Gerhard Schultze-Pfaelzer

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Gerhard Schultze-Pfaelzer (born July 7, 1891 in Darkehmen , † October 13, 1952 in Berlin ) was a German writer and political publicist and a close confidante of the Reich President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg .

life and work

Private life

Schultze-Pfaelzer was born in Pillupönen ( East Prussia ) as the son of a Protestant pastor and school councilor . He studied history and political science in Tübingen, Vienna and Leipzig and a doctorate in Leipzig with a thesis on the philosophy of Hegel Dr. phil. During his studies he became a member of the Association of German Students in Berlin . He then did his army service in the First World War from 1914 to 1917. Due to an accident, he worked in the Image and Film Office from 1917 until the end of the war . 1914/17 Dr. phil. Poetry in the judgment of German salary aesthetics. From Schelling to Vischer.

In 1926 he married Marie von Kleist for the second time and became acquainted with the MER and Intourist tour guide Nikolaus von Schultz.

Professional activity

After the end of the war, he was initially an editor for the Daily Rundschau and then a Berlin correspondent for the Königsberger Allgemeine Zeitung . From 1922 he was employed by the Berliner Morgenpost and from 1925 until his break with Alfred Hugenberg he was editor-in-chief of the German national newspaper Der Tag ( Scherl-Verlag ).

Shortly after his round of talks with representatives of the Black Front (documented in We seek Germany ), Schultze-Pfaelzer traveled to the Soviet Union for two weeks in June 1931 . In his travel report ( test drive into Bolshevism ) he writes that the "giant Russian experiment" will succeed according to his "daily stronger conviction", but the communism of the eastern, traditionally community-oriented world cannot be transferred to Germany. In view of the global economic crisis at the time , he considered it conceivable that the transition to a socialist social and economic principle that was adapted to one's own circumstances could become inevitable.

In 1939 he was employed by the German Labor Front , then he was a war administrator in the OKW . In 1940 he was dismissed because of "statements harmful to the state". Then he was a teacher and employee of the German publishing house, where he was in charge of the magazine Koralle .

Political life

Schultze-Pfaelzer was a member of the national liberal German People's Party (DVP) from 1919 to 1920 , which was known as the Stresemann party after Gustav Stresemann , the former Chancellor and Foreign Minister of the Weimar Republic . In 1931 he approached Otto Strasser's so-called Black Front , which temporarily put him in opposition to Adolf Hitler .

In January 1932 he became a member of the NSDAP and SA . This membership was followed by an expulsion from the party in October 1932 for non-participation. The two books Hindenburg published in 1930 and 1933 . Three ages of the German nation and Hindenburg and Hitler united in leadership are exemplary of the political fickleness and volatility of Schultze-Pfaelzer. While in the first work he referred to Adolf Hitler as a “political pirate”, in the second work he establishes a connection between the “Marschall” Hindenburg and the “private” Hitler, “in that despite all the differences between the two men, he shared similarities in life and the Personality ”. He also describes Adolf Hitler as the "German wake-the-heart".

In 1933-35 he was insulted by the NSDAP as a "economic knight". In 1934 Schultze-Pfaelzer was imprisoned for several months because, according to his own account, he was able to uncover the lie of the Hindenburg Testament, which allegedly recommended Adolf Hitler as his successor.

In 1943 he was together with his wife and Nikolaus v. Schultz was a member of a resistance group that sought a separate German-Soviet peace. This led to a two-year Gestapo imprisonment and a charge of preparing for high treason and favoring the enemy.

