Coburg in the time of National Socialism

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National Socialism appeared in Coburg earlier than anywhere else . As early as the late 1920s, the NSDAP had become the dominant party in the city. On June 23, 1929, it won an absolute majority with a 43.1% vote with 13 of the 25 city ​​council seats; on January 18, 1931 , the swastika flag was waved for the first time in Germany on a public building, the Coburg City Hall , and the city council voted on October 16 the Nazis Franz Schwede the first Mayor of Coburg and awarded on February 26, 1932 Coburg was the first German city of Adolf Hitler the honorary citizenship . From 1939 Coburg was allowed to use the honorary title of “Germany's First National Socialist City”.

Sociological structure after the First World War

At the beginning of the 1920s, small-town bourgeoisie with civil servants, employees as well as pensioners and pensioners shaped the economic and social image of the former royal seat , which became Bavarian on July 1, 1920 with the unification of the Free State of Coburg with the Free State of Bavaria . Politically, there was traditionally a bourgeois-liberal to national-conservative attitude. The abdication of Duke Carl Eduard von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha had led to a loss of identity for the population. Only a quarter of the population belonged to the working class. Industry and commerce settled on the outskirts, small basket-making businesses were dominant. Among the larger companies there was the meat and sausage factory C. Großmann with 100 employees, the body factory N. Trutz with 175 employees, twenty metalworking companies with a total of 600 employees and six breweries. The dominant basket weavers were mainly voters of the Social Democrats. According to the June 1925 census, Coburg had around 24,300 inhabitants; 90% of the population were Protestant, 7.3% Catholic and 1.3% of the Mosaic faith .

Party political rights in the early 1920s

At the beginning of the 1920s, the political right in Coburg was severely fragmented. In January 1920 there was the resident army with 250 men, supported by the former Duke Carl Eduard of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ; it was dissolved in June 1921. The successor organization Bund Bayern und Reich was active in the North Bavarian Border Guard from autumn 1923 and in 1923 had between 200 and 1000 members in the city. There was also a Coburg steel helmet group , in which, among other things, the future mayor Rehlein was active.

The Coburger Wikingbund and the Deutschvölkische Schutz- und Trutzbund , whose local group, with Hans Dietrich as chairman, counted around 400 members in December 1922 , had a certain importance . In addition, the Young German Order had been represented in the city since the summer of 1922 . In April 1923, the organization consisted of 1,800 people under the leadership of Pastors Johnsen from Gauerstadt and Döbrich from Neustadt . A total of 17 clubs and associations were organized in Coburg in the Patriotic Working Group .

In the election to the German National Assembly at the beginning of 1919, the bourgeois-conservative parties in the city of Coburg received an absolute majority of the votes, the Social Democratic Party of Germany around 45%. In the Reichstag election in June 1920 , 25 % of the voters voted for the DDP , 23.6% for the German People's Party and 40% for the Left, consisting of the SPD and USPD . The situation was similar after the city council election in November 1921, when the bourgeois party list was elected by 61% of the voters and the two left parties by 34%.

German day

Delegation of the NSDAP on 15 October 1922 in front of the guest house of the fortress, far left with pipe and hat Oskar grains , the second chairman of the NSDAP, which the Hitler putsch died

The time of National Socialism began in Coburg with the German Day in October 1922. The Coburg teacher Hans Dietrich , Gauleiter of the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbundes (DVST) Northern Bavaria, managed the Third German Day, a meeting of the DVST with other ethnic associations and To bring parties to Coburg for the weekend of October 14th and 15th, 1922, among other things with reference to Coburg's national tradition and because the DVST was not forbidden in Bavaria. As an organizer he also invited the Munich National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) with Adolf Hitler and "some gentlemen of his company" in the hope that their uncompromising radicalism would increase the importance of the event.

Hitler used the propaganda opportunity to publicize his party outside of Munich, agreed to participate and followed on October 14 with a special train and around 650 SA escorts, equipped with mountain sticks or rubber truncheons, taking along a band and flag decorations Coburg. Accompanied by Hitler were Alfred Rosenberg , Julius Streicher , Max Amann , Fritz Sauckel , Martin Mutschmann and Otto Hellmuth , among others . In addition to the Munich delegation, another 20 NSDAP delegations from Germany came to the city.

Although prohibited by the government of Upper Franconia , the SA marched in a closed train with music and flags through Coburg to the conference location, the great hall of the Hofbräu restaurants in Mohrenstrasse (demolished in 1971), and later to the accommodation, the old rifle house on the Anger (demolished in 1978) . There were street battles with 500 to 600 counter-demonstrators, workers from Coburg and southern Thuringia. There were several injuries on both sides, including among the police officers of the Coburg City Police and Bavarian State Police .

