Hermann Fobke

Hermann Franz Arthur Fobke (born November 4, 1899 in Greifswald , † April 19, 1943 in Kerch ) was a paramilitary activist and politician ( NSDAP ). Fobke held the post of Deputy Gauleiter of the NSDAP-Gaues Hannover-Süd from 1925 to 1928.

Life and activity

Fobke (first row, third from left) among the other defendants in the “Little Hitler Trial”, photo from April 1924.

Fobke was a son of Gustav Fobke and his wife Katharina, geb. Enamel. After attending primary school and a humanistic grammar school in Stettin , Fobke took part in the First World War as a pioneer from June 1917 to November 1918 . After the end of the war he studied law at the University of Göttingen . In 1919 he became a member of the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund , before joining the NSDAP for the first time in 1923.

After the formation of the shock troop Adolf Hitler , a personal bodyguard of the NSDAP chief organized under paramilitary auspices, in May 1923 Fobke became a member of this unit, with which he took part in the Hitler putsch on November 8 and 9, 1923 . After the putsch was put down, Fobke was arrested, indicted in the Munich People's Court together with 40 members of the shock troop in April 1924 and sentenced to 15 months of imprisonment with the prospect of early release after serving a few months. In the Landsberg Fortress he shared his captivity with Adolf Hitler , Rudolf Hess , Hermann Kriebel , Friedrich Weber and 21 other shock troop men. During his imprisonment, Fobke worked on a legal dissertation , which he never finished.

In November 1924 he was released from custody and returned to Göttingen on behalf of Hitler, where he and his fellow student and friend Ludolf Haase worked on the regional development of the Nazi movement - and in particular the preparations for the establishment of a regional section of the NSDAP after the foreseeable future Reorganization of the then still banned NSDAP - took over.

After the party ban was lifted, Fobke rejoined the NSDAP in March 1925 ( membership number 2.775). As the right hand of his friend Haase, meanwhile first Gauleiter of the NSDAP Gaues Hannover-Süd, he was deputy Gauleiter of this Gau from 1925 to 1928. In this function, Fobke participated on September 10, 1925 in the Westphalian town of Hagen in the establishment of the so-called Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Nord- und Westdeutsche Gaue of the NSDAP , an association of Gau leaders of the Gaue Rhineland-North and South, Westphalia, Hanover, Hanover-South, Hessen-Nassau, Lüneburg-Stade and Schleswig-Holstein, for mutual coordination of organizational and propaganda work. Centrally involved in this working group were Robert Ley , Heinz Haake , Franz Pfeffer von Salomon , Karl Dincklage , Otto Telschow , Hinrich Lohse , Theodor Vahlen , Ludolf Haase and Fobke as well as Gregor Strasser as chairman and Joseph Goebbels as managing director. In the background, the working group should also act as a counterweight to the party leadership of the NSDAP in Munich, which was dominated by Hermann Esser at the time , and whose course (and in particular the influence of Esser) the majority of the North and West German leaders of the NSDAP extremely were critical.

From 1928 onwards, Fobke stepped more and more into the background politically: from 1928 to 1932 he was the training director for the district of Greater Stettin, then from 1932 to 1934 he was still chairman of the NSDAP's arbitration committee for the Pomeranian Gau (Gaugericht Pommern) and Gau inspector in Pomerania. In addition, Fobke belonged to the SA since March 1925 and again since 1933, in which he was promoted to Sturmführer (July 1, 1933), Obersturmführer (November 9, 1934) and Sturmbannführer (1935).

From June 1942 until his death in April 1943, Fobke was a special leader in a propaganda department in the Caucasus . He died after suffering a heart attack during an Allied air raid in Kerch .

Archival material

• Institute for Contemporary History: Fa 523/1: Court files (Danneberg, Fiehler, Feichtmayr, Fischer, Fröschl, Fuchs, Geiselbrecht, Gerum, Hauenstein, Haug, Heiden, Hirschberg, Hoff, Hutter, Kallenbach, Knobloch, Krüger, Laforce, Leyendecker, Mahr , Bricklayer, Reichart, Rosenwink, Schneider, Schmied, Schön, Simmerding, Stollwerck, Steinbinder, Strauss, Wegelin, Wintersberger) November 8th and 9th 1923-28. April 1924: People's Court for the District Court District Munich I: Criminal case against Josef Berchtold, Emil Maurice, Julius Schaub, Hermann Fobke, Walther Hewel and others for aiding and abetting high treason (participation in the November coup 1923); Judgment of April 28, 1924 (24 sheets)

literature

• Kurt Pätzold / Manfred Weissbecker: History of the NSDAP 1920-1945 , 2009.
• Albrecht Tyrell: From “Drummer” to “Leader”. The change in Hitler's self-image between 1919 and 1924 and the development of the NSDAP. Fink, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-7705-1221-9 , p. 170 , short vita p. 278, note 205 .