Gottfried Treviranus

This article deals with the politician Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus. For the doctor and natural scientist of the same name, see Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus .

Gottfried Treviranus. Photo from 1930

Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (born March 20, 1891 in Schieder, today a district of Schieder-Schwalenberg ; † June 7, 1971 near Florence ) was a German officer and politician ( DNVP , Conservative People's Party ).

Live and act

Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus was born in 1891 to a German father and a Scottish mother. After graduating from high school in Rinteln in 1909 , he embarked on an officer career in the Imperial Navy and was a member of the crew in 1909. From 1912 to 1919 he served as an active naval officer on various units. During the First World War he was first in command of older torpedo boats , then on the minesweeper M 20 and from 1917 flag lieutenant in the I. Minesweeping Flotilla and at the same time boat commander. After retiring from the Navy, which he left with the rank of lieutenant captain , he studied agriculture for a few semesters . In 1921 he became director of the Lippe Chamber of Agriculture . He was married to the travel writer Elisabeth Dryander.

Party politician (1924 to 1930)

In 1924 Treviranus was elected to the Reichstag for the German National People's Party (DNVP) . In addition, he was for the DNVP from 1925 to 1929 member of the Lippe state parliament , where he was parliamentary group chairman of the German Nationalists.

When the chairman of the DNVP parliamentary group in the Reichstag, Kuno Graf von Westarp, became party chairman in March 1926 , Treviranus was appointed to the party leadership and moved entirely to Berlin. As a representative of the moderate wing of the DNVP, he rejected the extreme right-wing course that Alfred Hugenberg took the party after he took over the party leadership in 1928. When Hugenberg led his party into collaboration with the National Socialists in connection with the popular initiative against the Young Plan that soon failed , Treviranus resigned like many other moderate German nationalists. As a catch basin he founded the People's Conservative Association in 1929 together with Hans Schlange-Schöningen , which in 1930 was renamed the Conservative People's Party after it merged with the wing of the DNVP led by Kuno Graf von Westarp, which had also left the party . The chairman was not Treviranus, but Westarp.

Politically, Treviranus strove for a center-right coalition: His goal was to break the Center Party out of the Weimar coalition with the SPD and the DDP and to lead them into an alliance with the moderate right. This center-right alliance was to carry out a comprehensive reform of the Reich, towards a government that was less parliamentary and more supported by the confidence of Reich President Hindenburg . Treviranus had developed a close relationship with this and those around him. He also had good contacts with the Reichswehr leadership around Kurt von Schleicher , as well as with circles of the Rhenish-Westphalian heavy industry.

Treviranus played an important role in the formation of the Brüning government in March 1930. On December 26, 1929, he took part in a preliminary discussion with Heinrich Brüning , Schleicher, Reichswehr Minister Wilhelm Groener and Hindenburg's State Secretary Otto Meissner in the house of his conservative party friend Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Willisen took place. Hindenburg wanted to entrust the conservative center politician Brüning, a personal friend of Treviranus', with the formation of a cabinet that would govern without the SPD. Brüning hesitated, but on March 30, 1930 he was appointed chancellor. Hermann Pünder , who as State Secretary in the Reich Chancellery had worked well with Brüning's predecessor, the Social Democrat Hermann Müller , noted in his diary:

“Behind the scenes, this coalition had been working on this coalition for weeks, namely Treviranus and General von Schleicher. What we could find was not all good. "

Reich Minister (1930 to 1932)

The first Brüning cabinet (photo from 1930): Treviranus is in the second row, far left

Treviranus was first Reich Minister for the occupied territories in the new government . H. the Rhineland, which is still under French and Belgian occupation . After the occupation troops withdrew as a result of the Young Plan in June 1930, he was a government minister without portfolio . As a liaison to the conservative-agrarian circles around Hindenburg and to industry, Treviranus was irreplaceable for Brüning.

In the run-up to the Reichstag elections of 1930 , Treviranus tried, in coordination with the Reichswehr leadership, whose political influence increased sharply during these months, to further redesign the party system. He negotiated the formation of a bourgeois electoral alliance: A “new 'Hindenburg Bund'”, a loose association “from the Landbund to the Democrats”, which set itself apart from both the Social Democrats and Hugenberg, was supposed to ensure a majority for Brüning . Although these efforts were supported by generous donations from big industry, they were unsuccessful. Groener's and Treviranus' concept had already failed. Treviranus therefore sounded out before the elections whether one could return to a grand coalition with the SPD. At the same time he signaled to his friend Martin Blank from the Gutehoffnungshütte “that the next Reichstag would not provide any basis for a bourgeois majority government and that as a result one must expect that extra-parliamentary rule would have to continue. Various resolutions of the Reichstag would possibly follow. "

During the election campaign, Treviranus adopted an aggressive, nationalist tone.