In the evening, the main event took place in the large hall of the Hofbräugaststätte, which was overcrowded with around 3000 people, at which, in the presence of Carl Eduard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his wife Viktoria Adelheid, Hitler was one of the main speakers and delighted the audience. Dietrich Eckart , Anton Drexler and Hermann Esser spoke after him . Since then, Carl Eduard has been counted among the supporters and supporters of the NSDAP.

On the night of October 14-15, there were again serious clashes between the SA and workers in the community of Ketschendorf, which was mainly inhabited by workers and at that time a suburb of Coburg. For Sunday, October 15th, a train of the German Day to the fortress above Coburg was planned at 2 p.m. Hitler came before this at 1 p.m. with his own train, around 2,000 followers accompanied him. A parade of the SA hundreds took place on the fortress and after a short speech by Hitler the participants returned to the conference room in Coburg. After the final event in the Hofbräuhaus, at which Hitler gave another speech, the National Socialists marched to Coburg train station at around 10 p.m. with flags and music . There was some applause from the population.

On Sunday there were also various anti-Semitic rallies by SA men. Among other things, the director of the Großmann meat factory, Abraham Friedmann , was threatened with manslaughter because he allegedly paid 100,000 Reichsmarks to left-wing extremists so that the events would be disrupted. Hitler praised the “train to Koburg” in his book Mein Kampf as a milestone of the movement.

Foundation and rise of the NSDAP

Founding location of the Coburg NSDAP local group at Judengasse 36

After the mass event on German Day with Hitler's appearance, the founding meeting of the NSDAP local group in Coburg with around 40 members took place on January 14, 1923 . The first local group leader in Coburg was the electrical engineer Riechers, who was soon replaced by his deputy, chief inspector Heinrich Bergmann. The founding place was the Gasthaus Zum Weißen Ross at Judengasse 36. At the same time, the Coburg SA was set up. From April 1, 1923, Franz Schwede was the local group leader, who was the determining person of the NSDAP in Coburg in the following years. By June 1923 the NSDAP had around 200 members, in September there were at least 600.

After the failed Hitler putsch on November 9, 1923, the NSDAP was banned. The Coburg members came under the Wikingbund or, like Swede, with the German National Guard and Trutzbund. Swede later took over the leadership of the Coburg group of the National Socialist Freedom Party .

In the state elections in Bavaria in 1924 there was a shift to the right in Coburg when the Völkische Block , which was located to the right of the DNVP , received the highest number of votes in Bavaria with 53.1% and Pastor Helmuth Johnsen from Gauerstadt was the only one Representatives of the ethnic bloc won a direct mandate . On December 7th of the same year, the conservative groups Economic Bloc and Citizens and Economic Bloc - an amalgamation of DNVP, BVP and the National Liberal Association - received a total of 42.3% of the votes or 11 city council mandates in the city council elections, while the Völkischen with several former NSDAP Members received 14.8% of the vote. The master baker Ernst Bernhardt, the wood merchant Georg Linke, the machine master Franz Schwede and the manufacturer Gustav Neutsch were elected to the Coburg city council . With the re-establishment of the NSDAP on February 27, 1925, the reactivation of the NSDAP local group Coburg with 100 to 150 members followed in the same month. Bernhardt, Linke and Swede switched to the new National Socialist city council faction, while Neutsch, Coburg local chairman of the DVST, did not follow.

Results of the Coburg city council elections from 1919 to 1929

Since the three-man faction in the city council was hardly effective, despite populist proposals such as paying the city councils compensation to the welfare office, the local NSDAP group founded the news paper of the National Socialist German Workers' Party for the Coburg district and neighboring areas in June 1926 Areas as an extra-parliamentary mouthpiece. With the second issue in July, the party newspaper was renamed Weckruf , which initially appeared irregularly and from October 1927 as a weekly paper. Until then, the editors were Friedrich Schubart and in 1927 Hans Dietrich , followed by Hans Schemm in 1928 and Arthur Backert in 1929. On October 1, 1930, the wake-up call was renamed the Coburger National-Zeitung ; Erich Kühn became editor. It was the first local National Socialist daily newspaper in the German Reich.

