Leopold Obermayer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leopold Isaac Obermayer (born on 10. May 1892 in Wuerzburg , died on 22. February 1943 in the Mauthausen concentration camp ) was a Jew and a homosexual in the era of National Socialism persecuted. The doctor of law was a Swiss citizen and ran a wine wholesale business in Würzburg. Arrested in October 1934, Obermayer was held for two years mainly in the Dachau concentration camp and in 1936 for offenses against Section 175 of the German Penal CodeSentenced to ten years in prison. The responsible Swiss authorities found it difficult to look after the prisoner; in some cases they took the position "that Obermayer hardly understands how to feel and think in a Swiss way".

Life

Obermayer's father had given up his Bavarian citizenship in 1875 and acquired Swiss citizenship. Like his parents and siblings, Leopold Obermayer was entitled to live in Siblingen in the canton of Schaffhausen . Obermayer attended the Israelite Religious School in Fürth and the New Gymnasium in Würzburg. He then studied law and political science in Würzburg , Dresden and Frankfurt am Main , where he received his doctorate with distinction in 1918. After training and military service in Switzerland , Obermayer joined his father's wine wholesale business as an authorized signatory ; after the death of his father in 1926 he took over the company. The devout Jew accepted his homosexuality after initial hesitation and lived it openly and confidently.

arrest

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, Obermayer complained on October 31, 1934 , to Josef Gerum , then head of the Würzburg Bavarian Political Police (BPP) , about the control of his mail. Gerum had joined the NSDAP in 1920 ; In mid-April 1934, Gerum, considered “particularly homophobic ”, was transferred from Munich to Würzburg. On the same day, Obermayer was taken into " protective custody " on charges of espionage, links to the illegal KPD and the dissemination of atrocity news . These accusations were hardly discussed in later interrogations by Obermayer; proceedings initiated for treason were discontinued in June 1936. During searches, the police found homoerotic nudes in Obermayer's bank safe and confiscated the correspondence with his extensive circle of friends and acquaintances. Investigations were subsequently initiated against at least 68 other people. Based on information from Gerum, a report appeared in the Mainfränkische Zeitung on November 7, 1934 :

"Apparently, in the person of Dr. Obermayer, wine merchant, Würzburg, Wolframstrasse 1, caught a representative of that race who, regardless of his membership of the Manasseh tribe , can be described as one of the meanest and morally inferior people who walk under the sun. [...] So Dr. Obermayer [...] is still a communist of the purest water today, he has acquired Swiss citizenship and is - a Jew. He is of that common disposition which doctors call pederasty and which the vernacular describes as abnormal or - to put it more leniently - as unhappy disposition. [...] Now we are on his track. We know that in this Jew we have tracked down a dangerous individual who deserves to be punished in a different way than by humane detention. "

Obermayer did not make any useful statements during the interrogations, but pointed out that “homosexuals are sitting” in the vicinity of the Main Franconian Gauleiter Otto Hellmuth . Gerum started investigations, which resulted in a twelve-page report on May 5, 1935, to the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior on "Events at the Gauleitung Mainfranken". In return, Gauleiter Hellmuth demanded the replacement of Gerum and described it as "absolutely unsuitable for use in the Political Police [...]".

The Swiss Consulate General in Munich became aware of Obermayer's arrest before November 19, 1934. On November 24th, the Munich representation confirmed that Obermayer did not have German citizenship. Sole Swiss citizenship was a prerequisite for protection by Switzerland. The Würzburg attorney Obermayers, Karl Rosenthal, assured the Swiss authorities that his client, as an avowed homosexual, had not committed any criminal acts, and above all that he was not a communist. Rosenthal also suggested that Obermayer be expelled to Switzerland. The Swiss envoy in Berlin, Paul Dinichert , and the head of the foreign affairs department in Bern, Pierre Bonna, decided at the end of 1934 not to do anything in favor of Obermayer, as they felt that he was heavily burdened. A deportation of Obermayer to Switzerland required an application from the Swiss Consul General in Munich to the German authorities. The input was omitted.

