City honorary title from the Nazi era

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Seal mark "Reichsmessestadt Leipzig"
Frankfurt “City of German Crafts” on the seal and indicia

During the Nazi era , several cities in the German Empire were given city ​​names ( honorary titles ) . These epithets could refer to a special importance of the city for the development of National Socialism or indicate the historical importance of the city. Not all such designations were based on an official award.

Postmark "Stuttgart City of Germans Abroad" 1938

Basics

German municipal code from 1935

The German Municipality Code (DGO), which came into force in 1935, enabled municipalities to use "special designations" in its Section 9, but these did not necessarily have to have a specific reference to National Socialism:

“(1) Cities are the municipalities that use this designation under previous law. The congregations can also use other names that are based on the historical past, the individual character or the meaning of the congregation. (2) The Reich Governor can assign or change designations after hearing the community. "

- German municipal code, § 9

An example of a designation that was based on the historical past of a city was the designation " Hanseatic City "; For example, the character or importance of a city could justify adding the term “ bath ” to the name . If a municipality or a city was given such a “special designation”, authorities had to use this designation in their correspondence. The decision to give a city a "special designation" within the meaning of § 9 DGO should be published in the announcement gazettes that were then widely used throughout the empire, i.e. the Reichsministerialblatt (RMBl) and the Ministerialblatt for internal administration (RMBliV) .

Awarded by National Socialist officials

In practice, however, it was not uncommon for Adolf Hitler himself to give a city a special title. The basis for this was the Führer principle applicable in National Socialist Germany , according to which the “ Führer's will” was legally binding. In some cases, a “special designation” given by the “will of the leader” was subsequently implemented on the basis of Section 9 DGO. For example, on August 8, 1935, in a meeting with Mayor Fiehler , Hitler officially gave the city of Munich the nickname “ Capital of the Movement ”; the corresponding announcement is dated July 7, 1936. In time for the “Reichshandwerkertag” in 1935, in June 1935, the city of Frankfurt am Main received Hitler's approval to use the designation “ City of German Crafts ”; this was announced in November 1936 with the fourth announcement on the use of special designations by municipalities .

In individual cases, honorary designations were also “awarded” by National Socialist officials or other persons, for example in the Innsbruck or Salzburg cases. No official award of any kind can be proven for various other “titles”.

Overview of honorary titles and other designations

Officially awarded titles

city designation Award Proclamation Remarks
Frankfurt am Main "City of German Crafts" June 1935 November 11, 1936 See also under Friedrich Krebs
Goslar " Reichsbauernstadt " October 8, 1936
Graz "City of the popular uprising" July 25, 1938
Leipzig "Imperial Trade Fair City" December 20, 1937
Munich "Capital of German Art" 1933
" Capital of Movement " August 8, 1935 July 7, 1936
Nuremberg "City of the Nazi Party Rallies " July 7, 1936
Stuttgart "City of Germans Abroad " September 11, 1936 see also under Karl Strölin

Titles based on Hitler's approval

city designation since Remarks
Coburg "First National Socialist City in Germany" June 23, 1939 Designation based on Hitler's telegraphic consent. See also Coburg in the time of National Socialism .
Linz initially:
“The Führer’s Youth City” ;
"Hometown of the leader"
finally:
"Founding city of the Greater German Reich",

" German Budapest ";
" Sister city " of the Führer

1938 When Hitler stopped in Linz for several days in March 1938 immediately after the German troops marched into Austria (see connection with Austria ), he promised to take over the sponsorship of the city.

Further designations

The settlement in the municipality of Fallersleben for the Volkswagen plant, renamed Wolfsburg in 1945 , was given the founding name “City of the KdF-Wagens” in 1938 . The Berlin district of Friedrichshain was renamed Horst-Wessel-Stadt in 1933.

