Hellmuth Elbrecht

Hellmuth Carl Elbrechter (born January 19, 1895 in Elberfeld , † August 10, 1971 in Düsseldorf ) (pseudonym: Hermann Vensky) was a German journalist. Elbrecht was best known as a member of the so-called TAT group around Hans Zehrer and as an employee of General Kurt von Schleicher in the late phase of the Weimar Republic .

Live and act

Youth and Studies (1895 to 1921)

Hellmuth Elbrechte was the son of Rector Karl Elbrecht. From Easter 1906 to Easter 1914 he attended the humanistic grammar school in Elberfeld . He then joined the 19th Bavarian Infantry Regiment in Erlangen . At the same time he began studying German and cultural history .

From August 1914 to December 1918 he took part in the Jäger Regiment on horseback No. 7 , as a fighter pilot and later - after recovering from the consequences of two crashes - as the leader of a recovery company in Trier. After the November Revolution of 1918 he was part of the soldiers' council of the Trier garrison. After the war, Elbrecht began studying dentistry in Münster in Westphalia in February 1919 . In the summer semester of 1919, he moved to the Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he took the physics course in January 1920. This was followed by a clinical semester in Leipzig and another in Freiburg. In 1921 Elbrecht received his doctorate from the medical faculty of Freiburg University as Dr. med. dent . His doctoral dissertation, for which Wilhelm Herrenknecht had conveyed the subject to him, dealt with the subject of bad coincidences in tooth extraction . In March 1921 he had already passed the state examination and on April 13, 1921 he was granted a license to practice medicine.

Activity in the Nazi environment (1921 to 1928)

After completing his studies, Elbrecht established himself as a practicing dentist in Elberfeld . There he came into contact over time with the National Socialist movement, whose “left”, north German wing around Gregor Strasser had its center in Elberfeld at times. The first encounter with Strasser took place in 1923, and Elbrecht was one of his employees in 1925/26, without becoming a member of the NSDAP himself . At this time Elbrecht formed close friendships, particularly with Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann . Elbrecht, on the other hand, had a pronounced mutual aversion to Kaufmann's Gauge managing director, the young Joseph Goebbels .

Goebbels described Elbrecht - after a brief phase of sympathy ("Elbrecht is a nice guy. I can handle him well.") - in his diaries as his "bad enemy" and often poured out long ranting tirades about him. He characterized the doctor as the “evil spirit” of his friend Kaufmann, who was actually a “poor” and “unfortunate person” who “wanted the good”. Furthermore, Goebbels expressed his fear of losing his friend Kaufmann "sooner or later" through Elbrechter's disastrous work ("Elbrecht will be to blame for it"), which "always" had been his, Goebbels', "bad idea". In other places, the later Propaganda Minister insulted Elbrecht as a “fox dachshund”, “freemason” and as a “villain” who had to be “rendered harmless”. Kaufmann later attributed Goebbels' attitude to Elbrecht to the fact that “he could be an intriguer and behave like a jealous prima donna if you were not him but [someone like], for example, Dr. Elbrecht asked for his opinion on any problems. ”In retrospect, Elbrecht himself stated that he“ never really liked Goebbels ”and“ thought he was talkative and too grandiose ”.

In September 1925 Elbrecht chaired a meeting of the Strasser group of the NSDAP in Hagen, at which he and Goebbels von Strasser were introduced "as young, ambitious party men". At the same time he participated in the Bamberg program of the NSDAP.

During his Elberfeld years Elbrecht also married a woman Speth, the daughter of a master watchmaker and jeweler from Elberfeld, whose sister later married Karl Kaufmann (the fact that Kaufmann's wife was Elbrecht's sister-in-law ("Kaufmann marries Dr. Elbrecht's sister-in-law." ), noted Goebbels in his diary).

In action and as an advisor to Schleicher (1928 to 1933)

From 1928, Elbrecht is listed in the Berlin address book as a dentist with a practice at 14 Brückenallee. In 1929 Elbrecht, who worked as a journalist in his spare time, began to work on the political monthly Die Tat at the request of Hans Zehrer , of which Zehrer took over as editor at the time. The deed , for which Elbechter mainly made foreign policy contributions, became one of the most influential journalistic organs in the country in the following years. In particular, the magazine was considered to be the source of ideas for the politically powerful Reichswehr General Kurt von Schleicher.

His participation in the act was limited to four larger essays, the most productive of which was an interpretation of conservatism based on Arthur Moeller van den Bruck's The Third Reich and Quabbe's Tar a Ri . Elbrecht also wrote for the Daily Rundschau .

