Helmut Voelkel

Helmut Voelkel (born August 15, 1902 in Schmiedeberg ; † September 9, 1945 in Berlin ) was a German administrative officer . Initially an enthusiastic supporter of National Socialism , he later fell out of favor.

Life

Helmut Voelkel was born in Schmiedeberg in Silesia (today: Kowary) as the son of a mining engineer. His father had an accident at work and was given early retirement, which caused financial problems for the family. Voelkel himself suffered from bone tuberculosis, among other things . So he could not take his Abitur until 1922. After a few years as an accountant, journalist and foreign correspondent, he studied political science and economics in 1926 in Breslau (today: Wrocław ). He graduated in 1929 with a degree in economics . He joined the NSDAP in 1926 , but was expelled in 1928 for lack of participation. When he could not start his doctoral studies in 1930 due to lack of funds, he rejoined the NSDAP and worked in Karlsruhe as a reporter for the party newspaper Der Führer , for which he wrote theater reviews and court reports . He was also active in the Gauleitung, where he headed the so-called "Lies Defense Office". In this role he played an important role in the election campaign for the 1933 Reichstag election . Among other things, he negotiated with the Baden Interior Minister Erwin Umhauer ( DVP ) about the hoisting of swastika flags on public buildings.

On March 11, 1933, the day the provisional state government was set up in Baden, he was appointed personal assistant to Finance Minister Walter Köhler in the Wagner cabinet (Baden) . First as a ministerial advisor, he was promoted to government councilor on December 14, 1933 . From January 1, 1935, he worked in the Baden State Chancellery in Berlin.

In 1939 he was employed as a clerk in the price monitoring office of the Baden Ministry of Finance and Economics. Due to his earlier tuberculosis illness, he was classified as unfit for service and did not have to go to World War II. In 1940 he was appointed civil servant for life.

At the beginning, ardent advocate of National Socialism with numerous memberships in organizations such as the National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV), the Reich Association of German Officials (RDB) and the Reich Colonial Association (RKB) as well as bearers of the NSDAP's badge of honor , he later distanced himself from National Socialism. The first doubts arose after the Röhm putsch , although it was not until 1938 that he was perceived as a critic. As his criticism grew louder, he was arrested on September 20, 1943 while visiting family in Bad Salzbrunn. He then spent over six months in custody. At the end of March 1944 he was admitted to the Lüben sanatorium, where his mental state was to be examined. He and his family tried to blame the comments on his longstanding illness. However, he was sent to the Wroclaw Prison in November 1944, where his health deteriorated rapidly; towards the end of his prison term he weighed only 44 kilograms.

He was released from prison on April 23, 1945, presumably because the front was approaching. He returned to Berlin, where he could not find his family, wife and children, who had since been bombed out. In mid-May, he went to the Berlin Weißensee hospital, where he was treated as an in-patient, now weakened by pulmonary tuberculosis and mentally deranged. He tried to be recognized as a " victim of fascism ". The denazification process was posthumously suspended in 1948.

literature

• Katrin Hammerstein: Helmut Voelkel: “As a National Socialist, I cannot act incorrectly” . In: perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 299-310 .