Life after World War II

Gerhard Schultze-Pfaelzer appeared on June 18, 1947 in the Nuremberg war crimes trial against Franz von Papen as a witness of the large court.

biography

  • Matthias Heeke: Schultze-Pfaelzer, Gerhard . In: Travel to the Soviets - Foreign Tourism in Russia 1921–41. With a bio-bibliographical appendix to 96 German travel authors . (= Work on the history of Eastern Europe, vol. 11) Lit Verlag, Munich, Hamburg and London 2003, p. 618f.
  • Gerhard Schultze-Pfaelzer: Wilhelmstrasse 73 . Berlin 1947 (novel with autobiographical features).
  • Gerhard Schultze-Pfaelzer: fight for the head. My experiences as a prisoner of the People's Court 1943–1945 . Hanover 1948 (New edition with an afterword by Klaus Drobisch . Frankfurt a. M./Berlin (East) 1978).

plant

Monographs

  • The Eternal Revolution, Berlin 1920.
  • East Prussia Island, Berlin 1920.
  • Propaganda, agitation, advertising. A theory of the entire advertising industry, Berlin 1923.
  • How Hindenburg became president, Berlin 1925.
  • Politics without a phrase, Berlin 1929.
  • From Spa to Weimar, Leipzig 1929.
  • Hindenburg. Three ages of the German nation, Leipzig 1930.
  • Anti-hitler. An independent review of time, Berlin 1931.
  • We are looking for Germany. A free dispute about the time crisis between Gerhard Schultze-Pfaelzer, Otto Strasser, Major Buchrucker and Herbert Blank, Leipzig 1931.
  • Test drive into Bolshevism. Impressions and judgments beyond true and false, Berlin 1931.
  • The Unknown Citizen, Berlin 1932.
  • German History 1918–1933, Berlin 1933.
  • Germany brand new. Vademecum through the chaos of time, Berlin 1933.
  • Hindenburg and Hitler united in leadership, Berlin 1933.
  • Hindenburg. A life for Germany, Berlin 1934.
  • Black Eagle. The life novel Herzog Albrechts , the first Prussia, Ebenhausen, 1935.
  • The Jesuit Book. World history of a false priesthood, Berlin 1936.
  • The big limit. Forays on the edge of Europe, Berlin 1937.
  • A heart for us. Novel about the life and death of Caspar René Gregory , Berlin 1937.
  • The air forge in Dessau, Berlin 1938.
  • Village in a world storm, Berlin 1939.

Exiled books

(Books that were banned by the National Socialists)

  • Hindenburg. Three ages of the German nation. Leipzig 1930.
  • The big limit. Forays on the edge of Europe. Berlin 1937.

Archival material

BA Berlin / BDC: RKK 2100, Box 432, File 12, Schultze-Pfaelzer, Gerhard, July 7, 1891; PK Schultze-Pfaelzer; O. 364, pp. 14-17; NSDAP membership card. BA Berlin / ZwArch: ZC 17793.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Louis Lange (Ed.): Kyffhäuser Association of German Student Associations. Address book 1931. Berlin 1931, p. 207.
  2. ↑ Gerhard Schultze-Pfaelzer: test drive in Bolshevism. Impressions and judgments beyond true and false. Berlin 1931, p. 4.
  3. ↑ Klaus Drobisch: Epilogue to Gerhard Schultze-Pfaelzer: Battle for the head. My experiences as a prisoner of the People's Court 1943–1945 . Frankfurt a. M./Berlin (Ost) 1978, p. 337.
  4. ↑ Gerhard Schultze-Pfaelzer: Hindenburg. Three ages of the German nation . Leipzig 1930, p. 312.
  5. ↑ Jesko von Hoegen: The "Marshal" and the "Private". Visualization and functionalization of the Hindenburg myth in the “Third Reich” . In: Politische Ikonographie 1/2009, p. 5 (online at kunsttexte.de). (PDF; 181 kB)
  6. ↑ Gerhard Schultze-Pfaelzer: Hindenburg and Hitler united for leadership . Berlin 1933, p. 372.
  7. ↑ See Horst Mühleisen: Hindenburg's Testament of May 11, 1934 . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , 44 (1996), issue 3, pp. 355–372 (online) (PDF; 7.4 MB).
  8. ^ Records of the United States Nuernberg War Crimes trials Interrogations, 1946-1949. Publication Number M-1019 online: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/6497306/m1019
  9. ↑ After: Banished Books. Online publication of the list of writings banned by the National Socialists
personal data
SURNAME Schultze-Pfaelzer, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and political publicist
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Darkehmen
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1952
Place of death Berlin