Coburg 1925

At the end of 1928, the wake-up call began a five-part smear and slander campaign against Abraham Friedmann, the Jewish general director of the meat products company Großmann. At the same time, Swede asked the police and administrative council that the city should prevent Friedmann from being awarded the title of Kommerzienrat . Friedmann defended himself against the attacks on his person by issuing an injunction against the wake-up call; In addition, he pointed out the employer of the machine foreman Swede, the municipal works, of considerations to stop the coke and electricity purchases. Schwede refused to sign a declaration in which he should agree to comply with his obligations towards his employer in his political activities and, in this sense, to influence the press close to him. At the same time, the wake-up call published the false claim that Friedmann had requested his release. On February 13, 1929, the city's works committee finally approved Sweden's dismissal due to its excessive public attacks on a major buyer of the municipal works with six to three votes. The motion of the NSDAP city council faction to reverse the resolution was rejected in the city council on February 22nd with 14 votes to 10. At the beginning of March, the National Socialists held a protest event in the Hofbräu restaurants with 3,000 participants, in which the Swede declared his release as an attack on the NSDAP initiated by Jews. The city councilor Georg Linke announced that it would initiate a motion for a vote for the purpose of dissolving the city council and new elections, which then took place on May 5, 1929 and, among other things, with the help of massive Nazi propaganda by around 62% of the voters - 6915 people and thus 200 more than required - was adopted. Four days later, 1,200 supporters celebrated the outcome of the referendum on the market square with the SA marching past Hermann Göring , Franz Ritter von Epp and Hermann Esser. The following weeks up to the city council election on June 23rd were marked by an intense local election campaign. Among other things, there was a bloody battle in the hall when National Socialists disrupted a meeting of the Social Democrats. In the election campaign propaganda, Swede presented the NSDAP as a party of the common man and a fighter against the corrupt political class. Among other things, he called for emergency work to be carried out, savings in the salary of the Sparkasse director and the removal of special taxes. Alternatively, large companies and department stores should be taxed additionally. On the election weekend, Hitler came to Coburg to give a speech and to witness the local elections.

Rule of the NSDAP

Franz Swede
Swedish wedding 1932, Steinweg

1929 to 1933

In the city council elections on June 23, 1929, the NSDAP won 43.1% of the vote, especially at the expense of the DNVP, and achieved an absolute majority in the 25-member city council with 13 seats, the first absolute majority for the National Socialists in a German city. Joseph Goebbels commented on the election results in his diary: “Election results: in Coburg increased from 3 to 13 [...]. Fabulous! ”However, the party did not have an absolute majority of the members of the city council with voting rights, as the first and second mayors and, in some cases, the legal council and the town planning council were also entitled to vote. At the victory celebration on election evening, Hitler gave another speech.

Already in the first meeting after the new elections on June 28th, at which the NSDAP parliamentary group appeared in SA uniforms, the city council decided, with the votes of the NSDAP and three German nationalists, to reinstate Swedes and make them official at the municipal works. Previously, in an appeal hearing, the regional court had declared Schwede's dismissal to be unlawful, as this was due to his political activities. In addition, the city council voted for the director of the municipal works, Leonhard Meckel, to be retired.

Hitler also intervened in the election campaign in the legally pending city council elections on December 8, 1929. Carl Eduard Herzog von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha and his wife were present at his speech on December 5th in the Hofbräu restaurants. The elections on December 8th did not bring the NSDAP any more city council seats. With 45.7% of the votes, the party again got 13 seats, the SPD with 27.3% unchanged seven seats, the national citizen and economic bloc (previously DNVP and National Liberal Association) with 13.9% four seats and the DDP with 3.4% one seat. Coburg and the Coburg district had developed into a stronghold of the NSDAP with the highest degree of organization in Upper Franconia in 1929. The party had 14 local groups and three bases.

The first goal of the National Socialists in 1930 was to obtain a majority of the members of the city council with voting rights. To this end, an application was made to establish a third honorary mayor's position. Franz Schwede was to take over this role, which would lead to another National Socialist joining the city council. It was not until the fifth attempt, on August 22, 1930, that the required majority came about, and Swede was elected on August 25. The two Stahlhelm members of the civil and economic bloc Karl Güntzel and Wilhelm Rehlein, who had previously been massively attacked in the party newspaper Weckruf because of their negative attitude , voted with the 13 councilors of the NSDAP . Because the second mayor Ernst Altenstädter was permanently ill, the power of the NSDAP in Coburg was completely secured. After Altenstädter retired at the end of March 1931, Swede was elected honorary successor on April 17th. The 46-year-old first mayor Erich Unverfähr was given leave of absence for health reasons. After the election of Franz Schwede as honorary first mayor on October 16, 1931, Werner Faber (later Lord Mayor of Wittenberg and Stettin ) as full-time second mayor and Wilhelm Rehlein as third mayor, who switched to the NSDAP, the leadership of the city took over the National Socialists completed.

Coburg town hall

The NSDAP used the majority in the city council for various festive meetings, such as on January 18, 1931 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the second German Empire . For the first time in the German Empire, a large swastika flag was hoisted on a town hall. In addition, Hitler spoke in the Hofbräu restaurants in the evening. At the fourth regular city council meeting on February 26, 1932, following an urgent motion by the NSDAP city council faction, Adolf Hitler, who had become a German citizen on that day , was granted honorary citizenship of the city of Coburg. The honorary citizenship certificate was handed over on October 16, 1932 on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Hitler's "Train to Koburg", on the so-called Hitler Day . At the event with around 35,000 people from all over Germany, 250 participants from the German Day of 1921 were awarded the Koburg Badge of Honor. Of the total of 436 honorary holders, 25 came from Coburg. Four days later, with great public sympathy, Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , the eldest daughter of the last reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Carl Eduard, married the Swedish Prince Gustav Adolf of the Bernadotte family . Numerous domestic and foreign journalists reported on the so-called Swedish wedding from Coburg, which is decorated with swastikas. Hitler, who was invited to the wedding, canceled.

