Damian Kratzenberg

Damian Kratzenberg (born November 5, 1878 in Clervaux ; † October 11, 1946 in Luxembourg ) was the chairman of the Volksdeutsche movement (VdB) in Luxembourg , a National Socialist group that saw the Luxembourg people as German and advocated converting Luxembourg into German Empire integrate.

education and profession

After graduating from the LCD in Diekirch Kratzenberg studied in Lille , Paris and Berlin philosophy . He became a teacher of Greek and German and taught in Diekirch, Echternach and then in Luxembourg City .

In 1907 he became a member of the Volksbildungsverein, a more left-wing anti-clerical association, which he presided over from 1922 to 1934. From 1912 to 1934 he was also a member of the "Association générale des étudiants luxembourgeois" . Kratzenberg was politically active in the Liberal Party from 1930 to 1938.

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Kratzenberg transferred his clear love for German culture and especially for German literature to all of Germany. For him, the Luxembourgers were of German origin. Kratzenberg emphasized his German descent at every opportunity, but initially stuck to Luxembourg's state sovereignty.

When the National Socialists, led by Adolf Hitler, seized power in Germany on January 30, 1933 , Kratzenberg believed that German culture would be able to cope with it.

Nevertheless, Kratzenberg increasingly approached National Socialism . He began to admit to the National Socialist leader principle and to find it necessary to dismantle civil liberties in order to be able to realize the goals of National Socialism. The climax of this development is when Kratzenberg received the renowned Goethe Medal for Art and Science in 1936 for his extraordinary contribution to German culture. Thereupon he let Hitler tell through the Luxembourg ambassador that he was the noblest person and strongest refuge for the future of Europe .

GEDELIT

In 1934 the Luxembourg Society for German Literature and Art (GEDELIT) was founded as a counterpart to the Alliance Française . From 1935 Kratzenberg took over their chairmanship. In 1938 GEDELIT began to make propaganda in Luxembourg schools . The Sturmtrupp Lützelburg , a group of students who were close to National Socialism, was able to hold its meetings in the GEDELIT restaurant. Kratzenberg's newspaper Luxemburger Schau was also clearly National Socialist.

In May 1938 a trial against one of his students revealed that Kratzenberg gathered his students every Saturday to convert them to National Socialism. Journalists then accused him of abusing his post as a teacher. Although he won a lawsuit against the journalist Emile Marx, his reputation as an educator had suffered badly.

A year later, in May 1939, Kratzenberg gave a lecture in Cologne in which he spoke about the fact that the Luxembourgers belonged to the Germanic race and wanted to prove their historical and linguistic affiliation to Germany. Since this speech took place only shortly after the annexation of the Czech Republic as a protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , his remarks caused a stir and were seen as GEDELIT's approval for the annexation of Luxembourg by the Reich. Education Minister Margue Kratzenberg then announced that he would lose his state job if he repeated these or similar statements.

Period of German occupation

When the Wehrmacht occupied Luxembourg on May 10, 1940 , GEDELIT transformed completely into a political organization in the service of the occupiers. On May 17th, GEDELIT became the Volksdeutsche movement (VdB) and Kratzenberg clearly demanded the connection to Nazi Germany (“ Heim ins Reich ”). In his function as chairman of the VdB, Kratzenberg was subordinate to the German head of civil administration, Gauleiter Gustav Simon .

On July 6, 1940, the VdB issued the following appeal:

Luxemburger, hear the voice of blood! She tells you that you are German by race and language. Luxembourgishism in all honor! Because true Luxembourgish is pure German.

The end

A few days before the liberation of Luxembourg by the Allies , Kratzenberg fled to Weißenberg on September 1, 1944 via Trier and Koblenz . A letter to his daughter after the end of the war betrayed him, however, and Kratzenberg was taken to Luxembourg, where he was brought to justice. The process took four days. On August 1, 1946 Damian Kratzenberg was sentenced to death and on 11 October 1946, the shooting of the barracks on the Holy Ghost Plateau in Luxembourg City shot .

literature

• Paul Cerf, De l'épuration au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg après la seconde guerre mondiale. Luxembourg: Imprimerie Saint-Paul, 1980, 262 pp. (D. Kratzenberg, pp. 39-44).
• Paul Dostert, Luxembourg between self-assertion and national self- surrender : d. German occupation policy ud Volksdt. Movement 1940 - 1945. Freiburg (Breisgau), Univ., Diss., 1984. Luxembourg: Imprimerie Saint-Paul 1985

Web links

• Paul Dostert: The population of a small country between collaboration and resistance