Karl Megerle

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Karl Megerle, 1938 or earlier

Karl Megerle (born October 18, 1894 in Neuenstein , Württemberg ; † April 2, 1972 there ) was a German journalist and Nazi propagandist ( NSDAP ). From 1934 he worked for the Propaganda Ministry of Joseph Goebbels , for which he carried out special propaganda assignments in Austria. Therefore, after the annexation of Austria in 1938, Goebbels campaigned with Adolf Hitler to ensure that Megerle received a seat in the Reichstag, which he held until 1945. From 1941 until the end of the war, Megerle was Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop's propaganda agent . As such, he participated in propaganda against the so-called Feldscher action of 1943/44 to save Jewish children from the National Socialists. Therefore, from the mid-1960s, the public prosecutor's office was investigating Megerle. The investigation was closed in 1971 so that he did not have to answer in court. He was credited with not influencing the extermination measures against the Jewish population.

Live and act

Megerle was a son of the master bricklayer August Megerle and his wife Rosine, née Reisser. After attending primary school, Megerle was trained at the Künzelsau teacher training college. He took part in the First World War as a volunteer in Infantry Regiment 121. After the end of the war, from which he came home as a lieutenant in the reserve and severely disabled, Megerle made up his Abitur as an external student. He then studied history, German, philosophy and political science. In February 1922 he was at Adalbert choice at the University of Tübingen Dr. phil. PhD. He then worked in the school supervisory service before he worked as a foreign policy editor, then known as editor , in Hamburg for the local Hamburger Nachrichten from 1924 to 1928 . In the 1920s and 1930s Megerle wrote articles for newspapers such as the Berliner Börsen-Zeitung , the Rheinfront , Wilhelm Stapels Deutsches Volkstum and the Westfälische Landeszeitung as a freelancer . On May 1, 1933, he joined the NSDAP . All that is known of his private life is that he was married and that Hermann Göring was his brother-in-law.

Goebbels' representative for Nazi propaganda in Austria (1934–1938)

In October 1934 Megerle was employed in the Propaganda Ministry until April 1935 as a consultant in Department 7 (Abroad); then he received special assignments in connection with the Nazi regime's Austria policy. As early as October 1934, Goebbels informed the Foreign Office that he wanted to send Megerle to Vienna "at the request of the Führer" and a note from the Head of Department II (Western, Southern and Southeastern Europe) in the Foreign Office, Gerhard Köpke, dated The content of August 1, 1935 was that the establishment of a "Megerle Office" had found the approval of the "highest positions in the Reich"; Adolf Hitler wanted to hear from Megerle himself soon. The Megerle office worked in close coordination with the Vienna embassy headed by Franz von Papen , but, according to the literary scholar Klaus Amann in his habilitation thesis, externally independent on “propagandistic-cultural areas [...] to maintain the promotion of cultural and intellectual relationships between the rich and Austria ”. The tasks of the Megerle office also included supplying the Federation of German Girls (BDM) and the Hitler Youth (HJ) in Austria with around 24,000 volumes of propagandistic brochures and nationalistic books, including 700 copies of Mein Kampf during the years of the “illegal struggle” . In the spring of 1937 Megerle took part in the negotiations of the “German-Austrian Culture Committee”, in which, as Megerle's delegation colleague, Legation Councilor Fritz von Twardowski , reported after the negotiations, “the National Socialist literature was defamed as anti-subversive literature to free".

Megerle's propaganda work for Goebbels is also reflected in the diaries of the Propaganda Minister, for whom, according to historian Angela Hermann in her study of Goebbels' diaries, “from Berlin, with financial help from the Reich, he coordinated Nazi propaganda in Austria”. Goebbels noted on October 27, 1937: “Megerle reports on Austria. He thinks the government is tighter. I dont know. I want more active cultural propaganda [...] I'll let him work out a more precise proposal ”. Megerle immediately worked out a six-point memorandum entitled “Immediate cultural program”, in which he proposed, among other things, the opening of a “national theater [...] against Jewish sovereignty” - Goebbels noted in his diary on November 23, 1937 that he had to "rethink" Megerle's proposals. He also worked for the Ribbentrop office, for which he set up a coordination point between the press department of the Foreign Office and the Reich Propaganda Ministry . Megerle wrote to the Foreign Office on June 10, 1938 that there were still 35,000 Reichsmarks remaining from his “Austrian special order” , and received the approval of the office for his suggestion to use this remaining amount for a propaganda campaign against Czechoslovakia .

