August Kratt

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August Kratt (born October 30, 1882 in Karlsruhe , † October 7, 1969 in Radolfzell on Lake Constance ) was a German businessman , a functionary of the NSDAP and acting mayor of Radolfzell on Lake Constance from 1942 to 1945 . 

Life

August Kratt, who was born in Karlsruhe on October 30, 1882, founded a small general store in Radolfzell in 1919, which he expanded into a larger multi-line department store with headquarters on the market square, which still exists today as a family-run limited partnership .

From May 1, 1933 to 1945, August Kratt was a member of the NSDAP (membership number 3,016,638), sat for the party since 1933 in the local council and, according to his own statements, was block and cell leader in the years 1934–1943 . With the local group leader Otto Gräble, Kratt was one of the well-known activists and administrators of the local NSDAP. In addition, since May 1933, Kratt was a supporting member of the SS , Ortswalter Handel of the DAF , a member of the Reichskolonialbund and of the anti - Semitic "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsch-Arischer Fabrikanten der Clothingindustrie eV" ( Adefa ).

Adefa logo, 1938

The Adefa, which was founded in 1933 for the purpose of the systematic " Aryanization " of this branch of industry and based on voluntary commitments, banned its approximately 500 members (as of 1938) from all business dealings with Jewish production and trading companies. Adefa members began advertising with the boycott of Jews in April 1933 with a logo sewn into the goods and a “seal of quality” - “from Aryan hands” - and tried to use the anti-Jewish social climate for their own economic interests.

"The first spa guest in the Radolfzell Marine Kurheim", Rear Admiral Hans-Udo von Tresckow , with an embossed city seal and the signature of the komm. Mayor August Kratt; signed book by Ludwig Finckh , 1944.

August Kratt acted as deputy and first alderman of Mayor Josef Jöhle, who died after illness on September 25, 1942, temporarily continuing the office from October 23, 1942 until the end of the war in 1945. The good understanding between the city administration and the Waffen SS , the barracks command and the Waffen SS Unterführerschule, desired in the Radolfzell SS garrison , and their concerns was guaranteed under Kratt. According to his own statements because of "political unreliability", Gauleiter Robert Wagner was relieved of his office at the end of March 1945 and replaced by an old fighter , Rainer Schlegel, for three weeks. After his dismissal, Kratt reappointed the mayor's office on April 21, 1945.

Commemorative plaque (1995) for the preservation of the city from its destruction on April 25, 1945 - u. a. with mentioning and appreciation of August Kratt; Münsterbrunnen, Radolfzell, 2017.

When the French armed forces marched in on April 25, 1945, he is said to have made the "surrender without a fight" possible by conducting telephone negotiations with the Waffen-SS, the Wehrmacht and the advancing 1st Army in the post office in Radolfzell and by hoisting of against the previously declared defense order white flags. There is no independent evidence and no confirmation for this self-portrayal, which has entered a local historical narrative about the events of April 25, 1945 uncritically . At the end of several years of judicial proceedings , Kratt, as a former functionary and political leader of the NSDAP, was finally assigned to the group of the "minor offenders". In 1948, the Spruchkammer imposed a fine of 5,000 Reichsmarks as “atonement” and the loss of eligibility and the right to continue to be politically active or to become a member of a party. Regardless of this, the city of Radolfzell awarded Kratt honorary citizenship on December 24, 1962 for his "special services as first alderman and deputy mayor during the Second World War" and "in recognition of his many good deeds and foundations for the good of the city and its residents" .

August Kratt died in Radolfzell in 1969.

literature

  • Markus Wolter: The SS Garrison Radolfzell 1937–1945 . In: City of Radolfzell am Bodensee, Department of City History (Hrsg.): Radolfzell am Bodensee - The Chronicle. Stadler, Konstanz 2017, ISBN 978-3-7977-0723-9 , pp. 268–303, on August Kratt: here pp. 268 (picture), 281 and 297 f. 

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Natalie Reiser: The dream of having your own department store: The family business Kratt is celebrating its anniversary again , Südkurier, October 11, 2019.
  2. ↑ See the company's own account of the company's history on the occasion of the company's 90th anniversary in 2009: [1] , Südkurier 2009, PDF file.
  3. ↑ See Sebastian Hausendorf: "An evil mismanagement." Radolfzell 1933-1935. Konstanz, UVK 2013, ISBN 978-3-86764-391-7 , p. 69 f.
  4. ↑ Markus Wolter: The SS Garrison Radolfzell 1937-1945 . In: City of Radolfzell am Bodensee, Department of City History (Hrsg.): Radolfzell am Bodensee - The Chronicle. Stadler, Konstanz 2017, ISBN 978-3-7977-0723-9 , pp. 268–303, on August Kratt: here pp. 268 (picture), 281 and 297 f.
  5. ↑ See documentation on “Aryanization”, Adefa and Adefa membership by August Kratt.
  6. ↑ See Markus Wolter: Die SS Garrison Radolfzell 1937-1945 . In: City of Radolfzell am Bodensee, Department of City History (Hrsg.): Radolfzell am Bodensee - The Chronicle. Stadler, Konstanz 2017, ISBN 978-3-7977-0723-9 , p. 297 f.
  7. ↑ See wiki page on the Nazi history of Radolfzell; Documentation on August Kratt's role in the "non-fighting handover" of the city of Radolfzell on April 25, 1945.
  8. ↑ Quoted from: Homepage of the city of Radolfzell.
  9. ↑ Heimat-Chronik In: "HEGAU - magazine for history, folklore and natural history of the area between the Rhine, Danube and Lake Constance". Issue 2 (14) 1962. Page 373
personal data
SURNAME Kratt, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman, active member of the NSDAP and acting mayor of Radolfzell on Lake Constance (1942–1945)
DATE OF BIRTH October 30, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlsruhe
DATE OF DEATH 7th October 1969
Place of death Radolfzell on Lake Constance