Hanns Günther von Obernitz

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Hanns Günther von Obernitz

Hanns Günther von Obernitz , also incorrectly Heinz Günther von Obernitz , (* May 5, 1899 in Düsseldorf , † January 14, 1944 with Exin ) was a German officer, SA - Obergruppenführer and politician ( NSDAP ). During the National Socialism he served as police chief of Nuremberg - Fürth from the beginning of September 1933 to the beginning of July 1934 . He was significantly involved in anti-Jewish riots in Nuremberg and organized the November pogroms there in 1938 .

Live and act

He was the son of a Prussian officer from the noble family of Obernitz . After graduating from high school , which he passed in January 1916, Obernitz joined the Guard Fusilier Regiment of the Prussian Army as a flag junior during the First World War . From January 1917 to November 1918 he took an active part in combat operations as a platoon and company commander and was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross . He also took on duties as an orderly and machine gun officer. On May 17, 1917, he was promoted to lieutenant .

After the war, Obernitz was retired from military service in 1919. Then he took part in the Spartakist struggles in Berlin . In the first post-war years, Obernitz studied agriculture at the University of Bonn , the TH Darmstadt and the TH Munich in order to earn his living as a tenant and inspector. From September 1922 to May 1924 he was an MG company commander in the Ehrhardt Marine Brigade . From 1924 to 1926 he was Reich Director of the Bund Wiking . Obernitz married Waldtraut von Beulwitz in Dessau in 1923; the couple had several children. This marriage was divorced in Nuremberg in 1934.

At the beginning of January 1930 he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 211,000). Obernitz became a member of the SA on August 5, 1929 and was then SA leader in Munich . Obernitz became adjutant to SA leader August Schneidhuber in 1931 . He then headed the SA sub-group Middle Silesia South and had his office in Reichenbach.

Involvement in explosives attacks in Silesia in 1932

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At the beginning of August 1932 he was with his adjutant Cajetan Maria Theodor, Count von Spreti, co-organizer of several attacks with explosives, the members of the Silesian section of the SA in August 1932 in the Reichenbach district (district of Schweidnitz and neighboring areas) on politically dissenting people or theirs Perpetrated homes or workplaces. The purpose of these actions was to further exacerbate the prevailing climate of terror in Germany since 1931, but especially since the election campaign for the Reichstag election of July 1932 - which was marked by numerous violent clashes between supporters of the various political camps - and in this way to promote the internal collapse of the existing system and so increase the chances of the NSDAP to take over government power. In particular, the attacks were directed against: 1) in Reichenbach on the editor of the journal Proletarian , Carl Paeschke ; 2) in Heidersdorf to the master baker Alexander Kaufmann; 3) in Gross-Kniegnitz on the worker Hermann Obst; 4) in Gollschau to the teacher and chief officer Kurt Szyszka; 5) in Langenbielau to the communist party office; 6) in Strehlen on the local kitchen.

Except for the attack in Langenbielau - here a person involved in the storage of the bomb planned for this attack refused to hand it over - all attacks were carried out. Although none of the targeted persons was killed, several of them suffered nervous shock. In addition, one of the assassins - the assassin in Reichenbach - died due to an early misfire of his explosives. There was also considerable damage to property.

The public prosecutor's office accused both of “having carried out several independent acts of resolving to kill various politically differently minded persons by deliberately committed acts that included the beginning of the execution of this intended but never completed crime of murder” and thereby at the same time to have agreed to carry out several criminal acts to be punished pursuant to Section 5 of the law of June 9, 1874 against the criminal and public dangerous use of explosives and to have caused danger to property, the health or life of others through the deliberate use of explosives.

Spreti and Obernitz escaped arrest by fleeing to Italy, where they lived in Merano until 1933, most of the time .

On December 20, 1932, the Reichstag issued an amnesty for political crimes . Still on January 20, 1933, a new arrest warrant was issued by the Reichenbach District Court and efforts were made to extradite the two SA leaders from Italy to Germany. However, the changed political conditions after the National Socialists came to power on January 30, 1933 led to the investigation against Spreti and Obernitz being discontinued.