Dachau concentration camp

On January 12, 1935, Obermayer von Gerum was admitted to the Dachau concentration camp and handed over to the camp commandant Heinrich Deubel . For Obermayer, the following 21 months were a sequence of torture, interrogation, poor hygiene, inadequate medical care, inadequate nutrition and verbal abuse up to and including death threats. He spent nine months in a cell, in a bunker - like so-called commandant's arrest . According to Obermayer, he learned of his mother's death under the following circumstances:

“On September 16, early after shaving, cruelly mistreated by Lang in the courtyard. Administrator Kantschuster still present . Others dispensed from running without further ado, my request in this regard because of heart problems was refused by Lang and Kantschuster. Lang ordered "Cell 10" his special "spy" to run next to me, to push me forward and kick me, which "10" did to the best of his ability, he also punched in the kidneys until he had kicked me. Then I had to go to Lang's room, he took a stick out of the closet and threatened me with 25 lashes next time. Then I had to take the icy shower, heated, with a racing pulse, dressed, until I was dripping wet from my skirt to my shoes. Then back into the yard wet - it was quite cool - and marched on. Lang then chained me to the floor ring in cell 10 in the presence of Kantschuster, wet in dripping clothes, with my hands, head down. Sitting down with threats is prohibited. My body formed a semicircle! I froze miserably, the mistreatment made me feel extremely bad. totally exhausted. At 11 o'clock Kantschuster and Lang came, waving a dispatch, Lang shouted: "Another Jew less, your mother is dead." - I was only untied after repeated requests, I was not given dry clothes, had to wrap myself naked in a blanket . - So maybe my mother saved my life, I would have stayed like that overnight. Stationery refused despite death. "

At the request of a relative of Obermayer, the Swiss envoy in Berlin, Paul Dinichert, proposed an intervention at the German Foreign Office in order to bring Obermayer to an ordinary court. This proposal was personally rejected on February 21, 1935 by the head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs , Federal Councilor Giuseppe Motta : Motta called an intervention "hardly conducive to the general Swiss interest". The envoy in Berlin was instructed not to intervene “in view of the nature and number of the moral misconducts alleged by Leopold Obermayer” “in favor of this morally and politically severely compromised and, by the way, confessed Swiss citizen”. Switzerland's attitude changed in August 1935 after an expert opinion by the Federal Department of Justice and Police , according to which the “protective custody” practiced in Nazi Germany against foreigners does not appear permissible. At the end of August, the Federal Council approved a petition in favor of ordinary court proceedings against Obermayer.

arrest warrant

Excerpt from Obermayer's report about his imprisonment in Dachau concentration camp

On September 11, 1935, the Munich headquarters of the BPP ordered a judicial arrest warrant to be obtained against Obermayer or that he be transferred to deportation custody. On September 23, Obermayer was transferred to the prison in Würzburg, and later to nearby Ochsenfurt . There, on October 1, Obermayer opened an arrest warrant for a violation of Section 175 . In prison, Obermayer recorded the circumstances of his detention in Dachau in a handwritten, 16-page report dated October 2. This document is considered to be “a piece of particular source value” among the few contemporary reports by Dachau prisoners. Obermayer tried to forward the report to his lawyer Rosenthal, which he refused in view of the explosiveness of the document. The report ended up in the hands of the police. In a telex dated October 12, Josef Gerum urged Obermayer to be transferred to the concentration camp again: “Obermayer is the only one who fears me and my measures. [...] The danger of an uninhibited debate in court in the Dachau affair is too great. It is strange that the man kept precise notes on every incident in Dachau and can remember exactly for days and hours and has put these memories down completely in writing. "

On October 10th, lawyer Karl Rosenthal was taken into “protective custody” for almost three months; two days later, Obermayer was returned to the Dachau concentration camp. The pre-trial detention was lifted on October 15, a protective custody warrant dated October 29, according to which Obermayer is "a dangerous foreign opponent of the state [...] who tried while in prison to spread atrocity through his legal counsel and in The transfer of Obermayer to the concentration camp before the pretrial detention was lifted was illegal under the legal situation at the time. On November 27, Reich Justice Minister Franz Gürtner expressed "serious concerns" about the procedure to Heinrich Müller from the Secret State Police Office and referred to possible diplomatic entanglements. In Dachau, based on his legal training, Obermayer wrote numerous complaints, including to Heinrich Himmler and Reich Governor Franz von Epp , which, however, were confiscated when his post was censored. In a letter to his sister, Obermayer complained that in Dachau there was no demanding reading in the cultural languages ​​of French, English and Italian. The letter resulted in 21 days of strict detention. Obermayer did not accept the revocation of his doctorate by the Frankfurt University: This contradicts the presumption of innocence and was not provided for in the 1918 doctoral regulations.

