Hans Himmler

Hans Himmler (born November 18, 1890 in Nordhausen ; † March 31, 1970 ibid) was a German politician and functionary ( SPD , KPD , SED ). From 1946 to 1952 he was Lord Mayor of Nordhausen .

Life

Hans Himmler was born as the ninth child of the train driver August Himmler and his wife Auguste in Nordhausen am Harz. After breaking off two apprenticeships, he went to the Ruhr area in 1909 to work in the mining industry. After a serious accident at work in which his right foot was broken several times, he returned to Nordhausen. As a result of the accident, which left him with a lifelong handicap, Himmler was classified as unfit for military service in the First World War and was obliged to serve at Krupp in Essen.

In 1917 he joined the SPD and worked in a workers 'and soldiers' council in 1918/19. During the Ruhr battles he was an active member of the Red Ruhr Army and was captured in the fighting on April 5, 1920 and sentenced to death on the same day by a court martial of a Bavarian rifle regiment. The sentence was later converted to fortress detention, which he served in Wesel until December 1920.

After his release from prison, Himmler moved back to Nordhausen, met the KPD politician and later member of the Reichstag, Johanna (Hanna) Mildner , and both moved to their hometown of Chemnitz . There they married in April 1923, and daughter Nora was born a year later. Hans Himmler worked in various companies, but could n't find a job with the onset of the global economic crisis . From then on he devoted himself to party work and to work among the unemployed. At the end of the 1920s he became a member of the KPD .

From 1930 he worked as a so-called seat editor for the combat group newspaper Der Käufer . In October 1931, Himmler was arrested and sentenced to 1½ years imprisonment before the Reichsgericht for high literary treason. After the end of his imprisonment he worked in the Leipzig district leadership of the KPD, after the factual ban on the KPD in February 1933 by the National Socialists, he continued his party work illegally. On December 31, 1933, he was taken into “ protective custody ” and proceedings for high treason were initiated. In January 1935 he was sentenced to two years in prison. He came out of custody on February 8, 1936, due to his pre-trial detention. He was taken into protective custody again on February 10, 1936 and interned in the Sachsenburg concentration camp until December 22, 1936 . Afterwards he worked in various companies in Chemnitz as a construction and civil engineering worker. Due to health problems, he had to start working as a hardener in a coil spring factory on January 5, 1940. The bombing of Chemnitz and the destruction of the apartment on March 5, 1945 prompted him to move with his daughter to his home town of Nordhausen. His wife Hanna was arrested in August 1944 and was in the Ravensbrück concentration camp until April 1945 .

In Nordhausen he worked as a construction worker until May 1945, and from May to July 1945 for the police in charge of salvage work and clearing of rubble. After the change of occupation power in July 1945, Nordhausen belonged to the Soviet occupation zone , he became mayor on July 23, 1945 and a year later on July 14, 1946 mayor of the city of Nordhausen. In addition, he was from 1946 to 1947 District Administrator of the County of Hohenstein (predecessor: Karl Schultes ).

Because of the constant arguments between Himmler, the party secretary Fritz Schwager , the state secretary Erich Mückenberger and the senior public prosecutor Korn, against whom Himmler threatened (" You are a saboteur, yes, you are a saboteur. Don't be fooling yourself because you are the chief public prosecutor We will take you to where you belong, I assure you. ”) He was replaced as Lord Mayor in 1952 and appointed head of department in the Ministry of Economics of the State of Thuringia . With the formation of the districts , he became head of the traffic department at the Suhl district council . For health reasons, he retired from professional life on October 26, 1953. Since then he has been active on a voluntary basis, for example as the district chairman of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship in Nordhausen.

Hans Himmler died on March 31, 1970 in Nordhausen. During the GDR era, he was honored with high government and social awards. On October 18, 1960, he received the honorary citizenship of the city of Nordhausen for his "services to the reconstruction of the city of Nordhausen", which was revoked on August 29, 1990 by the city council.

literature

• Paul Lauerwald: Life and Struggle of Comrade Hans Himmler. (Fighters against fascism, role models for young people. Issue 2). Come to explore d. Story d. Local Labor movement at d. District management Nordhausen d. SED, Nordhausen 1979.
• Hans-Jürgen Grönke (Ed.): Nordhäuser personalities from eleven centuries . Geiger, Horb am Neckar 2009, ISBN 978-3-86595-336-0 .

Web links

• Hans Himmler on NordhausenWiki

Individual evidence

1. ^ Petra Weber: Justice and dictatorship: administration of justice and political criminal justice in Thuringia 1945–1961 . Munich: Oldenburg, 2000, p. 54.
2. ↑ Political sentiment report GStA Kuschnitzkys of 18 November 1946 the President of Thuringia, ThHStAW, MdJ 6C6.