Bavarian State Ministry for Special Tasks

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The Bavarian State Ministry for Special Tasks existed from 1945 to 1950 and had the task of drawing up guidelines for denazification in Bavaria and organizing the practical implementation of the law for the liberation from National Socialism and militarism with the help of ruling chambers . Similar ministries also existed in Hesse and Württemberg-Baden .

history

The beginnings up to the signing of the Liberation Act

Liberation Act

Carrying out denazification in the American occupation zone was originally the task of the US military government . According to Military Governor Lucius D. Clay, however, it should soon pass into the hands of German authorities. After the first post-war Bavarian prime minister, Fritz Schäffer , was dismissed on September 28, 1945, his successor Wilhelm Hoegner appointed the communist Heinrich Schmitt as minister without portfolio in his newly formed cabinet . Hoegner commissioned Schmitt to develop uniform guidelines for denazification, which he presented in November. A cabinet committee, however, saw Schmitt's draft as too strict and too far-reaching, so that the Bavarian state government's proposal was much more defused. On March 5, 1946, the Prime Ministers of the three countries of the American zone finally signed “Law No. 104 for the Liberation from National Socialism and Militarism”, also known as the Liberation Act, in the Munich City Hall .

The Ministry between March 1946 and July 1949

Since Minister Schmitt relied mainly on his Communist party comrades in denazification, conflicts arose with Hoegner and the military government. The latter two also wanted to try the main culprits first, whereas Schmitt wanted to deal with the numerically predominant cases of the minor offenders and followers first. Hoegner wanted to finally leave the office of minister to the CSU ; Schmitt should be content with a post as State Secretary. Schmitt refused, however, and resigned on July 1, 1946. He was succeeded by Anton Pfeiffer from the CSU.

A random check showed that around 60% of the rulings made by Minister Schmitt were not tenable. Pfeiffer then had the operation of the ruling chambers interrupted from August 12 to 21, 1946 and the previous judgments reviewed. About 10,000 of these were picked up. In addition, Pfeiffer had around 900 of the total of 1200 KPD members removed from the ruling chambers.

At the end of November 1946, 191 people were employed in the Ministry itself. In total, however, around 15,000 people were subordinate to him, including between 3,000 and 4,000 guards in the internment and labor camps.

Although the ruling chambers and the ministry were not independent, but were controlled by the Americans, they were dissatisfied with the course of the denazification. In their opinion, many ratings were too mild. Pfeiffer then offered to resign, but Hoegner did not accept it. However, due to the upcoming state elections, a new government was due anyway.

When the new cabinet was formed under Prime Minister Hans Ehard , the chairman of the Economic Development Association (WAV), Alfred Loritz , was appointed Minister for Special Tasks on December 12, 1946.

Conflicts soon arose. Loritz fired several employees for alleged corruption and curtailed the powers of a few others, who then declared their resignation, including General Plaintiff Thomas Dehler . The functionality of the ministry suffered increasingly. Members of the WAV increasingly exerted influence in official business. Since Loritz was not assigned any additional police forces to guard the internment camps, he had a private guard set up, which was under him personally and consisted mainly of members of the WAV. After it became known, this provoked the displeasure of the military government, which demanded an immediate dissolution of this "control service" and which saw in it "many characteristics of a secret political police".

Finally, on June 24, 1947, the state parliament approved Loritz's dismissal with a large majority. Ehard appointed his deputy, the previous Prime Minister and current Minister of Justice Wilhelm Hoegner , to be Loritz's successor. Hoegner, in turn, handed over management to his State Secretary Ludwig Hagenauer (CSU), who was appointed Minister on July 15, 1947. He held the office until his death on July 20, 1949, i.e. also in the Ehard II cabinet .

Business division continued until 1960

After Hagenauer's death in July 1949, no new minister for special tasks was appointed. The tasks were initially taken over by Hans Ehard in his capacity as Minister of Finance. In practice, however, the previous State Secretary Camille Sachs headed the department. On March 8, 1950, the state parliament decided unanimously to formally dissolve the Ministry for Special Tasks and to transfer further denazification under the title of "Minister for Political Liberation" to the Ministry of Finance. Since Sachs retired at the end of 1951, the tasks were transferred to the Ministry of Justice under Josef Müller from November 1951 . The office of liberation minister was only formally dissolved by the third law on the conclusion of political liberation of December 17, 1959. On January 1, 1960, the last remaining appeal chamber in Munich ceased its activity.

The ministry's files are now in the Bavarian Main State Archives in Munich.

minister

Associated positions

Several authorities were assigned to the State Ministry for Special Tasks, which supported the Ministry in carrying out its tasks:

Arbitration and Appeal Chambers

According to Minister Heinrich Schmitt, there were 136 arbitration chambers in Bavaria at the end of June 1946, but most of them were not yet able to work. In November 1946 there were 201 tribunals with 357 chairmen, 358 plaintiffs and 3,307 assessors. The internment and labor camps had special judgment chambers. Under Minister Pfeiffer, appellate chambers were also set up in the respective government districts, which were also the official supervisory authorities of the ruling chambers.

At the end of October 1948, 164 of the ruling chambers had already been dissolved. The rest had been grouped into main chambers, of which there were eleven in early 1949.

From September 1, 1949, there was only one main chamber and one chamber of appeal each in Munich and Nuremberg , and from August 1954 only in Munich. Both stopped their work at the beginning of 1960. At this point in time, however, the appeal chamber was no longer continuously occupied.

Court of Cassation

In September 1946 a court of cassation was set up, which could repeal legally binding decisions of the ruling chambers and, if necessary, order new proceedings ( cassatorial decision ). President of the Court of Cassation was Reich judge Gottlieb Full . The Court of Cassation existed until 1951; the last director was Johann Knör .

General plaintiff

In every arbitration chamber there were public plaintiffs who, unlike the chairmen and assessors, were not independent, but were subordinate to superior bodies. A general plaintiff was appointed to the court of cassation, who could not only submit applications to the court of cassation, but who also supervised the plaintiffs at the ruling chambers. His duties also included controlling the internment camps. From September 1, 1946 until his resignation on January 5, 1947, Thomas Dehler , the state chairman of the FDP , held the post of general plaintiff . The position was not filled again until January 1, 1948, with the former senior public prosecutor at Munich I Regional Court , Wilhelm Braun , who held the position until January 1, 1951.

Administration of labor and internment camps

The US military government had set up internment camps as early as 1945 to accommodate those arrested under automatic arrest . These were former prisoners of war and forced labor camps from the Nazi era. In autumn 1946 responsibility for these camps passed into the hands of the Ministry of Special Tasks. From November 1946 to April 1947 the number of prisoners was almost constant at around 24,000. In addition to automatic internment, the camps were also increasingly used to carry out atonement measures. Most of the camps were closed by autumn 1948.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Staatsministerium_f%C3%BCr_Sonderlösungen
  2. ↑ Pigs, bastards, bandits - Let the little children come to me , in: Der Spiegel 23/1947
  3. ^ Paul Hoser: State Ministry for Special Tasks , in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns
  4. ↑ Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv ( Memento of the original from June 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on www.archive-muenchen.de  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.archive-muenchen.de