Hermann Oppenländer

Hermann Oppenländer (born September 1, 1900 in Mühlacker ; died September 23, 1973 in Pforzheim ) was a primary school teacher and full-time district leader of the NSDAP .

Education and early employment

After participating in the First World War , he began training at the teachers' seminars in Kirchheim / Teck , Künzelsau , Heilbronn and Backnang , which he successfully completed in 1920 with the first and in 1922 with the second service examination. This was followed by activities as a primary school teacher in Beilstein, Gschwend, Dörzbach and Vaihingen / Enz, where he was appointed rector.

Activity as a full-time district leader of the NSDAP

Oppenländer joined the NSDAP on June 12, 1926 (membership number 38.416). After working as a primary school teacher in Dörzbach, where he built up a local branch of the NSDAP and acted as a senior group leader of the SA , he retired from school service in 1934. Subsequently, he worked full-time as district leader of the NSDAP, first in Vaihingen / Enz (1934–1937) and then until the end of the war in Schwäbisch Gmünd (1937–1945), where he succeeded Alfons Baur. In addition, he was a member of the NSFK , the NSV and the NSLB and from 1938 was a Sturmbannführer of the SS .

In 1938 he was responsible for a serious traffic accident when he drove drunk in his car in the Rems. Although the local newspapers reported about this with a photo, Oppenländer's name was not mentioned.

In Schwäbisch Gmünd, Oppenländer tried to implement the NSDAP's claim to leadership in the municipality without compromise. The so-called Pfarrhaussturm in Schwäbisch Gmünd and Waldstetten in 1938, the Reichspogromnacht and the confiscation of Catholic institutions in 1940/41, including St. Ludwig, St. Elisabeth, St. Josef, St. Bernhard and the Canisiushaus, in which Buchländer and other eastern settlers should be accommodated. Between April 1941 and October 1942 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht as a war correspondent . Shortly after his return to Schwäbisch Gmünd, he also took over the district leadership of the NSDAP in Göppingen on March 22, 1943 .

A few days before the end of the war, the two civilians Robert Haidner and Heinrich Propst , who were drunk on April 13, 1945, publicly announced “ Hitler was lying! Long live Colonel Stauffenberg ! Long live freedom! Had called "without state court and probably on the direct orders Oppen lander executed .

Life after 1945

Although he tried to break away with other party comrades just a few hours before the US Army took Schwäbisch Gmünd on April 20, 1945, he was finally arrested by the Allies in Vorarlberg . In March 1948 he was classified as one of the main perpetrators through the compulsory judicial tribunal procedure and sentenced to seven years in a labor camp , loss of assets, pension entitlements and the right to vote and be elected. Just a few weeks earlier, he and other people had also been called to court by the Ellwangen district court . a. for the killing of the two civilians Haidner and Probst and for inciting them to break the peace, he was sentenced to a prison term of twelve years and four months in prison. As early as 1951 he was released from prison in Schwäbisch Hall penitentiary and his remaining sentence was suspended. Since he was banned from public service activities and employment until April 1958, he was initially unable to return to school despite several attempts and initially worked as a representative of a teaching material company and in 1955 as a textile representative.

After Oppenländer's two appeals for clemency in January 1953 and February 1954 had been rejected due to the gravity of his guilt, he benefited from the law on the uniform termination of political cleansing of July 13, 1953 and a pardon from the Ministry of Justice of March 19, 1956, according to which people A use in the public service was made possible again with prison sentences. From August 1, 1956, he was again employed as a teacher in the Mühlacker school district .

In April 1959, Fritz Helmstädter , a member of the social democratic state parliament, became aware of Oppenländer and his renewed activity as a teacher. Due to a nervous breakdown, Oppenländer was certified on October 12, 1959, to be temporarily unable to work. Although he continued to be employed as a teacher, since April 1960 he had been entrusted exclusively with office and organizational activities at the Mühlacker Education Authority. Finally, in October 1956, the Ministry of Culture delegated him to the Württemberg State Library , an alternative magazine in Ludwigsburg. He worked here until his retirement in 1964. He died on September 23, 1973 in Pforzheim.

Service diary

When he took office as Gmünder Kreisleiter of the NSDAP, Oppenländer began a service diary , which he continued until 1940 and in which he noted both official and private matters in mostly very brief form. The diary was published as a digital edition by the Schwäbisch Gmünd city archive in 2019 and is available open access:

• David Schnur (arrangement): The service diary of the NSDAP district leader Hermann Oppenländer in Schwäbisch Gmünd (1937–1940) (= sources from the Schwäbisch Gmünd city archive. Digital Editions 1), Schwäbisch Gmünd 2019 ( online ).

literature

• Bertram Hoffmann and Benjamin Preiß: The diary of the NSDAP district leader Hermann Oppenländer , Schwäbisch Gmünd April 2, 2019, online .
• Franz Merkle: Hermann Oppenländer - "He is wonderful at politics with the hammer" . In: Wolfgang Proske (ed.): Täter. Helper. Free riders Vol. 8: People affected by the Nazi regime from the north of today's Baden-Württemberg . Gerstetten 2018, pp. 279–294.
• Franz Merkle: Hermann Oppenländer - Gmünder Kreisleiter back in school. Or: from the difficult handling of the past . In: einhorn-Jahrbuch 2016, pp. 267–272.
• Ulrich Müller: Schwäbisch Gmünd under the swastika . Einhorn-Verlag, Schwäbisch Gmünd 2017, pp. 44–46.
• Ulrich Müller: On the history of the Gmünder NSDAP . In: Gmünder Studien Volume 8, 2010, pp. 187-216, especially pp. 200-204.
• Christian Rüter and Dick W. de Mildt (eds.): Justice and Nazi crimes. Collection of (West) German criminal convictions for Nazi homicide crimes 1945–2012 . 49 vol., Amsterdam / Munich 1968–2012, here vol. 2: procedure no. 035–073 (1947–1948), serial no. No. 038, pp. 75-102.14.

Web links

• Oppenländer's case file in Ludwigsburg, State Archives, EL 902/7 Bü 10968
• Hermann Oppenländer on LEO-BW