Franz Herbert

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Franz Herbert
Memorial plaque on the birthplace
Birthplace in Kolitzheim

Franz Herbert (born May 8, 1885 in Kolitzheim , Lower Franconia; † probably at the beginning of February 1945 on the march from Auschwitz to Mauthausen ) was a German farmer, Bavarian economic councilor and politician ( BVP ).

Live and act

After attending elementary school in his home town of Kolitzheim, Franz Herbert worked in his parents' farm, which he took over in 1909. In 1907/08 he took courses in Regensburg to perfect his knowledge.

After the First World War, Herbert began to be more politically active and became a member of the Bavarian People's Party. When he was elected mayor of Kolitzheim on July 1, 1919, he assumed his first public office. In June 1920 Herbert moved into the Reichstag as a member of the BVP , to which he would subsequently belong without interruption until 1933 as representative 26 (francs). Shortly before his expulsion from parliament in the summer of 1933, he voted for the adoption of the Enabling Act of March 1933 introduced by the Hitler government . Herbert was active in state politics from 1924 to 1933 as President of the Lower Franconian Farmers' Association.

After the National Socialists came to power in the spring of 1933, Herbert was deposed as mayor of Kolitzheim and briefly placed in " protective custody " in June . He then lived a secluded farmer in Kolitzheim. Because of his connection to Würzburg Bishop Matthias Ehrenfried , he was watched by the Gestapo . His refusal to deliver the Hitler salute brought him reprimands for “disturbing public order” and “ gross nonsense ”.

On August 24, 1944, Herbert was arrested by the Gestapo as part of the "Grid" campaign . After being temporarily placed in the Gestapo's Würzburg emergency prison - where his former parliamentary colleague Adam Stegerwald was one of his fellow inmates - he was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp and from there to Auschwitz or Auschwitz-Monowitz concentration camp (prisoner number 200.306). An official medical certificate dated November 10th referred to Herbert as having a suspected heart disease as "for the time being still capable of being held liable and transportable, but can only be stored and worked to a limited extent". In Monowitz he had to take part in the production of synthetic gasoline and rubber in a factory.

When the Red Army approached Auschwitz at the beginning of February 1945, Herbert and several thousand other prisoners were forcibly evacuated by the SS guards: In the course of an evacuation company later known as the “ death march ”, the prisoners had to walk further west, initially Pass Mauthausen concentration camp outside the reach of the Red Army. Franz Herbert has been missing since that time. The exact date and place of his death are unknown. It is believed that Herbert was unable to cope with the physical strain of the forced march and died on the way from Auschwitz to Mauthausen. Herbert's wife Therese had him declared dead in the 1950s and then received a widow's pension. The International Tracing Service later set February 7, 1945 as the date of death; however, this is only an estimate and not a certain fact.

Honors

In 1985 , the Bavarian Farmers' Association and the Kolitzheim community had a plaque installed on his former house in Kolitzheim in memory of Herbert . Further memorial plaques can be found at the agricultural school in Würzburg and at Platz der Republik in Berlin. The last-mentioned plaque is part of the memorial inaugurated in 1992 to commemorate 96 members of the Reichstag who were murdered by the National Socialist regime . The Catholic Church accepted Franz Herbert as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

literature

  • Helmut Moll (publisher on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference), witnesses for Christ. The German Martyrology of the 20th Century , 6th, expanded and restructured edition Paderborn u. a. 2015, ISBN 978-3-506-78080-5 , Volume I, pp. 712-714.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Newspaper article in the Main-Post, 2010
  2. ↑ Martin Schumacher (Ed.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation 1933-1945. Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1991, ISBN 3-7700-5162-9 , pp. 271ff.
  3. ↑ Quoted in Schumacher, MdR , p. 273.
  4. ↑ Hans Zehetmair / Philipp W. Hildmann: Politics from Christian Responsibility , 2007, p. 58.


personal data
SURNAME Herbert, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German farmer and politician (BVP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Kolitzheim , Lower Franconia
DATE OF DEATH February 1945
Place of death between Auschwitz and Mauthausen concentration camps