Arthur Graefe

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Arthur Graefe (born January 12, 1890 in Leipzig , † May 23, 1967 in Truchtlaching ) was a German cultural official in the Free State of Saxony .

Life

After studying at university, he was among other things editor-in-chief of the Dresden editorial office of the Leipziger Neuesten Nachrichten and in the 1920s became honorary director of the regional association of the Saxon press. In 1923 he joined the German People's Party (DVP). In 1929 he was promoted to head of the intelligence office in the Saxon State Chancellery and was promoted to senior government councilor.

In April 1937, Graefes was appointed government director in the Saxon Ministry for Popular Education. He was head of the Art, Music, Museums, Castles and Palaces Department. In this function Graefe was one of the main people responsible for the National Socialist art and cultural policy in Saxony. At the same time he was the executive chairman of the “ Heimatwerk Sachsen - Verein zur Förder des Sächsischen Volkstums eV ” founded by Martin Mutschmann and founded by him as well as Curt Lahr , Friedrich Emil Krauss , Max Günther and Georg Hartmann in October 1936 . V. ”, which was headed by Friedrich Emil Krauss.

At the end of the Second World War, Arthur Graefe was in charge of the relocation and relocation of numerous art and cultural assets. He also negotiated the relocation of the Amber Room to Saxony.

After the end of the war he was interned in the Soviet Buchenwald special camp and sentenced to 16 years imprisonment on May 3, 1950 as part of the Waldheim trials . He was released in October 1952 and followed his son Heinz A. Graefe to Bavaria, where he died in 1967.

Works (selection)

  • (Editor) Saxony. Land of diversity. Workshop of Germany, center of German culture, border region. Dresden 1936.
  • Borderland Saxony. An outpost in the German battle of fate. With 181 pictures, 13 maps and sketches. Dresden: Limpert, 1937.
  • (Editor) Saxon heads in contemporary images. Dresden: Verlag Heimatwerk Sachsen, v. Baensch Foundation, 1938.
  • (Associate Editor) Glorious Saxon soldiers in six centuries. Dresden: Verl. Heimatwerk Sachsen, approx. 1940.
  • (Editor) What we fight for. Cultural assets of the Sachsengau. Dresden, 1944.

literature

  • Thomas Schaarschmidt: Arthur Graefe. "Der Sachsenmacher" and the "Heimatwerk Sachsen" , in: Christine Pieper, Mike Schmeitzner , Gerhard Naser (Eds.): Brown careers. Dresden perpetrators and actors in National Socialism , Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2012, pp. 248–254

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Thomas Schaarschmidt: Arthur Graefe. "Der Sachsenmacher" and the "Heimatwerk Sachsen" , in: Christine Pieper, Mike Schmeitzner , Gerhard Naser (Eds.): Brown careers. Dresden perpetrators and actors in National Socialism , Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2012, p. 250.
personal data
SURNAME Graefe, Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cultural politician in the Free State of Saxony
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 1967
Place of death Truchtlaching