Arno Schickedanz

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Arno Schickedanz

Arno Schickedanz (born December 15 July / December 27,  1892 greg. In Riga ; † end of April 1945 in Berlin ) was a diplomat during the Nazi era , who worked in the Foreign Policy Office of the NSDAP (APA) and in the Reich Ministry for the occupied eastern territories (RMfdbO) worked in leading positions. Both Nazi authorities were under the direction of the party ideologist Alfred Rosenberg , whom Schickedanz had known since his youth. Schickedanz's importance lay particularly in his role as a programmer of anti-Semitism in all of Rosenberg's offices. He was given priority for the term “counter-race”. Schickedanz was the central figure in the expansion of the foreign affairs office. Shortly before the end of World War II , Schickedanz committed extended suicide .

Origin and coinage

Schickedanz met Alfred Rosenberg, who grew up in the Estonian city of Reval , in his Latvian hometown of Riga , where Rosenberg had been studying at the Polytechnic since 1910 . Both cities were then part of Russia . In the literature, Schickedanz is referred to as a "school friend" and "corps brother" of Rosenberg. The indication of the school friend refers to the common study at the Polytechnic in Riga; and corps brother to the Corps Rubonia founded in 1875, of which Rosenberg and Schickedanz became members on the same day, March 2, 1911. Because of this early bond, Schickedanz remained one of Rosenberg's few friends. The connection to Rosenberg had a formative character and from then on decisively determined his entire life.

Together with Rosenberg, according to the album Rubonorum, he continued his studies in Moscow from the summer of 1915 and graduated there in January 1918 in chemistry. Thus he had personal experience with the rule of the Bolsheviks. In the fall of 1918, he volunteered at a German cavalry regiment and thus took as a soldier of the German Army at the First World War in part. Before the end of the war in 1918, Schickedanz worked with Erwin von Scheubner-Richter , Otto von Kursell and Max Hildebert Boehm for the German occupiers in the " Upper East VIII press office " in Riga. Otto von Kursell, with whom Schickedanz had worked up to then, was the first next to Ernst Friedrich Tode to be visited by Rosenberg after moving to Munich at the end of 1918. In 1919 he was a member of the Baltic National Army , which in May 1919 conquered Riga, which was occupied by the Bolsheviks.

Weimar Republic

Political writer

During the early twenties was Schickedanz employees in by Max von Scheubner judges launched Economic Construction Association , in which he Scheubner judges and Vasilij Biskupsky did the daily business with from. Schickedanz was also deputy director and personal secretary of Biskupsky, the organization's vice-president. Schickedanz and Biskupskij jointly agreed with the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Kyrill Vladimirovich Romanov , that General Ludendorff could use funds amounting to 500,000 gold marks to promote the joint national German-Russian cause.

Schickedanz also supported von Scheubner-Richter with the publication of the weekly “Economic-Political Reconstruction Correspondence on Eastern Issues and Their Significance for Germany”. From 1923 to 1933 Schickedanz was head of the Berlin office of the anti-Semitic daily Völkischer Beobachter . Because of his participation in the Hitler putsch , Schickedanz was later one of the " Old Fighters " and received the so-called " Blood Order ".

In 1927 Schickedanz published the seemingly gnostic and apocalyptic as well as radically anti-Semitic text Judaism - a counter-race , and in 1928 the text Social Parasitism in Völkerleben , in which he presented the Jews as a "race" of parasites and pests. Rosenberg then explicitly referred to the latter publication and adopted the concept and idea of ​​a parasitic "counterrace" in his Myth of the 20th Century, first published in 1930 .

The resentment that Joseph Goebbels had built up against Rosenberg at that time was also reflected in his envoy. On February 16, 1930 Goebbels wrote about Schickedanz: “He asked if I had anything against him. I poured him pure wine. He's probably decent personally. But he has nothing to eat. And a Baltic! ”However, Goebbels' attitude did not change the fact that Schickedanz was able to develop a very close bond with Adolf Hitler during those years of the Weimar Republic .