The city had previously shown itself to be a stronghold of the National Socialists again. In the 1932 presidential election in Coburg, Hitler received 48.5% of the vote on March 13. It was the best result in an independent city. In the Reichstag election on July 31, 1932 , the NSDAP received 9,621 votes, which corresponded to a share of 58.6%, which was no longer exceeded in the subsequent elections in November 1932 and March 1933.

Referring to the Law to Protect Young People from Trash and Dirty Writings of 1926, on November 21, 1932, the city's administration and police commission initiated ongoing inspections of bookstores and lending libraries.

Politics in the city council

The NSDAP used the city council meetings as a forum for its propaganda and to expand its power in the city administration. The SPD was passed over in the distribution of the important committee seats and usually only knew how to defend itself through boycotts of meetings and / or articles in the party's own Coburger Volksblatt . Despite their own populist demand that city councils should not receive city contracts, city councilors Faber and Streng had accepted orders and city council Bernhard Bernhard used his knowledge from the finance committee for a real estate deal. From the summer of 1932 official announcements of the city were only printed in the Coburg national newspaper, which was published by the city councilor Ernst Kuhn, and for the first time for a fee. The key positions in the administration and in the city's own enterprises were filled with party members. In addition to the retired mayors and the director of the Meckel municipal works, the director of the Coburger Stadtsparkasse Soergel was given leave of absence in April 1931 with an ultimately unsuccessful official penalty procedure. The town planning officer Köster and the legal advisor Franz Dehler were harassed. Dehler had voted against the appointment of Swede as third mayor in 1930, but joined the NSDAP at the end of 1932 and made a career as district administrator and from 1938 as president of the administration of Bavarian palaces, gardens and lakes . In March 1930, for example, five workers from the municipal works were dismissed and replaced by five members of the NSDAP, and from October 9, 1930, only the savings bank management committee appointed by the NSDAP, without the savings bank director Soergel, decided on dismissals and hires.

Financial policy

In accordance with election promises, on July 24, 1929, the city council decided, at the request of the NSDAP city council faction, to tax department stores and branches that were generally owned by Jews in Coburg. The department store tax was first applied in Germany. It should refinance the populist tax cuts in commercial, property and house taxes and the elimination of street cleaning and fire protection fees. Nevertheless, the budget for 1929/1930 showed a deficit of 727,000 Reichsmarks with revenues of around 3 million Reichsmarks, which is why the government of Upper Franconia in Bayreuth ordered the reintroduction of the canceled taxes and levies and, after the city administration refused to implement this, Coburg was the only Bavarian City withdrew the right to self-government. This made the Bavarian government responsible for the unpopular tax burden. In addition, the administrative committee of the Städtische Sparkasse Coburg arranged for 350,000 Reichsmarks to be withdrawn from the Sparkasse's profits to cover the budget deficit. This happened despite the contradiction of the Sparkasse director Konrad Soergel, who wanted to obey the ministerial decision to create a cash liquidity reserve. A year later the budget showed a deficit of 650,000  Reichsmarks and for 1931/1932 800,000 Reichsmarks were planned, which led to the permanent state administration of Coburg to balance the budget. With a debt of 1.3 million Reichsmarks, Coburg was threatened with insolvency in April 1932. In May 1932, the city government of the "National Socialist model town" then presented a balanced budget in view of the upcoming Reichstag elections. However, the examination of this by the government in Bayreuth revealed that income had been planned to which Coburg had no legal claims. As a result, the city was forced to raise its citizen tax by 400% above the national standard.

public safety

The takeover of power by the NSDAP led to a rapid increase in politically motivated violence in Coburg. For example, Franz Klingler , a member of the Social Democratic state parliament , was attacked and knocked unconscious on January 15, 1930, and Jewish citizens were increasingly attacked in public. The investigations of the city police, which soon had the reputation of being infiltrated by the National Socialists, generally did not lead to any results. Investigations by a detective sent to the Nuremberg Police Department in January 1930 were unsuccessful. On August 22, 1930 SA members attacked a parade of the SPD on the occasion of the Coburg visit of the former Reich Chancellor Hermann Müller . A high point of the attacks was on November 28th, when after an SPD rally with the main speaker Wilhelm Hoegner, the participants from Neustadt bei Coburg were thrown with stones and bottles by 22 National Socialists on their return journey in five trucks. A truck driver was hit in the head. He lost control of his vehicle, which fell down an embankment and overturned. Two people were seriously injured and 14 slightly injured. This time, extensive investigations were carried out by the Coburg police director Wilhelm Janzen, which ultimately led to imprisonment between three and eight months for 14 perpetrators. After a city council decision in January 1931, Janzen was replaced by the police inspector Scheel, transferred to the welfare office with a lower salary and retired in September 1932. In the summer of 1931 there was violence almost every night, especially in August between National Socialists and Communists .