At a speech in Berlin he shouted:

“In the heaviness and depth of our soul, we remember the severed Weichselland , the unhealed wound on the eastern flank, this stunted lung of the empire. We think of the disdainful pressure under which Wilson was pressed to unnaturally cut off East Prussia , the hybrid state of the German Danzig . The future of the Polish neighbor, who owes not in the least part of his state power to German blood sacrifices, can only be secured if Germany and Poland are not kept in perpetual unrest by unjust demarcation. The limits of injustice do not stand up to popular law and the national will to live. "

These words, spoken by Treviranus in his naval uniform from World War I, were understood as a barely concealed threat of war and aroused displeasure and concern, especially in France and Poland. Germany's eastern neighbor even temporarily considered responding to Treviranus' demands for a revision of Germany's eastern borders with an expansion of its submarine fleet, which the Polish public referred to as the "answer to Treviranus". At the next cabinet meeting on August 20, 1930, Treviranus registered this interference in the Foreign Office with a reprimand from Foreign Minister Julius Curtius .

In the elections of September 14, 1930, his party was only able to benefit to a very limited extent from the collapse of the DNVP and won four of the 577 seats in the Reichstag with 0.8% of the vote. One of the reasons for the failure was the conflict within the party as to whether one should present oneself politically as a party or as a “people's movement ”, as especially the political publicist Edgar Jung , who is close to Treviranus, demanded. Treviranus remained in the government: From September 1930, on Hindenburg's recommendation, he officiated as Reich Commissioner for Eastern Aid and from October 9, 1931 to May 30, 1932 as Reich Minister of Transport in the second Brüning cabinet . Despite the numerical insignificance of his party Treviranus was in those years as one of the most promising politicians in Germany: Sun introduced the British politician Harold Nicolson , for example, in his 1932 book, Public Faces in Private Places prognosis on that Treviranus will be the German Chancellor in 1939 .

As the right wing of the government, Treviranus showed his pronounced nationalist stance not only in the election campaign, but also repeatedly during cabinet deliberations. When the French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand presented his plan for a European Union on May 17, 1930, the whole cabinet agreed in its rejection, but the sharpest tones came from Treviranus, who saw the plan as an "attack ... on the foundations of the German foreign policy so far ”, which should be rejected“ if the radical currents in the people are not to be supplied with new nutrients ”. Concern about the increasing domestic political influx of the National Socialists led him to repeatedly demand in the cabinet that he finally take energetic steps to revise the Versailles Treaty. But because these steps seemed hopeless and even dangerous in view of the German need for credit, Treviranus initially failed to get through with his politically motivated activism.

Treviranus had little success in his office as Osthilfe commissioner. Following an express declaration of intent made by the Reich President on March 18, 1930, the Reich Government had set itself the priority goal of protecting the numerous manors of East Germany from threatened bankruptcy by debt relief. Two difficulties arose here: On the one hand, the Prussian state government under Prime Minister Otto Braun (SPD) insisted on being equally involved in the administration and distribution of these subsidies. The thorny negotiations that resulted in this demand meant that the Osthilfegesetz could only be launched on March 26, 1931. Since the enforcement protection for the East German agricultural enterprises expired at the end of 1930, Treviranus took up his position as head of the East Office in August 1930, the legal basis had to be created provisionally by emergency ordinance . The dual responsibility of both the Reich and the Free State of Prussia made the submission and processing of loan applications and settlement projects bureaucratically cumbersome. The second difficulty was that aid from the East was diametrically opposed to the Brüning government's restructuring goal, namely to finally achieve a balanced budget. While in the sign of falling tax revenues and increasing social spending, which were inevitable in the global economic crisis , in all departments sometimes painful budget cuts were made, the financial requirements of Osthilfe rose unchecked. It was financed partly from the imperial budget, partly through the so-called industrial levy, a reparations tax that was no longer required when the Young Plan came into force in 1930, but was still raised and assigned to the new goal of agricultural subsidies. Treviranus' authorities calculated that the debt rescheduling required was 950 million Reichsmarks, but since such an additional tax burden did not seem reasonable to entrepreneurs during the Great Depression, the levy was reduced to half a billion Reichsmarks. This in turn meant that the loans were too small to guarantee a permanent rehabilitation of the farms. This small, but important group for maintaining power in the government because of its influence on Hindenburg reacted indignantly and increased its pressure on the Reich President. In August 1931, Treviranus admitted his failure and resigned.

