Franz Pfeffer from Salomon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Franz Pfeffer from Salomon
Franz Pfeffer von Salomon (right next to Hitler) at the Nazi Party Rally of the NSDAP in Nuremberg in 1927

Franz Pfeffer von Salomon , usually Franz von Pfeffer for short (born February 19, 1888 in Düsseldorf , † April 12, 1968 in Munich ), was a German officer and politician. He was an officer in the First World War and landowner, leader of the " Freikorps Westfalen", NSDAP functionary, supreme SA leader and member of the Reichstag .

origin

His grandfather Ferdinand Pfeffer (1822–1901) was a Prussian cavalry colonel when the Lower Rhine family was ennobled in 1862 . His parents were the Prussian Secret Government Councilor Max Pfeffer von Salomon (1854-1918) and his wife Anna von Clavé-Bouhaben (1862-1919), a daughter of the Prussian appellate judge and landowner in Königswinter Franz von Clavé-Bouhaben and his wife Maria Coninx .

Franz Pfeffer von Salomon was the older brother of Friedrich "Fritz" Pfeffer von Salomon (1892–1961, Charlottenburg), the police chief in Kassel and head of the Gestapo there .

Life

Pfeffer von Salomon studied law in Heidelberg , Marburg and Münster . In Heidelberg he became a member of the Corps Vandalia Heidelberg in 1907 . He passed his legal traineeship exam in Hamm in 1910 . He then joined the Infantry Regiment No. 13 in Münster as a flag junior and advanced to lieutenant in 1911 . He took part in the First World War as a captain and battalion commander. After the end of the war, he took part in the Kapp Putsch with his “Freikorps Westfalen” and fought the uprisings in the Ruhr area against the Red Ruhr Army there as well as in Upper Silesia and the Baltic States . Wolfgang Kapps son Friedrich Kapp was a consemester pepper from Salomons with the Heidelberg Vandals.

Between 1923 and 1925 he campaigned against the Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr and was sentenced to death by the French. In 1924 he founded the Gau Westphalia of the NSDAP together with Joseph Goebbels and Karl Kaufmann . In June 1926 Hitler lived in a room in the Gut von Pfeffer for a week on his first visit to West Germany. The aristocratic seat of Haus Busch had been leased by Pfeffer since 1920. Hitler appointed Franz Pfeffer von Salomon when forming the Supreme SA Leadership (OSAF) on November 1, 1926 as "Supreme SA Leader". Heinrich Himmler became Pfeffer's secretary in Munich.

Under Pfeffer, the SA developed into a largely independent, centrally controlled task force. The number of members rose from around 30,000 (1924) to 80,000 (1930). After conflicts with Pfeffer von Salomon about the influence of the NSDAP on the SA, Hitler himself took over the leadership of the SA on August 12, 1930; In January 1931, Hitler appointed Ernst Röhm as the de facto leader of the SA.

From November 1932 bis November 1941st (in the Nazi period he called himself only "pepper" because "Solomon" was frowned upon as typically Jewish name), he was member of the Reichstag the NSDAP and belonged to the "connecting rod of the leader" in the Reich Chancellery in . Due to internal party quarrels with Josef Wagner and his acquaintance with Rudolf Hess , who had fled to England, he fell out of favor. He was expelled from the party on November 24, 1941 at Hitler's instigation. After the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944 , he was briefly imprisoned.