The increasing violence and the inability of the compliant city police to stop them, as well as the issue of gun licenses for the SS leadership and Hitler's SS bodyguard, which had not been issued by the Munich police, prompted the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior to act. It transferred police power in the city of Coburg from March 11, 1932 to August 8, 1932 to the Oberregierungsrat Ernst Fritsch in his function as city commissioner. Among other things, the state police were subordinate to the board of the Coburg district office.

Labor service

In January 1932, the voluntary labor service of the city of Coburg was set up, the prototype of the later Reich labor service . Unemployed male youths were in a barracks in the district Wüstenahorn purpose of "temporary employment and education" barracks . The main principle was: "No welfare support without work". In order to receive social benefits , the personal hardship of those affected was thus directly linked to the willingness to do public work. For their hard physical work in road and settlement construction as well as in the quarry, the "involuntary" labor service workers received 21 Reichsmarks per week; of which only 3.50 on hand. The rest was kept for food, camp accommodation, heating and insurance, and some went to people in need identified by the city council. The rest was credited to a savings account. The labor service was commissioned by a building contractor from Coburg. An average of 60 men were then usually in the camp after six months. The structure was paramilitary with hierarchy, guard duty, marches and drill exercises . Offenses such as refusal to serve resulted in dismissal. The NSDAP propaganda ensured that the Coburg Labor Service was made known throughout the Reich as an idea of ​​the party. Many local politicians from other communities paid visits, also because the income from the camp helped to finance the city's welfare system . In September 1932, however, this labor camp, which was run paramilitary by the commune , was incorporated into the Reich's voluntary labor service , as this was subsidized to 90%.

1933 to 1945

In the Reichstag elections of March 5, 1933, for which the city administration only allowed NSDAP election posters, the National Socialists received 56.1% of the vote. Four days later, on March 9, members of the SS and SA celebrated the National Socialist takeover of power in Bavaria. A wave of arrests of 152 opponents of the regime and Jews began in Coburg. The emergency and auxiliary police, which had been set up on March 2, 1932 under the pretext of protecting public buildings, were under the direction of Emil Mazuw and consisted of 55 SS members, were used. In the so-called protective custody, 83 people were interrogated with torture in order to extort “confessions”. Some Swede and Faber were present. 31 people were transferred to the Dachau concentration camp . After several abused people were taken to the rural hospital , the doctors reported them. The investigations were discontinued at the beginning of May, however, convictions by the regional court did not come about until 1951.

On March 11th, the new Bavarian Minister of the Interior, Adolf Wagner, was impeached and arrested City Commissioner Fritsch, whose official duties were transferred to Swede on April 3rd. This meant that the last key position in the administration was occupied by a party member. The seven councilors of the SPD were deposed in July.

Events

Coburg city arms
from 1934 to 1945
Coburg city arms
Old rifle house on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the “Train to Koburg” in October 1937

On Sunday, May 7, 1933, came in the outer courtyard of Ehrenburg to book burning . The action was carried out by the Hitler Youth as part of the newly created “Day of Youth”. The Coburg leader of the Hitler Youth, Franz Heimberger, a member of the NSDAP and head of the municipal public library since 1928, organized the day with going to church, burning books and moving. Previously, on April 5 and 6, according to the decision of the Administrative Senate, accompanied by the police, he checked eight lending libraries and confiscated books because of their content or the author.

The cult of Franz Schwede, who was awarded the title of mayor in May, reached a climax on September 10, 1933. The Evangelical-Lutheran dean Curt Weiß consecrated the new town hall bell under the name Franz-Schwede-Glocke with the inscription “I call you to Adolf Hitler, my name is Franz-Schwede-Glocke”.

The late medieval city coat of arms, which depicts the head of Saint Mauritius as a Moor , was replaced on April 30, 1934 by an SA dagger with a swastika in the pommel in a shield split in black and gold. The Lord Mayor Swede wanted to use the forged dagger to highlight the importance of the city for the early history of the Nazi movement. At the end of June 1934, Swede gave up his position as Lord Mayor and finally succeeded Wilhelm Karpenstein as Gauleiter of the Pomeranian Gau and President of the Prussian Province of Pomerania . On July 7, 1934, the Coburg city council gave him the addition of Coburg to his name because of his services.

In May 1934 Robert Ley opened the first Reichsschule of the Nazi women's union at Hohenfels Castle , which had been in municipal ownership since November 1, 1932 and had housed a labor camp for women in an adjoining building since September 1933. It was the only supra-regional party organization in the city.

As part of the general roll call of the Führer Corps of the National Socialist Motor Vehicle Corps and the inauguration of the new war memorial in the Schlossplatz arcades , Hitler visited Coburg again on October 19, 1935. Among other things, he mentioned in a speech the importance of Coburg for the NSDAP. On the occasion of the visit, Hitler signed the city of Coburg's "Golden Book of Honor" .

