Herbert Lucht

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Herbert Lucht († 1951 ) joined the NSDAP early on and was first a special leader in World War II , then an officer of a propaganda unit of the Wehrmacht with the rank of lieutenant, later first lieutenant, in Paris occupied by Germany . After 1945 he ran the import and export company Cominbel together with his Belgian wife Lea Sliky Lucht , née van Dievoet . The Lucht couple became known in the early Federal Republic of Germany for their active support of the Naumann circle to restore Nazi rule.

Activities for the National Socialist German Reich

German victory parade in front of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on June 14, 1940

During the Second World War, Lucht was a propaganda officer with the rank of lieutenant in occupied Paris in the propaganda squadron of the French military commander .

Lucht was head of the culture department of the propaganda squadron, which was headed by Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Heinz Schmidtke. Schmidtke received his instructions from the Wehrmacht High Command or from the Propaganda Ministry . Lucht and his department headed the music, theater, acrobatics and visual arts units with his own office on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées . The German cultural propaganda carried out by Lucht in occupied France had the short-term goal of maintaining French cultural life to a certain extent to ensure peace and order. In the long term, it should be reduced and German cultural rule established.

Lucht was particularly concerned with the control of theaters, performances and theater censorship . In cases of doubt, he attended performances himself to get a personal impression for the censors.

In the literature there are smaller details about some of his actions and activities. On September 19, 1940, Lucht took part in a meeting with the special staff for music research ( Rosenberg's office ) , which concerned the use of French artists for German cultural advertising in Paris.

Lucht opposed in August 1941 as an "old party member" for anti-Christian motives, e. B. against the performance of a German church choir in Paris organized by Karl Epting .

After 1945: company, Villa Lucht, Naumann affair

The couple fled from Paris to Meldorf before the liberation , both remained “staunch National Socialists” (Der Spiegel). In 1948 Lea Lucht commissioned the "Villa Lucht" to the former director of the Düsseldorf Art Academy Emil Fahrenkamp , who had made a career there during the Nazi era . The villa in Meerbusch-Büderich (Niederlöricker Straße 33) is a representative property that picks up on rural structures and is characterized by a shielded inner courtyard. After 1945, Fahrenkamp was considered politically unsustainable because of its Nazi past.

Lucht maintained good contacts with Ernst Achenbach , whom he knew from his time in Paris; he transferred Achenbach's legal representation both in matters of his person and in matters of the Cominbel company . Achenbach was a key figure in the Naumann affair.

Before 1945 Werner Naumann was State Secretary in the Propaganda Ministry and personal advisor to Joseph Goebbels. In Hitler's will he was designated as Goebbels' successor in office. Naumann initially went into hiding after 1945 and in 1950, after the amnesty, took over the management of the Lucht company in Düsseldorf under his real name. At that time he also lived with the Luchts in their villa. A meeting between Naumann and Achenbach took place there in August 1950, at which Achenbach is said to have made Naumann the offer to become General Secretary of the FDP North Rhine-Westphalia and in this way bring about a National Socialist infiltration of the FDP - at least that is what it says in Naumann's diary. Achenbach denied this statement, but not the meeting.

Later, the Villa Lucht phone was tapped as part of the Naumann affair. Naumann was arrested by the British occupation authorities on the night of January 15, 1953 in Düsseldorf . At the same time, six other former Nazi officials were arrested in Solingen and Hamburg, followed by an observation of the Naumann circle by the protection of the constitution and the British foreign intelligence service . After his release, Naumann returned to Villa Lucht. The investigation report of the FDP shows dinner with guests in the villa with the participation of the couple Lucht and Naumann as part of the activities of the Naumann circle.

Lucht's widow became Naumann's partner.

Fritz Dorls (1952)

Lucht's company as a home for old Nazis

In addition to Naumann, other well-known former Nazi functionaries and right-wing extremists found refuge in the Luchts company. In 1953 Fritz Dorls , a former member of the Bundestag of the Socialist Reich Party , joined the company's Madrid representation, which was headed by Otto Skorzeny . At that time, Dorls was wanted by two public prosecutors for various criminal acts. Skorzeny was also on the run at the time.

literature

  • Kathrin Engel, German cultural policy in occupied Paris 1940–1944: Film and Theater , Munich: Oldenbourg 2003, ISBN 3-486-56739-X Online at perspectivia.net .
  • Eberhard Jäckel, France in Hitler's Europe: Germany's French policy in World War II . Stuttgart 1966.
  • Eckard Michels: The German Institute in Paris 1940–1944. A contribution to the German-French cultural relations and the foreign cultural policy of the Third Reich. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1993 ISBN 3-515-06381-1 .
  • Rita Thalmann : Synchronization in France 1940–1944 From the Franz. By Eva Groepler. European publishing house EVA, Hamburg 1999 (Original: La mise au pas) ISBN 3434500626 .

