Gau Saxony

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Gaue of the German Reich 1944

The Gau Sachsen was an administrative unit of the NSDAP under a Gauleiter .

Development and structure

The first regional leader of the NSDAP in Saxony was Fritz Tittmann from 1921 to 1923 . In 1925 there was also a separate Gau Ostsachsen in the Dresden area under Anton Goß , until he was deposed on January 31, 1926. It is possible that Martin Mutschmann was always Gauleiter from 1925 (February 26, 1925 - May 8, 1945), his deputy Karl Fritsch (1928–1937?). The official elevation to the "Gau" took place in July 1926.

On May 5, 1933, Mutschmann became Reich Governor in the Free State of Saxony , while his party rival Manfred von Killinger was Prime Minister of the state government until the Röhm Putsch in 1934. In February 1935 Mutschmann also took over this office. The Gau had 5,231,739 inhabitants (1941) and around 235,000 party members in 27 districts, the Gau capital was Plauen before 1933 , then Dresden in the Bürgerwiese 24 building, where a huge Gauforum was to be expanded according to the plans of urban planner Paul Wolf . The plans were stopped when the war began. The first exhibition of so-called degenerate art took place here as early as 1933. In October 1936, Mutschmann initiated the folk Heimatwerk Sachsen under the honorary chairmanship of Friedrich Emil Krauss , which was headed by the Nazi cultural politician Arthur Graefe as managing director and in which Max Günther played a leading role played in order to make political use of the handicrafts and folk art of the Ore Mountains .

Mutschmann was still Reich Defense Commissioner in 1939 and was thus largely responsible for the implementation of the T4 euthanasia program in Saxony in the Pirna-Sonnenstein killing center . He also led the Volkssturm in the Gau , where he safely sent thousands of boys to the front. After the air raids on Dresden in February 1945, the Gauleiter's office moved to the provisional command post in Lockwitzgrund near Dresden. A new deputy was assigned to him in March 1945, the former Gauredner and Saxon SA leader, Corvette Captain Werner Vogelsang .

Gau propaganda leader was the old fighter Arthur Schumann in 1931 , head of the office for local politics from 1930 to 1939 Erich Kunz , then until 1943 Kurt Gruber , head of the office for civil servants Paul Schaaf , head of the racial politics office of the racial ophthalmologist Hermann Vellguth , district head was Ernst Wettengel (at the same time NSDAP district leader in Leipzig ). The NS teacher association leader Arthur Hugo Göpfert (politician) was Gauamtsleiter in the Office for Education and in 1935 took over the management of the Saxon Ministry of Culture. The regional economic adviser was the factory owner and Saxon Minister of Economic Affairs and Welfare Georg Lenk , who fell out of favor from 1941, and the agricultural expert adviser to the country's farmer's leader Helmut Körner . Gaufführer schools existed in the Augustusburg hunting lodge , in Hammerleubsdorf and in Friedrichsburg palace in Heidenau- Großsedlitz .

Single receipts

  1. ^ Andreas Peschel: Fritz Tittmann (1898–1945) . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography .
  2. Stephan Dehn: Mutschmann's power struggle against Anton Goß. From the conflict over the leadership of the Nazi Gau East Saxony to the "Lolita" poses in Dresden. In: New archive for Saxon history. 86, 2015, pp. 225ff.
  3. Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann: From dream to nightmare. Saxony in the Weimar Republic . Kiepenheuer, Leipzig 2000, ISBN 3-378-01045-2 , p. 104.
  4. ^ Hitler's Dresden. In: The time. 05/2012.
  5. ^ Address book 1940 p. 34
  6. ^ The planned "Gauforum Dresden". Reconstruction plans for Dresden
  7. ^ Heimatwerk Sachsen 1936-1945. In: Mike Schmeitzner, Francesca Weil: Saxony 1933–1945: the historical travel guide. P. 80.
  8. Führer Preschool 1932

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