klagges would later get the "bill" for it.
Regierungsrat Hitler
There followed yet another attempt to get Hitler a government job, this time by Dr. Wessels, a German People's PartyGerman People's Party
The German People's Party was a national liberal party in Weimar Germany and a successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire.-Ideology:...
(DVP) Member of the Reichstag
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
, who suggested that a post be procured for Hitler in the Braunschweig Legation at the Reichsrat
Reichsrat (Germany)
The Reichsrat was one of the two legislative bodies in Germany under the Weimar constitution, the other one being the Reichstag. After the end of German monarchy and the founding of the Weimar Republic in 1919, the Reichsrat replaced the Bundesrat as the representation of the various German...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
This second try met with success in the end: On 26 February 1932, Hitler was successfully sworn in, thereby becoming a German citizen, and at the same time winning the right to stand as a candidate in the 1932 Reich presidential election.
In the Braunschweigische Landeszeitung newspaper, Klagges declared a short time later:
- "If our participation in the government in Braunschweig had had no further success than procuring citizenship for our Führer Adolf Hitler, then this fact alone is enough to prove the necessity of our participation in the government."
Obviously Hitler's job at the legation did not last long. On 16 February 1933 the new Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler requested in a short telegram discharge from the Braunschweig State Service, which was promptly granted "with immediate effect".
Some historians have brought into question whether indeed Hitler ever officially earned German citizenship – in hindsight a somewhat academic and idle question, but if it is true, then on 30 January 1933, Hitler managed to become Reichskanzler without so much as even being German.
Break between Hitler and Klagges
Hitler's naturalization was supposed to be dealt with quickly and above all, inconspicuously, without the public getting any knowledge of it. However, with Klagges's clumsy way of doing things, the whole business grew into a farce for the later "Führer", for at the first try, he failed miserably, and publicly. Only on the second try was the coup successful.Hitler never forgave Klagges this public exposure and personal humiliation and settled the score with him on 17 July 1935 on his last visit to Braunschweig, which resulted in Klagges's de facto disempowerment. Henceforth, Klagges was to submit all plans to Reichsstatthalter Wilhelm Loeper in Dessau
Dessau
Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...
as well as Reichsminister Hanns Kerrl
Hanns Kerrl
Hanns Kerrl was a German Nazi politician. His most prominent position, from July 1935, was that of Reichsminister of Church Affairs...
for approval, thereby being degraded to provincial politician and being thrust off the stage of higher NSDAP politics. It is also likely that Klagges had only Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
's pull in these matters to thank for not being dismissed by Hitler on the spot (which did not last much beyond 1940 anyway).
The Braunschweig Free State after the Nazis' seizure of power
Almost immediately after 30 January 1933 came acts of terror in Braunschweig against those who disagreed with the Nazis, followed by more such acts as the year wore on.Appointment as Premier of the Braunschweig Free State
On 6 May 1933, Klagges was appointed Ministerpräsident of the Braunschweig Free State by Reichsstatthalter Wilhelm Loeper. Klagges's clearly formulated goal was the creation of a National Socialist model province. Only a few days later, the first book burningBook burning
Book burning, biblioclasm or libricide is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded...
s took place in Braunschweig at the Schlossplatz.
National Socialist model province
Klagges's plans for a National Socialist model province entailed the goal of further keeping Braunschweig as independent as possible from Berlin's overlordship so that he could go on running his little "Reich" as he deemed fit, doing whatever he liked to do. Klagges would not hear of his province being integrated into Prussia – as this would have put an end to the faction that he led – despite Hitler's assurances that Braunschweig would still be a cultural centre, and not merely part of a new "Reichsgau Hannover". The province was also to remain in place after the foreseen war. To hold onto – and broaden – his own power, Klagges next tried to bring into being a new Gau – one that would also be independent of HanoverHanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
. It would be called "Gau Ostfalen", its capital would be Braunschweig and the Gauleiter
Gauleiter
A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...
would be, of course, himself. Klagges found support for his idea among Braunschweig educators, from the middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
, the chamber of commerce, and even the Protestant Church.
To this end, Klagges undertook a number of things to strengthen Braunschweig's political and economic position in Germany: As of June 1933, a new suburb of Braunschweig, the "Dietrich Klagges Garden City
Garden city movement
The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...
