Anton Brandle

Death notices in the Allgäu (since 1968 Local newspaper ) to Braendle death: Besides his family to the town of Kempten, the Mayor of Altusried and the participating Sparkasse Kempten . In the same issue there was a report on his funeral ceremony attended by numerous people; his time as a NSDAP functionary was, as was usual at the time, unmentioned.

Anton Brändle (born December 31, 1899 in Altusried , † 1953 there ) was a German local politician and NSDAP functionary. After Otto Merkt was deposed in 1942, he was Lord Mayor of the city of Kempten until the end of the National Socialist regime in the spring of 1945 . Before that he was NSDAP district leader of Kempten-Stadt. Brändle was instrumental in the persecution of the Jews in Kempten.

Live and act

School education and work

In his birthplace Altusried , Brändle attended the village school there from 1906 to 1910. Brändle continued his school career at the Humanist Gymnasium (today: Carl-von-Linde-Gymnasium Kempten ) in Kempten. At the age of 17 he voluntarily entered the First World War , in which he was wounded. He then passed his Abitur in Sigmaringen and studied for a semester at the commercial academy in Calw .

In 1920 to 1923 he worked as a commercial officer at a company in Vilsbiburg worked, then he entered the founded by his grandfather grocery store into his home. Anton Brändle ran the shop together with his older sister, in which a mixed assortment was offered. Later, another sister of Brändle was added, previously manageress had been in Vilsbiburg. This gave Brändle more free time, which he devoted to politics.

The von Brändle family was very popular in the village. An aunt played the organ in the church; Anton Brändle sometimes played leading roles in front of prominent guests on the Altusried open-air stage , for example in the Andreas Hofer play .

Activity as a NSDAP member

The merchant joined the NSDAP for the first time in 1922, and eight years later again. In 1931 Brändle became a member of the SA . Brändle was considered a rhetorical talent and achieved good election results in Altusried due to its popularity. In the Reichstag election in March 1933 , the NSDAP, with Brändle as the top candidate, got 61.9 percent of the vote. After this successful election, Brändle was appointed honorary mayor of his home village; in the same month he became head of the NSDAP district of Kempten-Stadt ( district leader ).

Anton Brändle also adopted the radical anti-Semitism of the time. Although there were no Jews living or active in Altusried, he adopted the ideology of the National Socialists and developed a strong hatred of Jews. Brändle actively organized campaigns against the Jewish population and mixed marriages in Kempten . He expressly advised the population to “only buy from Germans”. In 1935, the district leader himself was criticized when he was accused by those responsible for the district management of Memmingen-Land that he was buying goods from a Memmingen merchant of Jewish origin. Brändle firmly rejected this accusation.

In the spring of 1933 Brändle was expelled from the SA because he had forbidden his SA men to carry out an order from the SA special commissioner from Swabia, Major Hermann Ritter von Schöpf . In addition, the district leader complained about the special adviser. As a result of his actions, Brändle was no longer in possession of the rank of Sturmbannführer and also no longer in the SA.

The Gauleiter Karl Wahl , who also wanted to get rid of the special representative, tried to support Brändle and accused Schöpf of being just a drinker at the expense of the party. Wahl's support was of little use; It was not until the summer of 1934 that Brändle was accepted back into the SA and given his original ranks.

Another opponent of Brändle was the respected and long-time mayor of the city of Kempten Otto Merkt . The brief dismissal of Merkt in 1933 probably aroused the hope of taking over his post in Brändle. The reinstatement of the light resistance fighter (for example, Merkt campaigned against the deportation of the Kempten Jews in 1942), but also NSDAP member Merkt put a brake on Brändle's plans for the time being. A change in the statutes of the city of Kempten was possibly aimed at preventing Brändle from becoming mayor of the city, so that Otto Merkt could remain the head of the city administration - at least that's how the journalist Gernot Römer interprets it. The aim of the change was that only a lawyer could become mayor. Brandle wasn't one.

In 1941, Brändle began to distance himself from the Catholic faith. At the end of 1942 Brändle left the church - he had married in church in 1936 - and informed various political leaders and party comrades in writing about his decision, which he justified with his admiration for the Führer Adolf Hitler .

With the dismissal of Lord Mayor Merkt in 1942, the previous Mayor of Altusrieder Brändle became Lord Mayor of the city of Kempten on November 27, 1942. Brändle acted during his time as Lord Mayor mainly as a party official and not as a local politician; he lacked experience in local politics.

