Hermann Cordemann

Hermann Cordemann (born July 4, 1891 ; † 1975 ) was a German officer and politician (NSDAP).

Live and act

After attending school, Cordemann embarked on an officer career. In the First World War he made it up to the captain in the general staff . Most recently he was used as an Ib (Transport General Staff Officer ) in the German military mission in Constantinople and in the Asian Corps. In this capacity he met Kurt von Schleicher , then head of the political department of the OHL, at a lecture at the headquarters of the Supreme Army Command in Kolberg . At Schleicher's instigation, Cordemann was assigned to the "Foreign Armies East" department in 1919, where he remained active until he left the army in 1920.

In 1920 Cordemann switched to industry: for the next ten years, he worked for AEG mainly abroad, particularly in Mexico , the United States and Spain . When Cordemann returned to Germany in 1930, he resumed his relationship with Schleicher, who had meanwhile advanced to become head of the ministerial office in the Reichswehr Ministry (≈ State Secretary of the Ministry). At Schleicher's request, Cordemann joined the NSDAP, which was then rapidly rising, as his personal confidante and observer . Cordemann was particularly suitable for this task as his connection to Schleicher was not recognizable to the party due to his long absence from Germany.

Due to his general staff training - a qualification rare in the party - Cordemann took on leading positions in the NSDAP within a short time: He became one of the most important employees of the economic policy department of the NSDAP and a close confidante of the party’s head of the Reich’s organization, Gregor Strasser , who was after Hitler was considered the second most important man in the NSDAP. In the years 1931 to 1933, Cordemann Schleicher was able to inform about the plans that were forged there and the activities taking place there through his intimate knowledge of the processes in the leadership of the NSDAP. In addition, he acted as one of several links between Schleicher and Strasser. This became particularly important in the winter crisis of 1932/33, when Schleicher Strasser tried, with Cordemann's help, to break with Hitler, to leave the party - followed by his, Strasser's, large followers - and to join his, Schleicher's, government . After this attempt to split the NSDAP failed because Strasser could not bring himself to confront Hitler, but resigned from all party offices, Cordemann also withdrew from the party leadership.

In the years that followed, Cordemann took on managerial roles at Siemens-Schuckert AG , into which he married Werner Siemens through his connection with a granddaughter . During the Second World War, Cordemann was a member of the board of the Škoda works in Prague . In May 1945 he was expelled from the Czech capital.

In the post-war period Cordemann lived in Minden in Westphalia.

literature

• Udo Kissenkoetter: Gregor Strasser and the beginnings of the NSDAP , 1972.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Daniel C. Schmid: Dreiecksgeschichten . P. 144.
2. ↑ Hans Erich Volkmann: Economy and Expansion. Basic features of the Nazi economic policy . 2003, p. 63.