Bamberg leadership conference

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bamberg Führer Conference was a meeting of the leadership of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) on February 14, 1926 . Adolf Hitler there claimed sole, uncompromising leadership within the party, which he was able to fully enforce in the course of the year.

prehistory

After the failed Hitler Ludendorff Putsch of 1923 and the subsequent trial for high treason , the NSDAP was banned until 1925 and Hitler until 20 December 1924 in Landsberg to imprisonment convicted. During this time there were fragmentation tendencies and changing leadership demands within the organization. Especially under Gregor Strasser , a left wing developed which, according to its self-definition, had a " national socialism " instead of a " national socialism " as its goal.

In the winter of 1925/1926 there was a political discussion within the NSDAP as to which position to take on the question of compensation for the prince in the Reichstag . The NSDAP functionaries of the Northwest Working Group met on January 24, 1926 in Hanover and spoke out against compensation. This view did not meet with the approval of Hitler, who did not want to alienate supporters of compensation for the prince and saw this question as secondary, since in the Free State of Bavaria a settlement with the House of Wittelsbach had existed since 1923 . Hitler wanted to prevent an impending split in the NSDAP.

Procedure and consequences

Therefore, on February 14, 1926, a leadership conference was held in Bamberg ( Bavaria ). There, the left wing of the party under Gregor Strasser and Joseph Goebbels had to withdraw its program demands, which expressed a more “ national Bolshevik ” policy. The Volkischer Beobachter reported that complete unanimity had been achieved. Adolf Hitler emerged stronger from this dispute, united the party wings and became the sole leader of the NSDAP. With the party statutes of May 22, 1926, adopted a little later, which declared the 25-point program of 1920 to be unalterable, the victory over the Strasser group was complete.

Joseph Goebbels, however, was deeply disappointed in his diary entry by Hitler:

“Hitler is talking. Two hours. I am beaten. What a Hitler? Which reactionary? Fabulously clumsy and insecure. Russian question: completely wrong. Italy and England natural allies. Terrible! Our task is to destroy Bolshevism. Bolshevism is Jewish machinations! [...] Prince compensation! Right must remain right. Even the prince. Do not shake the question of private property! Horrible!! [...] Strasser speaks. Halting, trembling, clumsy, the good, honest Strasser, oh God, how little we are up to these pigs down there. [...] Probably one of the biggest disappointments of my life. I no longer completely believe in Hitler. That is the terrible thing: I have lost my inner support. I'm only halfway. "

Two months later, however, Goebbels, who had been hugged by Hitler after a speech, wrote: “I'm so happy!”. On July 25, 1926, Goebbels wrote in his diary: “I feel connected to him [Hitler] to the end. Now my last doubt is gone. Germany will live! Hail Hitler!". Finally, he justified his about-face in an open letter dated November 15, 1926.

Strasser, who since 1931 increasingly represented business-friendly positions and accepted donations from individual large-scale industrialists, resigned from all party offices in 1932 because of recurring differences with Hitler. On June 30, 1934, he was murdered by the Gestapo in the so-called Röhm Putsch .

literature

  • Wolfgang Benz : The 101 most important questions: The Third Reich , Munich: CH Beck, 2006.
  • Joachim C. Fest : Hitler, Eine Biographie , Frankfurt a. M .: Ullstein, 1973, p. 357ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ernst Deuerlein (ed.): The rise of the NSDAP in eyewitness reports. dtv, 4th edition Munich 1980, ISBN 3-423-02701-0 , p. 256.
  2. ↑ Joseph Goebbels Diaries , ed. by Ralf Georg Reuth, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-492-21411-8 , Vol. 1, p. 228 (entry from February 15, 1926).
  3. ↑ Joseph Goebbels Diaries, Vol. 1, p. 239 (entry from April 13, 1926).
  4. ↑ Joseph Goebbels Diaries, Vol. 1, p. 267.
  5. ↑ Joseph Goebbels Diaries, Vol. 1, p. 272, note 32.
  6. ^ Henry Ashby Turner , Die Großunternehmer und der Aufstieg Hitler , Siedler Verlag, Berlin 1985, pp. 234–237, 316f and 348f.