Hugo Wittrock

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Hugo Wittrock (* July 7 jul. / 19th July  1873 greg. In Laugo (now Laugu ) on Saaremaa , Governorate of Estonia ; † 25. August 1958 in Lübeck ) was an insurance specialist , Baltic German politician and Acting Mayor of the city Riga 1941-1944.

Life

Wittrock was a son of the estate manager Friedrich W. Wittrock, who immigrated from Holstein , and his wife Amalie nee. Shasmin who was of Estonian origin. The later pastor Viktor Wittrock was his older brother. As a student at the grammar school in Arensburg , he experienced the Russification policy in the Baltic States at the time. Wittrock studied for four years at the Riga Polytechnic , but then became an insurance officer. As such, he got to know Russia as far as Siberia. In 1908 he set up his own business by founding an insurance company in Riga. Wittrock played a leading role in the cultural work of the Germans, for example with the German Association in Livonia and in the "German Men's Singing". He was also a city ​​councilor in Riga. Thanks to his initiative, a German apprentice craftsman's home and a German apprentice business man's home were founded in the city, both of which he managed. After the conquest of Riga in World War I by German troops in 1917, Wittrock became an advisor for urban affairs to the German government. After the end of the war he fled to Germany. In 1925 he returned to Riga, where his company had continued, and from 1930 to 1936 he was President of the Riga Trade Association. In 1936 he moved to Königsberg (Prussia) as a pensioner .

Wittrock was a close confidante of the National Socialist Alfred Rosenberg , with whom he had been on friendly terms in the Corps Rubonia since his studies. Despite his advanced age, Wittrock volunteered for work in his old homeland during World War II in 1941. At Rosenberg's mediation, Wittrock was appointed provisional Lord Mayor of Riga ("Stadtkommissar" or District Commissioner of Riga-Stadt) after the Wehrmacht invaded the Baltic States in 1941 and remained in office until the Germans withdrew in 1944. As such, he was subordinate to the General Commissioner (for Latvia ) in the Reich Commissioner for Ostland, Otto-Heinrich Drechsler . Rosenberg intended to "prevent the concentration of anti-German, Latvian intellectual circles in the city administration," because he saw Riga as a "German city".

Wittrock implemented these requirements on the one hand by looking specifically for Baltic German employees for the city administration, a practice that could not be observed in other departments of the German civil administration. On the other hand, he pursued a certain "Germanization policy", for example by re-establishing the German Cathedral Community in Riga and specifically renaming the streets of Riga. Some street names with national Latvian or Russian references disappeared.

Wittrock could not join the NSDAP due to a lack of German citizenship (he was a citizen of Latvia ) and was therefore the only area commissioner who was not a member of the party.

In September 1944 Wittrock had to leave Riga as a result of the advance of the Red Army . In the post-war years he "had a hard time" in Germany, which he "endured without bitterness as a devout Christian" (Wilhelm Lenz senior in the preface to "Memories"). In 1958 Wittrock died as a result of a traffic accident in Lübeck.

Wittrock's memoirs, written up to 1950, were published posthumously.

Fonts

  • Does Riga need a German commercial apprenticeship home? Lecture given on March 14, 1912 at the Riga Commercial Association. Rigaer Tageblatt, Riga 1912.
  • The craftsman . Löffler, Riga 1914.
  • Becoming and development of the German boyhood at the Baltic universities. 2 forays into cultural history . Attached work on Vom Bursenknecht bis zum Farbstudenten . G. Löffler, Riga 1924.
  • The German male song in the Baltic States . H. Wittrock Directorate, Riga 1933.
  • Festive report on the 25th anniversary of the Riga German apprenticeship home on June 1, 1934 . German craft apprentice home, Riga 1934.
  • Memories (= publication series of the Carl-Schirren-Gesellschaft, Volume 2). Edited by Wilhelm Lenz sen. and Wilhelm Lenz junior: based on a manuscript A moving life. Memories of a Baltic German . Verlag Nordland-Druck, Lüneburg 1979. ISSN  0171-1989
  • Becoming and developing German boys at the Baltic universities: a foray into cultural history . WJK-Verlag, Hilden 2004.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://territorial.de/person/personw.htm#fnverweiswi
  2. ↑ Seppo Myllyniemi: The reorganization of the Baltic States, 1941-1944. On the National Socialist content of the German occupation policy of Riga-Stadt until 1944. Helsinki 1973, p. 91
  3. ↑ Kārlis Kangeris: The Return and Use of the Baltic Germans in the General District of Latvia 1941–1945. In: Michael Garleff (Ed.): Baltic Germans, Weimar Republic and Third Reich. Volume 2. Böhlau, Weimar 2007, p. 408.
  4. ↑ Kangeris: Return . P. 419.
  5. ↑ Helmut Krausnick (co-author), Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm (co-author): The Troop of the Weltanschauungskrieges (= sources and representations on contemporary history, volume 22). Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1981, p. 329.
personal data
SURNAME Wittrock, Hugo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Baltic politician and acting lord mayor of the city of Riga
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Laugo on Ösel , Estonia
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1958
Place of death Lübeck