In his letters of struggle and faith, which he published after the annexation of Austria in 1938 together with SA brigade leader Alfred Persche . Documents from Austria's time of need, Megerle published a compilation of coffers of imprisoned Austrian National Socialists and letters to them, whose “personal fates”, according to Eugen Diederichs Verlag , “in their entirety became a symbol of that holy will that brought the cause of the German people to victory wore". The publisher had first generously supported Megerle's work in December 1935 by making available a larger number of heavily discounted books by the nationalist bestselling author Edwin Erich Dwinger , which, according to Megerle in a letter to General Muff in the German legation in Vienna, were available as “Valuable national books” should “be distributed to destitute party comrades and fighters” without naming the publisher as a supporter, in order to “not cause difficulties”.

War propagandist Ribbentrops in the Foreign Office (1939–1945)

Since September 1939 Megerle was officially active as a research assistant for the Foreign Office, where he worked as a propaganda specialist for Joachim von Ribbentrop , who had meanwhile been promoted to Foreign Minister . According to the historian Peter Longerich , Megerle was mainly concerned with the “procurement and storage of background articles of an international legal and historical nature”. As Longerich emphasizes, he was an "important journalistic helper of Ribbentrop", who at the end of 1940 in the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo magazine, which was officially published by Ribbentrop, presented the "overcoming of European particularism" to the future project of a connection "European solidarity" declared with an "undisputed powerful leadership", with Spain also being entitled to "an important role" and France remaining open to "the place it deserves in the new Europe" after a reparation to the German Reich. In July 1941, after the German attack on the Soviet Union , Megerle Ribbentrop suggested that the guiding principle for foreign propaganda was that the Wehrmacht had acted “at the right time” in this alleged preventive war and that Europe “at the last moment” before the Bolshevik attack preserved. One strives for the “economic development and utilization of the Russian area under pan-European auspices”, which also has to be documented and must “hammer into all civilized peoples” that a defeat of the Wehrmacht would deliver Europe to the Soviet Union. In 1942, State Secretary Ernst von Weizsäcker supported a "Russia proposal" drawn up by Megerle, which intended to promote separatist efforts through the establishment of regional self-government and to build a kind of counter-government to Stalin.

In December 1941 Megerle took over the function of a representative for propaganda in the personal staff of Ribbentrop, in April 1943 he became its representative for the information system . Ribbentrop explained in October 1942 about Megerle's position: "The BfP [= Propaganda Officer] summarizes the content and direction of the foreign propaganda on my behalf and is responsible for it." Megerle's deputy was Legation Councilor Werner von Schmieden from the Political Department . Megerle served as representative for the information being 17 information points , including the information center XIV (Anti-Jewish foreign action) , which co-ordinated the anti-Jewish foreign propaganda. Megerle "coordinated", according to the Independent Commission of Historians - Foreign Office , "all of the Office's foreign propaganda activities ". The main reason for the “strong position” that he had compared to other departments with similar areas of responsibility, such as the “cultural policy department” headed by Franz Alfred Six , was his “close connection to the head of the authorities”. He was also in contact with the Propaganda Ministry as a liaison officer for cultural and propaganda questions.

In April 1943, Megerle used the discovery of the mass graves of the Katyn massacre to heat up the conflicts in the Soviet-Polish-British relationship by sending telegrams to the German representations in Budapest and Geneva on behalf of Ribbentrop. "Particularly suitable" for a visit to Katyn, Megerle said, would be "above all anti-Bolshevik and anti-Semitic people." On May 1, 1943, in order to further stir up mistrust between England and the Soviet Union, he circulated the false report that the British government had made the Polish side contact the International Red Cross .