On October 15, 1937, Hitler, coming from Obersalzberg , was for the last time in “dear old Coburg”, as he called the city. The occasion was the 15th anniversary of Hitler's "Train to Koburg". In the market square he spoke to 10,000 people, including 1,300 holders of the Golden Party Badge . Among other things, he said: "I made politics with Coburg". In total, Hitler visited Coburg fourteen times.

In 1939, in accordance with a city council resolution, Coburg gave Hitler the 50th birthday of the Old Schützenhaus, which was demolished in the mid-1970s, in memory of the German Day of 1922. Described as a "suburb of National Socialist sentiments" by Hitler, Coburg was allowed to use the honorary title of "Germany's First National Socialist City" from June 23, 1939, ten years after the NSDAP gained a majority in the city council.

During the Second World War , Coburg was spared from air raids for a long time. On August 17, 1940, two British planes bombed three buildings. At the beginning of April 1945 there were around 1,500 Wehrmacht soldiers without heavy weapons in Coburg, which was declared a fortress. On April 9, 1945, Mayor August Greim left for Bayreuth. Before the city was captured on April 11, 1945 by units of the 11th US Armored Division , bombing and artillery and tank shelling resulted in 44 totally destroyed, 112 heavily and 328 slightly damaged houses. 402 apartments were completely destroyed and 639 damaged, which corresponded to a degree of destruction of 4.1%. 45 Coburgs and 74 slave laborers from Eastern Europe were killed.

Construction work

City youth home in Rosenauer Strasse, formerly home of the Hitler Youth

In 1933 the city of Coburg acquired the properties of the Duscowerke at Uferstrasse 7 and made them available to the Reich Labor Service for a main camp. Department 3/280 with the name “Der Sandwirt von Tirol” moved into the property. The inauguration of a new building for the RAD group staff followed in 1937. The buildings were destroyed in the Second World War.

In 1934 the company "Verein", which owned and operated the Gesellschaftshaus am Ernstplatz, had to sell its event building from 1873 to the non-profit Adolf Hitler House Cooperative founded on October 14, 1933 for 60,000 Reichsmarks. The building, including a hall for around 450 people, was rebuilt according to plans by Reinhard Claaßen in a neo-classical style and was used for the following years as the representative party headquarters of the local NSDAP under the name Adolf Hitler House . The model was the Brown House of the NSDAP in Munich. The building was destroyed during the fighting for Coburg in April 1945 and demolished in 1955.

At the new link between Mohrenstrasse and Steinweg, the city had a representative residential and commercial building built in 1936/37 as part of a selective old town renovation. The so-called Gräfsblock was represented by the local Nazi propaganda as a symbol of the creative power of the new Coburg city administration.

The first home of the Hitler Youth of the newly created district of Bayerische Ostmark was built on Rosenauer Strasse in 1937 . The building, which was built in the style of "building in the New Reich" propagated by the National Socialists, had a central entrance with three portals and transverse structures, among other things, was equipped with scraping rooms, a driver's room and hall of honor. The inauguration of the home, which cost around 133,000 Reichsmarks, was on December 5, 1937, in the presence of the HJ area management 22 and 2500 Hitler Youths. After the war, the city youth center was housed in the house.

Planned district forum

There were designs by Fritz Schaller for a thing site below the Bismarck Tower and by Reinhard Claassen for a monumental memorial hall for those who fell in the war. Plans by the NSDAP from 1940 for a so-called district forum on the undeveloped Judenberg, above the planned Main-Werra Canal , as a counterpart to the Coburg Fortress opposite, with a parade avenue, a parade area for 10,000 people and a festival hall with 3500 square meters of floor space came about because of the War not for execution. The same applies to the expansion of the Coburg town hall as part of the renovation of the Stadtsparkasse. A new Coburg bay , the “Führererker”, was to be built at the western end of the town hall .

After 1933 Coburg had the opportunity to become a garrison town again. 30,000 inhabitants were required for this, which is why Ketschendorf , Wüstenahorn , Cortendorf and Neuses were incorporated on July 1, 1934 . This increased the population by 3,331 to 29,094. On October 2, 1934, construction began on the Hindenburg barracks and a refreshment camp in Neuses, and on October 4, 1934, with the 2nd Battalion of the 42nd Infantry Regiment “Bayreuth”, the first stationing of Wehrmacht units . In the following years the Von Berg barracks and the Passchendaele barracks were built as further troop accommodation ( see main article: Coburg barracks ).

After the end of the war

As part of denazification , all party members who had acquired NSDAP membership before May 1, 1937, were dismissed by the American military government. In autumn 1945 there were 247 of the 328 city employees, another 30 people followed in December. Of the 150 employees at the Sparkasse, 104 lost their jobs. Due to the Nazi past, 2,600 residents were not eligible to vote in the city council election on May 26, 1946. The SPD received 39.2% of the vote, became the strongest parliamentary group and, with Ludwig Meyer, provided the mayor.

