Heinrich Weiß (resistance fighter)
Heinrich Weiß (born July 4, 1887 in Laufen an der Salzach , † April 14, 1963 in Dachau ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism . In 1933, in addition to his work as garden manager for the Nymphenburg Palace Administration , he founded the resistance group, later known as the Harnier Circle , which he headed until the end of 1937.
Career
Heinrich Weiß lost his father at the age of eight. The mother was unable to keep his butcher's shop and was unable to provide for him and his siblings financially. After a stay in the orphanage, he completed an apprenticeship as a gardener, after which he succeeded in finding a job in the royal gardening department of the Munich residence . From 1905 he completed the journeyman's journey of several years, which led him to various aristocratic residences at home and abroad. After completing his military service, he gained further professional experience in Hamburg. In 1911 the Royal Gardening Department of the Munich Residence took him on again. At this point, at the latest, he became acquainted with members of the Bavarian royal family because he was used to decorate tables on festive occasions.
At the beginning of the First World War he volunteered to take up arms, but was seriously injured in the thigh in early October 1914. A leg shortening was the result. Despite his disability, he was able to resume his old work in the service of the Bavarian royal family after a year and a half in hospital. In 1919 he was a member of Einwohnerwehr Munich. In 1925 he graduated from the Weihenstephan State College , from April 1, 1926, he was gardener in the courtyard garden of the Ansbach residence and from September 1, 1928 in Schleißheim Palace . On June 1, 1933, he was appointed garden manager for the Nymphenburg Palace Park .
Political activities
Heinrich Weiß, according to his own statement, came to politics because he "experienced at close quarters how the royal family had to flee in the fog and night in order to remain unmolested from the street ..."
Organization of the German Oath
Like many of his Bavarian contemporaries, he saw the merger of all German states after the establishment of the Reich in 1871 under the leadership of Prussia as the trigger for the lost First World War and the social, economic and political difficulties that followed. This was the trigger for the establishment of the Organization Deutscher Eid . In addition to his function as garden manager of Schleissheim Palace , he gave speeches and organized events from 1928 to 1931, which were advocated by his superordinate office, the Crown Estate Administration. The aim was to minimize the multi-party system, to stand up for an improved financial policy and to encourage the population to buy German goods.
Member of the Bayernwacht
The Organization of the German Oath existed until 1932. After that, Heinrich Weiß was a Gaufführer of the Bayernwacht , a defense and protection organization of the Bavarian People's Party, until 1933 .
Motivation and founding of the Harnier Circle
Heinrich Weiß found membership of the Bayernwacht unsatisfactory and founded his own resistance group in 1933, which was later called the Harnier Circle . According to the Gestapo interrogation protocols , he was the “original head of the movement”. Heinrich Weiß's apartment served as a meeting point and discussion place for questions of constitutional and political nature. There were different views on social law issues. The association saw itself as a rescue organization for like-minded people and expected the end of National Socialism through events in foreign or domestic politics.
After Hitler came to power, all opponents of the Gleichschaltung were on the defensive. When Germany finally became a central state with the law to rebuild the empire of January 30, 1934, all symbols of the individual states even had to be removed. From this point onwards, the raising of the Bavarian flag and the display of other national symbols was prohibited, and all evidence of Bavarian statehood in the form of national emblems at the national borders, seals, coats of arms and official signs had to be removed. Large parts of the population of Bavaria saw National Socialism as the embodiment of “Prussia”, which robbed the state of its freedom and statehood.
In 1935, Weiß made the acquaintance of Josef Zott and Wilhelm Seutter von Lötzen . The group finally decided "in the event of an unforeseen event in Bavaria to re-establish a so-called democratic monarchy."
Radius of action
After the sculptor Margarethe von Stengel was suspected of preparing for high treason and arrested in 1935 , because she also kept in contact with members of the Bavarian Homeland and Royal League, which was already forbidden , and made possible disguised meetings, there was a brief standstill. Then Weiss succeeded in gaining other comrades-in-arms, including work colleagues from the Nymphenburg palace administration. In the period that followed, the activities were steadily expanded.
Moral misconduct and official departure
In late 1937 it became public knowledge that Weiss had fathered a child out of wedlock in early 1935. A pending disciplinary proceeding exacerbated his private difficulties. After a conversation with Adolf von Harnier , he decided to leave the Harnier group at the beginning of December 1937.
Unresolved stay in Austria
By autumn 1937 at the latest, the resistance group had contact with Austria's high government circles as well as Count Franz von Trauttmannsdorff , the adjutant of Otto von Habsburg , a cousin of Harnier's wife. A few weeks before the annexation of Austria , on January 23, 1938, Heinrich Weiß set out for Austria. With great exertion, the disabled man reached Vienna on foot . In addition to political motives, the reason can be seen in a feared denunciation. On his way home, he met the invading German troops and reached Munich on April 19, 1938. Two days later, his wife took him to the “nerve department” of the Schwabing hospital. After returning from psychiatry, he rearranged his private life. He divorced and married Therese Dillinger, the mother of his child, for the second time. On August 1, 1939, he was transferred to the management of the English Garden .
arrest
In early August 1939, infiltrated informers had collected enough material to arrest 125 people. Heinrich Weiß was one of the main culprits and was taken away from his workplace on August 4, 1939. In addition to its activities in Bavaria, the Gestapo suspected the establishment of a political resistance group in Austria and contacts to legitimist circles. In addition, he was accused of contact with the Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg .
The strict, almost five-year imprisonment in the correctional facility in Munich , the then penal prison Stadelheim, followed.
New beginning and further political offices
On May 27, 1945, Weiß submitted an application for reuse in the civil service. Because his former superior was ambivalent about this , he was given the less important position of garden manager at Dachau Castle , but was appointed to the board of the Dachau Castle and Garden Administration on October 2, 1945. On August 11, 1945, Heinrich Weiß was reappointed as a civil servant as Obergartenmanager and on November 1, 1945 as gardening inspector.
White was also politically active in the post-war period. He became a member of the Bavarian Party . From June 1948 he was a member of the district council and from 1952 to 1956 deputy district administrator in Dachau .
literature
- Heike Bretschneider: Resistance to National Socialism in Munich 1933–1945. In: Miscellanea Bavarica Monacensia. Booklet 4. Munich City Archives, 1968.
- Gustl Müller-Dechent : Resistance in Munich - The Forgotten. Salzgitter 2004, ISBN 3-9809058-2-9 ( PDF; 833 kB ).
- Marion Detjen: Appointed an enemy of the state. Resistance, resistance and denial against the Nazi regime in Munich. Buchendorfer Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-927984-81-7 .
- Christina M. Förster: The Harnier Circle. (= Publications of the Commission for Contemporary History Series B, Research. Volume 74). Schöningh, Paderborn / Munich / Vienna / Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-506-79979-7 .
- Doris Fuchsberger, Albrecht Vorherr: Nymphenburg Palace under the swastika. Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-86906-605-9 .
- Wilhelm Seutter von Lötzen: Bavaria's loyalty to the king in the resistance. Feldafing 1964, ISBN 3-921763-57-6 .
- Dieter J. Weiss: Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. A political biography. Regensburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-7917-2047-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ StadtAm police headquarters 1,091th
- ↑ StadtAm police headquarters 1,063th
- ↑ BAYER. MINISTRY OF FINANCE No. VI 9071 - KV 295
- ↑ BAYER. MINISTRY OF FINANCE No. VI 11036I - KV 329
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | White, Heinrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German resistance fighters against National Socialism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th July 1887 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Running on the Salzach |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 14, 1963 |
| Place of death | Dachau |