Pfeffer was involved in the Hessian state association of the German party during the late 1940s and early 1950s .

family

He married Maria Raitz von Frentz (1895–1984), a daughter of Baron Adolf Raitz von Frentz (1843–1907). The couple had two sons and three daughters, including:

  • Irmgard (* 1923), Dr. rer. nat., biologist ∞ Freiherr Friedemann von Wintzingerode (1913–1964), farmer in South Africa
  • Kunigunde (* 1927), Dr. rer. nat., biologist ∞ Jobst Hülsemann (born June 26, 1926), Dr. phil., geologist
  • Ferdinand (* 1929), Dr. iur.
  • Max (* 1932), prosecutor in Cape Town (South Africa)

Ideological orientation

According to Roger Griffin , Pfeffer represented a völkisch “ totalitarian ethic ” typical of Nazism , with which liberal humanism was to be overcome. In a memorandum dated Christmas 1925 and addressed to the higher leadership of the NSDAP, he formulated what Griffin said, "ruthlessly anti-Galitarian position on the question of how to produce better Germans" :

“Ultimately, rooting in this basic conception is what I denounce the Strasserian program (and I am only afraid of having to denounce too many thoughts that are called 'socialist' in our camp). It is the basic Jewish-liberal-democratic-Marxist-humanitarian conception. As long as our program sucks from it with even a small root fiber, it is subject to poisoning, stunting and miserable destruction. "

In this memorandum he also announced who did not have to be part of the new national community :

“No mercy on the last steps within this inferior group. - Cripples, epileptics, blind, lunatic, deaf and dumb people, sanatoriums for drinkers, welfare children, orphans, criminals, prostitutes, sexually disturbed people, etc. Every service for them must not only be deducted from the services in the right place, but directly counteracts the planned selection. But also stupid, weak, unsteady, lacking in energy, hereditarily burdened, sickly predisposed, we must not cry because they sink 'innocently'. [...] The last stage is called doom and death. Weighed and found too easily. You are to chop up fruitless trees and throw them into the fire. ”(The last two sentences are quoted from Dan 5.27  LUT and Lk 3.9  LUT .)

literature

  • The members of Vandalia zu Heidelberg as of September 29, 1935. Berlin 1936, p. 276.
  • Beatrix Herlemann , Helga Schatz: Biographical Lexicon of Lower Saxony Parliamentarians 1919–1945 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen. Volume 222). Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 2004, ISBN 3-7752-6022-6 , p. 275.
  • Ian Kershaw : Hitler 1889-1936. DVA, Stuttgart 1998, pp. 355-356, 431-432.
  • Ingo Nathusius: On the right edge of the Union. The way of the German party until 1953. Dissertation, Mainz 1992 ( digital version [PDF; 38 MB]). (Information on Pfeffer's political career after World War II.)
  • Hermann white : Pfeffer von Salomon, Franz. In: Hermann white (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon zum Third Reich . Frankfurt am Main 1998, pp. 348-349.
  • Hermann Weiß:  Pfeffer von Salomon, Franz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 310 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Bernhard Sauer: The Myth of Eternal Soldierhood. The campaign of the German Freikorps in the Baltic States in 1919. In: Journal of History. 43, year 1995, issue 10 ( PDF; 7.4 MB ).
  • Bernhard Sauer: Traitors were shot dead in large numbers here. The Fememorde in Oberschlesien 1921. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 54, year 2006, issue 7/8 ( PDF ).
  • Mark A. Fraschka: Franz Pfeffer von Salomon: Hitler's forgotten Supreme SA leader . Wallstein Verlag , Göttingen 2016. ISBN 978-3-8353-1909-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The German Herald: magazine for coat of arms, seal u. Family Studies , Volume 6, page 31
  2. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 68 , 781.
  3. ^ The members of the Vandalia zu Heidelberg as of September 29, 1935. Berlin 1936, p. 276.
  4. ↑ a b Quoted from: Roger Griffin : Völkischer Nationalismus as a pioneer and continuator of fascism: An Anglo-Saxon view of a not only German phenomenon. In: Heiko Kauffmann, Helmut Kellershohn , Jobst Paul (eds.): Völkische Bande. Decadence and Rebirth - Analyzes of Right Ideology. Unrast Verlag, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-89771-737-9 , p. 31 f.
  5. ^ FAZ.net: Review by Wolfram Pyta .
personal data
SURNAME Pfeffer from Salomon, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pfeffer, Franz von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Freikorps and SA leaders, politician (NSDAP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1968
Place of death Munich