Fritz Ufer, who also acted as a trusted lawyer for the Swiss consulate in Munich, became Obermayer's new legal advisor. In February 1936 the Swiss embassy in Berlin described the treatment of Obermayer as a "cat and mouse game that contradicts any civilized view of the administration of justice." Switzerland had previously sent a verbal note to the German Foreign Office. Friedrich Kaestli from the Consulate General was skeptical about a visit to Obermayer, who was temporarily held in the Munich Gestapo prison in the Wittelsbacher Palais :

“If possible, I would like to refrain from visiting Obermayer as long as it is in the hands of the police. A visit will embarrass me about the attitude of the prisoner, who by nature suffers from complexes that have not improved from the long stay in the concentration camp. It is to be expected with certainty that Obermayer tries to pour his stored indignation about the treatment he received in Dachau over me. Since my visit would only be allowed in the company of a supervisory officer, it is also to be expected that he would cut off the conversation immediately, which I would like to save myself. After all, I would be even less uncomfortable with this outcome than if Obermayer had the opportunity to tell me about his Dachau experiences, as I would have to disappoint him in the hope of being able to use something to his advantage. With its political background, the case primarily requires a tactic of expediency, formal law comes second. "

Kaestli's stance was approved by his superiors in Bern. The envoy in Berlin, Paul Dinichert, on the other hand, pleaded for a visit to Obermayer: He hoped such a visit would give himself a "certain reassurance", since Obermayer behaved "quite unruly and the police and prison officials through constant written complaints and enormous private correspondence Bring armor ”. It is not known for sure whether the consul actually visited Obermayer.

In the summer of 1936 the prisoner's situation deteriorated considerably when the responsible examining magistrate from Würzburg found that Obermayer was also a German citizen. In later information to the Swiss embassy it was said that the release of Obermayer's father from Bavarian citizenship in 1875 had been legally erroneous. This contradicted previous information from the German authorities.

Condemnation

On September 24, 1936, Obermayer was transferred to the prison of the Würzburg Regional Court . Two days earlier, Günther Joël from the Central Public Prosecutor's Office in the Reich Ministry of Justice had ordered this to the Würzburg public prosecutor's office; diplomatic difficulties arose. When Obermayer asked for a clergyman a little later, he said he was subjected to an "extremely embarrassing" interrogation by a public prosecutor. In a complaint, he wrote:

“In exercising my rights and in rejecting any defamation as a Jew, I am adamant, even at the risk of harming myself in the present. When it comes to justice and equality before the law, I reject any compromise now and in the future. I also reject the allegation that I somehow violated a legal interest. I hope that the day will come for your country, Germany, when the punishment of homosexuality will be put on the same level as the last burning of witches in Oberzell. Perhaps you know that until around 1862 all forms of homosexual activity were exempt from punishment in Bavaria. "

Obermayer's lawyer, Fritz Ufer, advised his client not to make such complaints, as they would annoy an increasing number of officials. When Obermayer defended his position, Ufer was offended and resigned his mandate on December 7, 1936, two days before the trial opened. His client had previously declined an apology. The Gestapo file on Obermayer that has been received reveals agreements between the Gestapo and the judiciary prior to the trial. It was of central importance for the Gestapo to prevent a discussion of the conditions in Dachau during the process. Josef Gerum, head of the Gestapo in Würzburg since October 1st, reported on November 4th about discussions with the public prosecutor's office and the director of the regional court: “The chief public prosecutor suspects that Obermayer wants to involve the Fiihrer in his defense, perhaps explaining that the Führer was not against homosexuals until July 30, 1934 and was aware of all the deeds of Heine and Röhm . ”As early as June 29, 1936, the chairman of the Würzburg court had announced that he wanted to“ take sharp action ”and of one Sentence of 19 years and preventive detention spoken. Josef Meisinger , the head of the newly founded Reich Central Office for Combating Homosexuality and Abortion , was also involved in the preparations of the Gestapo . Meisinger later cited Obermayer as a prominent example of the necessity of his imperial headquarters.

A trainee lawyer was appointed as public defender for the process from December 9th to 13th . The public was largely excluded from the process, and a representative from Switzerland was not present. At the same time, the trial of David Frankfurter took place in Davos , who was accused of the murder of the Swiss National Socialist Party leader Wilhelm Gustloff .

According to trial reports from the Würzburg General-Anzeiger , the public prosecutor described the case as “a mess that cannot be outdone. The accused went to work with devilish inhibitions and unscrupulousness. The law of race must have driven him far more than sexual greed. ”According to the Franconian Volksblatt , Obermayer defended himself in court with great agility; because of a "certain arrogance" he had to "put up with some rebuke from the chairman and the public prosecutor for his failures". According to the newspaper, the defendant feared tendentious press reports and requested protection from the court. "The defendant admitted that he had been homosexual from youth onwards, that it had made it difficult for him and that he had asked his doctor about his state of mind, who had advised him to live according to his nature," according to the Franconian Volksblatt . Obermayer himself always stated that in the relationships that he had with much younger men before his arrest in 1934, he had never exceeded the limits of the penal code.

