Hermann Oeser (guest speaker)

Hermann Friedrich Oeser (born May 3, 1899 in Theeberg , † January 18, 1969 in Hamburg ) was a German pharmacist and speaker of the NSDAP .

Origin and education

Hermann Oeser was a son of the businessman and innkeeper Carl Heinrich Oeser (born June 6, 1874 in Theeberg; † March 17, 1956 in Eddelak ) and his wife Margaretha Helene, née Hennings (born August 31, 1874 in Kämpenberg ; † October 27 1957 in Eddelak). He went to a village school in Eddelak for two years and from 1909 to the secondary school in Itzehoe . When the First World War broke out , he was involved as a patriot in the Eddelak youth armed forces and in collecting raw materials. In 1917 he passed the school-leaving examination and immediately signed up for military service. Until January 1919 he served in a regiment of the aviation artillery located in Altona-Bahrenfeld and participated, among other things, in the air defense in Neubreisach .

At the beginning of 1919 Oeser began a pharmaceutical training at the Löwen-Apotheke in Heide , which he finished in March 1921. Then he worked for a short time in Burg and Harburg . In the summer of 1921 he began studying pharmacy at the University of Marburg and later continued this at the Technical University of Braunschweig. In July 1923 he finished his studies with the exam. On November 16 of the same year he married Antje Cäcilie Grethe Peters (born March 28, 1899 in Westerbüttel ), with whom he had a daughter.

After graduating, Oeser worked in a pharmacy in Schleswig . In March 1925 he switched to the Adler pharmacy in Harburg as an assistant. From 1931 to 1934 he took over the administration of the Elisabeth pharmacy in Albersdorf . In May 1934 he got a license for his own pharmacy, which he had in Hamburg-Veddel from the following month until May 1945. From the spring of 1933 he headed the West Coast district of the German Pharmacists' Association.

Political commitment

Even as a schoolboy, Oeser showed himself to be a pronounced nationalist and for this reason joined the NSDAP in June 1921. After they had been banned in the meantime, he re-entered in July 1925. During the time in Harburg he was active in party politics. From 1927 to 1929 he headed the local branch of the Harburg NSDAP. In October 1927 he also took over the post of deputy Gauleiter of the Hannover-Ost group. From 1929 to 1930 he took over the chairmanship of the "Uschla" (investigation and mediation committee) of the NSDAP for the Lower Elbe. In mid-May 1930 he was appointed NSDAP district leader for the Harburg-Land district.

As the district leader of the NSDAP, Oeser became known nationwide as an agitating propaganda spokesman. From August 1928 to May 1930 he gave only four speeches. From July 1930, however, he performed almost every day in small towns and villages around Harburg. The NSDAP's own or closely related press organs quickly described him as a speaker who made an impact in his native dialect. Since he gave his speeches in Low German , he reached his audience quickly and transported and disguised ideological views by using the local language of his audience. From March 1931 he was considered an official Gau speaker who was allowed to give speeches that were partially checked and approved. He himself kept a list of his speeches in which he noted more than 2000 appearances.

From the spring of 1934, the NSDAP had established itself in northern Germany. Oeser then appeared at job-specific meetings throughout the German Empire and spoke Standard German. He also spoke often in companies in Hamburg and at SA branches. At the beginning of January 1935 he was appointed advisor for national political training courses for the SA group Hansa, to which he had belonged since the beginning of July 1932. At the end of January 1939 he was appointed SA Oberführer.

During speeches in factories, Oeser spoke out against an allegedly Marxist class struggle ideology and presented the German national comrades as part of a people's body that also included workers. It was unusual that Oeser turned to the Nazi women in particular , supported by the idea that they could play an important role in integrating the workers into the national body. After the beginning of the war, he advocated Hitler's expansion plans and tried to ideologically strengthen the fighting spirit and readiness for defense. Until 1941 he spoke mostly in northern Germany, but only rarely spoke Low German. He now visited air bases; Naval bases and operations important to the war effort, where he spoke to soldiers, SA members and workers. From the beginning of 1942 he repeatedly visited troops on several sections of the front for a long time for the German Labor Front in order to ideologically strengthen and control the soldiers who lived there. He visited Norway, France, Holland, Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Estonia and Russia, among others. He also spoke to civilians in Silesia , the Sudetenland and Gdansk .

British soldiers arrested Oeser in Harburg at the beginning of May 1945. He remained in Gadeland internment camp and imprisoned until September 1946 . He was then taken to the Eselheide internment camp. The British military government forbade him to continue operating his pharmacy. From mid-June 1947 to early August 1948 he lived in the Adelheide camp near Delmenhorst . Then he moved with his family to his parents in Eddelak; The family had to leave their apartment in Hamburg in July 1945.

As part of a denazification process , Oeser was considered to be less polluted since April 1949 (Group III). He objected to the resulting conditions, which were completely rejected in early June 1949. In June 1951 he lost his pharmacy, which had been administered in trust until then, and received compensation in return. He then tried over a longer period of time to be classified as exonerated (Group V), which he succeeded in April 1954. Since November 1952 he owned shares in a pharmacy in Bahrenfeld , which he managed himself according to the new grouping. In 1955 he applied for POW compensation , which was rejected in September 1957.

Oeser described himself as the "oldest fighter" of the North German NSDAP until the end of his life . From his point of view, he was the first North German party member to be arrested after the end of the war and was the last to be released.

classification

Oeser became important in the context of National Socialist politics because he gave numerous speeches and addressed a wide audience. As one of the few agitators he used the Low German language as an effective stylistic device. In the early days of the NSDAP, he created his own profile and a special field of activity. He made a big impact with his speeches, also by using North German ideologems . This was, for example, the Dithmarsch self- image that resulted from the battle of Hemmingstedt . In addition, he included the threat and defense against dangers in the area of ​​dyke construction or seafaring in his speeches by comparing the dangers resulting from the forces of nature with an allegedly prevailing political emergency that the NSDAP could avert. He also pointed out that he fought as a nationalist in World War I.

Oeser did not develop his own profile as a political actor, but achieved a great impact as a demagogue due to numerous speeches .

literature

• Kay Dohnke: Oeser, Hermann . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 11-2000. ISBN 3-529-02640-9 , pp. 298-301.
• Kay Dohnke: The first and the last. Comments on the NSDAP agitator Hermann Oeser. In: Information on contemporary history in Schleswig-Holstein. Issue 25, August 1994 ( online )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kay Dohnke: Oeser, Hermann . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 11 - 2000. ISBN 3-529-02640-9 , p. 298.
2. ↑ Kay Dohnke: Oeser, Hermann . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 11-2000. ISBN 3-529-02640-9 , pp. 298-299.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Kay Dohnke: Oeser, Hermann . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 11 - 2000. ISBN 3-529-02640-9 , p. 299.
4. ↑ Kay Dohnke: Oeser, Hermann . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 11-2000. ISBN 3-529-02640-9 , pp. 299-300.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Kay Dohnke: Oeser, Hermann . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 11 - 2000. ISBN 3-529-02640-9 , p. 300.
6. ↑ Kay Dohnke: Oeser, Hermann . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 11-2000. ISBN 3-529-02640-9 , pp. 300-301.
7. ↑ Kay Dohnke: Oeser, Hermann . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 11 - 2000. ISBN 3-529-02640-9 , p. 301.