In 1943/44 Megerle participated in the propagandistic rejection of international rescue efforts to create opportunities to leave the country for 5,000 Jewish people, mostly children, from the sphere of influence of the German Reich ; these rescue efforts and the measures of rejection were referred to in the Foreign Office as the Feldscher action . In order to counter the repeated calls for Jewish children to leave the country in 1944, Megerle developed a propaganda statement, according to the historian Sebastian Weitkamp, ​​"in line with the aggressive Goebbels agitation", which stated:

“Ever since the British government asked the Reich government about the emigration of Jewish children, it has had tens of thousands of innocent German children murdered in excruciating fashion with phosphorus, high-explosive and incendiary bombs amid the applause of the Jewish instigators and prolongers. Under these circumstances it would be a great imposition that the Reich government should provide assistance in securing Jewish children from the terrorist bombing, while at the same time the Jewish backers in the terrorist bombing were demanding that the same be tightened against the German children. [...] Neither the German population nor the rest of the peoples of Europe would understand, under today's circumstances, the German support for the unilateral rescue of Jewish children. "

As the head of the Inland II group, Horst Wagner , stated in a letter to Eberhard von Thadden , the Foreign Office's Jewish advisor on May 27, 1944 , Megerle's statement provided the basis for the ultimate rejection of international efforts to save the children. After the war, Thadden testified that Megerle's elaborations should also appear in an anti - British Palestine white paper , which, however, was never published.

The historian and Kiesinger biographer Philipp Gassert stated in 2006 that Megerle and Kiesinger were among the four Ribbentrop liaisons with Goebbels. Megerle tried to withhold Kiesinger, who was denounced to the SS in November 1944 that he wanted to inhibit anti-Jewish propaganda campaigns, from expressing further critical opinions. Using Kiesinger's memorandum Dark and Light Years as evidence, Gassert explains how Ribbentrop got into a rage when Kiesinger advocated his "theory of variation" during a discussion at Schloss Fuschl in front of three dozen employees of the Foreign Office, according to which the differentiated propaganda of constant repetition always existed the same anti-Jewish stereotype is preferable. Megerle then, when he saw that Kiesinger wanted to vent his displeasure, together with a colleague, hooked it up and led it a little to the side.

Member of the Reichstag 1938–1945 on the basis of Goebbels' advocacy

From April 1938 until the end of the Nazi regime in spring 1945, Megerle sat as a member of the National Socialist Reichstag for constituency 22 (Düsseldorf East) , which, however, only met eight times during this time, the last time in 1942. Reason for his appointment in the Reichstag were his “merits” for the so-called Anschluss of Austria . Angela Hermann points out that Goebbels' diary entry of March 25, 1938 shows how much Megerle owed his mandate as a member of the Reichstag to the Propaganda Minister, who personally referred to Hitler on his behalf. On this day Goebbels noted: “Listed election campaign candidates with Führer and Frick. I [...] advocate some Austrians with success: Pfriemer, Megerle, Gr [e] bitz they deserve Austria. ”On April 1st, 1938 Goebbels wrote in connection with hectic activities in the course of the“ Anschluss ”of Austria to the Reich : "While eating, Dr. Megerle asked a few urgent questions. He is very happy. The fulfillment of a lifelong dream. "

post war period

There is no information in the available literature on Megerle's biography from the end of the war to the early 1960s. The questions remain unanswered as to whether Megerle was taken prisoner of war or whether he was interned. This also applies to any denazification process and the specific course of his further professional career. In the early 1960s Megerle worked as a foreign policy commentator for the newspaper Kasseler Post . From the mid-1960s onwards, public prosecution investigations against Megerle were carried out until 1971 on the basis of files from the Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg . It was about his participation in the rejection of rescue efforts for thousands of Jewish children, the Feldscher action. In addition to Megerle, Ribbentrop's office manager and Adolf Hitler's chief interpreter Paul-Otto Schmidt as well as the press chief of the Foreign Office Paul Karl Schmidt , better known as the post-war bestselling author of the Barbarossa Paul Carell company , were investigated for "murder". Separately from this, there were separate proceedings against the Nazi diplomat Horst Wagner . The proceedings were discontinued in 1971 after Paul-Otto Schmidt had died in 1970 and the two other accused were credited with saying that they had "no influence [...] on the extermination measures against the Jewish population". In the case of Dr. According to the investigators, Megerles was also "not able to conduct a detailed interrogation [...]" because he was "bedridden for years" and "did not understand the reason for the interrogation". In his last interrogation on March 4, 1971, Megerle put on record: "I think I can say that my participation in this question served for the better." He died on April 2, 1972 in his birthplace Neuenstein.

