The German Guide Lexicon

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The German Leader Lexicon is a National Socialist biographical and organizational reference work from 1934 on ministers and high ministerial officials of the early Nazi state , functionaries of the NSDAP , SA , SS and other party branches, as well as public figures.

history

The German Guide Lexicon was published by the Stollberg publishing house and is divided into two sections, each with its own pagination. The first part ("Biographical Part") extends over 552 pages and includes more than 1500 biographical entries, some with photographs of the people described. The majority of the biographical persons are ministers and high ministerial officials as well as functionaries of the NSDAP , the SA , the SS and other party branches, to a lesser extent other public figures such as business leaders and bishops. All persons listed are men, women are completely absent. The 2nd part ("Structure in Movement, State and People") is 156 pages long and offers an overview of the organizational structure of ministries and other state authorities, of party offices and sub-organizations of the NSDAP as well as of other more or less important public bodies.

The first edition of the book was published in June 1934 and reflects the status of April / May 1934. However, this edition was withdrawn due to the events of the Röhm affair in July 1934. A revised reprint (not marked as such) appeared in August. The foreword states August 2nd as the status of the information. In the reprint, some people who were in the original edition have been deleted. In the register, their names were pasted over with small white stripes. The articles related to them in the article section have been replaced by white spots in the artwork, so that seemingly meaningless, longer white interruptions appear between some articles at various points in the second edition.

In addition to the pragmatic function of the Führer Lexikon as a kind of manual for public life, it also fulfilled propaganda purposes by contributing to the glorification of the people and organizations portrayed. The political tendency, however, comes to the fore more in the foreword than in the short biographies, which are usually quite sober external biographical stations and functions. Most of the biographical sketches are based on information provided by the persons depicted to the publisher. Accordingly, there is the possibility that the portrayed persons "glossed over" their vita according to their personal interests or according to their wishes, how they wanted to be perceived. In addition, the work was submitted to a party official examination commission of the NSDAP.

Criticism and reception

In scientific research, the guide lexicon is used as a source to determine harmless basic biographical data, for example for the training of a certain person in their youth or for information about official functions at a certain point in time, whereby researchers based on the work often comment that the information of the book should be viewed with caution. Furthermore, the work has been used for statements on the meta level. In his sketch of Joachim von Ribbentrop in his book The Face of the Third Reich, for example, Joachim Fest came to the conclusion that, despite his position as head of a foreign policy office of the party in 1934, Ribbentrop was still quite insignificant, or at least not particularly in circles of the party leadership of the NSDAP valued personality, as the leader's dictionary of 1934 had not yet had an entry on him, while it even included numerous lower officials (such as district leaders).

Daniel Lerner , Ithiel de Sola Pool and George K. Schueller presented an analysis of the Nazi elite based on the Führer Lexikon as part of the Stanford elite studies in the 1950s. A tenth (159 people) of the detailed biographies contained in the work were selected as a sample according to a random process and analyzed in detail in order to gain general conclusions about the leadership of the regime as a social group within the framework of the induction process. Michael Rademacher criticized this approach because, due to the fact that “important groups” such as the regional presidents are missing in the work, he assumes that “the personalities most important to the National Socialist state are not presented according to objective criteria, but rather that the selection is rather arbitrary is ". He takes the view that the book is only suitable for examining the self-portrayal of the NSDAP as an elite, but not for examining “the actual composition of the elite of the Third Reich.” He himself only uses it in his work on the NSDAP district leaders Reconstruction of individual biographies, but not for general statements about the group examined by him as a social unit. Even David Schoenbaum points out that the book is no definite picture of who was a leading figure in the Nazi state, but presents only those individuals whose performance was held as an important personality is appropriate and desirable ( [it] what no guaranteed guide to who was who, to who was a Führer, but only to those it was thought expedient or desirable to call a Führer ). Thus, following Lerner, notes that the military in particular, such as B. Erwin Rommel , Alfred Jodl or Heinz Guderian were not included.