In 1932 and 1933 Elbrecht, who was now in close personal contact with Schleicher, acted as an intermediary between the Tat editorial team and the Ministry of Defense. Demant sees this as the “real significance” of Elbrechter's person for German politics in the early 1930s. Elbrecht became acquainted with Schleicher when the general turned to the dentist, one of whose patients, was looking for a liaison to the NSDAP politician Gregor Strasser . Schleicher got the idea to contact Strasser on a recommendation from Bodo von Alvensleben . Schleicher was immediately impressed by Elbrecht, whom he valued as intelligent and discreet and of whom he said he was “finally a person you can talk to!” And made him one of his closest personal advisors. Since then Elbrecht has acted as a middleman or, in Rohrer's words, as “a kind of gray eminence” between the two politicians and, among other things, made his private apartment at Schaperstrasse 29 available for secret meetings and negotiations between the two. Some authors therefore grant him the rank of “control point for a possible anti-Hitler coalition” for 1932. Other politicians with whom Elbrecht had personal contacts were the Chancellor Heinrich Brüning and the right-wing conservative Gottfried Treviranus , both of whom were among his patients and were loosely friends with him.

The historian Axel Schildt identified Elbrecht as an important source of ideas for Schleicher and Strasser, even beyond his involvement in the deed . Thus Schildt, in his work on the Schleicher cabinet, and Ursula Hüllbüsch in their work on the relationship between trade unions and the state, take the view that Elbrecht was the actual author of the sensational speech that Gregor Strasser gave on May 10th in the Reichstag . In this, Strasser presented the outlines of a job creation program that Elbrecht had probably also worked on. In historical research, Strasser's program, as the only constructive job creation program that was submitted to the public by a party at the time, is seen as one of the reasons for the immense success of the NSDAP in the Reichstag election of July 1932, which soon followed. In terms of the financing of projects to be funded and the principle of collectively agreed payment, the Strasser program largely agreed with the later Gereke Schleicher program: This fact - both of the top politicians advised by Elbrecht develop similar economic programs - confirms the assumption of a significant participation on his part on these programs.

On January 5, 1933, Elbrecht's Schleicher - "Kurtchen" - informed about the secret negotiations between Hitler and Papen in the house of the Cologne banker Kurt Freiherr von Schröder ("Fränzchen betrayed you!"), Which he had through the retired Captain Johansen shade and have photos taken. Hans Zehrer published the recordings on January 5th in a disclosure report ("Papen and Hitler against Schleicher") in the Daily Rundschau , which made the Cologne meeting public and which is still considered a journalistic masterpiece today. How exactly Elbrecht found out about the planned meeting is not completely certain: Treviranus states that Elbrecht heard "rumors in his medical practice" that Papen had "got in touch" with Hitler and that he had Papen shadowed from then on.

In the same month Elbrecht Schleicher is said to have made the proposal of a "cold coup". His idea was to dissolve the Reichstag without the consent of the Reich President and, in new elections, to build an opposing party to the NSDAP, essentially grouped around Strasser.

Elbrechter's plan for a "cold coup" (1933)

At the beginning of January 1933 Elbrecht presented von Schleicher with a plan drawn up by him, Elbrecht, with the assistance of Hans Zehrer, for a so-called “cold coup d'état” against the Reich President, which was supposed to prevent the formation of a Hitler and / or Papen government. This stipulated that Schleicher should use the “red folder” in his possession, which contained the order to dissolve the Reichstag, to dissolve the Reichstag without Hindenburg's signature. Schleicher was supposed to get the signature of the Reich President afterwards after he had presented him with a fait accompli with the dissolution of parliament. In the event of a new election, an opposing party to the NSDAP set up by Gregor Strasser should run against them. In order to bring such a thing into being, Elbrecht said that he had already initiated a reconciliation between Strasser and Ernst Röhm .

Elbrecht later said that, based on his knowledge of the personal characteristics of Hindenburg and those around him, he could be sure that the plan could have been implemented “smoothly and without risk”. Schleicher rejected the plan after a 48-hour reflection period on the grounds that as a general he was “internally unable” to carry out such an action against his field marshal, so that all further efforts by Elbrechter were “futile”. In retrospect, it was life-saving for him, according to Elbrecht, that none of the participants had any reason to say anything about his “one-man action”.

