Franz Kempner

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Franz Kempner (born October 19, 1879 in Bromberg ; † March 5, 1945 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German civil servant and resistance fighter. Kempner was best known as State Secretary of the Reich Chancellery (1925–1926) and as a member of the resistance against the Nazi regime.

Life

After attending school, Kempner studied law . In 1902 he obtained his doctorate in Rostock. jur. During this time, Kempner formed friendly ties with the painter Max Beckmann , who, among other things, created a full-length portrait of Kempner (1906). From 1906 he worked for ten years in the Reich Colonial Office and as a senior official (district captain) in the administration of the imperial governorate in German East Africa . During the First World War he was used as captain dR in the protection force in German East Africa on the staff of General Lettow-Vorbeck .

In 1919 Kempner joined the Reich Chancellery as a councilor, where he was successively promoted to ministerial councilor and on November 14, 1923 to ministerial director. On the occasion of the formation of the Luther government , Kempner was appointed State Secretary in the Reich Chancellery on January 16, 1925. In this office, which he held until the resignation of the Luther government on May 17, 1926, he was responsible for the administration of the Reich Chancellery. Politically, Kempner belonged to the national liberal German People's Party (DVP).

On the occasion of the presidential election in 1932 , Kempner was appointed head of the main office of the so-called Hindenburg committees, d. H. in charge of presidential candidate Paul von Hindenburg's election campaign .

During the time of National Socialism , Kempner largely withdrew into private life as a pensioner. However, the authorities noticed him because of his critical stance on the regime's church and Jewish policies and his rejection of the restriction of personal freedoms. At least since the Second World War in 1943 entered the critical phase for the German Reich, Kempner renewed his contacts with former political companions such as Otto Kiep , Erwin Planck and Arthur Zarden . In September 1943 he made himself available to the group of conspirators around Fritz Goerdeler as State Secretary in the Reich Chancellery in the event of a successful coup against the Hitler government. For this reason and because of his connections to the Solf circle , he came under the Gestapo's sights after the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944 . In the course of the wave of arrests after July 20, Kempner was arrested and charged with high treason . On January 12, 1945, he was finally found guilty by the People's Court , chaired by Roland Freisler, and sentenced to death . On March 5, 1945 he was guillotined together with Hasso von Boehmer and Ernst von Harnack in Plötzensee .

Fonts

  • The legal character of the tram ticket , Berlin 1902. (Dissertation)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. German Resistance Memorial Center: Co-conspirators
  2. ^ Dietrich Schubert: Max Beckmann. Resurrection and Apparition of the Dead , 1985, p. 16.
  3. No. 680 Memorandum of the Ministerialrat Wienstein on the financing of the election campaign for the election of the Reich President of February 18, 1932 “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic"
  4. ^ Hans Adolf Jacobsen: Mirror Image of a Conspiracy , 1984, p. 420.