Rudolf Jordan
Encyclopedia
Rudolf Jordan was a Nazi
Gauleiter
in Halle-Merseburg
and Magdeburg
-Anhalt
in the time of the Third Reich.
Jordan was born in Großenlüder
, Hesse-Nassau. His family's background was in farming, although his father was also a sales
man. After finishing Volksschule
, Jordan became a worker in the armament industry between 1916 and 1918. He earned so much money doing this that after the First World War, he found himself able to begin training as a teacher in Fulda
. He nevertheless got involved in the military, serving from 1920 to 1922 as a temporary volunteer in the Reichswehr
. In 1922, Jordan became a member of the Freikorps Oberland
, and alongside this service ended his teacher training in 1924. At 22, he was already a Volksschule teacher.
The high joblessness rate in Germany
at this time, however, kept him from finding a teaching job, leading him to take such jobs as workman, office worker or freelancer, among others, at publishing houses and in advertising
to keep his head above water financially. Only in 1927 could he break into teaching, and he worked as a teacher at, among other schools, the "Army Vocational School for Economics and Administration" ("Heeresfachschule für Wirtschaft und Verwaltung") in Fulda.
Already by 1924, Jordan was active as a speaker for the Völkisch-Social Bloc and the German-völkisch Reich Party, without ever becoming a member of either one, however. Through these rather nationalistically oriented groups, Jordan came into contact with the NSDAP, which he joined in May 1925.
In 1925, Jordan's first writings came out:
In November 1929 Jordan got into Hesse-Nassau's Provinziallandtag for the Nazi Party, and in December of the same year he got elected as Fulda's only Nazi city councillor. Owing to this appointment, he was dismissed from his teaching job a few days later. Also in December 1929, Jordan founded the party newspaper
Fuldaer Beobachter ("Fulda Observer"), whose name was freely borrowed from the Party's official paper, the Völkischer Beobachter
.
In 1930, Jordan was made editor
of the weekly newspaper Der Sturm, whose offices were in Kassel
.
From 19 January 1931, Jordan was appointed Nazi Gauleiter of Halle-Merseburg, and then began rising within the Party ranks, acting as member of the Prussian Landtag between April 1932 and October 1933 and being appointed to the Prussian State Council and made an SA
Gruppenführer
.
In the same year began the publication of the Mitteldeutsche Tageszeitung newspaper, led by Jordan himself. In March 1933 came his appointment as Plenipotentiary for the Province of Saxony
in the Reichsrat
and in November 1933 his election as a member of the Reichstag
. On 20 April 1937, Adolf Hitler
personally appointed him Reichsstatthalter
(Reich Governor) in Braunschweig
and Anhalt
and NSDAP Gauleiter of Magdeburg
-Anhalt
. Jordan was succeeded as Gauleiter of Halle-Merseburg by Joachim Albrecht Eggeling
.
In the same year came Jordan's promotion to SA Obergruppenführer
.
In 1939, Jordan became Chief of the Anhalt Provincial Government and Reichsverteidigungskommissar (Reich Defence Commissar, or RVK) in Defence District XI. On 18 April 1944 came Jordan's last leap up the career ladder when he was appointed High President (Oberpräsident) of the Province of Magdeburg.
In the war's dying days, Jordan managed to go underground with his family under a false name. He was nonetheless arrested by the British
on 30 May 1945, and in July of the next year, the Western Allies handed him over to the Soviets.
Late in 1950 – after four years in custody in the Soviet occupation zone – Jordan was sentenced to 25 years in a labour camp in the Soviet Union
. Only Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
's visit to Moscow
managed to persuade the Soviets to reconsider Jordan's sentence, and then he was released on 13 October 1955.
In the years to come, Jordan earned a living as a sales representative, and worked as an administrator for an aircraft manufacturing firm. He died in Munich
.
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
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:...
in Halle-Merseburg
Halle-Merseburg
The Province of Halle-Merseburg was a province of the Free State of Prussia from 1944-45. The provincial capital was the city Merseburg.Halle-Merseburg was created on 1 July 1944, out of Regierungsbezirk Merseburg, an administrative region from the former Province of Saxony. The governor of the...
and Magdeburg
Magdeburg
Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
-Anhalt
Anhalt
Anhalt was a sovereign county in Germany, located between the Harz Mountains and the river Elbe in Middle Germany. It now forms part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt.- Dukes of Anhalt :...
in the time of the Third Reich.
Jordan was born in Großenlüder
Großenlüder
Großenlüder is a municipality in the district of Fulda, in Hesse, Germany....
, Hesse-Nassau. His family's background was in farming, although his father was also a sales
Sales
A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....
man. After finishing Volksschule
Volksschule
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...
, Jordan became a worker in the armament industry between 1916 and 1918. He earned so much money doing this that after the First World War, he found himself able to begin training as a teacher in Fulda
Fulda
Fulda is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district .- Early Middle Ages :...
. He nevertheless got involved in the military, serving from 1920 to 1922 as a temporary volunteer in the Reichswehr
Reichswehr
The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was renamed the Wehrmacht ....
