Heinrich Ritter (politician)

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Heinrich Ritter

Heinrich Ritter (born February 18, 1891 in Gau-Odernheim ; † March 15, 1966 in Rüsselsheim ) was a National Socialist functionary and politician and during the Third Reich, among other things, Lord Mayor of Giessen and Mainz and a member of the Reichstag .

Childhood, youth, training and military service (1891-1919)

Heinrich Ritter, son of the businessman Jakob Ritter and his wife Auguste, née Müller, was baptized as a Protestant. After attending the elementary school (1896–1899) and the higher citizen school (1899–1904) in his hometown, he completed training at the commercial school in Worms (1904–1907) and a course at the "Athenaeum" in Füssen am Lech ("Fernhochschule for national science and politics "). During the First World War , he served from August 18, 1914 to December 23, 1918 in Infantry Regiment 118 and Field Artillery Regiment 10 on the Western Front , most recently with the rank of NCO . He was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class . When he returned home after the German defeat, he took over his parents' general store in Gau-Odernheim in 1919.

Beginning and early years of political activity (1920–1934)

Certificate of Honor for Hitler, signed by Ritter

Knight was already active here in 1920 "in the national sense". Since 1922 he has been working on a voluntary basis in the municipal administration and also active in local politics. He evidently already led a National Socialist group (which, however, was not officially founded as a local NSDAP group until six years later ). In 1924 he formed a "firm comradeship" with the two local National Socialist doctors Karl Schilling and Reinhold Daum. At the end of the following year he founded the “Landwirtschaftliche Spar- und Kreditverein Gau-Köngernheim” (a Nazi savings bank) and became chairman of the supervisory board. On August 25, 1927, he married Katharina Ebling in Gau-Odernheim, who later had a son. Ritter's entry into the NSDAP ( membership number 99.069) took place on September 1, 1928. Soon he held the positions of provincial leader (from May 1931 district leader) and district inspector of the Rheinhessen province (1929-1932) as well as the activity of a Gau speaker . In 1930 the Gau-Odernheimer elected him as the first National Socialist mayor in the People's State of Hesse (voluntary work), in his term of office from November 6, 1930 to July 1, 1933, Adolf Hitler was made an honorary citizen on May 25, 1932 . In 1931 he became provisional NSDAP district leader of Mainz (until 1932) and obtained a mandate in the Hessian state parliament (which he held until 1933). In addition, he officiated in those years (1932-1934) for the first time as Gauamtsleiter for local politics of the Gauleitung Hessen-Nassau (South). In 1932 his general store in Gau-Odernheim collapsed due to over-indebtedness. On July 1, 1933, Ritter was appointed full-time mayor of Bingen . In the same year he was also the NSDAP district leader of the corresponding party group (October 1, 1933 to May 15, 1934, then district leader, for example). He was proposed for the Reichstag election in November 1933 , but his candidacy was unsuccessful. From February 1, 1934, he was district director of the (state) district of Bingen for two months .

Lord Mayor of Giessen (1934–1942)

Due to his good relations with the Gauleiter of the new Gau Hessen (Upper Hesse, Rheinhessen and Starkenburg), Friedrich Ringshausen , he was appointed Lord Mayor of Gießen on April 1, 1934 . Here he was initially also district inspector and then in 1935 deputy district leader of the NSDAP. From March 1936 he was also a member of constituency 33 (Hesse) in the Reichstag, which was meaningless during the Nazi era. Even in his time in Giessen, Ritter had the rank of district leader (1936) or district leader z. b. V. (1938) of the NSDAP. Although he was appointed President of the Hessian Fire Insurance Chamber in Darmstadt on May 29, 1941 (Ritter held office until February 24, 1943), he continued to be Lord Mayor of Gießen - but was now provisionally appointed. During his tenure as Lord Mayor, over 1,000 Jews from Giessen were deported from the Goetheschule interim camp to the extermination camps by the end of 1942 .