Web links

  • JAN POPP-SEWING: Denkmalhof becomes dual practice RP from December 2, 2011 (newspaper article with renovation plan for Villa Lucht 2011)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Nazi conspiracy. Nau-Nau . In: Der Spiegel . No. 4 , 1953 ( online - Jan. 21, 1953 ).
  2. ↑ Eckard Michels : The German Institute in Paris 1940-1944 . Franz Steiner Verlag , 1993, p. 132.
  3. ↑ a b c Goebbels estate. The stenographer should know . In: Der Spiegel . No. 4 , 1951 ( online - Jan. 24, 1951 ).
  4. ↑ Maiden name after Beates Baldow's dissertation from 2012
  5. ↑ Beate Baldow counts Ms. Lucht in the "inner circle" of the conspiratorial group Episode or Danger? The Naumann affair. Diss. Phil. FU Berlin 2012, p. 313
  6. ^ Kathrin Engel, German cultural policy in occupied Paris 1940-1944: Film and Theater , Munich: Oldenbourg 2003, ISBN 3-486-56739-X , page 131f.
  7. ^ Katrin Engel P. 109 after: Andrea Brill: Review by K. Engel: German cultural policy in occupied Paris 1940-1944
  8. ^ Kathrin Engel: German cultural policy in occupied Paris 1940-1944: film and theater .
    • P. 200: Lucht as the superior of the censors, who in disputed cases attended the theater performances himself;
    • P. 203: Explanation of the German censorship with French bodies; May 1941
    • P. 219: Prohibition of the play La Machine à écrire ; May / June 1941
    • P. 220: Lucht tries to demand a theater commissioner from the Vichy government (ultimately unsuccessful); several memos, May 1941
    • P. 297: Lucht tries unsuccessfully to relax the ban on the performance of French pieces in Germany; November 1941, similar to p. 19: This is about French guest performances in the Reich.
    • P. 305: German cultural propaganda = German theater performances in Paris that Lucht negotiates with Berlin; December 1941
  9. ↑ Memo of the Special Staff Music Research, there also the name Sonderführer after: Handbuch German Musicians 1933–1945 (PDF; 6.0 MB), p. 8606. This memo refers to further archives of the Federal Archives (NS 30/65), according to the internet offer of the Federal Archives, these are files of the task force Reichsleiter Rosenberg with the content "Securing of cultural property in the occupied western territories, in particular of musical instruments, records and music literature in France and the forwarding to other places"
  10. ^ Epting's records according to: Eckard Michels: The German Institute in Paris 1940–1944 . Franz Steiner Verlag, 1993, p. 132
  11. ↑ a b denkmalgalerie.meerbuscher-kulturkreis.de
  12. ^ Kristian Buchna: National collection on the Rhine and Ruhr. Munich: Oldenbourg, 2010, p. 117.
  13. ↑ a b Heiko Buschke. German press, right-wing extremism and the National Socialist past in the Adenauer era. Campus Verlag, 2003. p. 443.
  14. ^ Franz Menges :  Naumann, Werner. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 773 f. ( Digitized version ).
  15. ↑ a b Naumann discharge. The offer of the CDU . In: Der Spiegel . No. 32 , 1953 ( online - Aug. 5, 1953 ).
  16. ^ Kristian Buchna: National collection on the Rhine and Ruhr. Munich: Oldenbourg, 2010, p. 127.
  17. ↑ Heiko Buschke. German press, right-wing extremism and the National Socialist past in the Adenauer era. Campus Verlag, 2003. pp. 442f.
  18. ↑ Sefton Delmer. Black propaganda . In: Der Spiegel . No. 37 , 1954 ( online - Sept. 8, 1954 ).
  19. ↑ Fritz Dorls . In: Der Spiegel . No. 38 , 1953 ( online - 16 September 1953 ).
  20. ↑ Diplomatic Handel. Preventive measures . In: Der Spiegel . No. 37 , 1957 ( online - June 5, 1957 ).
personal data
SURNAME Lucht, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German propaganda officer in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH 19th century or 20th century
DATE OF DEATH 1951