Robert Brandes

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Robert Brandes (born March 27, 1899 in Wolfenbüttel ; † March 5, 1987 in Wiesbaden ) was a German engineer, NSDAP functionary and acting Lord Mayor of Cologne .

Life

Origin and education

After studying engineering and passing the second state examination with subsequent appointment as government master builder , Brandes entered the Prussian administrative service, where he found employment in the building and finance department in Berlin from 1925 . During this time, he worked as senior construction manager in Berlin, Frankfurt (Oder) and Düsseldorf. In 1931 Brandes, an “activist from the very beginning”, joined the NSDAP.

Brandes as Cologne alderman and mayor

Immediately after the National Socialists came to power , Brandes was one of the first to achieve top positions in Cologne as a result of the expulsion of the previous mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer . On March 13, Günter Riesen was appointed provisional and later official mayor of Cologne and Brandes was appointed provisional and later official mayor (first deputy). By merging the departments of structural engineering, civil engineering, town planning, building police and real estate to form a "building directorate", he was responsible for major parts of Cologne's urban development as early as 1933. Brandes was one of the few Nazi councilors in Cologne with a qualified previous education to take over the department for construction and real estate.

Just one day after his appointment as first provisional mayor, Brandes threatened with a circular dated March 14, 1933 addressed to the employees of the city administration, “He would open to anyone who would even attempt the necessary construction work, or through passive resistance sabotage, ruthlessly and quickly remove and bring to account. ”In 1937 Brandes received the definitive appointment as mayor and from July 1942 he headed the building department. After the death of the Lord Mayor Peter Winkelnkemper (June 20, 1944), Brandes temporarily headed the administration of the city of Cologne, which had already been largely destroyed and depopulated.

Cologne work

One of the first projects taken up by the newly occupied National Socialist city administration, particularly through Brandes, was the renovation of the so-called “Cologne Old Town”, the Martinsviertel at the Abbey of Great St. Martin . Furthermore, he was concerned with the structural reorganization of Cologne in line with the new rulers. In April 1937 a meeting took place in the Rheinhotel Dreesen in Bad Godesberg , in the presence of Adolf Hitler , Grohé, the mayor Karl Georg Schmidt and von Brandes. Transport Minister Julius Dorpmüller inspected the reorganization plans on November 1, 1940 in the Gauhaus with explanations from Brandes.

Brandes as a Nazi functionary

In addition to his functions as a member of the Cologne city administration, Robert Brandes held several offices within the Nazi administration. From August 1934 he was head of the " Gauamt für Heimstättenwesen " ( Gau Office for Homesteads ) within the Gauleitung Cologne-Aachen under Gauleiter Josef Grohé . In addition, he was "Gau Commissioner of the General Manager for the Regulation of the Construction Industry in the Gau Cologne-Aachen". The office, known for short as “GB-Bau”, had been with Hermann Göring since the end of 1938 and was under the direction of Albert Speer after the death of Fritz Todt (February 10, 1942) . The tasks of Brandes included the coordination of the air raid repair and the air raid protection ( bunker ). As he was in charge of the Gau task force for the “supra-regional coordination of air damage repair”, Brandes occupied all relevant positions dealing with issues of clean-up work, reconstruction and the ban on new buildings that had been in force since the beginning of the war. In addition to these functions, Brandes had been district housing commissioner and head of the Combat League for German Culture Rhineland since 1933 .

As publisher and editor, Robert Brandes was responsible for several years (1934/1935) for the publication of the journal Rheinische Blätter of the ›NS-Kulturgemeinde in der NS-Gemeinschaft Kraft durch Freude‹ which appeared from 1924 to 1944 with changing titles and editorships.

End of war and post-war period

With the occupation of Cologne by Allied troops, the last functionaries of the old regime fled across the Rhine. Brandes acted as provisional lord mayor of the city districts on the right bank of the Rhine from April 12 to 15, 1945, but he left the city on March 4, 1945. To this end, accompanied by his closest colleagues, he crossed the Rhine near Niehl through a sewage culvert . The next day, 30 Gestapo members are said to have died while trying to use the same escape route in the culvert that had collapsed in the meantime. In the event of the occupation of the city on the right bank of the Rhine, Brandes commissioned city director August Osthus to continue the administration on March 24, 1945. Relieved of his post at the end of the war, he was unable to return to public service. After 1945 Robert Brandes worked as managing director.

Robert Brandes was married to the journalist Irma Fiebig since 1933 .

literature

  • Karola Fings : Cologne Exhibition Center. A satellite concentration camp in the center of the city. Emons-Verlag, Cologne 1996, ISBN 392449178X , p. 35ff (p. 37: picture).
  • Karola Fings: War, Society and Concentration Camps: Himmler's SS Construction Brigades. (also dissertation, University of Düsseldorf 2001), Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2005, ISBN 3-506-71334-5 , p. 28f.
  • Peter Fuchs (Hrsg.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2: from 1400 to the present. Greven Verlag, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-7743-0261-8 .
  • Werner Heinen: Urban planning and architecture in 1933 to 1945. In: Heribert Hall (arr.): Cologne – his buildings 1928–1988. JB Bachem Verlag, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-7616-1074-2 , pp. 77-84.
  • Horst Matzerath : Cologne in the time of National Socialism 1933–1945. (History of the City of Cologne, 12), Greven Verlag Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-7743-0429-1 (linen) or ISBN 978-3-7743-0430-7 (half leather), picture on p. 501.
  • Horst Romeyk : The leading state and municipal administrative officials of the Rhine Province 1816–1945 (=  publications of the Society for Rhenish History . Volume 69 ). Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-7585-4 , p. 309 . , Note 147.
  • Regine Schlungbaum-Stehr: The Martinsviertel. In: Heribert Hall (arr.): Cologne – his buildings 1928–1988. JB Bachem Verlag, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-7616-1074-2 , pp. 85-92.
  • Ulrich S. Soenius , Jürgen Wilhelm: Kölner Personen-Lexikon. Greven Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-7743-0400-0 , p. 76.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Kölner Personenlexikon
  2. ^ Horst Romeyk : The leading state and municipal administrative officials of the Rhine Province 1816–1945 (=  publications of the Society for Rhenish History . Volume 69 ). Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-7585-4 .
  3. ↑ Karola Fings: War, Society and Concentration Camps: Himmler's SS Building Brigades.
  4. ↑ a b c Karola Fings: Cologne Exhibition Center. A satellite concentration camp in the center of the city.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h Horst Matzerath: Cologne in the time of National Socialism 1933–1945.
  6. ^ A b c Peter Fuchs: Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2
  7. ↑ Regine Schlungbaum-Stehr: The Martin district.
  8. ^ Historical archive of the city of Cologne: Irma Brandes, b. Feverish. Retrieved March 3, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Brandes, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (NSDAP), Lord Mayor of Cologne
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Wolfenbüttel
DATE OF DEATH March 5th 1987
Place of death Wiesbaden