Fonts (selection)

  • The Swiss Federal Constitution of September 12, 1848 and the Constitution of the Paulskirche . Osiandersche Buchhandlung, Tübingen 1922 (acc .: University of Tübingen, dissertation, 1922).
  • (Editor together with Alfred Persche) Letters of Struggle and Faith . Diederichs, Jena 1938.
  • Germany and the end of Czecho-Slovakia. Essener Verlagsanstalt, Essen 1939. From: Monthly Issues for Foreign Policy , August 1939 (also published in English as: Germany and the End of Czecho-Slovakia. See left 1939).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 3: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: L – R. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2008, p. 212 f., The German Reichstag, electoral period after d. Jan. 30, 1933, Vol .: 1938, Berlin, 1938, "Description of life" Karl Magerle, p. 312 f.
  2. ^ Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 3: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: L – R. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2008, p. 212 (there without mentioning the name of his wife or the date: "married"); Alfred Kube: Pour le mérite and swastika. Hermann Göring in the Third Reich. 2nd Edition. Oldenbourg, Munich 1987, p. 219 (there without further information in footnote 39: “Göring's brother-in-law Karl Megerle”).
  3. ^ Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 3: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: L – R. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2008, p. 212.
  4. ^ Klaus Amann: The connection of Austrian writers to the Third Reich . Athenaeum, Frankfurt a. M. 1988, p. 97. Amann refers in the accompanying footnote 418, p. 200, to: ADAP [= files on German foreign policy] , Series C, Vol. IV, p. 513 (Köpke recording, 1. August 1935).
  5. ^ Klaus Amann: The connection of Austrian writers to the Third Reich . Athenaeum, Frankfurt a. M. 1988, p. 97.
  6. ^ Klaus Amann: The connection of Austrian writers to the Third Reich . Athenaeum, Frankfurt a. M. 1988, p. 105.
  7. ^ Klaus Amann: The connection of Austrian writers to the Third Reich . Athenaeum, Frankfurt a. M. 1988, p. 121.
  8. ↑ a b c d Angela Hermann: The road to war 1938/39. Source-critical studies on the diaries of Joseph Goebbels. Oldenbourg, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-70513-3 , p. 83.
  9. ↑ Angela Hermann: The way to the war 1938/39. Source-critical studies on the diaries of Joseph Goebbels. Munich 2011, p. 83 f.
  10. ↑ Magnus Ilmjärv: Silent Submission. Formation of Foreign Policy of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Period from mid-1920s to annexation in 1940 . (Studia Baltica Stockholmiensia), Almquiest & Wiksell, Stockholm, p. 284.
  11. ^ David Crowe: The Baltic states and the great powers. foreign relations, 1938-1940 . Westview Press, Boulder 1993, p. 34.
  12. ↑ Florian Triebel: Culture and Calculation. The Eugen Diederichs Verlag 1930–1949 . Dissertation, University of Munich 2001. ( PDF ( Memento from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive )), p. 175f.
  13. ↑ Florian Triebel: Culture and Calculation. The Eugen Diederichs Verlag 1930–1949 . Dissertation, University of Munich 2001. ( PDF ( Memento from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive )), p. 302.
  14. ↑ Peter Longerich: Propagandists in War. The press department of the Foreign Office under Ribbentrop. Oldenbourg, Munich 1987, p. 63.
  15. ↑ Peter Longerich: Propagandists in War. The press department of the Foreign Office under Ribbentrop. Oldenbourg, Munich 1987, p. 79.
  16. ↑ Peter Longerich: Propagandists in War. The press department of the Foreign Office under Ribbentrop. Oldenbourg, Munich 1987, p. 80 f.
  17. ↑ Eckart Conze, Norbert Frei, Peter Hayes and Moshe Zimmermann: The office and the past. German diplomats in the Third Reich and in the Federal Republic. Karl Blessing, Munich 2010, p. 212.
