Block leader

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In the NSDAP party organization there was from 1933 the service title Blockleiter der NSDAP . The name is derived from the inner city block . A block manager was responsible for 40 to 60 households ("shared apartments including subtenants") with an average of around 170 people. During the Nazi era , there were block leaders not only in the cities, but also in the villages, where a "block warden" monitored several farms, craft businesses and workers' houses.

The block leader had to prove his Aryan descent back to 1800 and was sworn in to Adolf Hitler . He was not a full-time functionary, but wore a party uniform on official occasions and was encouraged to behave in an “exemplary manner” in his private life.

However, the party official designation block leader did not establish itself in common parlance, especially since before 1933 in the organizational scheme of the NSDAP for these functionaries the designation block warden had applied. The term Blockwart was used by the population in the time of National Socialism as a collective term for lower-ranking functionaries of the NSDAP and its subsidiary organizations.

Area of ​​responsibility

The main training office of the NSDAP described the tasks of a block leader in 1940 as follows: “The sovereign has to take care of everything. He has to know everything. He has to intervene everywhere. ” His tasks were indeed extensive:

  • As a propagandist of the National Socialist ideology, he had to advertise their associations, distribute training material, collect contributions, collect money for the Winter Aid and Stew Sunday and act as a mediator for the people's welfare.
  • To enforce the racial policy , he reported "friends of the Jews" and made sure that harassed regulations such as the prohibition for Jews to keep pets were strictly followed. He also listed Jewish properties and homes.
  • As the organizer of the "Inner Front", he arranged for the distribution of ration cards , cleared out the attics and kept the blackout in the context of air protection. He looked after the bombed out and organized the Volkssturm in the final phase of the war .
  • For political surveillance, he kept a standardized household file, noted expressions of displeasure and behavior when flagged , issued certificates of repute and was an omnipresent contact person for denunciations.

According to a circular dated January 31, 1941, the block leaders should note, “Since when the Völkischer Beobachter has been used, whether the family had a swastika flag before the Flag Act of 1935 and which people's receiver was in the household. […] The political assessment is to be made […] with the responsible block or cell leader. ”In mid-1941, the block leaders received the order to visit all the apartments and to attach a card to the radio or to the control buttons containing the following warning:“ That Listening to foreign broadcasters is a crime against the national security of our people. It is punished with heavy penal sentences on the orders of the Führer. Remember! "

As the lowest-ranking party functionary, the block leader did not enjoy a high reputation and was popularly referred to as "stair terrier", especially in the cities. With its functions, it was an omnipresent instrument of surveillance and repression.

Block leader and helpers

The block leader was at the lower end of the hierarchy of National Socialist party functionaries, which was graduated from the Gauleiter , Kreisleiter , Ortsgruppenleiter to the cell leader and block leader . A local branch of the NSDAP usually consisted of eight cells , each of these cells was divided into four to eight blocks .

The block manager could fall back on voluntary helpers in his section, to whom he was also authorized to give instructions. These helpers did not have to belong to the NSDAP themselves, but also had to prove their "Aryan" descent and were appointed by the local group leader. They were also known as block administrators , block helpers or caretakers and often represented voluntary National Socialist subsidiary organizations such as the German Labor Front , National Socialist Women's Association or National Socialist People's Welfare .

Number of block leaders

For the year 1935, the number of block leaders is estimated at a good 200,000; together with the voluntary helpers, almost 500,000 functionaries were active on the lower level. These numbers rose rapidly due to the expansion of the air defense organization and quadrupled by the beginning of the war - especially after the occupation of the Sudetenland as a result of the Munich Agreement and the annexation of Austria .

Designation "Blockwart"

Often the "block leader of the NSDAP" appeared in personal union as the "block administrator" of the organization " Kraft durch Freude ". Since compound words with wart from the club system were generally more familiar, the block administrator and block manager as well as his helpers were usually referred to as block warden without distinction in everyday language . The linguistic confusion later culminated in the fact that the helpers of the Reich Air Protection Association were given the designation "Blockwart". The name Blockwart was not included in the NSDAP's organizational scheme.

In literary and theater history, the term “Blockwart” occurs in the theater and cabaret piece Der Herr Karl by Helmut Qualtinger and Carl Merz from 1961, in which the main character, the opportunistic Herr Karl from Vienna, among other things, meets Adolf Describes Hitler at the block waiting meeting.

The term Blockwart was chosen by a media group consisting of 3sat , Deutschlandradio Berlin, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Suhrkamp Verlag as one of the 100 words of the 20th century . In the laudation, the word was characterized as "Blockwart - in everyday language a swear word, representative of snoopers." According to the Society for German Language , the word from the time of National Socialism lives on to this day. It is part of terms such as “Blockwartstaat” or “Blockwartmentality” and is used innocently in some cases, ironically in others.

literature

  • Detlef Schmiechen-Ackermann : The "block warden". The lower party functionaries in the National Socialist terror and surveillance apparatus . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 48, 2000, issue 4, pp. 575–602 ( online ; PDF).
  • Cornelia Schmitz-Berning: Vocabulary of National Socialism . Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2000, ISBN 3-11-016888-X , p. 108 ( online ).
  • The organization book of the NSDAP . Published by the Reich Organizational Leader of the NSDAP. 4th edition. Rather, Munich 1937.

Web links

Wiktionary: Blockleiter  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: Blockwart  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cornelia Schmitz-Berning: Vocabulary of National Socialism. Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 2000, ISBN 3-11-016888-X , ISBN 978-3-11-016888-4 , p. 298 ( online ).
  2. ↑ Michael P. Hensle: Broadcasting Crimes: Listening to "enemy transmitters" in National Socialism . Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-936411-05-0 , p. 141.
  3. ↑ Detlef Schmiechen-Ackermann: The "Blockwart". The lower party functionaries in the National Socialist terror and surveillance apparatus . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 48 (2000), issue 4, p. 575 ( online ; PDF; 8.5 MB).
  4. ↑ Cornelia Schmitz-Berning: Vocabulary of National Socialism. Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 2000, ISBN 3-11-016888-X , ISBN 978-3-11-016888-4 , p. 108 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Cornelia Schmitz-Berning: Vocabulary of National Socialism. Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 2000, ISBN 3-11-016888-X , ISBN 978-3-11-016888-4 , p. 108 ( online ).
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Schneider (Ed.): The 100 words of the century , Verlag Suhrkamp, ​​1999.
  7. ↑ ZDF.MSNBC 100 words of the century ( Memento of 15 July 2010 at the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ The language service - organ of the Society for German Language e. V., 45 (2001), no. 3, p. 113: "Words of the Century".