Gerhard von Frankenberg

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Gerhard Hermann Robert Ludwig Ernst von Frankenberg and Ludwigsdorf (born December 12, 1892 in Braunschweig ; † November 30, 1969 in Hanover ) was a German zoologist , social democratic politician, member of the state parliament of the Free State of Braunschweig and an active monist .

Early years

The son of the lawyer and city councilor Hermann von Frankenberg and Ludwigsdorf came from an old Silesian family. His great-grandfather Wilhelm von Frankenberg joined Duke Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Oels in 1809 in his fight against Napoleon and became an officer in the so-called " Black Band ". In 1815 von Frankenberg was wounded in Quatrebras and then settled in Braunschweig .

Gerhard von Frankenberg made in 1911 on the Wilhelm Gymnasium in Braunschweig his High School and then studied in Heidelberg , Braunschweig and Leipzig natural sciences. During the First World War he was wounded on August 5, 1915, so from August 31, 1916, because of a heart condition, he was classified as "unusable for war" and as 25% incapable of work, from then on he received a war-disabled pension. Nonetheless, in May 1917 he was called in again for war or army service duties.

Scientific career

He completed his studies in natural sciences with his doctorate on September 4, 1914 in Leipzig under Otto Hermann Steche as Dr. phil. completed. During his studies he had already worked at the Natural History Museum in Braunschweig during the semester break and became a volunteer assistant there for a few months at the end of 1920. After working as head of the state press office in Braunschweig (1920–1924), he became a museum inspector and deputy head of the Natural History Museum on December 6, 1924. On July 1, 1928, he was finally appointed museum director of the Natural History Museum. In the same year he received a teaching position for zoology at the Technical University of Braunschweig . As a zoologist, he made a name for himself above all with popular scientific works.

Politician in the Free State of Braunschweig

Von Frankenberg, who always believed in the ideals of equality and justice, joined the SPD as early as 1919. This brought him into conflict with the conservative family association. Although he was always supported by his parents, hostility from uncles and cousins ​​caused him to resign from the family association in 1921. In 1922 he was elected to the Braunschweigische Landtag , of which he was a member until 1933. There he always stood up for the socially disadvantaged and also fought against the bigwigs in his own party.

Since 1922 he was a member of the German Peace Society . In 1928 he became Gau leader of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold .

Persecution by the Nazi regime

The Social Democrat Frankenberg was always a thorn in the side of the National Socialists, which he felt from 1930, the year in which the NSDAP in a coalition with the Bürgerliche Einheitsliste (BEL) took over the government in Braunschweig. He received anonymous threatening letters and felt so threatened that in February 1931 he left a farewell letter to his children in case he died.

At the end of the summer semester of 1932, he was released from his teaching position at the Technical University of Braunschweig by ordinance of the National Socialist Minister of Education, Dietrich Klagges , without giving reasons and without a hearing. On May 27, 1933, he was dismissed from the Braunschweig civil service and thus from his position as museum director on account of political unreliability in accordance with Section 4 of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service with effect from June 1. He received only 75% of the pension to which he was entitled.

In the further course of 1933 he and his family had to endure broken windows, house searches, arrests by the SA , denunciations and mobbing. He eventually moved to Hanover, where he was largely left alone and worked as a freelance writer and photographer. In 1934 his passport was confiscated. Finally, on August 22, 1944, von Frankenberg was arrested by the Gestapo as part of the grating action and taken to the Neuengamme concentration camp , from which he was released on September 20, 1944.

On September 28, 1944, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht (transport and dispatch department of the replacement catering store in Hanover), but released from service again in March 1945 due to illness.

The time after 1945

Gerhard von Frankenberg survived the National Socialist persecution and was rehabilitated in 1945 . He was given back his old position as museum director as well as a scheduled extraordinary professorship and the position of director of the zoological institute at the TH Braunschweig . He was also awarded compensation in 1955 for the funds he had lost due to the reduction in his retirement pension from 1933 to 1945. In 1948 he went for health reasons (including his heart condition that had become harder by staying in a concentration camp) in retirement . Since 1949 he was a member of the Braunschweig Scientific Society .

Memberships

Works

  • Capitalism and socialism . Braunschweig 1924
  • Loyalty for loyalty. A word to thinking voters about the state elections on September 14, 1930
  • The essence of life . Braunschweig 1933
  • Aquarium care for everyone . Stuttgart 1941
  • We and nature . Berlin 1941
  • Discoveries in the city forest . Berlin 1943
  • Miracles along the way . Jena 1952
  • Human races and humanity . Berlin 1956
  • Magical realm of life . Berlin 1965

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lower Saxony State Archives Wolfenbüttel 284 N No. 105
  2. ↑ Lower Saxony State Archives Wolfenbüttel 284 N No. 47
  3. ^ Braunschweig University Archives, B 7 F: 3
  4. ↑ Lower Saxony State Archives Wolfenbüttel 284 N No. 46 (Frankenberg's diary).

literature

  • Dieter Lent: Frankenberg, Gerhard von . In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck and Günter Scheel (eds.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 19th and 20th centuries . Hanover 1996, p. 185.
  • Bettina Gundler : Catalogus professorum of the Technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina in Braunschweig. Part. 2: Teachers 1877–1945 . Braunschweig 1991
  • Beatrix Herlemann , Helga Schatz: Biographical Lexicon of Lower Saxony Parliamentarians 1919–1945 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen. Volume 222). Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 2004, ISBN 3-7752-6022-6 , pp. 111–112.
personal data
SURNAME Frankenberg, Gerhard von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frankenberg and Ludwigsdorf, Gerhard Hermann Robert Ludwig Ernst von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist and politician (SPD)
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 1969
Place of death Hanover