. In 1922, Jordan became a member of the Freikorps Oberland
Freikorps Oberland
The Freikorps Oberland was a free corps in the early years of the Weimar Republic, fighting against Communist and Polish insurgents...
, and alongside this service ended his teacher training in 1924. At 22, he was already a Volksschule teacher.
The high joblessness rate in Germany
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...
at this time, however, kept him from finding a teaching job, leading him to take such jobs as workman, office worker or freelancer, among others, at publishing houses and in advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
to keep his head above water financially. Only in 1927 could he break into teaching, and he worked as a teacher at, among other schools, the "Army Vocational School for Economics and Administration" ("Heeresfachschule für Wirtschaft und Verwaltung") in Fulda.
Already by 1924, Jordan was active as a speaker for the Völkisch-Social Bloc and the German-völkisch Reich Party, without ever becoming a member of either one, however. Through these rather nationalistically oriented groups, Jordan came into contact with the NSDAP, which he joined in May 1925.
In 1925, Jordan's first writings came out:
- "Der wissenschaftliche Sozialismus" ("Economic Socialism")
- "Deutschland als Kolonie der Wallstreet" ("Germany as Wall Street's Colony")
In November 1929 Jordan got into Hesse-Nassau's Provinziallandtag for the Nazi Party, and in December of the same year he got elected as Fulda's only Nazi city councillor. Owing to this appointment, he was dismissed from his teaching job a few days later. Also in December 1929, Jordan founded the party newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
Fuldaer Beobachter ("Fulda Observer"), whose name was freely borrowed from the Party's official paper, the Völkischer Beobachter
Völkischer Beobachter
The Völkischer Beobachter was the newspaper of the National Socialist German Workers' Party from 1920. It first appeared weekly, then daily from February 8, 1923...
.
In 1930, Jordan was made editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of the weekly newspaper Der Sturm, whose offices were in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
.
From 19 January 1931, Jordan was appointed Nazi Gauleiter of Halle-Merseburg, and then began rising within the Party ranks, acting as member of the Prussian Landtag between April 1932 and October 1933 and being appointed to the Prussian State Council and made an 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...
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:...
.
In the same year began the publication of the Mitteldeutsche Tageszeitung newspaper, led by Jordan himself. In March 1933 came his appointment as Plenipotentiary for the Province of Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
in 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...
and in November 1933 his election as a member of the Reichstag
Reichstag (German Empire)
The Reichstag was the parliament of the North German Confederation , and of the German Reich ....
. On 20 April 1937, Adolf Hitler
Adolf 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...
personally appointed him Reichsstatthalter
Reichsstatthalter
The term Reichsstatthalter was used twice for different offices, in the imperial Hohenzollern dynasty's German Empire and the single-party Nazi Third Reich.- "Statthalter des Reiches" 1879-1918 in Alsace-Lorraine :...
(Reich Governor) in Braunschweig
Braunschweig
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....
and Anhalt
Anhalt
Anhalt was a sovereign county in Germany, located between the Harz Mountains and the river Elbe in Middle Germany. It now forms part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt.- Dukes of Anhalt :...
and NSDAP Gauleiter of Magdeburg
Magdeburg
Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
-Anhalt
Anhalt
Anhalt was a sovereign county in Germany, located between the Harz Mountains and the river Elbe in Middle Germany. It now forms part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt.- Dukes of Anhalt :...
. Jordan was succeeded as Gauleiter of Halle-Merseburg by Joachim Albrecht Eggeling
Joachim Albrecht Eggeling
Joachim Albrecht Leo Eggeling was the Nazi Gauleiter of Saxony and Anhalt and the High President of the Province of Halle-Merseburg.Eggeling was born in Blankenburg am Harz, Province of Saxony...
.
In the same year came Jordan's promotion to SA 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...
.
In 1939, Jordan became Chief of the Anhalt Provincial Government and Reichsverteidigungskommissar (Reich Defence Commissar, or RVK) in Defence District XI. On 18 April 1944 came Jordan's last leap up the career ladder when he was appointed High President (Oberpräsident) of the Province of Magdeburg.
In the war's dying days, Jordan managed to go underground with his family under a false name. He was nonetheless arrested by the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on 30 May 1945, and in July of the next year, the Western Allies handed him over to the Soviets.
Late in 1950 – after four years in custody in the Soviet occupation zone – Jordan was sentenced to 25 years in a labour camp in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Only Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
's visit to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
managed to persuade the Soviets to reconsider Jordan's sentence, and then he was released on 13 October 1955.
In the years to come, Jordan earned a living as a sales representative, and worked as an administrator for an aircraft manufacturing firm. He died in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
.
Publications after the war
- 1971: "Erlebt und erlitten. Weg eines Gauleiters von München nach Moskau" ("Experienced and Suffered. A Gauleiter's Way from Munich to Moscow")
- 1974: "Im Zeugenstand der Geschichte. Antworten zum Thema Hitler" ("On History's Witness Stand. Answers to the Theme of Hitler")
- 1984: "Der 30. Juni 1934. Die sog. "Röhm-Revolte" und ihre Folgen aus der Sicht eines Erlebniszeugen" ("The 30th of June 1934. The so-called "Röhm Revolt" and its Aftermath from a Witness's Point of View")