Fritz Wächtler

Fritz Wächtler

Fritz Wächtler

Fritz Wächtler (born January 7, 1891 in Triebes ; † April 19, 1945 in Waldmünchen ) was a German politician (NSDAP) , NSDAP Gauleiter of the Bavarian Ostmark and SS-Obergruppenführer (1944).

Life

Wächtler, son of a watchmaker , was trained as a primary school teacher at the Weimar teachers' seminar between 1905 and 1911 . After two years of teaching and military service as a one-year volunteer , he did military service in World War I from 1914 , was promoted to lieutenant in the reserve in 1915 and received several awards.

After the end of the war, Wächtler worked again as a teacher in Thuringia until he joined the NSDAP in April 1926 ( membership number 35.313). In his new function, Wächtler was the founder and head of the local branch of Triebes and leader of the SA there . At the same time he became district leader of the party for Weimar North.

In 1929 Wächtler was elected a member of the state parliament and appointed head of the district organization and deputy district leader for the district of Thuringia. From August 1932 Wächtler acted as Minister of Education in Fritz Sauckel's cabinet and until the beginning of 1936 under Willy Marschler . From May 1933 to December 1935 he also held the office of Minister of the Interior .

Since November 1933 Wächtler was a member of the NSDAP in the Reichstag .

In November 1934 Wächtler joined the Schutzstaffel (SS No. 209.058) as SS-Oberführer .

As the successor to Gauleiter Hans Schemm , who died in a plane crash in Bayreuth on March 5, 1935, Wächtler was appointed Gauleiter of the Bavarian East Markets on December 5, 1935, at the same time head of the "NSDAP Main Office for Education" and acting head of the " NS Teachers Association ". From January 1936 he also acted as "clerk for elementary school issues" on Rudolf Hess' staff .

At the end of January 1936, Wächtler was promoted to SS-Brigadführer and in April 1937 to SS-Gruppenführer . He received the title of Prussian Council of State . Until 1938 he was also acting mayor of the city of Bayreuth .

As an alcoholic , Wächtler was prone to unrestrained outbursts and exposing subordinates. Winifred Wagner complained several times to Hitler about Wächtler. This is probably one of the reasons why it was not valued by Hitler, but remained untouched until 1945. It is believed that Hitler did not want any unrest in the final years of the war.

On November 16, 1942, Wächtler was given the post of Reich Defense Commissioner in his Gau and in August 1944 was given the rank of "SS-Obergruppenführer". After the advance of the 3rd US Army on the Gau capital Bayreuth, Wächtler was shot dead by an SS command in the Gau headquarters near Waldmünchen for leaving his command post in Bayreuth prematurely . Allegedly the execution was carried out on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler , but presumably the order was preceded by an intrigue between his deputy Ludwig Ruckdeschel and Martin Bormann .

The fanatic Ruckdeschel was considered a long-time rival of Fritz Wächtler. In April 1945 he accused him of deserting and apparently denounced him to the Fuehrer's headquarters . On the morning of April 19, 1945, Ruckdeschel and a detachment of 35 SS men drove to the border hotel in Herzogau, where Wächtler was staying. Wächtler was taken away, put to a tree and shot. Ruckdeschel became his successor and announced that Wächtler had been expelled from the NSDAP and executed for cowardice in the face of the enemy. “Any 'villain and traitor' who behaves in the same way faces the same fate.” In 1948, Ruckdeschel was sentenced to eight years in prison, but not for the shooting of Wächtler, but among other things for the murder of cathedral preacher Johann Maier , who attended a rally for the surrender of the city of Regensburg without a fight.

literature

• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 . (Updated 2nd edition)
• 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 .
• Albrecht Tyrell: Fiihrer befiehl… - testimonies from the 'fighting time' of the NSDAP , Gondrom Verlag Bindlach 1991 (© 1969 Droste Verlag Düsseldorf) ISBN 3-8112-0694-X , p. 385.

Web links

Commons : Fritz Wächtler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Fritz Wächtler in the database of members of the Reichstag
• Literature by and about Fritz Wächtler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Fritz Wächtler in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bernhard Post, Volker Wahl (Ed.): Thuringia Handbook. Territory, constitution, parliament, government and administration in Thuringia 1920 to 1995 (= publications from Thuringian state archives; 1). Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-7400-0962-4 , p. 639.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Utho Grieser: Himmler's husband in Nuremberg. The Benno Martin case. A study on the structure of the 3rd Reich in the "City of the Nazi Party Rallies". (= Nuremberg workpieces on city and state history. Volume 13) Nuremberg city archive, Nuremberg 1974, ISBN 3-87432-025-1 , p. 312.
3. ↑ Albrecht Bald: “The border shimmers brown and the Mark stands true!” The NS-Gau Bayerische Ostmark / Bayreuth 1933–1945. Grenzgau, Grenzlandideologie and economic problem region, Bayreuth 2014 (= Bayreuth Reconstructions, Vol. 2), p. 139.
4. ↑ Ian Kershaw: The End. Fight to the end. Nazi Germany 1944/45. DVA, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-421-05807-2 , p. 445.
5. ↑ Summary of the judgment ( Memento of the original from April 25, 2014 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in justice and Nazi crimes.