Theodor Oberländer
Encyclopedia
Theodor Oberländer was an Ostforschung scientist
, Nazi officer and German
politician. Before Second World War he devised plans aimed against Jewish and Polish population in territories that were to be conquered by Nazi Germany
. During the war he supported ethnic cleansing
policies of Nazis and after invasion of Soviet Union
served as a contact officer with Nazi collaborationists on the Eastern Front
. After the war he served as Federal Minister for Displaced Persons, Refugees and Victims of War
in the Second and Third Cabinets of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
from 1953 to 1960, and as a Member of the Bundestag
from 1953 to 1961 and from 1963 to 1965. Oberländer initially represented the All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights
and served as its chairman from 1954 to 1955. In 1956 he became a member of the Christian Democratic Union.
Before he entered federal politics, he served as a member of the Parliament of Bavaria from 1950 to 1953 and as Secretary of State for Refugee Affairs in the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior
from 1951 to 1953.
, Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen
, part of the German Empire
in 1905.
's Beer Hall Putsch
in Munich
, Bavaria
, in 1923 during the existence of Weimar Republic
. After joining Nazis in 1933 he became a senior SA commander and leader of NSDAP district. Oberländer obtained a doctorate in Agricultural Science
s and wrote several books about the need for German intervention in the agricultural systems of Poland
and the Soviet Union
, which he considered "un-economic".
Oberländer became a member of the Nazi Party in 1933. He became a professor at the University of Greifswald, where he took the forefront in making the university and the Province of Pomerania "judenfrei
" (free of Jews). On 4 August 1935, he became an assistant to Gauleiter
Erich Koch
, under whose authority he started to gather information about non-German minorities in East Prussia
. A significant role in this process was played by the "Bund Deutscher Osten
" (BDO - "League for a German East"), which advocated radical Germanization of the eastern provinces and the elimination of the Polish language
in Masuria
. The language's traditional usage in the Protestant
churches of the Masurians was outlawed in November 1939, with the Lutheran
Prussian Church leadership acquiescing in December.
"border struggle" with Poland.
The meeting was divided into two groups:”base” and "front”. The "base" included 58 professors, lecturers and research assistants, the "front" was made up of political functionaries, seven training specialists of the NSDAP, Hitler Youth
, three heads of Reichsarbeitsdiensts, two teachers and two civil servants. It was Oberländer who introduced the 72 patricipants on the first day and set for them the task to study "border struggle" against Poland.
Attacking Poland, he advocated fighting the Polish minority in Nazi Germany and demanded
that social relationships between Germans and Polish immigrants be prohibited.
Oberländer implied that Poland was not capable of sociopolitical and agrarian reforms due that fact that it was not "racially homogenous" nation state. The population of Polish cities has been named by him as "transplanted rubes".
Sharing Hitler's view Oberländer believed that the treaties regarding the East
, like the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact, were only conditional, and that Ostforschung
studies should go on as usual "so that after ten years we have everything ready that we could need in any given circumstances". Continuing his studies on rural population of Poland he noted in his works that "Poland has eight million inhabitants too many".
Reflecting on the temporary lack of possibility of open war
in the East, Oberländer wrote the following:
The struggle for ethnicity is nothing other than the continuation of war by other means under the cover of peace. Not a fight with gas, grenades, and machine-guns, but a fight about homes, farms, schools and the souls of children, a struggle whose end, unlike in war, is not foreseeable as long as the insane principle of the nationalism of the state dominates the Eastern region, a struggle which goes on with one aim:extermination!
Other features of Oberländer's thoughts concentrated on depicting Jews as carriers of communism
, and the benefits of peasant antisemitism to German goals in Central and Eastern Europe.
His preparatory work in BDO involved monitoring over 1,200,000 Poles living in Germany, with card-name index of untrustworthy Poles and Germans living in the borderlands, and proposals to Germanise Polish place, street, and family names.
In the summer of 1937 Oberländer formulated a "divide and conquer" strategy for Poland.
Within Poland, ethnic groups were to be directed into fighting with each other in order to prepare ground for German rule. The Poles were to be steered away from opposing Germans and guided into confrontation with Russians
and Jews
. Oberländer additionally called for elimination of "assimiliated Jewry" which in his view carried "communist ideas". Polish peasants were to be
"taught" that they benefit from German "law".
