Gau Westphalia-North

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Gaue of the German Reich 1944

The Gau Westfalen-Nord was a party area of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) .

History and structure

A Gau Westphalia had existed since 1924 under the Freikorps - and later SA leader Franz Pfeffer von Salomon . As early as 1926 he was in the Gau Ruhr under Karl Kaufmann (Gauleiter) and from 1929 Josef Wagner (Gauleiter) . The Gauleiter appointed after the separation from Adolf Hitler from 1931 to 1945 was Alfred Meyer MdR, his deputy since 1931 Peter Stangier MdR. The Gau comprised the northern area of ​​the Prussian province of Westphalia , i.e. the former administrative districts of Münster and Minden (today administrative district Detmold ), the district of Grafschaft Schaumburg of the province of Hessen-Nassau and the province of Hanover (from September 30, 1932) as well as the areas of the states of Schaumburg - lip and lip . Its counterpart was the Gau Westfalen-Süd .

On the state side, the conservative Catholic (DNVP) Ferdinand von Lüninck was appointed Upper President of the Prussian Province of Westphalia in 1933 and was not replaced by Gauleiter Meyer until 1938, which meant that the state and party levels could no longer be separated. Meyer had been Reich Governor in the states of Schaumburg-Lippe and Lippe since May 16, 1933 . On February 24, 1936 he became leader of the state government and Minister of State (Prime Minister) there (with effect from February 1, 1936). As governor, Karl-Friedrich Kolbow ensured the implementation of Nazi policy.

There was a party newspaper with Rote Erde , which appeared in Bochum, and the national newspaper (Essen) . The administrative seat of the district was in Gelsenkirchen until October 1, 1932 , then in the provincial capital Münster in changing buildings, from the end of 1936 in Bismarck-Allee 5. The area was 14,559 km², the population (1941) 2,822,603. Gauamtsleiter and Gauinspector was Wilhelm Rosenbaum from 1936 to 1938 , Gau propaganda leader and Gau culture warden who later became Reich Commissioner for the Netherlands Fritz Schmidt (General Commissioner) . Hermann Bartels (architect) from Münster was head of the district culture department and was responsible for the renovation of the Wewelsburg and the redesign of the district capital of Münster. District economic adviser was the IHK President Christian Franke . Gaufführer schools existed in Nordkirchen Castle and in Lübbecke (Am Weingarten).

Meyer united many other state offices: Commissioner of the Reich Defense Commissioner for Military District VI (Münster) in Gau Westfalen-Nord, at the same time member of the Defense Committee of Military District VI, December 17, 1939, entrusted with urban development measures for Münster, May 29, 1940-20 February 1942 "for the duration of the absence of Oberpräsident Terboven" (in Norway) entrusted with the management of the Reich Defense Commissioner in Wehrkreis VI, November 15, 1940–1945 District Housing Commissioner of the Westphalia-North district, January 20, 1942 participant of the " Wannsee -Konferenz ", April 6, 1942–1945 Commissioner of the General Plenipotentiary for Labor Deployment Fritz Sauckel for the Gau Westfalen-Nord, November 16, 1942 - April 11, 1945 Reich Defense Commissioner for the Gau Westfalen-Nord, September 25, 1944–1945 Leader of the German Volkssturm in the Westphalia-North district. He probably committed suicide in the end with a confession of Hitler.

Meyer tried to secure loyalties with a regional cultural policy. He carried out the Westphalian Day in the spirit of the NSDAP and the Heimatschutz movement , celebrated the poet Christian Dietrich Grabbe in Lippe and cultivated the Hermann monument . In 1938 he created the Annette von Droste-Hülshoff Days. In the Ruhr area, the successful soccer club Schalke 04 was particularly honored in order to win the sympathy of the workers.

literature

  • The Gau Westfalen-Nord , ed. from Gau Westfalen-Nord. Vorw. Alfred Meyer, Detmold: Lippische Staatszeitung / NS-Verlag 1939
  • Joachim Kuropka: On the way to dictatorship. On politics and society in the provincial capital of Münster 1929–1934 , in: Westfälische Zeitschrift 134, 1984, pp. 157–199
  • Heinz-Jürgen Priamus: Regional Aspects in the Politics of the North Westphalian Gauleiter Meyer , in: Möller / Wirsching / Ziegler: National Socialism in the Region: Contributions to Regional and Local Research and International Comparison , Munich 1996, pp. 175–198 ISBN 3- 486-64500-5
  • Christoph Schmidt: National Socialist cultural policy in the Gau Westfalen-Nord: regional structures and local milieus (1933–1945) , Paderborn a. a. 2005

Web links

Single receipts

  1. Joachim Kuropka: On the way to dictatorship . In: Westfälische Zeitschrift 134, 1984, p. 184 / Internet portal "Westphalian history"


Coordinates: 51 ° 57 '42.8 "  N , 7 ° 38' 7.6"  E