Foreign policy orientation

On September 14, 1930, Rosenberg was elected to the Reichstag as a member of the NSDAP for the constituency of Hessen-Darmstadt , where he was active in the Foreign Policy Committee. In the spring of 1932, Rosenberg unsuccessfully urged Schickedanz to move his residence to Berlin in order to get a place on the list of candidates for the Reichstag elections. It is assumed that Schickedanz's lack of presence in Berlin at that time could have led to this proposal being rejected. Schickedanz only became a member of the Reichstag in 1936, three years after the National Socialist " seizure of power " . However, Schickedanz was committed to Rosenberg's foreign policy interests in those days . It was Schickedanz who in 1931 established the connection for Rosenberg to the Baltic-British journalist and Baron Wilhelm de Ropp and his former war acquaintance Major Frederick William Winterbotham . Wilhelm de Ropp, who was expropriated by the Soviets and worked for the daily newspaper The Times as well as a foreign representative for the Bristol Airplane Company , later became an important confidante of Rosenberg in London .

National Socialism

Head of Staff in the Foreign Policy Office

After Rosenberg was appointed head of the Foreign Policy Office of the NSDAP on April 1, 1933 , Schickedanz received the high position of Head of Staff in this office. Schickedanz held this position until the APA was dissolved in spring 1943. When the APA was being set up, Schickedanz was the most important man ahead of Thilo von Trotha Rosenberg. Schickedanz headed two of the six main offices, namely the personnel office and main department V "Ostproblem". Ernst Piper wrote in 2005: “ On the one hand, he was responsible for personnel policy, which ensured him a central influence on the course of things, and on the other, for the eastern area, which was initially of subordinate importance for the work of the APA, but in the long term naturally provided the decisive perspective for racist expansionism . ”Until autumn 1933, Schickedanz also headed the Eastern Europe department, which is extremely important for APA's policy. Afterwards, Georg Leibbrandt took over the management of the department, which formed its own main department .

On December 26, 1934, Rosenberg expressed his interest in a connection with King Charles II of Romania , whereby he wanted to use Schickedanz to establish this connection. On that day Rosenberg wrote in his diary: “Christmas is coming, I have to send Lecca back to Bucharest with some comforting words after staying for almost 3 weeks . Hopefully we will be able to pick up the threads again in January. Romania's ties to Germany are really worth the effort. Schickedanz would have to speak to the king privately here in order to prepare a friendship treaty, anything is possible with ›our‹ embassy. "

On June 15, 1939, Schickedanz, in his position as head of the East Office in the APA, sent a draft of Eastern European questions to the head of the Reich Chancellery, Hans Heinrich Lammers . Against the background of the ideology of the Germanization of the APA, he spoke out against the Hitler-Stalin pact , because it would limit the expansion possibilities of the “German living space ”. Here, as later in the East Ministry , the same line of argument was always argued. Because, so it says in the report, especially with a view to the Ukrainians and Belarusians , for the future design of the eastern dream “ the political-psychological processing of the population of these areas is on the one hand to relieve the purely military actions, on the other hand for a possible further use of individual nationalities in the German interest . ”Schickedanz first formulated the idea of ​​the APA that Germany should ally itself with the non-Russian peoples inside and outside of the Soviet Union against Russia . In the same year Schickedanz applied for the foreign affairs department of the Reich Chancellery , although his application was rejected. And Rosenberg noted in his diary on August 25, 1939: “ I have the feeling that this Moscow Pact will take revenge on National Socialism at some point. […] How can we still talk about saving and shaping Europe when we have to ask the destroyer of Europe for help? "

By September 1939 at the latest, the APA's connection with London had loosened. Rosenberg wrote on September 24, 1939: “ Yesterday the card of the British [is] advisor in the English [is] aviation ministry arrived from Montreux . He asks that Schickedanz should come over. So he kept his word, a - thin - thread to London still holds. Tomorrow inform the Führer and G. [öring]. I am curious what the gentlemen from London expect from us as a possible basis of peace. "

In April 1940 Rosenberg was able to implement his plan to get Schickedanz into the Reich Chancellery as a liaison for the APA. On April 13, 1940, he wrote in his diary: “ Since the R [eichs] -Kommissariat Norway is attached to the R [eichs] -chancellery, Schickedanz had discussions with Lammers, who appointed him as the representative of the R [eichs] -chancellery . All correspondence with Norway (including AA ) now goes through his hands . "

Chief of Staff in the East Ministry

After the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMfdbO) had been established in 1941 , Schickedanz also took on the position of Head of Staff in Department II for Eastern and Personnel Issues. Originally, Schickedanz von Rosenberg was intended as "Reichskommissar" for the Reichskommissariat Ukraine . From a memorandum by Rosenberg, however, it emerges that he ultimately decided in favor of Erich Koch with regard to Ukraine . Schickedanz was instead given the position of "Reichskommissar" or supreme "civil administrator" for the Reichskommissariat Caucasia based in Tbilisi . This Reichskommissariat remained under military administration during the partial occupation of the Caucasus area by Army Group South , which is why Schickedanz was unable to have a political role here. The "mission" of Schickedanz and the diplomat Otto Bräutigam in this regard failed.