Headline of the striker on the trial of Leopold Obermayer

On December 13, 1936, the Würzburg regional court sentenced Obermayer to ten years in prison and loss of honor, as well as subsequent preventive detention . The court found 30 cases of "unnatural fornication" with men according to § 175 StGB as proven, in two cases Obermayer was acquitted and in five cases the proceedings were discontinued. In the preliminary investigation, over 100 cases were identified, the majority of which were discontinued due to the statute of limitations. Preventive detention was ordered because Obermayer was a " dangerous habitual criminal " (§ 20a StGB); it is to be expected "that after his release from prison the defendant will recently undertake considerable attacks against the criminally protected sexual honor of men". A love letter to a fellow prisoner was found in Obermayer's cell.

The anti-Semitic weekly newspaper Der Stürmer , published in Nuremberg, made headlines in December 1936 with the headlines “Satan in court. The trial of the Jewish spoiler Obermayer. Horrible atrocities of a real Talmud Jew ”. In January 1937, the striker announced that he wanted to pillory every Obermayer lawyer. The striker put this announcement into action; a later civil suit brought by a lawyer against the striker was dismissed.

With the help of a new lawyer, Obermayer was able to appeal the judgment. The Leipzig Imperial Court partially overturned the judgment on April 20, 1937 in the presence of an official from the Swiss consulate. In the renegotiation of the Würzburg Regional Court, the sentence was confirmed by the same judges on June 16, 1937.

Death in Mauthausen concentration camp

Stumbling block for Leopold Obermayer

Obermayer stayed in the Amberg and Waldheim penitentiaries until 1942 . At the end of 1942 he was detained in the Zichenau administrative district in Schröttersburg on the Vistula (Polish: Płock). According to National Socialist law, he was abroad and, as a Jew, had lost his controversial German citizenship in accordance with the Eleventh Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Act of November 1941. In December 1942, Obermayer managed to request two written confirmations of his Swiss citizenship from the consulate general in Munich. The consulate refused.

Obermayer was one of the prisoners who, following an agreement between the new Reich Minister of Justice Thierack and Himmler, were selected by a commission from the judiciary and the SS and transferred to the concentration camps for "extermination through work". Under unknown circumstances, he died on February 22, 1943 in Mauthausen concentration camp. A Swiss guardian appointed by Obermayer in 1936 suspected Obermayer's death in April 1943, since letters were returned as “unknown, moved”. Obermayer's death certificate, issued by the “Registry Office Mauthausen II / Oberdonau”, was handed over to the Swiss embassy in October 1943 with a verbal note.

A stumbling block was laid in front of Obermayer's house at Wolframstrasse 1 in Würzburg on July 17, 2006 .

