Gerd wonder

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Gerhard Wilhelm Wunder (born December 26, 1908 in Landsberg am Lech ; † May 30, 1988 ) was a German librarian and regional historian . During the Second World War, he spent most of the time in the task force of Reichsleiter Rosenberg , stealing Jewish and Russian libraries for the NSDAP.

Life

The father Johann Bernhard Wunder (1879–1952; ⚭ 1908 Klara Therese Stoeckle) comes from a Franconian family of pastors and officials, studied agriculture and became a seed breeder. As a chemist, grandfather Justin Wunder (1838–1910) developed an ultramarine red , with which Johannes Zeltner applied for the first German imperial patent. One uncle was the educationalist Ludwig Wunder (1878–1949).

Wunder was an early supporter of National Socialism . He joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1930 . In 1932 he was promoted to Dr. phil. PhD. In 1933 and 1934 he taught at a German school in Santiago de Chile . During this time he worked part-time in the NSDAP foreign organization , NSDAP-AO, in Chile. In 1935 he returned to Germany and took over the management of the Düsseldorf City Library.

From August 1939 to November 1940, Wunder served in the Wehrmacht. From November 1940 he was employed in the main working group (HAG) France of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) in Paris in the theft of books ( M-Aktion ) and acted as head of the special staff library construction of the high school of the ERR in Paris. On the basis of a Führer order, the latter “confiscated” literature on Jewish subjects from the property of Jewish and Masonic organizations as well as from private libraries of Jews who had fled or had been murdered. The book holdings were intended for the Institute for Research into Rosenberg's Jewish Question in Frankfurt, the first institution of the planned high school of the NSDAP . From June to September 1941, Wunder was once again a soldier, before he was employed by the main Ostland working group in Riga from October 1941 (from January to August 1942 as its head). The aim of the ERR in Russia was the establishment of the so-called Eastern Library on “Questions of Bolshevism ” from the holdings of Russian state libraries. Since August 1942, Wunder has been in charge of this eastern library as head of the collection and viewing department (since late 1944 with the title of Obersteinsatzleiter) in Berlin and since September 1943 in the alternative quarters in Racibórz / Ratibor (Upper Silesia).

After the end of the Second World War, he was interned in 1945 and questioned in August 1947 (9 months after Rosenberg's execution) in Nuremberg while preparing the OKW trial about the activities of the accused generals, but he was unable to provide any information. Parts of the inventory stolen in Paris for the "high school" were found in 1945 by the American army in Tanzenberg Castle in Carinthia and, as far as possible, then returned to their living owners or to Jewish organizations. The Eastern Library in Racibórz was seized by Russian troops in 1945 and transported back to the Soviet Union.

Later, Wunder was a teacher at a grammar school in Schwäbisch Hall and since 1954 a member of the commission for historical regional studies in Baden-Württemberg . Now he emerged as a social historian and published numerous works in books and magazines in the Federal Republic.

Gerd Wunder is the father of Dieter Wunder ( GEW Chairman) and Bernd Wunder (historian).

Fonts

  • Main features of the War of Independence in Chile: (1808-23) . Münster iW 1932
  • Leadership . Ed. NSDAP regional group Argentina, Buenos Aires 1935, 4 sheets.
  • Organization . Ed. NSDAP regional group Argentina, Buenos Aires 1935 4 p.
  • Propaganda . Ed. NSDAP regional group Argentina, Buenos Aires 1935 4 p.
  • Racial Issues and Judaism . Ed. NSDAP regional group Argentina, Buenos Aires 1935 4 p.
  • Sense of responsibility . Ed. NSDAP regional group Argentina, Buenos Aires 1935 4 p.
  • The Stauffenberg taverns . Stuttgart 1972
  • Council and city in the founding period 1541–1557. Santiago de Chile as an example of a Spanish colonial city (1984)
  • The founding of the German Evangelical Church Community in Santiago (1984)
  • P. Bernhard Havestadt, an 18th century German traveler to Chile (1984)
  • El Capitán Körner y la guerra civil en Chile, 1891 (1984)
  • Bellavista and Osorno - the Hessians in southern Chile: a contribution to the history of emigrants . ??
  • South America and Europe in their historical relations. ??
  • Palatinate farmers in the Uckermark and East Prussia: a contribution to the history of migration ; In: From Stadt- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte Südwestdeutschlands (1975), pp. 188–206
  • The citizens of Hall. Social history of an imperial city 1216–1802 . Sigmaringen 1980
  • Memories of the chemist Justin Wunder (1838-1910)

literature

  • Dieter Wunder : Gerd Wunder. In: Festschrift for Gerd Wunder. Series: Württembergisch-Franken, 58th Historical Association for Württembergisch Franconia, Schwäbisch Hall 1974, ISSN  0084-3067 pp. 7-13
  • Edith Ennen : “Dear Mr. Wunder!” Laudation Gerd Wunder. In: Württembergisch-Franken, 67. 1983, pp. 3-9
  • Anja Heuss : Art and cultural property theft. A comparative study on the occupation policy of the National Socialists in France and the Soviet Union. Winter, Heidelberg 2000 ISBN 3-8253-0994-0 . Zugl. Diss. Phil. University of Frankfurt / Main 1999.
  • Patricia Kennedy Grimsted: Roads to Ratibor : Library and Archival Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg. In: Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Vol. 19, 2005 ISSN  8756-6583 pp. 390-458

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 677.
  2. ^ Curriculum vitae in: Nuremberg interrogation protocols from August 1947; NARA Microfilm Publication M 1019, role 81, frames 102-121.
  3. according to DNB information