" (Gartenstadt Dietrich Klagges) was built. Furthermore, he brought many important Nazi institutions to the city, such as the Academy for Youth Leadership (Akademie für Jugendführung), the German Research Centre for Aviation
German Aerospace Center
The German Aerospace Center is the national centre for aerospace, energy and transportation research of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has multiple locations throughout Germany. Its headquarters are located in Cologne. It is engaged in a wide range of research and development projects in...
(Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt), the Führer School for German Trades and Crafts (Führerschule des deutschen Handwerks), the Regional Führer School of the Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
(Gebietsführerschule der Hitler-Jugend), the Luftwaffe Command 2, the Reich Hunting Lodge (Reichsjägerhof, intended to impress passionate hunter Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
), the SS Ensigns' School (SS-Junkerschule), the SS Upper Division "Middle", and also the Bernhard Rust College for Teacher Training.
Klagges also further developed Braunschweig's infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
by connecting it to the newly built Autobahn and the Mittellandkanal. In the end, thanks to Klagges, Braunschweig also became a centre of the National Socialist armament industry, since important industrial hubs were growing right nearby, namely the Reichswerke Hermann Göring
Reichswerke Hermann Göring
Reichswerke Hermann Göring was an industrial conglomerate of Nazi Germany. It was established in July 1937 to extract and process domestic iron ores from Salzgitter that were deemed uneconomical by the privately held steel mills...
in Salzgitter
Salzgitter
Salzgitter is an independent city in southeast Lower Saxony, Germany, located between Hildesheim and Braunschweig. Together with Wolfsburg and Braunschweig, Salzgitter is one of the seven Oberzentren of Lower Saxony...
(on whose board of directors Klagges was as of 1937), and the Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
Works in Fallersleben
Fallersleben
Fallersleben is a district in the City of Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany, with a population of 11,269 . The village of Fallersleben was first mentioned in 942 under the name of Valareslebo. Fallersleben became a city in 1929, and was incorporated into Wolfsburg in 1972. Before 1972, it belonged...
(now part of Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located on the River Aller northeast of Braunschweig , and is mainly notable as the headquarters of Volkswagen AG...
).
Persecuting political dissenters
What follows is a few examples of how and by what means Dietrich Klagges persecuted politically undesirable persons (or had them persecuted), sometimes to death (see also "Klagge trials" below).The Rieseberg Murders
A short time after the Nazis' seizure of power
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
, the first acts of terror were seen in both the City and Province of Braunschweig in which the so-called "Hilfspolizei" ("Auxiliary Police") stood out. This force was directly answerable to Klagges and consisted of SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
, SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
and "Stahlhelm
Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten
The Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten also known in short form as Der Stahlhelm was one of the many paramilitary organizations that arose after the defeat of World War I in the Weimar Republic...
" men. Their actions were aimed mainly at members of various labour organizations, the SPD
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
, the KPD
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
, and also against Jews. They were carried out with extraordinary brutality. Klagges was therefore responsible for at least 25 Nazi régime opponents' deaths.
The murder of eleven communists and labour organisers in Rieseberg (about 15 miles east of Braunschweig) by members of the SS on 4 July 1933 was the most important of these events. There was to have been a judicial inquiry into the circumstances of the arrestees' deaths, but Klagges assisted in blocking and suppressing it.
Ernst Böhme
Lawyer and SPD member Ernst Böhme (1892–1968) was from 1929 until 1933 the democratically elected Mayor of the City of Braunschweig.
After the Nazis had risen to power, however, he found himself the target of growing repressive measures and ever greater persecution by Klagges, who on 13 March 1933 ordered Böhme's ouster and had him taken to the disused AOK Building, which was being used by the Nazis as a "protective custody" prison, as they called it. Böhme had the dedication of former Braunschweig Ministerpräsident Heinrich Jasper (who had likewise been persecuted by Klagges) to thank for the return of his freedom a short time later.
Shortly thereafter, however, Böhme was once again arrested and this time taken to the SPD's own, but now disused, Volksfreundhaus where he was mishandled. He was forced to sign a document declaring that he had given up his mandate. After he was let go, Böhme left Braunschweig and only came back in 1945.
On 1 June 1945, Ernst Böhme was given back his mayoralty by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
military administration. He stayed on as mayor until 17 December 1948.