In order to win over Poles for the side of German hegemony
in Europe
, Oberländer proposed that they share in theft of Jewish property. Around 3,5 million Polish Jews and 1,5 million people who were considered "assimilated Jews" were to be deprived of all of their rights. He is considered by some historians to be among the academics who laid the intellectual foundation for Final Solution
.
By 1937, Oberländer however started to lose influence in Nazi party as his views on the treatment of the Polish population (but not the Jewish question) were losing out to more hardline positions and his personal conflict with Erich Koch
. As a result he lost his position in East Prussia and within BDO by 1938. From 1.4.1938, he worked as Professor of History at University of Greifswald
and diversion
organised by Nazis that conducted operations against Poland. At the same time, his work concerned issues connected to Ukraine
and the Sudetes region and he had contacts with Osteuropa Institut located in Breslau (Wrocław).
of Polish population, and, in 1941, wrote in the German magazine Deutsche Monatshefte: "We have the best soldier in the world who re-conquered German soil in the East. There is no bigger responsibility than educating this colonist to be the best on earth and to secure the living space for all time to come" Oberländer's words echoed the views of Heinrich Himmler
, who envisioned settling former soldiers, armed with weapons and ploughs in the East, not just pure peasants
During 1940 he moved to University of Prague
, after which he became active in Ukraine
, where he was used by Nazi Germany's military as expert on „ethnic psychology”.
When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union
in 1941, Oberländer became an advising officer of the Nachtigall Battalion
(a Ukrainian battalion of Wehrmacht
) which occupied Lviv
in Ukraine
; his position was similar to that of Soviet political commissar
s. The participation of the Battalion in The Lviv Civilian Massacre of 1941 has since been subject to controversy, and Oberländer himself has been accused after the war of participating in the events.
In January 1942, he sent a report on situation in Ukraine in which he wrote that success lay in "winning over the masses and pitilessly exterminating partisans as deleterious to the people". He later became the leader of the mixed German and Caucasian Sonderverband Bergmann, which was active in anti-partisan
warfare. Both army groups were later claimed to have participated in war crime
s. Oberländer's involvement in Eastern front
would led to the Oberländer case at the end of the 1950s. In 1943 he was dismissed from Wehrmacht
due to political conflict with his superiors and returned to Prague. In 1944 he joined the staff of Andrey Vlasov
's Russian Liberation Army
. He was taken prisoner of war
by the United States Army
in 1945.
appreciated Oberländer's expertise in eastern European matters, and he went through the denazification
process with relative ease. After the war Oberländer claimed that he had criticised Nazi policies and personally only wanted German hegemony
over Slavic peoples
in which they would have "some respect" and were "treated reasonably humanly".
Oberländer again became active in German politics, first in the liberal Free Democratic Party
, then in the Bloc of Refugees and Expellees
(GB/BHE)(despite the fact that he himself was not expelled), where he would become a prominent figure alongside another ex-Nazi Waldemar Kraft
previously innterned for two years for his wartime activities in occupied Poland BHE itself was connected in various ways to the Nazis, as it openly tried to win over former NSDAP members angry at denazification, calling their crimes to be only „uncritical belief in Germany's future”. The party classified those Nazis on pair with war-damaged as fellow victims. The fact that it y selected as its leaders two ex-Nazis, who took part in expulsion and expropation of non-Germans severely undermined German complaints about their situation.
Oberländer joined the Adenauer
government of West Germany
in 1953 as Minister for Refugees and Expellees. His appointment prompted negative press coverage and made details of his Nazi past known. But despite the fact that he nominated several former Nazis as co-workers, the criticism soon died down. Adenauer in particular was keen on getting the BHE on board, as with its support he controlled two-thirds majority in parliament. Adenauer knew very well that Oberländer was a former Nationalist Socialist and admitted he has a "very brown past”
When Oberländer tried to visit his former Nazi co-workes in 1956 who still served time in Landsberg prison, the foreign minister of Germany vetoed the trip, fearing for international consequences, nevertheless despite hindrances Oberländer still tried to support far right groups.
Oberländer left the GB/BHE for the centre Christian Democratic Union
in 1956 when it broke with Adenauer. Adenauer himself continued to support him, as a matter of principle.
