Franz Brunnträger

Franz Michael Brunnträger (born January 8, 1893 in Klein-Steinheim , † August 29, 1953 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German politician ( NSDAP ) and from May 1, 1933 to May 31, 1939 district administrator of the Sankt Goarshausen district and from June 1, 1939 to April 1, 1945 District Administrator of the Main-Taunus district .

Live and act

education and profession

Brunnträger was the son of the master baker Franz Brunnträger, who was married to Susanna Saloma [!] Stahl. He attended elementary school in Steinheim from 1899 to 1903 and the upper secondary school in Hanau from 1903 to 1912 . In 1912 he began studying law at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich (1 semester). As a one-year volunteer , he did his military service with the 2nd Bavarian Jäger Battalion from October 1, 1912 to September 30, 1913 . Brunnträger studied natural science from 1913 to 1914 at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg and the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main (9 semesters). From August 2, 1914 to November 1918, he took part in the First World War. He served in the German Alpine Corps , most recently with the rank of first lieutenant . In 1919 he resumed his studies at the University of Frankfurt and obtained his doctorate in natural sciences in 1922 . From 1922 to May 1, 1933, Brunnträger worked as a chemist at IG-Farbenindustrie AG (Hoechst) .

politics

Brunnträger joined the SA in September 1930 and the NSDAP on October 1, 1930 ( membership no. 324.175) and was one of the party's " old fighters ". In 1931 he became NSDAP local group leader from Höchst am Main (now Frankfurt am Main ). At the suggestion of Gauleiter Jakob Sprenger , Brunnträger was appointed NSDAP district leader of the Main-Taunus district by Adolf Hitler in 1932 , and then from May 1, 1933 to mid-1937, district leader of St. Goarshausen . After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, he was initially appointed provisional, and from January 1934, he was given the post of district administrator for the Sankt Goarshausen district. In this function, he ran on the nomination of the NSDAP on the list position No. 145 in the Reichstag election on March 29, 1936, but was not elected to the National Socialist Reichstag .

In June 1939 he took over as the successor of Ernst Janke, initially provisionally, then finally in November the district office of the Main-Taunus-Kreis , based in Frankfurt-Höchst . When he started work, the Main-Taunus-Zeitung celebrated him as a successful "old fighter".

During the Second World War he instructed the mayor of the district in June 1941:

“As I have seen from the last reports there, the emigration of Jews has been carried out successfully during the war. It is important to me that the Main-Taunus-Kreis, whose number of Jews has already decreased considerably, is completely free of Jews in the foreseeable future and I expect that you too will contribute everything necessary. "

After the liberation by American troops shortly before the end of the war, Brunnträger was arrested on April 1, 1945 and remained interned in Darmstadt until July 23, 1948 . He then entered Idstein as workers in civil engineering deals. In the denazification process on August 10, 1948, the Main-Taunus Chamber in Hochheim classified him as a "minor offender". Brunnträger denied having known about the "heavy and drastic measures against the Jews, especially during the war years" before the ruling chamber.

The prosecution pleaded against it and saw in Brunnträger the "willing messenger of the Nazi tyranny " who was responsible for the " serious riots against the Jews [...] to the greatest extent". The appeal of the prosecution was rejected on August 19, 1949 by the Frankfurt Appeals Chamber. After the probation period had expired , the proceedings ended on December 9, 1949 with the classification of Brunnträger as a “ fellow traveler ”.

family

Brunnträger was Catholic ; after leaving the church in 1927 " believers in God ". He was married to Sigrid Lenzfeld from the Netherlands , with whom he had a daughter.

Fonts

• About a technical description of [beta] - chloropropionic acid and some new derivatives of it . 1923 (scientific dissertation ).

literature

• Franz Maier: Biographical organization manual of the NSDAP and its structures in the area of ​​today's state of Rhineland-Palatinate (=  publications of the commission of the state parliament for the history of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . Volume 28 ). Verlag v. Hase & Koehler, Mainz [a. a.] 2007.
• Theodor von Heppe: Municipal constitution in Kurhessen: A writing by the Kassel government trainee Theodor von Heppe from 1826 . Ed .: Winfried Speitkamp. tape 69 . Self-published by the Hessian Historical Commission Darmstadt and the Historical Commission for Hesse, 1987, ISBN 978-3-88443-158-0 , p. 103 u. a . (especially for the biographical data).
• Volkshochschule Main-Taunus-Kreis (Ed.): The district administrators of the Main-Taunus-Kreis in the Nazi era . Documentation of the history workshop, Sept. 2000 - March 2001. Hofheim am Taunus 2001.

Web links

• Entry on Brunnträger, Franz Michael / 1893–1953 in the Rhineland-Palatinate personal database
• Brunnträger, Franz Michael. Hessian biography. (As of July 24, 2019). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
• Katja Irle: History workshop explores the role of district administrators in the Nazi era. In: Lively Eschborn. January 30, 2001, Retrieved February 20, 2015 (private website).