Reviews of the book from the post-war period are mostly critical, but at the same time acknowledge its usefulness as a source: Oron J. Hale calls the book, for example: "Enlightening, especially with regard to Nazi figures in the second set".

expenditure

  • The German Guide Lexicon. Verlag Otto Stollberg, Berlin 1934. DNB-Link

Research literature

  • Harold Dwight Lasswell, Daniel Lerner: World Revolutionary Elites: Studies in Coercive Ideological Movements. Greenwood Press, Westport 1980, ISBN 978-0313225727 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Glaser: Victorious to the Fall. Beginning and end of the Third Reich in eyewitness reports , Freiburg 1983, p. 21.
  2. ↑ Cf. Frank-Rutger Hausmann: "Devoured by the vortex of events" German Romance studies in the "Third Reich" (1933–1945), Frankfurt am Main 2008, p. 34; David Schoenbaum: Hitler's Social Revolution , 2012, Chapter VIII, end note 74 as well as the 2nd edition of the Führer Lexicon itself, in which, for example, the entry “Savigny, Friedrich Carl” on p. 404, which is still included in the first edition, has been removed has been.
  3. ↑ Walter Hofer: The dictatorship of Hitler until the beginning of the Second World War , Konstanz 1960, p. 231 describes "Die Lebensabrackse [...] [as] considerably decorated or made up."
  4. ↑ See e.g. B. Hermann Heidegger (Ed.): Martin Heidegger. Complete edition. I department. Published writings 1910–1976, vol. 16 (= speeches and other testimonies of a path of life), Frankfurt am Main 2000, p. 798, end note 132. Furthermore, the preface to the leader's dictionary itself, p. 11, where it says the information contained had been granted or approved by the admitted personalities themselves.
  5. ^ Helmut Heiber (editor): files of the party chancellery of the NSDAP. Part 1. Regesten , Vol. 1, Munich 1983, p. 46 (= process 10390).
  6. ↑ For example, Walter Hofer writes: The dictatorship of Hitler until the beginning of the Second World War , Konstanz 1960, p. 231: “Die Lebensabrisse nat.-soz. Personalities are of course to be read very critically. T. considerably decorated or made up. "
  7. ↑ As an example of the frequent use of the work as a source for biographical information: Lothar Gruchmann, who used to refer to biographical information about Franz Gürtner , Max Karge and Walter von Steinaecker for his book Justiz im Third Reich 1933–1940. Adaptation and submission in the Gürtner era , Munich 2001, pp. 10, 222, 274f. resorted to the Führer Lexikon as a source; likewise Susanne Meinl for information about Fritz Reinhardt in her book Legalized Robbery. The plundering of the Jews under National Socialism by the Reich Finance Administration in Hessen , Frankfurt 2004, p. 574 or Andreas Krass for information about Fritz Wächter in his book Lehrerlager 1932–1945. Political function and educational design , Bad Heilbrunn 2004, p. 162 or Andreas Hilger who, when tracing the career of Benno von Arent in his book German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union, 1941–1956 , Essen 2000, p. 287, referred to the information in Leader Lexicon calls.
  8. ↑ Joachim Fest: The face of the Third Reich. Profiles of a totalitarian rule. 1963, p. 247.
  9. ^ Daniel Lerner with the collaboration of I. des Sola Pool and GK Schueller: The Nazi Elite , Stanford 1951. Reprinted in Howard DL Lasswell / Daniel Lerner (eds.): World Revolutionary Elites. Studies in Coersive Ideological Movements, Cambridge 1965, pp. 193-313, reprinted 1980
  10. ↑ Michael Rademacher: Die Kreisleiter der NSDAP in Gau Weser-Ems , 2005, p. 40. For use as a source for individual vitae cf. z. BS 292 and 405.
  11. ↑ See David Schoenbaum: Hitler's Social Revolution , 2012, Chapter VIII, Endnote 74.
  12. ↑ Oron J. Hale: Press in the Strait Jacket, 1933–1945, p. 336.