Nazi era

After the transfer of power to the National Socialists , he was SA leader in Franconia from March 1933 . In addition, from March 1933 he was special commissioner for Middle Franconia and from January 1934 also for Upper and Lower Franconia . Within the SA Obernitz rose to Obergruppenführer in 1937. From the beginning of September 1933 to the beginning of July 1934, he was the successor of Johann-Erasmus von Malsen-Ponickau as acting police chief in Nuremberg - Fürth . Obernitz was arrested on June 30, 1934 in the course of the so-called Röhm Putsch , but released on July 2, 1934 after Julius Streicher interceded with Adolf Hitler . However, three days later, on the instructions of the Reich Minister of the Interior, he was deprived of the leadership of the Nuremberg Police Headquarters.

The SA leader Obernitz was significantly involved in anti-Jewish riots in Nuremberg. In the course of the "anti-Jewish measures" set for July 20, 1933 by the Bavarian Political Police , he supervised the brutal actions of SA men against 300 Jews who were humiliated and mistreated in Nuremberg on the instructions of Gauleiter Julius Streicher. During the Reichspogromnacht in November 1938, under the leadership of Obernitz in Nuremberg, pogroms against the local Jews by SA men broke out. The Orthodox synagogue was set on fire by SA men, vandalized in shops and homes of Jews, Jewish men mistreated and arrested, and nine Jews were murdered. In this context, ten Jews committed suicide .

In the Reichstag election on March 29, 1936, he ran unsuccessfully and received no mandate. On February 7, 1939, Obernitz entered the National Socialist Reichstag as a replacement for the deceased MP Hanns König , in which he represented constituency 26 (Franconia) until his death in January 1944.

At the beginning of World War II Obernitz joined the Air Force of the Armed Forces one. He was group commander of the supplementary long-range reconnaissance group Weimar-Nohra and on August 13, 1943 was commander of the 24th Air Force Fighter Regiment, which was used with the 12th Air Force Field Division on the Volkhov . With the rank of colonel , he was killed in a plane crash near Bromberg .

literature

  • Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the ethnic and National Socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924. Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 , p. 445.
  • Ernst Kienast (ed.): The Greater German Reichstag 1938. IV. Electoral period. Issued June 1943. R. v. Decker's publishing house, G. Schenck, Berlin.
  • Utho Grieser: Himmler's husband in Nuremberg. The Benno Martin case. A study on the structure of the 3rd Reich in the "City of the Nazi Party Rallies". (= Nuremberg work pieces on city and state history. Volume 13). Nuremberg City Archives, Nuremberg 1974, ISBN 3-87432-025-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Hanns-Günther von Obernitz in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
  2. ↑ a b c d Utho Grieser: Himmler's husband in Nuremberg. The Benno Martin case. Nuremberg 1974, p. 310.
  3. ↑ Bruce Campbell: The SA generals and the rise of Nazism. Univ. Press of Kentucky, Lexington 2004, ISBN 0-8131-9098-3 , p. 202.
  4. ↑ a b Andreas Dornheim: Röhm's husband for abroad. Politics and assassination of the SA agent Georg Bell. Zurich 1998, p. 97 f.
  5. ^ Franco Ruault: New creators of the German people. Julius Streicher in the fight against racial disgrace. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2006, ISBN 3-631-54499-5 , p. 346 f.
  6. ^ Martin Schieber: History of Nuremberg. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-56465-9 , p. 161 f.
  7. ↑ Reinhard Stumpf: The Air Force as the third army. The Luftwafen-Erdkampfverbände and the problem of the special armies 1933 to 1945. In: Ulrich Engelhardt (Hrsg.): Social movement and political constitution. Contributions to the history of the modern world; [Werner Conze as of December 31, 1975]. (= Industrial world. Special volume ). Klett, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-12-901850-6 , p. 881.
personal data
SURNAME Obernitz, Hanns Günther von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Obernitz, Heinz Günther von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, SA leader and politician (NSDAP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH May 5, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1944
Place of death Exin