Heinrich Jasper
Lawyer and SPD member Heinrich Jasper (1875–1945) was, among other things, a city councillor since 1903, an SPD factional chairman in Braunschweig's Landtag, member of the Weimar National Assembly
Weimar National Assembly
The Weimar National Assembly governed Germany from February 6, 1919 to June 6, 1920 and drew up the new constitution which governed Germany from 1919 to 1933, technically remaining in effect even until the end of Nazi rule in 1945...
as well as Braunschweig State Minister between 1919 and 1930 and several times the Braunschweig Free State's premier.
Jasper was, at Klagges's instigation, taken into "protective custody" on false pretenses on 17 March 1933, and taken to the AOK Building, where he was severely beaten in an attempt to force him to resign his political mandate, which Jasper, however, would not do. He was next taken to the Volksfreundhaus where he faced further mishandling until his temporary release on 19 April.
On 26 June 1933, Jasper was once again arrested and taken to Dachau concentration camp, from which he was released in 1939 under circumstances that have yet to be explained. Jasper then returned to Braunschweig where he was placed under constant surveillance and had to report daily to the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
.
The failed attempt on Hitler's life
July 20 Plot
On 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government...
at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
on 20 July 1944 furnished another pretense on which to arrest Jasper yet again on 22 August 1944. After spending time in various concentration camps, he ended up at Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
where he is believed to have died on 19 February 1945 of typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
.
August Merges
August Merges (1870–1945) belonged to various leftwing parties, was one of the leaders of the November Revolution
German Revolution
The German Revolution was the politically-driven civil conflict in Germany at the end of World War I, which resulted in the replacement of Germany's imperial government with a republic...
in Braunschweig and was President of the Socialist Republic of Braunschweig. After 1933 he moved out of active party work and joined the resistance against the Nazi régime.
In April 1935, he was arrested together with other resistance fighters and severely beaten. He was sentenced for high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
but was released early, in 1937, for medical reasons. On Klagges's instructions he was arrested once more and taken into "protective custody".
After Merges had once more been set free, he was nevertheless repeatedly picked up by the Gestapo and detained for a short time. He died as a result of mishandling suffered at the Gestapo's hands.
Forced labour and concentration camps
Beginning on 21 January 1941, Klagges started having Braunschweig's Jews deported to the concentration camps. In 1944, there were 91,000 forced labourers in the Watenstedt-SalzgitterSalzgitter
Salzgitter is an independent city in southeast Lower Saxony, Germany, located between Hildesheim and Braunschweig. Together with Wolfsburg and Braunschweig, Salzgitter is one of the seven Oberzentren of Lower Saxony...
, Braunschweig and Helmstedt
Helmstedt
Helmstedt is a city located at the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. Helmstedt has 26,000 inhabitants . In former times the city was also called Helmstädt....
area. This was far and away the highest density at labour camps anywhere in the Reich. Indeed, a great number of the people killed in the massive air raid
Bombing of Braunschweig in World War II
During World War II Braunschweig was attacked by Allied aircraft in 42 bombing raids.The attack on the night of 14/15 October 1944 by No. 5 Group Royal Air Force marked the high point of the destruction of Henry the Lion's city in the Second World War...
on 15 October 1944 were forced labourers and camp inmates. When US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
troops occupied Braunschweig on 12 April 1945, there were still 61,000 prisoners in the camps.
War's end and postwar developments
On 12 April 1945, Klagges was taken prisoner by the American troops thronging into Braunschweig, and in 1946, a military court in BielefeldBielefeld
Bielefeld is an independent city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 323,000, it is also the most populous city in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold...
sentenced him to six years in labour prison (Zuchthaus) for crimes committed in his function as SS Gruppenführer
Gruppenführer
Gruppenführer was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party, first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA.-SS rank:...
(the highest rank that he reached in the SS, in 1942, was actually Obergruppenführer
Obergruppenführer
Obergruppenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the SA and until 1942 it was the highest SS rank inferior only to Reichsführer-SS...
; he was furthermore "Honorary Leader" of the 49th SS Standard).
The Klagges Trials
The new General Prosecutor Fritz BauerFritz Bauer
Fritz Bauer was a German judge and prosecutor.-Life:Bauer was born in Stuttgart, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire to Jewish parents. He attended Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium and studied business and law at the Universities of Heidelberg, Munich and Tübingen. After receiving his Doctorate of...
