Institute for Estates

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The Institute for Estates was a social science research institute and the central institution of the so-called tension circle in the time of National Socialism . It existed in Düsseldorf from 1933 to 1936 . The management and teaching staff of the institute consisted predominantly of NSDAP members, who at the same time favored a corporate state designed by Othmar Spann . Initially tolerated at the highest level, the institute was closed in 1936 because of deviations from National Socialist teaching and its relatives were persecuted.

Prehistory and origin

As early as the 1920s, Spann systematically established close contacts with supporters in Germany. Some of his students there now had influential positions in the economy and, after the Nazis came to power, also in the NSDAP. On May 19, 1933, he and Walter Heinrich were granted an audience with Adolf Hitler in Berlin . There they wanted to present the booth idea, but that failed. On the same day, however, the industrialist Fritz Thyssen received Hitler's approval for the establishment of the Institute for Estates. Thyssen then also became the main sponsor of the institute, which he saw as his own. He acted as chairman of the board of trustees.

Initially, it was managed by Spann's confidante Walter Heinrich , then by Düsseldorf lawyer and business advisor Paul Karrenbrock. The institute offered courses and weekend seminars for executives from business, administration and the NSDAP. It was housed in the Wilhelm-Marx-Haus , today Heinrich-Heine-Allee 53. Initially, Walter Heinrich wanted to make the magazine Ständisches Leben (Berlin – Vienna) the institute's publication organ, but then the decision was made to use the Braune Wirtschaftspost (Berlin – Düsseldorf).

Prohibition

Conflicts with leaders of the NSDAP led to the closure of the institute in 1936. On the one hand, institute staff were accused of deviations from and also opposing positions to the National Socialist party program. On the other hand, Robert Ley had founded two competing, class-oriented schools for the German Labor Front in August 1933 . In particular, a work that Karrenbrock had written on the “ Jewish question ” intensified the conflict. The writing was banned and its author arrested.

Justus Beyer was assigned to the institute and in 1936 wrote a confidential report for the SS security service . It says:

“Instead of building an institute according to the guidelines of the Führer with National Socialists, the tension circle of the National Socialist movement slipped an institute whose tasks were fixed from the beginning and did not coincide with the intentions of the Führer. This institute was therefore not in a position to work out a useful National Socialist class program. That meant: the institute, which should have become the focus of the struggle against the enemies of National Socialism in the economy, will itself become a rallying point for opposing forces. "

Attending events at the Institute for Estates was forbidden, members of the institute were excluded from the NSDAP, arrested and imprisoned, and some were deported to concentration camps. In April 1936 the institute was officially closed.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Karrenbrock: The solution to the Jewish question in Germany. At the same time, a scientific examination of the world of ideas of the 'myth' . Bagel, Düsseldorf 1935.
  2. ↑ Quoted from: "Institute for Estates Düsseldorf 1933 to 1936", AGSÖ