Period of National Socialism (1933 to 1945)

After Hitler came to power on January 30, 1933, Elbrecht resigned from the editorial office of the act . In the following year and a half he remained in contact with Gregor Strasser and Heinrich Brüning. Even after the persecution by the SA and Gestapo began , Elbrecht acted as an informant for the latter by informing him about the events and developments in the NSDAP in his hiding places, for example in the Berlin Hedwigs Hospital . In 1933 and 1934 Elbrecht suggested a reconciliation between Strasser and Ernst Röhm . After that he stepped into the background politically. Nevertheless, during the first year and a half of the Nazi regime, he was repeatedly interrogated by the Gestapo. Since the interrogating officers “did not belong to the intellectual elite of this category”, he was initially able to “trivialize the connections [about the events of 1932/1933] [about the events of 1932/1933] and […] unexpectedly experience May 1945.”

According to an affidavit by Heinrich Brüning from 1953, Elbrecht was one of the people who were slated to be murdered on June 30, 1934 in the course of the National Socialists' political cleansing, known as the “ Röhm Putsch ”. He, Brüning, had repeatedly warned Elbrecht not to flee the mass murder of opponents of the Hitler regime that had been planned since the beginning of May. Elbrecht only escaped death because he happened not to be in Berlin on June 30, 1934. After his unexpected survival during the Röhm Putsch, Elbrecht fled to Holland , according to Brüning, and then lived in London for a few years . On December 28, 1938 married Elbrechter in Utrecht second wife originally from Chile Carmen Margarete Elfriede Wünkhaus (born December 14, 1905 in Lanco Conception; † 2 January 1967 in Essen-Werden). The son Michael Elbrecht (born April 13, 1944 in Hamburg) emerged from the marriage.

During these years he also had the plan to emigrate to Chile , his wife's home. When the Second World War broke out , Elbrecht was in Holland and was deported by the Dutch government to Germany, where he was immediately arrested at the border and taken to the prison on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse and later to the Oranienburg concentration camp. Elbrecht was later released from the concentration camp and declared unworthy of defense. Another arrest, especially towards the end of the war, Elbrecht was able to evade by constantly changing location.

In contrast to Brüning's declaration, however, the Berlin address books are for the years 1934 to 1940. The address books for the years 1934 to 1940 still list Elbrecht as “dentist” and continue to indicate Schaperstraße 29 as his place of residence and the seat of his practice ; 1940 only his wife. The contradiction between Brüning's statement and the information in the address books probably arises from the fact that the address books were based on official data: Since Elbrecht probably did not officially de-register before he fled abroad, it appears that he was still living in the Berliner Schaperstraße, so that the authors of the Berlin address books, who used the data from the population registers, recorded the official - but not the factual - state information. The address books from 1941 and 1942 record Elbrecht - in line with the statement that he has now returned to Berlin - then recently as "Kaufm." (Businessman) with a new residence at Schaperstraße 22, near his old address at No. 29

Late years (1945 to after 1967)

After the Second World War Elbrecht retrained from dentist to general practitioner: after studying medicine at the University of Hamburg from 1941 to 1945, he passed the medical state examination on December 16, 1946. In 1948 he also submitted a second doctoral thesis at the medical faculty of Hamburg University - this time on the subject of an overview of carcinoma in childhood  - so that from now on he is Dr. Dr. (or Dr. med. dent. Dr. med.). His work, which was created at the University Children's Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, was supervised by Johann Baptists Mayer (1905–1981).

Elbrecht practiced as a doctor in Düsseldorf from 1960 at the latest . Kühlwetterstraße 36 has been identified as the place of residence for this period. In the last years of his life, he gave various historians such as Roger Manvell and Udo Kissenkoetter information about his work and his experiences in the 1920s and 1930s and allowed them to look into his personal documents.

Part of Elbrecht's estate is now stored in the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich as part of Paul Schulz's estate . The “Elbrecht's estate” is contained in vol. 1 of the aforementioned estate and contains a typewritten declaration by Elbrecht regarding the plans for a “cold coup” or the establishment of an opposing party to the NSDAP.

Fonts

• About bad coincidences during tooth extractions and the responsibility of the surgeon. (In particular a case of lower jaw fracture after tooth extraction and its consequences) . Freiburg im Breisgau 1921. (Dental dissertation)
• Overview of childhood carcinoma . slea [1948]. (Medical dissertation)

Archival material

• Witness literature from Elbrecht (PDF; 632 kB) at the IFZ
• Landesarchiv NRW: Compensation files from the post-war period (BR 2182 No. 5028 and BR 2182 No. 5029)