  18. ^ Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 3: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: L – R. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2008, p. 212 f., Additional note: Alexandre Kum'a N'Dumbe has in Polit. The AA archive found a document dated March 17, 1943, according to which Megerle of Paris wanted to get the Vichy regime moving because it did not do enough pro-German propaganda there after the Allied landing in North Africa. He complained about it in Berlin. Accordingly, M. was temporarily stationed at the Paris embassy. In: Hitler voulait l'Afrique. l'Harmattan, Paris 1980, p. 63, note 34 of the French version. German IKO, Freiburg 1994.
  19. ^ A b Peter Longerich: Propagandists in War. The press department of the Foreign Office under Ribbentrop. Oldenbourg, Munich 1987, p. 63.
  20. ↑ Peter Longerich: Propagandists in War. The press department of the Foreign Office under Ribbentrop. Oldenbourg, Munich 1987, p. 67 f.
  21. ↑ Eckart Conze, Norbert Frei, Peter Hayes and Moshe Zimmermann: The office and the past. German diplomats in the Third Reich and in the Federal Republic. Karl Blessing, Munich 2010, p. 149.
  22. ↑ John P. Fox: The Katyn Case and the Propaganda of the Nazi Regime. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , 30th year 1982, no. 3, p. 462–499, here p. 481 ( PDF )
  23. ↑ Claudia Weber : War of the perpetrators. The Katyn mass shootings. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-86854-286-8 , p. 208.
  24. ↑ John P. Fox: The Katyn Case and the Propaganda of the Nazi Regime. , P. 486.
  25. ↑ Sebastian Weitkamp: Brown diplomats. Horst Wagner and Eberhard von Thadden as functionaries of the “Final Solution”. JHW Dietz, Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-8012-4178-0 , pp. 209-230, in particular pp. 227 ff.
  26. ↑ Sebastian Weitkamp: Brown diplomats. Horst Wagner and Eberhard von Thadden as functionaries of the “Final Solution”. JHW Dietz, Bonn 2008, pp. 209-230, in particular p. 227.
  27. ↑ Sebastian Weitkamp: Brown diplomats. Horst Wagner and Eberhard von Thadden as functionaries of the “Final Solution”. JHW Dietz, Bonn 2008, p. 227.
  28. ^ Philipp Gassert: Kurt Georg Kiesinger, 1904–1988: Chancellor between the times . DVA, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-421-05824-9 , p. 124 ff.
  29. ^ Philipp Gassert: Kurt Georg Kiesinger, 1904–1988: Chancellor between the times. DVA, Munich 2006, pp. 145 f; Gassert is referring to Kurt Georg Kiesinger: Dark and light years. Memoirs 1904–1958 . Edited by Reinhard Schmoeckel. Stuttgart 1958, p. 250.
  30. ↑ JW Brügel : Files illuminate contemporary history. In: trade union monthly bulletins , 16th year 1965, p. 291 ff., Here p. 293. ( PDF )
  31. ^ The diaries of Joseph Goebbels . On behalf of the Institute for Contemporary History, ed. by Elke Fröhlich. Part I: Records 1923-1941. Volume December 5, 1937 - July 1938. Saur, Munich 2000, p. 230 (“Grbitz” means Franz Gribitz).
  32. ^ The diaries of Joseph Goebbels . On behalf of the Institute for Contemporary History, ed. by Elke Fröhlich. Part I: Records 1923-1941. Volume December 5, 1937 - July 1938. Saur, Munich 2000, p. 240.
  33. ↑ JW Brügel: Files illuminate contemporary history. P. 293.
  34. ↑ Sebastian Weitkamp: Brown diplomats. Horst Wagner and Eberhard von Thadden as functionaries of the “Final Solution”. Bonn 2008, p. 230; Wigbert Benz : Paul Carell. Ribbentrop's press officer Paul Karl Schmidt before and after 1945 . Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-86573-068-X , p. 88 ff.
  35. ^ Preliminary proceedings against the former envoy Dr. Paul Karl Schmidt and Dr. Paul Otto Schmidt and the former permanent representative of the Reich Foreign Minister for propaganda questions Dr. Megerle. Federal archive branch in Ludwigsburg, signature B 162 AR 650 1082, after Wigbert Benz: Paul Carell. Ribbentrop's press chief Paul Karl Schmidt before and after 1945. p. 88.
  36. ^ Wigbert Benz: Paul Carell. Ribbentrop's press chief Paul Karl Schmidt before and after 1945. Berlin 2005, p. 89.
  37. ↑ Sebastian Weitkamp: Brown diplomats. Horst Wagner and Eberhard von Thadden as functionaries of the “Final Solution”. Bonn 2008, p. 230.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on November 6, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Megerle, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (NSDAP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuenstein
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1972
Place of death Neuenstein