Aliens

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Foreign ethnic is a collective term used by the National Socialists to cover people who were not “German or related blood” (see Nuremberg Laws ) or “ German blooded ”. The term was first used by the SS , the police, and then by the judiciary and administration.

background

Prehistory of the term

As early as the Weimar Republic in 1926, the term “foreign nation” appeared in legal literature when discussing the “legal relationships of minorities”: According to the lawyer Martin Dachselt, Poles, Wends , Danes and Lithuanians were “foreign nationals” in contrast to Masurians , Frisians and other "non-established, smaller groups scattered across the rest of Germany" such as the Ruhr Poles .

"Volksgemeinschaft" as the basis of "ethnic equality"

In addition to the leadership principle and supremacy of the party, the basic principle of state life under National Socialism was the dominance of race and thus “ ethnic equality” in the “ national community ” in contrast to racial or “ethnic inequality”. The “Volksgemeinschaft” was not a legal subject, but rather subordinate to the will of the leader. Based on Carl Schmitt's doctrine of differentiating between “friend” and “enemy”, the special legal position of “alien” people was created with the aim of their “outsourcing” in specific legal administrative measures. “Foreign” was not defined legally, but from a national and racial perspective, namely according to political expediency ( Werner Best , 1937). "Jews", "Gypsies", "colored people" ("negroes") could have German citizenship, but after 1935 with the "Nuremberg Laws" they fell victim to "ethnic inequality" as marginalized groups with inferior rights and ultimately to no rights.

The special position to be outsourced was basically also intended for all persons regarded by the regime as unpopular, whose political, religious, criminal or work-shy orientation was subsumed under the catchphrase “ anti-social ”. There was a progressive transition from "ethnic inequality" through general legal inequality and "alien species" to "alien community". The originally racial core was thus abandoned, as is also clear from the use of the term “foreign ethnic”. According to Diemut Majer, Hitler’s ideas of race were “only a political means to cover up foreign policy claims to rule”.

Basic lawlessness of the peoples of Eastern Europe and East Central Europe

With the orientation of the " living space policy " towards the east, which provided for the establishment of the "Greater Germanic Empire of the German Nation" to the Urals, and the "decimation of the population of the Wewelsburg " announced by Himmler in June 1941 Slavic neighboring countries around 30 million ”, the category of“ foreign nationals ”was aimed primarily at the Slavs , who, according to National Socialist racial studies, were actually not considered a race of their own ( Hans FK Günther - called“ Rassen-Günther ”-, 1930). The originally racially based "ethnic inequality" mutated into a national political principle, and the term "foreign ethnic " was applied to all people outside the German "national community". Slavic peoples were simply considered "inferior" and "cultureless". Above all, they feared their fertility, which would lead them to a renewed, dreaded “urge to the west”, which is why their enslavement or extermination should be carried out by civil administration and police forces (cf. General Plan East ). A special foreign worker status also applied to them , namely that of " Eastern workers ".

The "integrated eastern territories" (cf. Reichsgaue Wartheland and Danzig-West Prussia ) became the model of a special legal Reich administration in the " Greater German Reich " ; a colonial administration under special law was established in the “ General Government”. In addition to enslavement, the possibility of various levels of naturalization (entry in the “ German People's List ”) could belong to the special law dealing with the “foreigners” .

The possibility of naturalization at different levels only applied to the so-called integrated eastern areas. So-called Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans ), ie people of German origin who lived in these areas, as well as Poles who were associated with Germanness (through marriage, language and culture, etc.) could become naturalized - but with the option of revocation . This served to attract so-called racially valuable offspring. The aim was to give these people Reich citizenship, which had been introduced in 1935, after a certain probationary period, and to enable them to lose their alien status. However, this possibility of naturalization did not apply to the “General Government”.

See also

literature

  • Martin Broszat : Two hundred years of German Poland policy . Revised and expanded edition. Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1972, ISBN 3-518-06574-2 ( Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch 74), there p. 272 ​​ff .: Fremdvolk-Doktrin und Terror .
  • Diemut Majer : "Aliens" in the Third Reich. A contribution to the National Socialist law-making and legal practice in administration and justice with special consideration of the incorporated Eastern Territories and the General Government . Almost unchanged new edition. Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1993, ISBN 3-7646-1933-3 ( publications of the Federal Archives 28).
  • Rolf-Dieter Müller : The Second World War 1939-1945 ( Handbook of German History , Volume 21), Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-608-60021-3 .
  • Hans-Erich Volkmann (ed.): The image of Russia in the Third Reich . Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1994, ISBN 3-412-15793-7 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Marianne Krüger-Potratz, "Fremdsprachige Volksteile" and German School. School policy for the children of the autochthonous minorities in the Weimar Republic . A source and work book, Waxmann, Münster-New York-Munich-Berlin 1998; ISBN 978-3-89325-625-9 ; P. 41.
  2. ↑ Diemut Majer, 1993, pp. 109 ff., 915.
  3. ↑ Majer, 1993, p. 140.
  4. ↑ Majer, 1993, pp. 85 f.
  5. ↑ See Majer, 1993, p. 127.
  6. ↑ Andreas Hillgruber , The Russia Image of the Leading German Military Before the Start of the Attack on the Soviet Union , p. 125, in: Hans-Erich Volkmann (ed.), Das Russlandbild im Third Reich , Cologne-Weimar-Wien 1994, p. 125-140.
  7. ^ HH Schubert: People's political requirements of the German people's list