Edmund Forschbach

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Edmund Forschbach

Edmund Wilhelm Mathias Gottfried Forschbach (born December 11, 1903 in Dortmund , † March 23, 1988 in Cologne ) was a German politician and administrative lawyer. In the Weimar Republic he was a member of the DNVP , during the time of National Socialism a member of the Reichstag and from 1955 to 1956 head of the press and information office of the federal government under Konrad Adenauer .

Live and act

Youth and Education (1903 to 1930)

Forschbach attended elementary school and the Hindenburg secondary school in his home town of Dortmund from 1910 to 1923. He then studied law at the universities of Freiburg im Breisgau , Berlin and Münster until 1927 . He also took part in events organized by the Johannis Foundation in Spandau and the Political College in 1924 and 1925 , for example with Friedrich Brunstäd . In Freiburg, Forschbach joined the Catholic student association KDStV Ripuaria Freiburg im Breisgau in the CV . In this, as well as in the völkisch university movement, he made his first political contacts. According to his own statement, he first came into contact with “young conservative circles” in 1921.

At that time, Forschbach also distinguished himself as a contributor to various magazines with a conservative orientation: from 1924 to 1927 he worked for the magazines Das Gewissen , Das Deutsche Volk , Volk und Reich and Der Student . He also wrote for the journal Jungdeutscher , the journalistic organ of the Young German Order .

After the first state examination in law, he was a trainee lawyer in the district of the Hamm Higher Regional Court from 1928 to 1930 .

Lawyer and member of the Reichstag (1930 to 1934)

After a shorter period as a court assessor, Forschbach practiced as a lawyer in Dortmund from 1932 to 1934 .

In these years, Forschbach became politically active in the German National People's Party (DNVP), which he joined on August 15, 1930. From December 1931 until the DNVP was dissolved in June 1933, Forschbach was a member of the party's Reich executive committee. He was also a close associate of party chairman Alfred Hugenberg and was in contact with conservative publicists and theorists such as Edgar Julius Jung and Franz Mariaux . In 1931, Forschbach took part in the Harzburg conference together with numerous other representatives of the right-wing political spectrum (DNVP, Stahlhelm, NSDAP, etc.) .

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in spring 1933, Forschbach was appointed leader of the Cartell Association of German Catholic Student Associations (CV) on July 7, 1933 by the Federal Leader of the German Student Union (DSt) Oskar Stäbel . On July 16, 1933, Forschbach took over the official duties, which he held until his dismissal by Stäbel on March 2, 1934. He also wrote articles for the Germania newspaper and the Academia magazine . the body of the Cartell Association. He summarized his political standpoint in the early phase of Nazi rule as follows:

“The CV is committed to the National Socialist Revolution as the great intellectual upheaval of our time. The CV wants and must be the carrier and herald of the idea of ​​the Third Reich [...] and that is why the CV will be directed in the spirit of National Socialism [...] Only the National Socialist state, which grows powerfully out of the revolution, can bring us the re-Christianization of our culture [...] Long live the CV! Long live the Greater German Reich! Hail our Führer Adolf Hitler! "

- Edmund Forschbach. Leader of the CV

From March 5 to October 14, 1933, Forschbach was a member of the Prussian state parliament , initially as a DNVP member, and after the party was dissolved as a guest of the NSDAP parliamentary group. Also with the status of a “guest” of the NSDAP faction, he belonged to the Reichstag from November 12, 1933 (until July 1934). From August 1933 to March 1934, Forschbach was also a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA). He was never a member of the NSDAP.

In 1933/1934, Forschbach participated in the plans for a conservative coup d'état against the Hitler government, which his friend Edgar Jung worked out at the time, together with the senior government councilor Herbert von Bose and several other employees of Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen . After Edgar Jung was arrested on June 25, 1934 and Franz Mariaux on June 28, with Forschbach as an eyewitness, Forschbach went into hiding for a few days. After Jung and von Bose were murdered in the course of the Röhm affair , Forschbach fled to the Nettersheim monastery in the Eifel for a few days, after which he crossed the border into the Netherlands between Aachen and Vaals. As the Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick Forschbach informed him in a letter, his mandate in the Reichstag was revoked on the basis of the Reich Law of July 3, 1934 for “preparation for high treason”. At the end of 1934 he returned to Germany, where he now established himself as a lawyer in Cologne. Between September 1939 and April 1943, Forschbach was forced to serve as an assistant judge in Breslau . He then served as a soldier in the Wehrmacht until the end of the war , most recently as a private.