When the Brüning government got into a crisis with the worsening economic situation in autumn 1931, more and more industrialists took a clear opposition course. In this situation, Treviranus again acted as a liaison between large-scale industry and the Reich government: on behalf of Brüning, he advised the powerful Ruhr industrialists Paul Reusch and Fritz Springorum against participating in the Harzburg Front , a cooperation between National Socialists, German Nationalists and Stahlhelm . In this regard, he noted that if the government were overthrown, embarrassing events about the behavior of industry and big banks during the banking crisis could come to light. Except for Ernst Brandi, not a single representative from heavy industry took part in the Harzburg conference.

Soon after the resignation of the Brüning government, Treviranus also lost his mandate in the Reichstag elections of July 31, 1932 - his “Conservative People's Party” had tried in vain to establish a list with other small bourgeois parties and was no longer running. Treviranus went into business and among other things became chairman of the supervisory board of the Upper Silesian Bata shoe factory . His political career, which had led him to the head of a Reich Ministry at the age of 39, was over when he was just 41 years old.

Escape from Germany and emigration

On June 30, 1934 Treviranus narrowly escaped arrest - and probably the murder - as part of the Rohm affair : In his memoirs for Germany in exile , he describes how the early afternoon of that day during a tennis game with he Wilhelm Regendanz in In the garden of his house his little daughter - who had escaped two detectives who had broken into his house - was alerted to the intrusion of a large number of SS men and detectives with the shout “The front is teeming with Nazis!” . He then jumped over his garden fence - still in his tennis dress - got into the car waiting there, the ignition key of which was fortunately in the ignition, and drove away at high speed. Five carbine shots fired at his car missed it. After hiding with friends for several days, Hermann Muckermann , who had already helped Heinrich Brüning to escape from Germany, brought him across the German-Dutch border. Who put Treviranus' name on the list of people to be arrested is still unclear, but there is evidence that he personally hated Hitler.

After a few days in the Netherlands, Treviranus went to Great Britain, where he was initially entertained by wealthy patrons. Politically, he was received several times by well-known politicians such as Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden for political talks and friendly get-togethers, in which he was asked in particular about the person of Hitler and the character of the Nazi movement. Treviranus' warnings about Hitler's aggressive will to expand met with echo from Churchill in particular.

Treviranus was expatriated from the German Reich in 1939 .

After the outbreak of World War II , Treviranus went to Canada, where he worked as a farmer.

Later years (1945 to 1971)

After 1945, Treviranus advised American corporations on granting commercial credits to German companies as part of the Marshall Plan aid. In 1949 he returned to Germany. In the 1950s, his name hit the headlines in connection with the so-called casino affair . In the 1960s he worked as an armaments lobbyist in Bonn and appeared in the course of this in the investigation report on the HS-30 scandal . From 1966 until his death, he had regular correspondence with the former President of the Lippe state, Heinrich Drake .

Treviranus last lived in Taormina in Sicily . He died of heart failure on June 3, 1971 on a train trip to West Germany in Florence.

Writings and sound recordings

• The end of Weimar. Heinrich Brüning and his time. Econ, Düsseldorf 1968.
• For Germany in exile. Econ, Düsseldorf / Vienna 1973.
• On the role and person of Kurt von Schleicher. In: Ferdinand A. Hermens (Hrsg.): State, economy and politics in the history of the Weimar Republic. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1967, pp. 363-382.

