Mecklenburg district

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Gaue of the German Reich 1944

The Gau Mecklenburg had been the regional administrative unit of the NSDAP at party level since 1925 , which until March 31, 1937 ( Greater Hamburg Law ) also included the city of Lübeck and was called Gau Mecklenburg-Lübeck .

history

Since May 22, 1926, the NSDAP officially had a Reich-wide division into party areas , which often corresponded to the structure of the Reichstag constituencies . After the seizure of power in 1933, the Gaue increasingly became state administrative units. At the head of the district leadership stood the Gauleiter appointed by Adolf Hitler , who was often also Reich Governor in the states. He was responsible for the propaganda, surveillance and during the war for more and more tasks: as Reich Defense Commissioner a . a. for air protection , the use of forced labor and the Volkssturm . Friedrich Hildebrandt held this office for the Mecklenburg- (Lübeck) district from March 22, 1925 to May 8, 1945, only eight months on leave from Hitler between July 1930 and February 1931 because of his proximity to Otto Strasser . During this time Herbert Albrecht was in office , who resigned voluntarily after winning a seat in the Reichstag . At the state level, the Parteigau faced the state of Mecklenburg as an administrative unit in the German Reich from January 1, 1934 to 1945, formed from the Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin . See the history of Mecklenburg .

The seat of the Gauleitung was in Schwerin in the former State Ministry (today State Chancellery ). In Lübeck, the Reich Governor for Mecklenburg and Lübeck installed Hildebrandt as his representative and Lord Mayor Otto-Heinrich Drechsler . In the state of Mecklenburg there was also a Prime Minister appointed by the Reich Governor: Hans Egon Engell until October 1934 , then Friedrich Scharf .

Hildebrandt's deputies in the Gauleitung were wood turners in 1932/33, Rudolf Schildmann from June 1, 1933 to March 1935, and then from April 1, 1934 to 1945, Gerd von Koerber . The district inspector was Walter Unger , who had headed the Hitler Youth (HJ) in the Gau in 1933/34 . From 1936 to 1940 he held a Reichstag mandate for constituency 35 Mecklenburg. Karl Seemann , who was also a regional consultant for agriculture and had a mandate until 1943, had passed to him since 1933 . It was followed by the propaganda leader Fritz Montag until his death in 1943 and the police leader Hans-Eugen Sommer . The former Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Walter Granzow , who remained an agricultural adviser in the Gau , also remained influential .

District economic advisors were Hennecke von Plessen (1933–1942), who was involved in the Aryanization , and the DAF functionary Fritz Montag (1942–1943). A Gauführerschule existed in Schwerin first in the former hotel "Nordischer Hof" (today Ministry of Finance ), then in a new building (today NDR-Landesfunkhaus). In the Gauleitung there were various offices with coordination tasks, such as the Office for Local Politics , which was headed by Friedrich Scharf from 1933 , later Richard Crull , also Mayor of Schwerin from 1943, or the Office for Educators , which was headed by the teacher Rudolf Krüger (politician, 1898 ) 1936–1942 headed the Nazi teachers' association as district administrator . From 1938 the Rostock Germanist Willi Flemming headed the library department, public education department of the training office of the Gauleitung, which made him decisive for censorship .

Schwerin was felt to be too small for a district capital. In 1935 plans began to redesign the city center. The construction of two new urban ring roads and a new route for Lübecker Straße , the widening of Wittenburger Straße and Schloßstraße as well as the erection of monumental buildings were part of it, and in 1936 several places were forcibly incorporated.

After the great air raid on Rostock in April 1942, a Gau task force was formed to coordinate rescue and recovery measures.

literature

  • Volker Janke: A book with the names of the fighters in the Mecklenburg-Lübeck Gau from 1935 , in: Zeitgeschichte regional 17/2, December 2013, pp. 72–75
  • Mecklenburg in World War II. The meetings of Gauleiter Friedrich Hildebrandt with the Nazi leadership bodies of Gau Mecklenburg 1939-1945 . An edition of the meeting minutes, edit. by Michael Buddrus , with the collaboration of Sigrid Fritzlar and Karsten Schröder, Edition Temmen, Bremen 2009
  • Jürgen John, Horst Möller, Thomas Schaarschmidt (eds.): The NS-Gaue. Regional middle authorities in the centralized “leader state” . Oldenbourg, Munich 2007 ISBN 978-3-486-58086-0
  • Henrik Bispinck: Educated Citizens in Democracy and Dictatorship: Teachers in High Schools in Mecklenburg 1918 to 1961 , Oldenbourg, Munich 2011 ISBN 978-3-48659804-9
  • Michael Buddrus with Sigrid Fritzlar: The cities of Mecklenburg in the Third Reich. A handbook on urban development under National Socialism, supplemented by a biographical encyclopedia of the mayors, city councilors and councilors . Edition Temmen, Bremen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8378-4029-2 .

Web links

Single receipts

  1. See Peter Hüttenberger: Die Gauleiter. Study on the change in the power structure in the NSDAP , DVA, Stuttgart 1969, p. 54 partly online