Ferdinand Friedrich Zimmermann

Ferdinand Friedrich Zimmermann (pseudonym: Ferdinand Fried ; born August 14, 1898 in Bad Freienwalde (Oder) , † July 11, 1967 ) was a German journalist and publicist . At the time of the Third Reich , he held responsible positions. Zimmermann was a member of the NSDAP , the Lebensborn eV and SS-Obersturmführer . He was also known as the author of an anti-Semitic inflammatory pamphlet.

Live and act

Zimmermann was raised at the expense of a Jewish banker after the early death of his father. After participating in the First World War and a brief socialist engagement, he studied economics and philosophy at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin from 1919 to 1923 . His teachers there included Werner Sombart and Max Sering .

After completing his studies, he joined the Ullstein publishing house in Berlin in 1923 as a journalist . He soon took up the position of business editor for the Berliner Morgenpost , which he retained until 1932. In addition, he also wrote articles on economic policy in the BZ and in the Vossische Zeitung . As a journalist, Zimmermann remained largely unknown for a long time. It only came into the focus of public attention when, from 1929 onwards , he began to publish economic analyzes in the monthly Die Tat published by his former Ullstein colleague Hans Zehrer . Zimmermann caused a sensation not only in business circles in 1931 with his book about the end of capitalism.

Zimmermann's anti-liberalism met as a logical addition to Zehrer's national socialism. Kurt von Schleicher even suspected internally that Zehrer had become mentally dependent on Zimmermann. Giselher Wirsing , Zimmermann's colleague in action, later characterized him as a cheerful and amiable man "who had a sharp analytical pen that only the few who knew him better could trust him."

Zimmermann's repeated offer of a solution to the economic crisis of the Weimar Republic since 1929, a consistent policy of self-sufficiency, exposed him to severe socialist criticism, which saw it only as a warming up of the mercantile idea and no solution to German payment obligations . His ideas (idea of ​​self-sufficiency, evocation of the crisis, support for the collapse of the Weimar system) brought Zimmermann close to the national right. Bernhard Citron said in an article published in the Weltbühne in May 1932 that he could recognize Zimmermann as “the best intellectual interpreter of National Socialism [...]” - “even at the risk that he [Zimmermann] or the National Socialists would deny such a kinship . "

After the handover of power to the National Socialists in 1933, he became the chief editor of the Daily Rundschau and shortly afterwards of the Münchner Neue Nachrichten .

In a résumé written in 1934, Zimmermann stated that he had maintained contact and constant contact with various circles and personalities of the NSDAP since 1930, and that "since the summer of 1932" he had also had "constant contact with Reichsführer SS Himmler , especially during Schleicher's chancellorship". At the same point he stated that he was working with Joseph Goebbels , Richard Walther Darré and Reinhard Heydrich .

Zimmermann had been placed on Darré's staff in 1933 by special order from Himmler, where he excelled in the Reichsnährstand in collecting material against Darré's rival Hjalmar Schacht , which he also made available to the SS .

On March 1, 1934, he became Chief of Staff of State Secretary Backe. On September 2, 1934, Zimmermann was personally admitted to the SS by Himmler , appointed Obersturmführer and transferred to the SS Race and Settlement Main Office.

In his book The Future of Foreign Trade ( Diederichs , Jena 1934) Zimmermann explained the National Socialist foreign trade policy as a consequence of a worldview that gave the state total control over all economic areas and referred to the "closed trading state" Johann Gottlieb Fichtes , whom he was the "first Herald of a National Socialist world of thought ”.

In November 1936 Zimmermann became SS-Sturmbannführer and published the anti-Semitic book: Der Aufstieg der Juden ( The Rise of the Jews) in the Blut und Boden Verlag Goslar . He later joined the NSDAP and received membership number 7,791,382. As a Lebensborn member, he also preached anti-Semitism .

From 1938 Zimmermann lectured at the Karl Ferdinand University in Prague, where he remained an honorary professor until 1945.

After the Second World War , several of Zimmermann's writings were placed on the list of literature to be discarded in the Soviet occupation zone . From 1948 to 1953 he wrote for the church-based Deutsche Allgemeine Sonntagsblatt in Hamburg and, together with August Haußleiter, edited the weekly magazine of the German Union, Die deutsche Demokratie (DW) , which was founded in 1949 , before becoming the chief economic editor of the newspaper Die Welt , for which he was from 1953 until 1967 worked. He shared the closeness to the church with his friend Wirsing, who worked as a leader at Christ und Welt .

Federal President Heinrich Lübke telegraphed after Zimmermann's death: "His economic-political analyzes will remain examples of good journalism in terms of style and concise statements." The world itself declared in its obituary: "He has had many opponents - evil can." he never did. "

The end of capitalism (1931)

Fonts (selection)

• The end of capitalism. Jena 1931.
• Farmer and banker. The symbols of economic ethos . In: Odal. Monthly journal for blood and soil , vol. 2, issue 10, April 1934, pp. 729-736.
• The fight for a fair price . In: Odal. Monthly for Blood and Soil , Vol. 2, Issue 12, June 1934, pp. 868-881.
• Healthy competition . In: Odal. Monthly journal for blood and soil , Vol. 3, 1934, Issue 1, pp. 18-27.
• The turn of the world economy. Goldmann, Leipzig 1937.
• Latifundia destroyed Rome! A study of the Roman agrarian conditions and their effects on people and the like. Country. Verlag Blut und Boden, Goslar 1938.
• The rise of the Jews . Verlag Blut u. Boden, Goslar 1937.
• The social revolution: transformation of economy and society. Goldmann, Leipzig 1942.
• The overthrow of society. Union, Stuttgart 1950.
• Changes in the world economy . Goldmann, Munich 1950.
• Adventures of the West. Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1951.

Personal papers are kept in the Federal Archives Koblenz (under N 1208).

swell

• Federal Archives, Finding aid for F. Zimmermann's estate N 1208.

Web links

• Literature by and about Ferdinand Friedrich Zimmermann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Ferdinand Friedrich Zimmermann in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Zehrer and the Tat-Kreis, p. 57 ff.
2. ↑ BAK inventory N42 / 22.
3. ↑ Hans Zehrer and the Tat-Kreis, p. 58.
4. ^ Avraham Barkai : The economic system of National Socialism. Ideology, theory, politics 1933–1945 . Extended new edition, Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-596-24401-3 , p. 144.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 685.
6. ↑ Barkai 1988, p. 172.
7. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1946-nslit-f.html
8. ^ Paul Sering (pseudonym for Richard Löwenthal ): Three ways of German foreign policy. In: The month . Year 1, issue 8/9, 1948/49, p. 26.
9. ↑ DIED FERDINAND FRIEDRICH ZIMMERMANN , article from July 17, 1967 on Spiegel Online