Ernst Pretzel

Ernst Georg Pretzel (born March 5, 1887 in Berlin , † September 26, 1953 in Uslar ) was a German politician ( NSDAP ).

Live and act

Origin and early career

Pretzel was born the son of the factory owner Franz Pretzel and his wife Anna, née Gollert. In his youth he attended the Zehlendorfer high school. After graduating from high school, he was trained at the agricultural school in Dahme . Later he was part of the Prussian Army , in which he was promoted to Vice Sergeant on September 1, 1912 .

From 1914 to 1918 Pretzel took part in the First World War with Infantry Regiments 8 and 498 . During the war he was promoted to lieutenant in the reserve on October 16, 1915 , wounded twice and given the Iron Cross of both classes . Later he also received the Wound Badge .

After the war, Pretzel lived as a merchant in Berlin.

Activity in the Nazi movement

Politically, Pretzel had been part of the extreme right-wing camp since the early 1930s: On November 1, 1930, he was accepted as a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) ( membership number 348.137), in which he took over tasks as cell chairman of the party.

Also at the end of 1930 Pretzel joined the Sturmabteilung (SA), in which he made a career as a protégé of Count Helldorff . His homosexual inclination , which was welcomed in other parts of the SA, but not in the Helldorff area, was kept secret: on December 15, 1930, he was first appointed SA leader in Berlin-Pankow, before moving to April 8 1931 was appointed acting storm leader at Sturm 29/4. Soon afterwards, on April 2, 1931, he was appointed adjutant / staff leader of the SA-Standarte 4 Berlin led by Alfred Knüppel. On February 22, 1932, he was finally appointed staff leader of the SA sub-group Berlin-West led by Walter Schmidt . He retained this position until the SA ban issued by the Brüning government in April 1932.

On the occasion of the reorganization of the SA in July 1932 following the lifting of the SA ban by the von Papen government , Pretzel was reappointed staff leader of the SA sub-group Berlin-West, which was now headed by SA Oberführer Walter Schmidt . After Schmidt resigned from his position in September 1932 (after his partly Jewish descent became known), Pretzel de facto became the new leader of the subgroup. His official appointment as leader of the Berlin-West subgroup was finally carried out with effect from March 1, 1933. At the same time he was promoted to the rank of SA Oberführer.

From March to November 1933 Pretzel also sat as a member of the NSDAP in the Reichstag , in which he represented constituency 3 (Potsdam II). During his short term as a member of parliament, he voted, among other things, for the Enabling Act introduced by the Hitler government in March 1933 , which formed the legal basis for the smashing of the Weimar democracy and the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship.

Exclusion of Pretzel from the NSDAP and SA

Conflicts with Karl Ernst , who was appointed the new SA chief of Berlin and Brandenburg in March 1933 , meant that Pretzel was initially transferred to the SA group Ostland in East Prussia , where he took over the post of staff leader of the group. After he was suspected of having had a homosexual relationship with a member of the staff guard there, he was transferred back to Berlin in the spring of 1934, where he was placed at the disposal of the Berlin Brandenburg group without an active position. Karl Ernst, who followed Pretzel with derogatory remarks about himself, began in the spring of 1934 to prepare for Pretzel's expulsion from the SA. This did not happen because Ernst - like numerous other SA leaders - was murdered in the course of the Röhm affair before he could realize his intention.

After Pretzel had not only survived the reenactments of Ernst and the purge of the SA in the course of the "Röhm Putsch", he instead got caught up in the maelstrom of homosexual persecution in National Socialist Germany, which was rapidly intensifying at that time. In February 1935 he was taken into custody on account of the criminal evidence gathered against him in a homosexual manner. The specific reason for this was contacts with a rascal boy whom he had taken into his apartment in January 1935. After a short-term release on February 28, 1935, the Prtzel with the declaration that he had never carried out homosexual acts with other men except on this one occasion, followed by another arrest. In March 1935 he was then used as Gestapo - prisoner into the Lichtenburg concentration camp transferred.

With effect from March 1, 1935, Pretzel was dismissed from the SA because of his homosexual disposition and activity in various cases, with dismissal of rank and position. Pretzel was also expelled from the NSDAP by a temporary injunction by the Berlin deputy Gauleiter Artur Görlitzers on May 13, 1935. A complaint against this on May 31, 1935 was rejected. His exclusion from the party was finalized by a decision of the NSDAP's district court in Greater Berlin on August 12, 1935.

Pretzel's efforts to be accepted back into the NSDAP by mercy were rejected. Most recently, the NSDAP party chancellery informed him on March 31, 1941 that his application for a mercy re-entry into the party would be rejected by Hitler's decision .

Pretzel died in Uslar in 1953. He was buried in Einbeck in the Harz Mountains.

family

Pretzel was married once. The marriage, which was later divorced, had two children.

Promotions

• September 9, 1932: SA Standartenführer
• March 1, 1933: SA Oberführer

Web links

• Ernst Pretzel in the database of members of the Reichstag

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Andreas Pretzel: Homophobia and Men's Association. Plea for a change of perspective. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaften , vol. 53 (2005), p. 1039. Andreas Pretzel points out that the date of death of Ernst Pretzel ( November 19, 1943 in Rome ) given in Lilla: Statisten, 2004, entry no. 823 is incorrect and it is proven that he died on September 26, 1953 in Uslar.
2. ^ Journal of History. Vol. 53, 2005, No. 10-12, p. 1041.