In the fall of 1959, the Eastern Bloc
unleashed a coordinated campaign against the presence of Nazis in West German government, which included Oberländer. He was accused of participating in the Lviv Massacre. Previously he had been able to remain active in politics despite the accusations, but the situation this time became more unfavourable, and some of his fellow CDU colleagues pushed for him to resign for the good of government and country.
While many in West Germany did not believe the accusations of war crimes, it was clear that Oberländer had been an enthusiastic Nazi; due to fact that West German community had reinvented its immage as community of innocent bystanders during Second World War, Oberländer past was considered liability.
In 1960 Oberländer was sentenced in absentia
to life imprisonment by an East German
political court, for his alleged involvement in the Lviv massacre in 1941. In January 1960 during discussion with 3,000 students of University of Cologne
Adenauer was faced with protests against the continued presence of Oberländer in the German government. In response, Adenauer stated that Oberländer was a Nazi but "never did anything dishonourable". Despite Adenauer's protection, Oberländer became a heavy burden on the German government in May 1960 and finally was forced to resign from the government, but not because of his past but due to fact that he politically represented no value that was worth trouble<.
Oberländer nevertheless continued efforts to influence the German public, and in 1962 published an article in Der Stahlhelm, an organ of former Frontsoldaten. In it he repeated claims about a "revolutionary war" in which he accused the "dictatorship in the East" of conducting an offensive revolution against the West
, in which there was "no beginning", and no movement of troops, but which was led by "infiltration and publicism" as well as "espionage". He denounced any possibility of "coexistence" between East and West and blamed such ideas on a "rootless intelligentsia"; Oberländer wrote "to appease the enemy" was "to further world revolution". Historian Michael Burleigh
notes that the idea that the „unfree” perhaps didn't wanted to be „liberated” by the likes of Oberländer and his „Bund der Frontsoldaten”(who passed that way twenty years ago)-did not occur to him.
In 1986, Oberländer received the Bavarian Order of Merit
from the state of Bavaria
.
The GDR "conviction" of Oberländer was declared null and void by the Berlin Kammergericht
in 1993. At the end of his life, Oberländer became involved in anti-immigration politics.
A new case was opened against Oberländer in 1996 in which he was charged with the unlawful killing of a civilian in Kislovodsk
in 1942 during his Bergmann leadership. This time it involved an interrogation of a female teacher, who was whipped and after refusing to talk about suspected partisan activity shot in the breast by Oberländer, who left her to die. Oberländer called those allegations "Soviet lies".
Theodor Oberländer died in Bonn
in 1998.
, a noted expert on Eastern European history, and the grandfather of Christian Oberländer, Professor of Japanese Studies.
Ostforschung
Ostforschung in general describes since the 18th century any German research of areas to the East of Germany. Since the 1990s, the Ostforschung itself is a subject of historic research, while the names of institutes etc. were changed to more specific ones. For example, the journal „Zeitschrift für...
, Nazi officer and 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...
politician. Before Second World War he devised plans aimed against Jewish and Polish population in territories that were to be conquered by 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...
. During the war he supported ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
policies of Nazis and after invasion of 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....
served as a contact officer with Nazi collaborationists on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
. After the war he served as Federal Minister for Displaced Persons, Refugees and Victims of War
Federal Ministry for Displaced Persons, Refugees and War Victims
The Federal Ministry for Displaced Persons, Refugees and War Victims was part of the West German federal government from 1949 till 1969.Before the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany on the territory of the three western allied zones, the individual state governments were in charge of...
in the Second and Third Cabinets of 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,...
from 1953 to 1960, and as a Member of the Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
from 1953 to 1961 and from 1963 to 1965. Oberländer initially represented the All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights
All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights
The All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights was a right-wing political party in West Germany, which acted as an advocacy group of the Germans fled and expelled in and after World War II.-History:...
and served as its chairman from 1954 to 1955. In 1956 he became a member of the Christian Democratic Union.
Before he entered federal politics, he served as a member of the Parliament of Bavaria from 1950 to 1953 and as Secretary of State for Refugee Affairs in the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior
Bavarian Ministry of the Interior
The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior is the interior ministry of Bavaria. It is headquartered in Munich, and was established on November 21, 1806 as the Departement des Innern...
from 1951 to 1953.
Early life
Oberländer was born in MeiningenMeiningen
Meiningen is a town in Germany - located in the southern part of the state of Thuringia and is the district seat of Schmalkalden-Meiningen. It is situated on the river Werra....
, Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen
Saxe-Meiningen
The Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin dynasty, located in the southwest of the present-day German state of Thuringia....
, part of the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
in 1905.
Nazi career
At the age of eighteen he participated in 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...
's Beer Hall Putsch
Beer Hall Putsch
The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of 8 November and the early afternoon of 9 November 1923, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to seize power...
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...
, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, in 1923 during the existence of 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...
. After joining Nazis in 1933 he became a senior SA commander and leader of NSDAP district. Oberländer obtained a doctorate in Agricultural Science
Agricultural science
Agricultural science is a broad multidisciplinary field that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. -Agriculture and agricultural science:The two terms are often confused...
s and wrote several books about the need for German intervention in the agricultural systems of Poland
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
and 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....
, which he considered "un-economic".
Oberländer became a member of the Nazi Party in 1933. He became a professor at the University of Greifswald, where he took the forefront in making the university and the Province of Pomerania "judenfrei
Judenfrei
Judenfrei was a Nazi term to designate an area free of Jewish presence during The Holocaust.While Judenfrei referred merely to "freeing" an area of all of its Jewish citizens, the term Judenrein was also used...
" (free of Jews). On 4 August 1935, he became an assistant to 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:...
Erich Koch
Erich Koch
Erich Koch was a Gauleiter of the Nazi Party in East Prussia from 1928 until 1945. Between 1941 and 1945 he was the Chief of Civil Administration of Bezirk Bialystok. During this period, he was also the Reichskommissar in Reichskommissariat Ukraine from 1941 until 1943...
, under whose authority he started to gather information about non-German minorities 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...
. A significant role in this process was played by the "Bund Deutscher Osten
Bund Deutscher Osten
Bund Deutscher Osten was a German Nazi organisation founded on 26 May 1933. The organisation was supported by the Nazi Party. The BDO was a national socialist version of German Eastern Marches Society, which was closed down by the Nazis in 1934...
" (BDO - "League for a German East"), which advocated radical Germanization of the eastern provinces and the elimination of the Polish language
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
in Masuria
Masuria
Masuria is an area in northeastern Poland famous for its 2,000 lakes. Geographically, Masuria is part of two adjacent lakeland districts, the Masurian Lake District and the Iława Lake District...
. The language's traditional usage in the Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
churches of the Masurians was outlawed in November 1939, with the Lutheran
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
Prussian Church leadership acquiescing in December.
Work on designs towards non-German ethnic groups
In March 1935, he attended a meeting of professors, scholars and NSDAP training specialists dedicated to study of the "East" where he dedicated his esseys at what he described as"border struggle" with Poland.
The meeting was divided into two groups:”base” and "front”. The "base" included 58 professors, lecturers and research assistants, the "front" was made up of political functionaries, seven training specialists of the NSDAP, 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...
, three heads of Reichsarbeitsdiensts, two teachers and two civil servants. It was Oberländer who introduced the 72 patricipants on the first day and set for them the task to study "border struggle" against Poland.
Attacking Poland, he advocated fighting the Polish minority in Nazi Germany and demanded
that social relationships between Germans and Polish immigrants be prohibited.
Oberländer implied that Poland was not capable of sociopolitical and agrarian reforms due that fact that it was not "racially homogenous" nation state. The population of Polish cities has been named by him as "transplanted rubes".
Sharing Hitler's view Oberländer believed that the treaties regarding the East
East
East is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.East is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of west and is perpendicular to north and south.By convention, the right side of a map is east....
, like the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact, were only conditional, and that Ostforschung
Ostforschung
Ostforschung in general describes since the 18th century any German research of areas to the East of Germany. Since the 1990s, the Ostforschung itself is a subject of historic research, while the names of institutes etc. were changed to more specific ones. For example, the journal „Zeitschrift für...
studies should go on as usual "so that after ten years we have everything ready that we could need in any given circumstances". Continuing his studies on rural population of Poland he noted in his works that "Poland has eight million inhabitants too many".
Reflecting on the temporary lack of possibility of open war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
in the East, Oberländer wrote the following:
The struggle for ethnicity is nothing other than the continuation of war by other means under the cover of peace. Not a fight with gas, grenades, and machine-guns, but a fight about homes, farms, schools and the souls of children, a struggle whose end, unlike in war, is not foreseeable as long as the insane principle of the nationalism of the state dominates the Eastern region, a struggle which goes on with one aim:extermination!
