Reichsgau Styria
The Gau Steiermark was an administrative unit of the NSDAP , which after the " Anschluss of Austria " in 1938 by the Ostmarkgesetz of April 14, 1939 became a Reichsgau , one of the Alps and Danube Reichsgaue . This law was not implemented until 1940.
History and structure
The Parteigau had existed since 1926, from November 1928 under the Gauleiter Walther Oberhaidacher , who was a councilor in Graz from 1929 . After arrests, he settled in the German Reich in 1933 and was given leave of absence as a Gauleiter in July 1934. Sepp Helfrich was his successor during the illegal period of the NSDAP .
After the occupation of Austria, the National Socialist leadership had the intention of turning the Grenzgau Styria into a model district in the south-east of the German Empire. Helfrich, who also became governor on March 12, 1938 , and the other " old fighters " were not trusted to do this. Sigfried Uiberreither , still young and with a doctorate , was appointed Gauleiter by Hitler with the rank of SA group leader with effect from May 22, 1938. On June 9, 1938, he was also governor, who was bound by instructions from Berlin. In the same year he was appointed SA Brigade Leader for Central Styria . The southern Burgenland was annexed to the Gau Styria on October 15, 1938 , while the Ausseer Land became part of Upper Austria . In 1939 the remaining former Austrian states were converted into Reichsgaue with a Reichsstatthalter at the top with the Ostmarkgesetz . On March 31, 1940, Uiberreither's activity as governor ceased because Styria had become a Reichsgau. He became Reich Governor of Styria. At the head of the Reichsgau was the Reich Governor for the state and the Gauleiter for party affairs. His deputies were Otto Christandl (March / April 1938) and Tobias Portschy (May 24, 1938–1945).
Over 10.5% of the “ Volksgenossen ” living in the Gau Styria (excluding Lower Styria) were NSDAP members in 1942. This number of members corresponded to 15.5% of all Austrian National Socialists. With 30,530 illegals, i.e. members who were party members before 1938, Styria had the highest proportion of all federal states after Carinthia.
Between 1938 and the end of 1939, the almost 3,000 Jews who lived in Styria were expelled from the country through persecution, terrorization, the destruction of their synagogues and ceremonial halls and the confiscation of their property.
In Styria there were some subcamps of the Mauthausen concentration camp .
The Lower Styria and parts of Oberkrain came after the conquest of Yugoslavia to the German Reich. Uiberreither was used by Hitler as a CdZ for Lower Styria , which began a rigorous policy of Germanization . Uiberreither announced that the country would be Germanized in three years. After the arrest of the Slovenian leadership and the dissolution of the Slovenian associations and cultural organizations, thousands of Slovenes were resettled to Serbia , Croatia and the Altreich . Furthermore, as early as May 1941, 1200 younger teachers from Styria were assigned to work in Lower Styria, and German was introduced as the language of instruction at around 400 schools instead of Slovenian .
Like all Gauleiter, Uiberreither was appointed Reich Defense Commissioner for Gau Styria in 1942 . The next year he was appointed SA-Obergruppenführer. From 1944 he was leader of the Volkssturm in Styria.
See also
literature
- Stefan Karner: Styria in the Third Reich 1938–1945. Leykam Buchverlag, Graz 1986, ISBN 3-7011-7171-8
Web links
Single receipts
- ^ Stefan Karner : Styria in the Third Reich 1938–1945. Leykam Buchverlag, Graz 1986, ISBN 3-7011-7171-8 , p. 173.