, who had come to Braunschweig in 1950, and who was later active in the 1960s, likewise as a prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
, in the Auschwitz Trials
Frankfurt Auschwitz trials
The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, known in German as der Auschwitz-Prozess or der zweite Auschwitz-Prozess, was a series of trials running from December 20, 1963 to August 10, 1965, charging 22 defendants under German penal law for their roles in the Holocaust as mid- to lower-level officials in the...
, contributed to a great extent to getting Klagges sentenced in a normal criminal trial on 4 April 1950 to a life term in labour prison for crimes committed by him as Braunschweig State Minister and Premier, including, among others, the Rieseberg murders.
The Bundesgerichtshof
Federal Court of Justice of Germany
The Federal Court of Justice of Germany in Karlsruhe is the highest court in the system of ordinary jurisdiction in Germany. It is the supreme court in all matters of criminal and private law...
(a federal court), however, overturned this sentence in 1952. In a second trial in which it could be proved that Klagges had taken part in murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
s, torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, false imprisonment
False imprisonment
False imprisonment is a restraint of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent. False imprisonment is a common-law felony and a tort. It applies to private as well as governmental detention...
, and so on, and that he had planned (by himself or with others) these deeds, his prison term was reduced to 15 years.
In his defence, Klagges put it to the court that he had known nothing about all that, as he had only worked from a desk and he was deceived by his underlings as to the true extent of the Nazi terror that was being perpetrated.
In 1955, Klagges's wife applied for her husband's early release from prison without further probation
Probation
Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...
ary conditions. This first application was rejected, as was another one made the next year. In 1957, however, Klagges was released after having served about 80% of his prison term, and moved with his wife to Bad Harzburg
Bad Harzburg
Bad Harzburg is a town in central Germany, in the Goslar district of Lower Saxony. It lies on the northern edge of the Harz mountains and is a recognised saltwater spa and climatic health resort.- Location :...
, where he busied himself mainly with editing rightwing writings and maintaining contacts with neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
groups in Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
until his death in 1971.
In 1970, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht
Federal Administrative Court of Germany
The Federal Administrative Court is one of the five federal supreme courts of Germany. It is the court of the last resort for generally all cases of administrative law, mainly disputes between citizens and the state...
(another federal court) decided that Klagges had to receive an amount accumulated from his pension as premier (Ministerpräsident), approximately DM
German mark
The Deutsche Mark |mark]], abbreviated "DM") was the official currency of West Germany and Germany until the adoption of the euro in 2002. It is commonly called the "Deutschmark" in English but not in German. Germans often say "Mark" or "D-Mark"...
100,000.
Quotations
- "He wants to remain king of an enlarged Braunschweig" (entry in Goebbels's diary from 5 February 1941 about Klagges)
- "The hundreds of thousands of foreigners, above all Jews, were impartially acknowledged as having equal rights … Behind everything stood the parasitic Jews' will … to rule the world." (from Klagges's book Geschichtsunterricht als nationalpolitische Erziehung)
Literature
- Richard Bein: Im deutschen Land marschieren wir. Freistaat Braunschweig 1930–1945. Braunschweig 1984
- Braunschweiger Zeitung (publisher): "Wie braun war Braunschweig? Hitler und der Freistaat Braunschweig" Braunschweig 2003
- Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (publishers): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Hanover 1996
- Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt (publishers): Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. Jahrtausendrückblick einer Region, Braunschweig 2000, ISBN 3-930292-28-9
- Helmut Kramer (publisher): Braunschweig unterm Hakenkreuz. Braunschweig 1981
- Karl-Joachim Krause: Braunschweig zwischen Krieg und Frieden. Die Ereignisse vor und nach der Kapitulation der Stadt am 12. April 1945. Braunschweig 1994
- Hans Johann Reinowski: Terror in Braunschweig. Aus dem ersten Quartal der Hitlerherrschaft. Bericht herausgegeben von der Kommission zur Untersuchung der Lage der politischen Gefangenen. Zurich 1933
- Ernst-August Roloff: Braunschweig und der Staat von Weimar. Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 1918-1933. In: Braunschweiger Werkstücke, Band 31, Braunschweig 1964
- Ernst-August Roloff: Bürgertum und Nationalsozialismus 1930-1933. Braunschweigs Weg ins Dritte Reich. Hanover 1961
- Gunhild Ruben: Bitte mich als Untermieter bei Ihnen anzumelden – Hitler und Braunschweig 1932–1935. Norderstedt 2004