Other features of Oberländer's thoughts concentrated on depicting Jews as carriers of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, and the benefits of peasant antisemitism to German goals in Central and Eastern Europe.
His preparatory work in BDO involved monitoring over 1,200,000 Poles living in Germany, with card-name index of untrustworthy Poles and Germans living in the borderlands, and proposals to Germanise Polish place, street, and family names.
In the summer of 1937 Oberländer formulated a "divide and conquer" strategy for Poland.
Within Poland, ethnic groups were to be directed into fighting with each other in order to prepare ground for German rule. The Poles were to be steered away from opposing Germans and guided into confrontation with Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
and Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
. Oberländer additionally called for elimination of "assimiliated Jewry" which in his view carried "communist ideas". Polish peasants were to be
"taught" that they benefit from German "law".
In order to win over Poles for the side of German hegemony
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Oberländer proposed that they share in theft of Jewish property. Around 3,5 million Polish Jews and 1,5 million people who were considered "assimilated Jews" were to be deprived of all of their rights. He is considered by some historians to be among the academics who laid the intellectual foundation for Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
.
By 1937, Oberländer however started to lose influence in Nazi party as his views on the treatment of the Polish population (but not the Jewish question) were losing out to more hardline positions and his personal conflict with Erich Koch
Erich Koch
Erich Koch was a Gauleiter of the Nazi Party in East Prussia from 1928 until 1945. Between 1941 and 1945 he was the Chief of Civil Administration of Bezirk Bialystok. During this period, he was also the Reichskommissar in Reichskommissariat Ukraine from 1941 until 1943...
. As a result he lost his position in East Prussia and within BDO by 1938. From 1.4.1938, he worked as Professor of History at University of Greifswald
Career in Nazi foreign intelligence
In 1939 Oberländer moved to work in Abwehrstelle Breslau; one of the main centers of sabotageSabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
and diversion
Feint
Feint is a French term that entered English from the discipline of fencing. Feints are maneuvers designed to distract or mislead, done by giving the impression that a certain maneuver will take place, while in fact another, or even none, will...
organised by Nazis that conducted operations against Poland. At the same time, his work concerned issues connected to Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and the Sudetes region and he had contacts with Osteuropa Institut located in Breslau (Wrocław).
Second World War
In 1940, Oberländer endorsed ethnic cleansingEthnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
of Polish population, and, in 1941, wrote in the German magazine Deutsche Monatshefte: "We have the best soldier in the world who re-conquered German soil in the East. There is no bigger responsibility than educating this colonist to be the best on earth and to secure the living space for all time to come" Oberländer's words echoed the views of Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, who envisioned settling former soldiers, armed with weapons and ploughs in the East, not just pure peasants
During 1940 he moved to University of Prague
Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe and is also considered the earliest German university...
, after which he became active in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, where he was used by Nazi Germany's military as expert on „ethnic psychology”.
When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
in 1941, Oberländer became an advising officer of the Nachtigall Battalion
Nachtigall Battalion
The Nachtigall Battalion , officially known as Special Group Nachtigall, was the subunit under command of the Abwehr special operation unit Lehrregiment "Brandenburg" z.b.V. 800...
(a Ukrainian battalion of Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
) which occupied Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
; his position was similar to that of Soviet political commissar
Political commissar
The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
s. The participation of the Battalion in The Lviv Civilian Massacre of 1941 has since been subject to controversy, and Oberländer himself has been accused after the war of participating in the events.
In January 1942, he sent a report on situation in Ukraine in which he wrote that success lay in "winning over the masses and pitilessly exterminating partisans as deleterious to the people". He later became the leader of the mixed German and Caucasian Sonderverband Bergmann, which was active in anti-partisan
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
warfare. Both army groups were later claimed to have participated in war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s. Oberländer's involvement in Eastern front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
would led to the Oberländer case at the end of the 1950s. In 1943 he was dismissed from Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
due to political conflict with his superiors and returned to Prague. In 1944 he joined the staff of Andrey Vlasov
Andrey Vlasov
Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov or Wlassow was a Russian Red Army general who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.-Early career:...
's Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army was a group of predominantly Russian forces subordinated to the Nazi German high command during World War II....