End of the regime

When the end of the National Socialist terror regime was announced - American troops were already approaching Swabia - Brändle motivated Volkssturm men and Reichsbahn employees to hold out until the victory of the German Reich at four events . In April 1945 Brändle wrote in an Allgäu daily newspaper with the headline “Will Kempten be defended?” That he would not leave Kempten when the foreign troops arrived and would continue to fight until the end.

However, the mayor did not keep his promises: shortly before the occupation of Kempten by American troops on April 27, 1945, Brändle fled to Buchenberg in a monk's habit on his bicycle . He was picked up and brought back to Kempten. Before the Americans transferred him to an internment camp, they brought their mayor to the Kempten family again. He was driven through the city on a flatbed truck in his monk's habit with a prayer book in hand. In October 1947, Brändle wrote a letter from the internment camp in Regensburg, which has been preserved in the Kempten City Archives, in which he paid tribute to his predecessor, Merkt. He asserted: “There was humanity in Kempten, but no terror, but there was also no totalitarian system, but a democratically founded and governing balance.” The name of this policy is noted. "If there was a resistance movement in Kempten, it is called Dr. Notice. "

The denazification process of Anton Brändle lasted until the 1950s. Brändle declared himself a staunch supporter of the fallen regime and its leader. In the final instance of the trials, Brändle was classified as an activist and sent to a labor camp for three and a half years. Part of his property was expropriated.

death

In 1953, the 54-year-old Brändle died of a heart attack. In an obituary from the city of Kempten, he was characterized as a helpful and conscientious person. On the day of the funeral, the Kempten town hall flagged at half-mast. August Fischer , former NSDAP functionary and then non-party mayor, presented the city's thanks and a bouquet of flowers at the funeral of Brändle. A citizen of Kempten did not agree with these honors and made a critical written statement to the Bavarian Deputy Prime Minister Wilhelm Högner about it.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Herbert Müller: Kempten in the Third Reich. In: History of the City of Kempten. Dannheimer, Kempten 1989, ISBN 3-88881-011-6 , p. 443.
2. ^ Herbert Müller: Kempten in the Third Reich. In: History of the City of Kempten. Dannheimer, Kempten 1989, ISBN 3-88881-011-6 , p. 437.
3. ^ Gernot Römer: Anton Brändle. "Like Hitler, mothers want their son ..." In: Gernot Römer: There are always two possibilities: fellow combatants, followers and opponents of Hitler using the example of Swabia. Augsburg 2000, Wißner-Verlag, ISBN 3-89639-217-4 , p. 89.
4. ^ Herbert Müller: Kempten in the Third Reich. In: History of the City of Kempten. Dannheimer, Kempten 1989, ISBN 3-88881-011-6 , pp. 444f.
5. ^ Herbert Müller: Kempten in the Third Reich. In: History of the City of Kempten. Dannheimer, Kempten 1989, ISBN 3-88881-011-6 , p. 439.
6. ^ Gernot Römer: Anton Brändle. "Like Hitler, mothers want their son ..." In: Gernot Römer: There are always two possibilities: fellow combatants, followers and opponents of Hitler using the example of Swabia. Augsburg 2000, Wißner-Verlag, ISBN 3-89639-217-4 , p. 90.
7. ^ Herbert Müller: Kempten in the Third Reich. In: History of the City of Kempten. Dannheimer, Kempten 1989, ISBN 3-88881-011-6 , p. 441.
8. ^ Herbert Müller: Kempten in the Third Reich. In: History of the City of Kempten. Dannheimer, Kempten 1989, ISBN 3-88881-011-6 , p. 446.
9. ^ Gernot Römer: Anton Brändle. "Like Hitler, mothers want their son ..." In: Gernot Römer: There are always two possibilities: fellow combatants, followers and opponents of Hitler using the example of Swabia. Augsburg 2000, Wißner-Verlag, ISBN 3-89639-217-4 , p. 91.
10. ^ Gernot Römer: Anton Brändle. "Like Hitler, mothers want their son ..." In: Gernot Römer: There are always two possibilities: fellow combatants, followers and opponents of Hitler using the example of Swabia. Augsburg 2000, Wißner-Verlag, ISBN 3-89639-217-4 , p. 98.
11. ↑ ^{a b} Gernot Römer: Anton Brändle. "Like Hitler, mothers want their son ..." In: Gernot Römer: There are always two possibilities: fellow combatants, followers and opponents of Hitler using the example of Swabia. Augsburg 2000, Wißner-Verlag, ISBN 3-89639-217-4 , p. 92.