The events in March and April 1933 led in 1951 to criminal proceedings against Swede, Mazuw and ten other former SS members before the Coburg regional court for deprivation of liberty, assault and coercion in office. Among other things, 159 witnesses were heard and 117 victims were found in the two-month trial. Jews were not among the witnesses. The judgment was announced on April 7, 1951. Swede was sentenced to ten years for 52 assaults in office with attempted coercion, Mazuw for eight years and nine months for 62 assaults in office with two attempts at coercion, a former SS-Untersturmführer for two dangerous assaults in unit with two attempts at coercion Sentenced to ten months and a former SS Oberscharführer for three dangerous bodily harm to eight months in prison. The proceedings against three defendants were discontinued on account of the Act of Impunity of December 31, 1949 and against two because of the statute of limitations on prosecution . Three defendants were acquitted.

anti-Semitism

Nikolaikirche in Coburg
Memorial stone on the Jewish cemetery

From 1923 the newspaper Coburger Warte published anti-Semitic inflammatory articles . After this was discontinued for economic reasons in January 1925, the NSDAP party newspaper Der Weckruf followed in 1926 as an anti-Jewish propaganda paper, which was designed in style and style like Der Stürmer . On January 25, 1929, the CV newspaper of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith appeared in Berlin with the headline Koburg . In a full-page article, Coburg was described as a stronghold and hotbed of anti-Semitic excesses. Assaults against Jewish residents and their property were the order of the day, the investigations by the city police were usually unsuccessful. As part of an advertising campaign in the Coburger National-Zeitung , a competition was held on February 14, 1931 under the key word The Business Jew and called for a boycott of Jewish companies for the first time in a city in Germany .

At the request of Franz Schwede, the Coburg city council decided on September 23, 1932 to terminate the contract for the use of the Nikolaikirche as a synagogue for the Jewish community at the end of the year . The synagogue was closed on March 16, 1933.

In March 1933, when Coburg had around 26,000 inhabitants - 233 of whom were Jewish - the open terror against critics of the NSDAP and Jewish residents began. A total of 39 Jews were arrested by the city's emergency police and, as a rule, tortured. Jakob Friedmann, who had already been verbally attacked by the National Socialists in 1920 and 1928, kidnapped strangers on March 15 and severely abused him. The demonstrations against Jewish businesses reached a climax on April 1st with the nationwide boycott day . The six department stores were "aryanized" by 1936 , including the fashion store M. Conitzer & Sons in 1935 at Spitalgasse 19 , which was part of the Hermann Tietz department store chain . In August 1935, on their own initiative, Coburg cinemas, shops and locales began to forbid entry to Jews; they were not wanted in the Coburg State Theater . On the night of November 10, 1938 , Jewish shops were vandalized and shop windows smashed, and the prayer room in the residential building at Hohen Strasse 30 was destroyed. The former synagogue remained intact. Many of the 133 members of the Jewish community were arrested, and 35 men were held in the Angerturnhalle , in front of which anti-Jewish demonstrations took place. The SA transferred 16 people to Hof .

In December 1938 the city administration renamed the Judengasse to Marktgasse, the Judentor to Markttor, the Judenberg in Saarlandberg and the Judenbrücke to Itzbrücke. In 1941 there were still 41 Jews living in the city, most of whom were used as slave labor . 37 Jews from Coburg were deported by the Nazi regime. On November 19, the mayor (from 1938 to 1945) August Greim reported the city of Coburg as " Jew-free ", four Jewish women escaped deportations because they were married to " German-blooded " men. In the Jewish cemetery in Coburg there is a memorial stone with the names of 48 Coburg Jews who fell victim to National Socialism. However, the list is incomplete. The memorial book of the Federal Archives for the victims of the National Socialist persecution of Jews in Germany lists 64 Jewish residents of Coburg, who were deported and mostly murdered .

literature

  • Joachim Albrecht: The avant-garde of the Third Reich - The Coburg NSDAP during the Weimar Republic 1922-1933 . Peter Lang GmbH European Publishing House for Science, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-631-53751-4 .
  • Ludwig Asmalsky: National Socialism and the NSDAP in Coburg 1922–1933 . Würzburg 1970, approval work.
  • Carl-Christian Dressel: Comments on the judiciary in Coburg from the establishment of the Coburg Regional Court to denazification . In: Yearbook of the Coburg State Foundation 1997, Coburg 1997, ISSN  0084-8808 .
  • Jürgen Erdmann: Coburg, Bavaria and the Reich 1918–1923 . Druckhaus and Vesteverlag A. Rossteutscher, Coburg 1969.
  • Hubert Fromm: The Coburg Jews. Tolerated - Outlawed - Destroyed . Evangelisches Bildungswerk Coburg eV and Initiative Stadtmuseum Coburg eV, 3rd revised and expanded edition, Coburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-938536-01-8 .
  • Initiative Stadtmuseum Coburg e. V .: Ahead at the wrong time. Coburg and the rise of National Socialism in Germany , Coburg 2004, ISBN 3-9808006-3-6 .
  • Harald Sandner: Coburg in the 20th century. The chronicle of the city of Coburg and the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from January 1, 1900 to December 31, 1999 - from the "good old days" to the dawn of the 21st century. Against forgetting . Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse, Coburg 2000, ISBN 3-00-006732-9 .