. He was taken prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
by the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in 1945.
Political career in West Germany
During his imprisonment, the U.S military secret serviceSecret service
A secret service describes a government agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For instance, a country may establish a secret service which has some...
appreciated Oberländer's expertise in eastern European matters, and he went through the denazification
Denazification
Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
process with relative ease. After the war Oberländer claimed that he had criticised Nazi policies and personally only wanted German hegemony
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
over Slavic peoples
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
in which they would have "some respect" and were "treated reasonably humanly".
Oberländer again became active in German politics, first in the liberal Free Democratic Party
Free Democratic Party (Germany)
The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...
, then in the Bloc of Refugees and Expellees
All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights
The All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights was a right-wing political party in West Germany, which acted as an advocacy group of the Germans fled and expelled in and after World War II.-History:...
(GB/BHE)(despite the fact that he himself was not expelled), where he would become a prominent figure alongside another ex-Nazi Waldemar Kraft
Waldemar Kraft
Waldemar Kraft was a German politician who served as Federal Minister for Special Affairs in the Cabinet of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer from 1953 to 1956...
previously innterned for two years for his wartime activities in occupied Poland BHE itself was connected in various ways to the Nazis, as it openly tried to win over former NSDAP members angry at denazification, calling their crimes to be only „uncritical belief in Germany's future”. The party classified those Nazis on pair with war-damaged as fellow victims. The fact that it y selected as its leaders two ex-Nazis, who took part in expulsion and expropation of non-Germans severely undermined German complaints about their situation.
Oberländer joined the 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,...
government of West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
in 1953 as Minister for Refugees and Expellees. His appointment prompted negative press coverage and made details of his Nazi past known. But despite the fact that he nominated several former Nazis as co-workers, the criticism soon died down. Adenauer in particular was keen on getting the BHE on board, as with its support he controlled two-thirds majority in parliament. Adenauer knew very well that Oberländer was a former Nationalist Socialist and admitted he has a "very brown past”
When Oberländer tried to visit his former Nazi co-workes in 1956 who still served time in Landsberg prison, the foreign minister of Germany vetoed the trip, fearing for international consequences, nevertheless despite hindrances Oberländer still tried to support far right groups.
Oberländer left the GB/BHE for the centre Christian Democratic Union
Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
in 1956 when it broke with Adenauer. Adenauer himself continued to support him, as a matter of principle.
In the fall of 1959, the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
unleashed a coordinated campaign against the presence of Nazis in West German government, which included Oberländer. He was accused of participating in the Lviv Massacre. Previously he had been able to remain active in politics despite the accusations, but the situation this time became more unfavourable, and some of his fellow CDU colleagues pushed for him to resign for the good of government and country.
While many in West Germany did not believe the accusations of war crimes, it was clear that Oberländer had been an enthusiastic Nazi; due to fact that West German community had reinvented its immage as community of innocent bystanders during Second World War, Oberländer past was considered liability.
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
to life imprisonment by an East German
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
political court, for his alleged involvement in the Lviv massacre in 1941. In January 1960 during discussion with 3,000 students of University of Cologne
University of Cologne
The University of Cologne is one of the oldest universities in Europe and, with over 44,000 students, one of the largest universities in Germany. The university is part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, an association of Germany's leading research universities...
Adenauer was faced with protests against the continued presence of Oberländer in the German government. In response, Adenauer stated that Oberländer was a Nazi but "never did anything dishonourable". Despite Adenauer's protection, Oberländer became a heavy burden on the German government in May 1960 and finally was forced to resign from the government, but not because of his past but due to fact that he politically represented no value that was worth trouble<.
Oberländer nevertheless continued efforts to influence the German public, and in 1962 published an article in Der Stahlhelm, an organ of former Frontsoldaten. In it he repeated claims about a "revolutionary war" in which he accused the "dictatorship in the East" of conducting an offensive revolution against the West
West
West is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of east and is perpendicular to north and south.By convention, the left side of a map is west....