Web links

• Literature by and about Hellmuth Elbrechter in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ life data according to ifz-muenchen.de (PDF; 632 kB); Registry office Wuppertal Elberfeld birth register number 323/1895; Registry office Düsseldorf-Nord: death register number 1451/1971. Ralf Meindl's second first name is: East Prussia's Gauleiter. Erich Koch. A political biography , 2007, p. 570 "Karl" written.
2. ^ Udo Kissenkoetter: Gregor Strasser and the NSDAP. 1978, p. 217.
3. ↑ Jeremy Noakes: A Documentary Reader. 1983, p. 43.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Udo Kissenkoetter: Gregor Strasser. P. 111.
5. ^ Roger Manvell: Goebbels. A biography. 1960, p. 104. Birthday greetings from Goebbels and Viktor Lutze on January 19, 1926 address Elbrecht as “employee” and “friend and comrade in arms”.
6. ^ Roger Manvell: Goebbels. A biography. 1960, p. 88. Also there: “Kaufmann does not treat me as one treats a friend. Behind that, of course, is Elbrecht. "
7. ↑ Elke Fröhlich: The diaries of Joseph Goebbels. 1998, p. 332.
8. ↑ Helmut Heiber: The diary. 1961, p. 77. “Dr. Elbrecht and the whole Masonic Mixpoke. "
9. ↑ Elke Fröhlich (ed.): The diaries of Joseph Goebbels. 1998, p. 138.
10. ^ Roger Manvell: Goebbels. A biography. 1960, p. 88.
11. ^ Roger Manvell: Goebbels. A biography. 1960, p. 88. When Goebbels' statements from Elbrecht were read out decades later, Elbrecht said that the aggressive attacks against him, Elbrecht, were dictated by injured vanity: "I must have underestimated Goebbels back then."
12. ↑ Gerhard Schulz: Rise of National Socialism. 1975, p. 389.
13. ↑ The name Speth as the surname of Kaufmann's wife, the sister of Elbrechter's wife, can be found in Karl Höffkes : Hitler's political generals. The Gauleiter of the Third Reich , Grabert Verlag , Tübingen 1986, p. 172.
14. ↑ Quoted from Claus-Ekkehard Bärsch: The young Goebbels. Salvation through destruction. 2004, p. 111.
15. ↑ Elbrecht, Hellmuth . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1928, part 1, p. 661.
16. ^ Udo Kissenkoetter: Strasser and the NSDAP. S. 128. Zehrer's statement is also noteworthy, in a letter from 1933, that Elbrecht was his only real friend in life.
17. ↑ Ebbo Demant: From Schleicher to Springer. Mainz 1971, p. 64.
18. ↑ Gottfried Treviranus: The end of Weimar. Heinrich Brüning and his time. 1968, p. 345.
19. ^ Christian Rohrer: National Socialist Power in East Prussia. 2006, p. 185.
20. ↑ Harry Schulze-Wilde: The Reich Chancellery 1933-1945. Beginning and end of the third empire. 1966, p. 29.
21. ↑ Andreas Dornheim: Röhm's man for abroad: Politics and murder of the SA agent Georg Bell. 1998, p. 113.
22. ↑ Axel Schildt: The Kurt von Schleicher cabinet. (= The Weimar Republic, Vol. II). Ursula Hüllbüsch: Unions und Staat , 1961. This would also show the continuity of Elbrechter's political ideas and the consistency with which he brought them closer to the politically powerful. Strasser's speech in the minutes of the Reichstag session
23. ↑ ^{a b} Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus: The end of Weimar. Heinrich Brüning and his time. 1968, p. 355.
24. ↑ Heinz Höhne: Waiting for Hitler . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1983 ( online ).
25. ^ Andreas Dornheim: Röhm's husband for abroad. Politics and assassination of the SA agent Georg Bell. 1998, p. 113.
26. ^ Udo Kissenkoetter: Gregor Strasser. P. 206.
27. ^ Klaus Fritzsche: Political Romanticism and Counter-Revolution. 1976, p. 294.
28. ^ Udo Kissenkoetter: Gregor Strasser and the NSDAP. P. 206.
29. ↑ marriage register number Sta. Utrecht Office 1490/1938; Registry office Düsseldorf North: death register number 1451/1971.
30. ^ Affidavit by Heinrich Brüning from January 10, 1953. Printed by Udo Kissenkoetter: Gregor Strasser. P. 207.
31. ↑ Could not be found in the address book.
32. ↑ Elbrecht, Hellmuth . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1940, part 1, p. 578.
33. ↑ Schaperstrasse 22 . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1940, part 4, Wilmersdorf, p. 1391. "Elbrechter, M., Frau".
34. ↑ Schaperstrasse 22 . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1941, part 4, p. 1379.
35. ^ Roger Manvell: Goebbels. A biography. 1960, p. 88, states “Elbrecht is practicing today in Düsseldorf”.
36. ↑ Jakob Oster / Henning Sletved: Proceedings [of the] International Copenhagen Congress on the Scientific ... 1964, p. 880.
37. ↑ Signature ED 438