Lord Mayor of Mainz (1942–1945)

Since the previous Lord Mayor of Mainz, Robert Barth , had fallen in 1942 , the vacant post had to be filled again. At the end of August this year, the decision was made for Ritter. His "choice" was the shortest in the entire history of the city of Mainz . The Gauleiter of Hessen-Nassau, Jakob Sprenger , proposed him to the 13 councilors of Mainz on August 31, 1942 as the new mayor. This was decided within nine minutes. The instrument appointing ordered Ritter for 12 years until 1954, as mayor. It was presented to him on September 3, 1942 in the presence of Wilhelm Frick , Reich Minister of the Interior, and Provincial Director Dr. Wehner presented. On September 16, 1942, the Lord Mayor again took over the management of the Gauamt für Kommunalpolitik of the Gauleitung Hessen-Nassau for the duration of the war . In 1944 he also became a (honorary) member of the SA with the rank of Hauptsturmführer.

Events during his tenure

Further memberships and offices

  • Member of the supervisory board of the Hessische Staatsbank (1931)
  • Member of the board of directors of the Landeshypothekenbank (1931)
  • Member of the board of directors of the Hessian Insurance Company for municipal officials (1933)
  • Member of the Board of Directors of the Hessische Kommunale Landesbank (1933)
  • Member of the German Municipal Assembly , deputy chairman of the Hessen-Nassau State Office in the German Municipal Assembly, at the same time a member of the board of the German Municipal Assembly (May 1933 to 1945)
  • Member of the municipal electrical association Kassel (1934)
  • Head of the Regional Foreign Traffic Association Rhein-Main (from June 13, 1936)
  • Chairman of the Rhine-Main Energy Committee (1939)
  • Chairman of the Savings Banks and Administration Schools (1940)
  • Chairman of the examination board for community officials (1940)

Escape, a new beginning and life in the post-war period (1945–1966)

After a last persistent speech before the heads of the city ​​administration , Ritter fled on March 20, 1945 together with Dr. Wehner crossed the Rhine by boat before the approaching Americans and made his way to Burg in the Soviet zone . In the summer of 1945 he moved to the British occupation zone and in August of the same year went underground under the pseudonym "Heinz Möller" in Deggendorf an der Donau , where he lived and worked as an industrial representative. According to an opinion by the Mainz Examination Commission, he was officially suspended from his position as Lord Mayor of the city on August 11, 1945 in absentia. Only at the beginning of the amnesty did he report to the police on January 4, 1950 under his real name in Kelsterbach , Hesse , where he lived with his mother. The judicial chamber proceedings initiated against him were discontinued in December 1950 by the central judicial chamber of Hesse, whereupon he filed a judicial claim against the city of Mainz for pension payments as a former civil servant in the following years . As the last of the three mayors of Mainz during the Nazi era, he died on March 15, 1966 in Rüsselsheim.

literature

  • Wolfgang Dobras : National Socialism in Mainz 1933–45 - Terror and Everyday Life . (Catalog for the exhibition of the Mainz City Archives March 6 - April 26, 2008 in the Mainz City Hall; = contributions to the history of the city of Mainz , vol. 36), Mainz 2008.
  • Bruno Funk, Wilhelm Jung : The Mainz Town Hall , self-published by the Mainz City Administration, Mainz publishing house and Will & Rothe printing company 1974
  • Jochen Lengemann : MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , p. 312.
  • Franz Maier: Biographical organization manual of the NSDAP and its divisions in the area of ​​today's state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Publications of the Commission of the State Parliament for the History of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate , Vol. 28. Hase & Koehler, Mainz 2007. ISBN 3-7758-1407-8 .
  • Klaus-Dieter Rack, Bernd Vielsmeier: Hessian MPs 1820–1933. Biographical evidence for the first and second chambers of the state estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse 1820–1918 and the state parliament of the People's State of Hesse 1919–1933 (= Political and parliamentary history of the State of Hesse. Vol. 19 = Work of the Hessian Historical Commission. NF Vol. 29) . Hessian Historical Commission, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-88443-052-1 , No. 719.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of honorary citizenship deposited today in the Museum Alzey
personal data
SURNAME Ritter, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (NSDAP), MdR, Lord Mayor of Giessen and Mainz
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Gau-Odernheim
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1966
Place of death Ruesselsheim