On April 2, 1941, shortly before the Wehrmacht attacked the Soviet Union, Schickedanz wrote a memorandum in which he wrote “ that military action on our part will very soon be followed by the military collapse of the USSR ”. In addition, Schickedanz wrote in this memorandum that " Muscovite Russia should be established as a deportation area for undesirable elements of the population on a larger scale" and that the " Bolshevik-Jewish state administration" must be eliminated through "complete annihilation". The subject of his writing was also Belarus , which is the “second largest reservoir of Jews in the USSR ”, as well as the Baltic states, where both larger parts of the “intellectual classes” and “racially inferior” would have to be deported so that the “most racially suitable” could assimilate .

In 1942, in addition to his activities in the APA and RMfdbO, Schickedanz was also "Reichsamtsleiter" in the "Office of the Governor General Krakow", and deputy in the office of Hans Frank . In 1943, Schickedanz was Rosenberg's preferred candidate to succeed General Commissioner Wilhelm Kube in “ Belarus ”. Due to the resistance of SS-Gruppenführer Curt von Gottberg , the application failed.

Chief of Staff in occupied Norway

Between 1943 and 1944 he was chief of staff at the Reich Commissioner for the Occupied Eastern Territories of Norway, Josef Terboven .

At the end of April 1945, Arno Schickedanz evaded his responsibility by suicide. According to Rosenberg, Schickedanz, whom he referred to as his “youth comrade” and “friend”, shot his wife, his eight-year-old daughter and himself in Berlin during the month indicated.