city designation since Remarks
Berlin-Friedrichshain " Horst Wessel City" 1933
Braunschweig "The German Settlement City" self-assigned title.
Bremen "City of Colonies" Bremen was officially the "Hanseatic City"; there are no sources for the term “city of colonies”.
innsbruck "City of German mountaineers" March 31, 1938 awarded by "Reichssportführer" von Tschammer und Osten
Landsberg am Lech " City of Youth " 1937
Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate "Dietrich Eckart City" see under Dietrich Eckart
Salzburg "City of Life Research" 1940 Probably not an official nickname.
Salzgitter "City of the Hermann Göring Works " For the newly founded city, which was supposed to offer living space for the employees of the "Hermann-Göring-Werke", both the designation "Hermann-Göring-Stadt" and "Stadt der Reichswerke 'Hermann Göring'" were considered. However, none of these designations found the approval of the Reich Chancellery .
Soest "City of the German Middle Ages" No sources for official award.
catfish "City of Movement" No sources for official award.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ § 9 of the German municipal code of 1935 on www.verfassungen.de .
  2. ↑ a b circular of the Reich and Prussian Ministry of the Interior of July 7, 1936, RMBliV 1936, 939.
  3. ↑ a b Cornelia Schmitz-Berning: Vocabulary of National Socialism , 2nd edition, Berlin 2007, sv “Capital of the Movement” (p. 296 f.).
  4. ↑ a b c First announcement about the use of special designations by municipalities of July 7, 1936, Reichsministerialblatt 1936, p. 234.
  5. ^ A b Dieter Rebentisch , Frankfurt am Main and the Reich in the Nazi era . In: Archive for Frankfurt's History and Art , Issue 57 (1980), p. 263.
  6. ↑ a b November 11, 1936, RMBl 1936, p. 501.
  7. ↑ Third announcement on the use of special designations by municipalities of October 8, 1936, RMBl 1936, p. 407.
  8. ↑ P. Schyga: From the national city to the imperial farmer city ​​of National Socialism, Goslar 1918–1945 - A historical-political essay , Bielefeld, 1999.
  9. ↑ Helmut Konrad, Andrea Strutz: Graz - "City of the popular uprising"
  10. ↑ Announcement on the use of special designations by municipalities of December 30, 1937, RMBl 1938, p. 2.
  11. ^ Leipzig-Lexikon: Register R: "Reichsmessestadt"
  12. ^ Schmidt, Alexander: Terrain inspection. The Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg, 3rd completely revised new edition, Nuremberg 2002
  13. ↑ Second announcement on the use of special designations by municipalities from September 11, 1936, RMBl 1936, p. 372.
  14. ^ City of Stuttgart: Karl Strölin (1890-1963)
  15. ^ Roland Müller: Stuttgart, the "City of Germans Abroad". Claim and reality of a "NS honorary title". In: City and National Socialism , ed. by Fritz Mayrhofer and Ferdinand Opll on behalf of the Austrian Working Group for Urban History Research. Linz, 2008. ISBN 978-3-900387-61-7 , pp. 289-310. (Essay)
  16. ↑ Harald Sandner: Coburg in the 20th century . Neue Presse, 2000, ISBN 3-00-006732-9 , p. 157.
  17. ^ Fritz Mayrhofer: The "Godfather City of the Führer" - Dreams and Reality , in: Fritz Mayrhofer, Walter Schuster (ed.), National Socialism in Linz , Volume 1, Linz 2001, p. 335.
  18. ↑ Traffic magazine of the city of Braunschweig: Braunschweig - Die deutsche Siedlungsstadt , Siedlungs-Sonderheft, Volume 5, 1935.
  19. ↑ Heinz Gustafsson ( Namibia, Bremen and Germany , Aschenbeck & Holstein, 2003, ISBN 3-932292-40-5 ) mentions the name, but without any specific reference to National Socialism.
  20. ^ Official Journal of the State Capital Innsbruck of April 15, 1938 , p. 2.
  21. ↑ Manfred Deiler: Landsberg becomes a place of pilgrimage for National Socialism , Landsberg, 2005
  22. ↑ As far as can be seen, first and only use by Eduard Paul Tratz , Salzburg, the city of life research , in: Salzburger Landeszeitung, vol. 3 (1940), No. 205, issue of August 31 / September 1, 1940, p. 12 -13.
  23. ^ Matthias Riedel: Prehistory, development and dismantling of the Reichswerke in the Salzgitter area , Düsseldorf 1967, p. 113.