literature

  • May Broda: The Swiss citizen Leopold Obermayer in the Dachau concentration camp. An early example of federal victim protection policy. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (Ed.): Nationalities in the KZ (= Dachauer Hefte, 23). Verlag Dachauer Hefte, Dachau 2007, ISBN 978-3-9808587-8-6 , pp. 3-29.
  • Johannes Schütz: Gleanings from a Würzburg criminal case during the Nazi era. In: Manfred Seebode (Ed.): Festschrift for Günter Spendel on his 70th birthday on July 11, 1992. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-11-012889-6 , pp. 173-188.
  • Elke Fröhlich : The challenge of the individual. Stories about resistance and persecution (= Martin Broszat , Elke Fröhlich (Hrsg.): Bavaria in the Nazi era. Volume 6). Oldenbourg, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-486-42411-4 , pp. 76-114.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letter from Paul Ritter, Consulate General Munich to the embassy in Berlin of August 21, 1936 , quoted in Broda, Bürger , p. 22.
  2. ↑ Biographical information on Obermayer in Fröhlich, The Challenge ; Broda, Bürger and entry Obermayer, Leopold Isaak at the Biographical Database of Jewish Lower Franconia . Fröhlich reconstructed Obermayer's persecution on the basis of the Gestapo files. The files of the Swiss Federal Archives in Bern were also available to Broda .
  3. ↑ This assessment by Burkhard Jellonnek: Homosexuals under the swastika. The persecution of homosexuals in the Third Reich. Schöningh, Paderborn 1990, ISBN 3-506-77482-4 , p. 223.
  4. ↑ Mainfränkische Zeitung of November 7, 1934, quoted from Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 79. Gerum is also mentioned here as the newspaper's informant.
  5. ↑ a b For the investigations in the Gauleitung see Jellonnek, Homosexuelle , p. 267.
  6. ↑ Broda, Bürger , p. 6 ff.
  7. ↑ Referring to the correspondence of the legation and the foreign affairs department between November 23, 1934 and January 25, 1935: Broda, Bürger , p. 7.
  8. ↑ Dachau Concentration Camp 1933 to 1945 . Karl M. Lipp Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-87490-750-3 , p. 77 . See there also identification photos of the StA Würzburg
  9. ↑ Obermayers report of October 2, 1935 , quoted from Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 86 f.
  10. ↑ Quoted in Broda, Bürger , p. 7.
  11. ^ Broda, Bürger , p. 9.
  12. ↑ This assessment in Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 81. Comprehensive excerpts from Obermayer's report, ibid, pp. 81–87.
  13. ↑ Telex from Gerum to SS Standartenführer Stepp of October 12, 1935 , quoted in Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 90.
  14. ^ Protective detention order from the Würzburg Police Department of October 29, 1935 , quoted in Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 90.
  15. ↑ On Illegality Fröhlich, Challenge , pp. 91, 93; Schütz, gleanings , p. 187.
  16. ↑ Gürtner's concerns mentioned in a tele-conversation between Kriminalinspektor Gerum, BPP Würzburg, and Kriminalinspektor Weiß, BPP Munich, from December 14, 1935, quoted in Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 93 f.
  17. ↑ Merry, Challenge , p. 92.
  18. ↑ Obermayer's letter to the council of the University of Frankfurt / Main dated February 12, 1936 , quoted in Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 95 f.
  19. ↑ Legation in Berlin to Department for Foreign Affairs on February 13, 1936 , quoted in Broda, Bürger , p. 13.
  20. ↑ Occupation Vice Consul Friedrich Kaestli, Consulate General in Munich, at embassy on April 17, 1936 , quoted in Broda, citizens , p. 14
  21. ↑ Dinichert to Foreign Affairs Department on April 21, 1936 , quoted in Broda, Bürger , p. 15.
  22. ↑ Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 98, mentions a meeting, in Broda, Bürger , no reference to a meeting.
  23. ↑ Merry, Challenge , p. 98.
  24. ↑ Information from September 23, 1938, Broda, Bürger , p. 25.
  25. ↑ Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 98 f.
  26. ↑ Obermayer refers to Renata Singer, who was executed in 1749 .
  27. ^ Letter from Obermayer to Senior Public Prosecutor Schröder dated October 17, 1936 , quoted in Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 100.
  28. ↑ On October 1, 1936, the Würzburg office of the BPP was renamed "Geheime Staatspolizei - Staatspolizeistelle Würzburg". See Jellonnek, Homosexuelle , p. 221.
  29. ↑ Telex from Gerum (State Police Office Würzburg) to Weiß (State Police Office Munich) of November 4, 1936 , quoted in Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 101. Ibid., P. 104 ff. Further reports on agreements.
  30. ↑ Telex dated June 29, 1936 , Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 98.
  31. ^ Lecture by Kriminalrat Meisinger, given at the service meeting of the medical officers and consultants on April 5 and 6, 1937 in Berlin. Printed in excerpts in: Günther Grau: Homosexuality in the Nazi era. Documents of discrimination and persecution. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt 2004, ISBN 3-596-15973-3 , p. 147 ff.
  32. ↑ a b Broda, Bürger , p. 23.
  33. ↑ Würzburger General-Anzeiger of December 12, 1936, quoted in Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 108.
  34. ↑ Fränkisches Volksblatt of December 10, 1936, quoted in Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 107.
  35. ↑ Merry, Challenge , p. 100.
  36. ↑ Schütz, review , p. 177 ff.
  37. ^ Judgment of the Regional Court of Würzburg (F 1333/35) , quoted in Schütz, gleanings , p. 180.
  38. ↑ Stefan König: On the service of law. Lawyers as criminal defense attorneys under National Socialism. De Gruyter, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-11-011076-8 , p. 69 f.
  39. ↑ On the revision: Schütz, Nachlese , p. 183; Broda, Bürger , p. 24; Happy, Challenge , p. 109.
  40. ↑ a b Fröhlich, Challenge , p. 109 f.
  41. ↑ a b Broda, Bürger , p. 27.
personal data
SURNAME Obermayer, Leopold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Obermayer, Leopold Isaak (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Doctorate in law, wine merchant, persecuted as a Jew and homosexual during the Nazi era
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1943
Place of death Mauthausen concentration camp