On January 4th, 1944, he spoke to Sidney Mosley, a friend he knew from Berlin, about MUTUAL RADIO in the series “Who Speaks For Germany?” (NATIONAL ARCHIVES, WASH.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Willy Hänsel: The Rintelner Gymnasium in the mirror of the time 1817-1967 ed. from the Ernestinum high school. Bösendahl, Rinteln 1967, p. 100
2. ^ Johannes Hürter: Wilhelm Groener. Reichswehr Minister at the end of the Weimar Republic. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1993, p. 242
3. ^ Hermann Pünder: Politics in the Reich Chancellery. Records from 1929–1932. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1961, p. 46
4. ↑ Reinhard Neebe: Big Industry, State and NSDAP 1930-1933. Paul Silverberg and the Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie in the crisis of the Weimar Republic. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1981, p. 54 f.
5. ^ Johannes Hürter: Wilhelm Groener. Reichswehr Minister at the end of the Weimar Republic. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1993, p. 265 f.
6. ↑ Reinhard Neebe: Big Industry, State and NSDAP 1930-1933. Paul Silverberg and the Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie in the crisis of the Weimar Republic. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1981, p. 72 f.
7. ↑ Files of the Reich Chancellery . The Brüning I and II cabinets (1930–1932). Volume 1, arr. v. Tilman Koops, Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1982, No. 104 ( online )
8. ↑ Philipp Heyde: The end of the reparations. Germany, France and the Young Plan 1929–1932. Schöningh, Paderborn 1998, p. 91f.
9. ^ Hermann Graml: Between Stresemann and Hitler. The foreign policy of the presidential cabinets Brüning, Papen and Schleicher. R. Oldenbourg verlag, Munich 2001, pp. 52–54
10. ↑ Files of the Reich Chancellery. The Brüning I and II cabinets (1930–1932). Volume 1, arr. v. Tilman Koops, Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1982, No. 55 ( online )
11. ^ Hermann Graml: Between Stresemann and Hitler. The foreign policy of the presidential cabinets Brüning, Papen and Schleicher. R. Oldenbourg verlag, Munich 2001, p. 46
12. ↑ Files of the Reich Chancellery. The Brüning I and II cabinets (1930–1932). Volume 1, arr. v. Tilman Koops, Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1982, No. 180 ( online )
13. ↑ Hans Luther : Before the Abyss 1930-1933. Reichsbank President in times of crisis. Propylaea Verlag, Berlin 1964, p. 162
14. ↑ the following Tilman Koops, in: files of the Reich Chancellery. The Brüning I and II cabinets (1930–1932). Volume 1, arr. v. Tilman Koops, Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1982, p. XLIV ( online )
15. ↑ Harold James: Germany in the Great Depression 1924-1936. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1988, p. 266 f.
16. ↑ Reinhard Neebe: Big Industry, State and NSDAP 1930-1933. Paul Silverberg and the Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie in the crisis of the Weimar Republic. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1981, p. 107
17. ↑ Horst Möller : Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus. A conservative between the ages. In: Horst Möller and Andreas Wirsching: Enlightenment and Democracy. Historical Studies on Political Reason. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2003, p. 241
18. ↑ Treviranus called Treviranus "a scoundrel" and claimed: "Such a Marxist [sic!] Little proletarian grew up in a world that he did not understand at all", see Werner Jochmann (ed.): Monologe aus the Fuehrer's headquarters. Hamburg 1980, p. 248. - On the more detailed circumstances of the flight cf. also the chapter How I got to a paddle boat , in: Hoimar v. Ditfurth: Inside views of a conspecific. My balance sheet. 3rd edition Düsseldorf 1990, pp. 88-93.
19. ^ "Printed matter V / 1135" German Bundestag, November 18, 1966, pages 6 and following
20. ^ W. Hansel: The Rintelner Gymnasium in the mirror of the time 1817-1967 ed. from the Ernestinum high school. Bösendahl, Rinteln 1967, p. 101
21. ^ Rudolf Morsey : Treviranus as an interpreter of Brüning (1955–1973). In: History and Knowledge of Time. Festschrift for Horst Möller for his 65th birthday, ed. by Klaus Hildebrand, Udo Wengst and Andreas Wirsching. Munich 2008. pp. 597-608, here p. 607.

literature

• Horst Möller : Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus. A conservative between the ages. In: Horst Möller: Enlightenment and Democracy. Historical Studies on Political Reason. Edited by Andreas Wirsching . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-486-56707-1 , pp. 226–245.
• Martin Schumacher (Hrsg.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation, 1933–1945. A biographical documentation . 3rd, considerably expanded and revised edition. Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-5183-1 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Gottfried Treviranus in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Gottfried Treviranus in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Gottfried Treviranus in the database of members of the Reichstag
• Reich Chancellery files. Weimar Republic