literature

  • Hans-Günther Seraphim : Alfred Rosenberg's political diary . 1934/35 and 1939/40. Göttingen / Berlin / Frankfurt 1956. DNB
  • HD Heilmann: From the war diary of the diplomat Otto Bräutigam . In: Götz Aly u. a. (Ed.): Biedermann and desk clerk . Materials on the German perpetrator biography, Institute for Social Research in Hamburg: Contributions to National Socialist Health and Social Policy 4, Berlin 1987, p. 173, ISBN 3-88022-953-8 .
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
  • Andreas Zellhuber: "Our administration is driving a catastrophe ...". The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories and German occupation in the Soviet Union 1941–1945 . Vögel, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-89650-213-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the baptismal register of Riga Cathedral (Latvian: Rīgas Doms)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j H.D. Heilmann: From the war diary of the diplomat Otto Bräutigam . In: Götz Aly u. a. (Ed.): Biedermann and desk clerk . Materials on the German perpetrator biography, Institute for Social Research in Hamburg: Contributions to National Socialist Health and Social Policy 4, Berlin 1987, p. 173.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Ernst Piper : Alfred Rosenberg. Hitler's chief ideologist . Munich 2005, ISBN 3-89667-148-0 , p. 290 .
  4. ↑ Philistines Association of Rubonia: Album Rubonorum 1875-1972 . Arranged by Woldemar Helb (Alb. Rub. 275). Gain ? 1972/73.
  5. ^ Manfred Weissbecker: Alfred Rosenberg. "The anti-Semitic movement was only a protective measure ..." In: Kurt Pätzold, Manfred Weißbecker (ed.): Steps to the gallows. Life paths before the Nuremberg judgments . Leipzig, 1999, ISBN 3-86189-163-8 , pp. 154 .
  6. ^ A b Woldemar Helb: Album Rubonorum, 4th edition, Philistine Association of Rubonia 1972.
  7. ↑ a b Michael Kellogg: (2005) The Russian Roots of Nazism. White Émigrés and the making of National Socialism 1917–1945. ISBN 0-521-84512-2 , p. 83
  8. ^ Ernst Piper : Alfred Rosenberg. Hitler's chief ideologist . Munich 2005, ISBN 3-89667-148-0 , p. 62 .
  9. ^ Alfred Rosenberg: Last records , Göttingen 1955, pp. 66, 71.
  10. ↑ a b Michael Kellogg: (2005) The Russian Roots of Nazism. White Émigrés and the making of National Socialism 1917–1945. ISBN 0-521-84512-2 , p. 128
  11. ↑ Johannes Baur: The Russian Colony in Munich 1900–1945: German-Russian Relations in the 20th Century, Harrassowitz Verlag 1998, ISBN 3-447-04023-8 , p. 186
  12. ↑ Michael Kellogg: (2005) The Russian Roots of Nazism. White Émigrés and the making of National Socialism 1917–1945. ISBN 0-521-84512-2 , p. 223
  13. ↑ Michael Kellogg: (2005) The Russian Roots of Nazism. White Émigrés and the making of National Socialism 1917–1945. ISBN 0-521-84512-2 , p. 248
  14. ↑ a b Andreas Zellhuber: "Our administration is driving a catastrophe ..." . The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories and German occupation in the Soviet Union 1941–1945. Vögel, Munich 2006, p. 64, ISBN 3-89650-213-1 . (Cited sources: Kuusisto, Rosenberg, p. 45 and p. 111 as well as Jacobson, NS-Außenpolitik, p. 56 f.)
  15. ↑ a b Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 533. (Klee wrote that Schickedanz was staff leader in the APA until 1945. The APA however, it was already dissolved in the spring of 1943.)
  16. ↑ Reinhard W. Sonnenschmidt: Political Gnosis . Faith in alienation and the illusion of immortality in religion and political philosophy of late antiquity, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7705-3626-6 ; Klaus Vondung: The Apocalypse in Germany . Munich 1988, ISBN 3-423-04488-8 .
  17. ^ Alfred Rosenberg : The Myth of the 20th Century . A valuation of the spiritual and spiritual gestalt struggles of our time, Munich 1930, pp. 437, 439.
  18. ^ Arno Schickedanz in the database of the members of the Reichstag
  19. ^ A b Ernst Piper: Alfred Rosenberg . Hitler's chief ideologist, Munich 2005, p. 300.
  20. ↑ a b c d Ernst Piper: Alfred Rosenberg . Hitler's chief ideologist, Munich 2005, p. 291.
  21. ↑ Hans-Günther Seraphim: The political diary of Alfred Rosenberg . 1934/35 and 1939/40. Göttingen / Berlin / Frankfurt 1956, p. 61 f. (Adaptation of the quotation to the ref. German law)
  22. ↑ a b c d e Ernst Piper: Alfred Rosenberg . Hitler's chief ideologist, Munich 2005, p. 436. (Source: IMG Doc. PS-1365, reproduced in: The political diary of Alfred Rosenbergs, 1956, p. 141 ff.)
  23. ^ Ernst Piper: Alfred Rosenberg . Hitler's chief ideologist, Munich 2005, p. 290. (Source: Dieter Rebentisch: Führerstaat und Verwaltung in World War II . Stuttgart 1989, p. 317, note 92.)
  24. ↑ Hans-Günther Seraphim: The political diary of Alfred Rosenberg . 1934/35 and 1939/40. Göttingen / Berlin / Frankfurt 1956, p. 92 f.
  25. ↑ Hans-Günther Seraphim: The political diary of Alfred Rosenberg . 1934/35 and 1939/40. Göttingen / Berlin / Frankfurt 1956, p. 98.
  26. ↑ Hans-Günther Seraphim: The political diary of Alfred Rosenberg . 1934/35 and 1939/40. Göttingen / Berlin / Frankfurt 1956, p. 130.
  27. ↑ Karl Drechsler u. a .: Germany in World War II . Vol. 2: From the attack on the Soviet Union to the Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad, Berlin 1975, p. 339; Manfred Weißbecker: Alfred Rosenberg . "The anti-Semitic movement was only a protective measure ...", in: Kurt Pätzold / Manfred Weißbecker (ed.): Steps to the gallows . Paths of life before the Nuremberg judgments, Leipzig 1999, p. 174.
  28. ^ The trial of the main war criminals before the International Military Court of Nuremberg November 14, 1945 - October 1, 1946 , Vol. XI, Munich / Zurich 1984. p. 603.
  29. ↑ a b c Quoted in: Ernst Piper: Alfred Rosenberg . Hitler's chief ideologist, Munich 2005, p. 510. (Source: IMG Vol. XXVI, p. 547ff .; Doc. PS-1017.)
  30. ↑ Alfred Rosenberg: last recordings , Göttingen 1955, p. 307. DNB (Please note that this writing was published by his former colleague Hans-Günther Seraphim, brother of Peter-Heinz Seraphim . He had partially deleted passages, such as B. a comparison with this book shows: Serge Lang / Ernst von Schenck: Portrait of a human criminal , St. Gallen 1947, DNB )
personal data
SURNAME Schickedanz, Arno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Baltic diplomat and politician (NSDAP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga
DATE OF DEATH April 1945
Place of death Berlin