Web links

Audio

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Joachim Albrecht: The avant-garde of the Third Reich - The Coburg NSDAP during the Weimar Republic 1922–1933 . Peter Lang GmbH European Publishing House for Science, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-631-53751-4 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harald Sandner: Coburg in the 20th century. The chronicle of the city of Coburg and the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from January 1, 1900 to December 31, 1999 - from the "good old days" to the dawn of the 21st century. Against forgetting . Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse, Coburg 2000, ISBN 3-00-006732-9 .
  3. ^ Rainer Hambrecht: Coburg-A field of experiment and the National Socialist seizure of power? . In: ahead at the wrong time. Coburg and the rise of National Socialism in Germany . P. 9.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Jürgen Erdmann: Coburg, Bavaria and the Reich 1918–1923 . Druckhaus and Vesteverlag A. Rossteutscher, Coburg 1969.
  5. ^ Initiative Stadtmuseum Coburg e. V .: Ahead at the wrong time. Coburg and the rise of National Socialism in Germany , Coburg 2004, ISBN 3-9808006-3-6 , p. 37.
  6. ↑ Elke Fröhlich (ed.): The diaries of Joseph Goebbels. Part I, Volume 1 / III, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-598-23787-1 , p. 243, May 7, 1929.
  7. ↑ a b c Harald Sandner: Hitler's Duke. Carl Eduard of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The biography. Shaker Media, Aachen 2011, ISBN 978-3-86858-598-8 .
  8. ^ A b Edmund Frey, Brigitte Maisch: The "Coburg stake" burned on May 7, 1933 . In: Coburger Geschichtsblätter , 17th year, issue 1–2, 2009.
  9. ↑ a b Hubertus Habel: Shit all along the line: Local politics of the NSDAP . In: ahead at the wrong time. Coburg and the rise of National Socialism in Germany . P. 107.
  10. ↑ Ludwig Asmalsky: Nazism and the Nazi Party in Coburg 1922-1933 , p 64th
  11. ↑ a b c Frank Finzel, Michael Reinhart: Traces: 175 years of Sparkasse Coburg, main routes, side routes, wrong ways . Deutscher Sparkassenverlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-09-303832-4 .
  12. ↑ Dr. Manfred Weißbecker: The Reich Labor Service Act of June 26, 1935 and its long history
  13. ^ House of Bavarian History: Description of coat of arms
  14. ↑ Volker Friedrich: Golden Book of the Nazi Time discovered , New Press Coburg, November 13, 2010. Without author: Document from Nazi time back , New Press Coburg, April 13, 2011.
  15. ^ German Association of Cities: Statistical yearbook of German municipalities. P. 384. Braunschweig 1952
  16. ^ A b Stefan Nöth: The urban development of Coburg since 1920. In: Peter Morsbach, Otto Titz: City of Coburg. Ensembles • Architectural monuments • Archaeological monuments . Karl M. Lipp Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-87490-590-X , S. CIX
  17. ↑ Christian Boseckert: Halls, an almost constant topic. In: Coburg history sheets. 15th year, issue 3–4, 2007.
  18. ↑ Christian Boseckert: "... so that Coburg becomes more beautiful"? The Nazi building policy in the Vestestadt (1933-1945) . Volume 26 of the series of publications of the historical society Coburg eV, Coburg 2014, p. 69.
  19. ↑ Hubertus Habel: After the Apocalypse. In: ahead at the wrong time. Coburg and the rise of National Socialism in Germany. P. 124.
  20. ↑ Carl-Christian Dressel : Notes on the judiciary in Coburg from the establishment of the Coburg Regional Court to the denazification. In: Yearbook of the Coburger Landesstiftung 1997. ISSN  0084-8808 , p. 71.
  21. ^ Rainer Axmann: The history of the Jewish community . In: The Coburg Jews - History and Fate . P. 137 ff.
  22. ↑ a b c d Hubert Fromm: The Coburg Jews. Tolerated - Outlawed - Destroyed . Evangelisches Bildungswerk Coburg eV and Initiative Stadtmuseum Coburg eV, 3rd revised and expanded edition, Coburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-938536-01-8 .
  23. ↑ Memorial Book. Search in the name directory. Search for: Coburg - residence. In: bundesarchiv.de, accessed on March 3, 2020.