Post-war period and life in the FRG (1945 to 1988)

In 1945, Forschbach was briefly detained by the Allies. As part of his denazification process , he was classified as “exonerated” (Category V). From 1946 to 1951 he worked for the Cologne city administration, most recently as administrative director.

In 1951, Forschbach moved to the Federal Ministry of the Interior as Ministerialrat . There he was appointed Deputy Head of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government on June 18, 1954 . The appointment was made at the instigation of State Secretary Hans Globke , an old student friend and CV comrade of Forschbach. Forschbach's term of office as press chief of the federal government under Konrad Adenauer from May 1, 1955 was accompanied by speculation in the press that he would soon be replaced by his predecessor Felix von Eckardt . Public criticism of Forschbach was sparked in particular by his attitude - or his public statements - in the early phase of the Nazi dictatorship: The Hamburg news magazine Der Spiegel quoted an excerpt from an appeal that Forschbach issued on February 2, 1956. November 1933 on the occasion of the referendum on Germany's withdrawal from the League of Nations. At that time he wrote: “During this decisive time, all the men in the CV were happy to stand by the flags of Adolf Hitler. Those who vote on 12 November at the referendum not 'yes' and not Reichstag List of NSDAP selected, breaks his fellow envy, because he betrays his country and his people in the hour of greatest danger. "According to the mirror had a Rhenish friends researchers Bach already In March 1955 a report was anonymously sent to journalists in which it was stated that, as the association leader of the CV, Forschbach had “very emphatically committed himself to Christian principles in several speeches. Of course, these speeches were given in a style that was only possible at the time. "

On July 1, 1956, Forschbach was finally replaced as press chief of the federal government by Felix von Eckardt. Until 1961 he was ministerial director of the sub-department for food in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, then until 1968 ministerial director and head of department II for food and veterinary medicine in the Federal Ministry of Health . After his retirement he was President of the German Food Commission from 1969 to 1972. He spent his last years in Ballrechte-Dottingen and in Brühl near Cologne.

Honors

Fonts

  • Edgar J. Jung. A conservative revolutionary June 30, 1934. Neske, Pfullingen 1984, ISBN 3-7885-0267-3 .

literature

  • Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the ethnic and National Socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924. Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 , pp. 147–148.

Remarks

  1. ^ Edmund Forschbach: Edgar Jung. 1984, portrait of the author in the cover.
  2. ^ Edmund Forschbach: Edgar Jung. 1984. There, Forschbach states that he first came into contact with Jung since 1929.
  3. ↑ See: The CV in the Third Reich - Compiled by Marcel Erkens (PDF; 1017 kB)
  4. ↑ Peter Stitz: The CV 1919–1938: the university policy path of the Cartell Association of Catholic German Student Associations (CV) from the end of World War I to its destruction by National Socialism. (= The White Tower 4). Society for CV History, Munich 1970, p. 184 and p. 298ff.
  5. ↑ Academia No. 3 of July 15, 1933, p. 58.
  6. ^ Institute for Contemporary History: Witness literature, Forschbach 2, B. 2: Affidavit from Edmund Forschbach from January 31, 1947 .
  7. ^ Rainer Orth : "The official seat of the opposition"? Politics and state restructuring plans in the office of the Deputy Chancellor 1933-1934 . Cologne 2016, p. 407.
  8. ^ Forschbach: Edgar Jung. 1984, p. 128.
  9. ^ Joachim Lilla: extras in uniform. P. 148.
  10. ↑ a b Quote in: AFFAIRS: The only possible style . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1956, pp. 13 f . ( Online - Feb. 1, 1956 ).
  11. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.6 MB)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Forschbach, Edmund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Forschbach, Edmund Wilhelm Mathias Gottfried (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (DNVP), MdR, MdL, head of the Federal Press Office
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Dortmund
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1988
Place of death Cologne