, in which there was "no beginning", and no movement of troops, but which was led by "infiltration and publicism" as well as "espionage". He denounced any possibility of "coexistence" between East and West and blamed such ideas on a "rootless intelligentsia"; Oberländer wrote "to appease the enemy" was "to further world revolution". Historian Michael Burleigh
Michael Burleigh
Michael Burleigh is a British author and historian.In 1977 he was awarded a first class honours degree in Medieval and Modern History from University College London, winning the Pollard, Dolley and Sir William Mayer prizes...
notes that the idea that the „unfree” perhaps didn't wanted to be „liberated” by the likes of Oberländer and his „Bund der Frontsoldaten”(who passed that way twenty years ago)-did not occur to him.
In 1986, Oberländer received the Bavarian Order of Merit
Bavarian Order of Merit
The Bavarian Order of Merit is the order of merit of the Free State of Bavaria. It is awarded by the Minister-President of Bavaria as a "recognition of outstanding contributions to the Free State of Bavaria and the Bavarian people"....
from the state of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
.
The GDR "conviction" of Oberländer was declared null and void by the Berlin Kammergericht
Kammergericht
The Kammergericht is the Oberlandesgericht for the state of Berlin. Its name differs from Germany's other state courts for historic reasons. There are no other courts called Kammergericht in Germany.-Overview:...
in 1993. At the end of his life, Oberländer became involved in anti-immigration politics.
A new case was opened against Oberländer in 1996 in which he was charged with the unlawful killing of a civilian in Kislovodsk
Kislovodsk
Kislovodsk is a city in Stavropol Krai, Russia, which lies in the North Caucasian region of the country, between the Black and Caspian Seas. The closest airport is located in the city of Mineralnye Vody. Population:...
in 1942 during his Bergmann leadership. This time it involved an interrogation of a female teacher, who was whipped and after refusing to talk about suspected partisan activity shot in the breast by Oberländer, who left her to die. Oberländer called those allegations "Soviet lies".
Theodor Oberländer died in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
in 1998.
In fiction
- Professor Theodor Oberländer appears in Jonathan LittellJonathan LittellJonathan Littell is a bilingual writer living in Barcelona. He grew up in France and United States and is a dual citizen of both countries. After acquiring his bachelor degree he worked for a humanitarian organisation for nine years, leaving his job in 2001 in order to concentrate on writing...
's docudramaDocudramaIn film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
"Les BienveillantesLes BienveillantesThe Kindly Ones is a historical novel written in French by American-born author Jonathan Littell. The 900-page book became a bestseller in France and was widely discussed in newspapers, magazines, academic journals, books and seminars...
".
Personal life
He is the father of Professor Erwin OberländerErwin Oberländer
Erwin Oberländer is a German historian and expert on Eastern European history.He studied history at the universities of Munich, Vienna and Cologne from 1956, and earned a doctorate in 1963. He was employed at the Federal Institute for Eastern and International Studies 1963-1974, and earned his...
, a noted expert on Eastern European history, and the grandfather of Christian Oberländer, Professor of Japanese Studies.
Publications
- Die agrarische Überbevölkerung Polens, Berlin 1935.
- Die agrarische Überbevölkerung Ostmitteleuropas, in: Aubin, Hermann u. a. (Hrsg.): Deutsche Ostforschung. Ergebnisse und Aufgaben seit dem ersten Weltkrieg, Bd. 2 (Deutschland und der Osten. Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte ihrer Beziehungen, Bd. 21), Leipzig 1943, S. 416 - 427.
- Der Osten und die deutsche Wehrmacht: sechs Denkschriften aus den Jahren 1941-43 gegen die NS-Kolonialthese. Hrsg. von der Zeitgeschichtlichen Forschungsstelle IngolstadtZeitgeschichtliche Forschungsstelle IngolstadtThe Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungsstelle Ingolstadt e. V. is a historical revisionist association located in Dunsdorf, Bavaria.-Political orientation:The ZFI was founded in 1981 and shaped by Alfred Schickel, Hellmut...
. Asendorf, Mut-Verlag. 144 S. In: Zeitgeschichtliche Bibliothek; Bd. 2. ISBN 3-89182-026-7 - Bayern und sein Flüchtlingsproblem, München 1953. - Die Überwindung der deutschen Not, Darmstadt 1954.
- Das Weltflüchtlingsproblem: Ein Vortrag gehalten vor dem Rhein-Ruhr-Club am 8. Mai 1959. Sonderausg. des Arbeits- u. Sozialministers des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. Verleger, Bonn: Bundesministerium f. Vertriebene, Flüchtlinge u. Kriegsgeschädigte. 1959.