Franz Moraller

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Franz Moraller

Franz Karl Theodor Moraller (born July 14, 1903 in Karlsruhe ; † January 18, 1986 there ) was a journalist and functionary of the NSDAP during the Nazi era . He was group leader of the SA and from 1934 to 1939 managing director of the Reich Chamber of Culture .

Life

He broke off his education at a humanistic grammar school after the 10th grade and began an apprenticeship in watchmaking in his father Armand Moraller's company. From 1924 to 1927 he worked in the profession he had learned.

In 1923 Moraller became a member of the Völkische Jugend and the Schlageterbund , both replacement organizations of the SA, which was banned at the time. In 1927 he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 69.449), took over as storm leader of SA-Sturm 1 in Karlsruhe and was appointed editor of the Nazi newspaper for Baden , Der Führer , by Gauleiter Robert Wagner . He held this post until March 1933. From 1931 to 1933 he was also head of the NSDAP's intelligence service in Baden. On March 6, 1930 he was sentenced to a fine of 200 Reichsmarks by the Karlsruhe lay judge for bodily harm and insult.

After the " seizure of power " he became head of the press office of the Baden state government. In July 1933 he was promoted to Oberführer of the SA and decorated with the Golden Decoration. From July 1933 to 1934 he headed the Baden and Württemberg regional office of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda . In October 1934 he was appointed managing director of the Reich Chamber of Culture and executive chairman of the Reichsbund der Deutschen Freilicht- und Volksschauspiele, in December also head of the cultural office of the Reich Propaganda Office of the NSDAP (RPL) and in 1936 a Reich speaker . He was also chairman of the Baden regional association in the Reich Association of the German Press . Moraller was unpopular with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels . Goebbels noted in his diaries about him in October 1937: "Chatting about things that he understands nothing about (...) fails completely (...) must go". The records also reveal personal differences between Moraller and the ministerial official Hans Hinkel . From 1938 until the end of the war, Moraller was federal director of the Greater German Chess Federation .

During his time at the RPL, the Reich-wide exhibition Degenerate Art 1937/38 in many cities, which (according to the imprint of a “leader” called inflammatory brochure) was put together by the RPL / Office of Culture. Moraller gave the opening address when the exhibition was shown in Berlin in February 1938. At the beginning of 1939 he left the Reich Chamber of Culture. After Ernst Rowohlt was expelled from the Reich Chamber of Culture, Moraller was a commissioner at Rowohlt Verlag from 1939 to 1940 , which was subject to " cultural Bolshevism ". According to the writer Kurt Pinthus , Moraller had difficulties in asserting himself against Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt when the publisher was "brought into line " . Since July 1940 he was a member of the Reichstag . In 1941 he signed up for service in the Wehrmacht and was deployed in a propaganda company on the Eastern Front until August 1942 . Moraller returned to the Karlsruhe Führer in 1940 ; In November 1942, again commissioned by Gauleiter Wagner, he took over the editing of the Strasbourg Latest News and put the newspaper in the service of the Germanization of Alsace , which Wagner was promoting . In April 1943 he was promoted to SA group leader.

After the war he surrendered to French troops and was arrested. In May 1950 charges were brought against him for having contributed to the forced recruitment of Alsatians through his newspaper articles . Detained in a detention center and in Metz prison, Moraller was released in May 1953 "on recall". In May 1956 the proceedings were finally abandoned. Initially working as a freelancer, Moraller worked for the Bertelsmann publishing group in Gütersloh from 1958 to 1968 . In retirement he returned to Karlsruhe. Widowed since 1961, Moraller remarried in 1975.

literature

  • Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform: the members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the Volkish and National Socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924 . Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 , p. 425 .
  • Horst Ferdinand: Moraller, Franz Karl Theodor. In: Bernd Ottnad (Hrsg.): Baden-Württembergische Biographien. Volume 2, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-17-014117-1 , pp. 320–323 ( online )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Look into the story, No. 125, December 6, 2019, p. 2.
  2. ↑ Elke Fröhlich (ed.): The diaries of Joseph Goebbels . Part 1, Volume 4. Saur, Munich 2000. pp. 339–342 (diary entries from October 2 to 4, 1937)
personal data
SURNAME Moraller, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Moraller, Franz Karl Theodor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and politician (NSDAP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlsruhe
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1986
Place of death Karlsruhe