Johann Habben

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Johann Habben (born February 9, 1875 in Bagband / Ostfriesland , † February 12, 1958 in Hanover ) was a German police chief . The law graduate and corrupt civil servant had secretly informed the National Socialists about impending police measures even before the " seizure of power " . It was Habben “who even before the establishment of the first German concentration camp in Dachau ” gave the “suggestion” to set up assembly camps for “ protective prisoners ” and thus initiated the Moringen concentration camp .

Life

During his studies in Göttingen he became a member of the Brunsviga fraternity in 1896 . After studying law, Johann Habben joined the state police administration in Hanover on January 1, 1901. During the First World War he took over the management of the local criminal police .

In the 1920s of the Weimar Republic , Habben appeared in particular as head of Political Department 1 A , i.e. the political police , and as deputy to the Social Democratic Police President Erwin Barth , who, however, was removed from office on February 12, 1932 by the National Socialists. In March 1932 the Hanoverian leadership of the SPD complained to the Prussian Interior Minister Carl Severing about "the unmistakable reluctance of the Hanoverian police towards National Socialist attacks." The SPD attributed "this passive attitude to the fact that the leadership of the political police"

"... is not in the hands of the responsible police chief, but in the hands of what we consider to be an arch-reactionary government councilor, Habben, who is covered in every respect by the police chief."

On February 16, 1933, the SA leader Viktor Lutze was appointed police president. In the meantime, Habben had already at the beginning of February had the leadership of SS Section IV certify that "he had served the National Socialist movement well long before 1933":

“[Habben] has ... for several years issued warnings to a middleman to political as well as to SA and SS agencies ... regarding intended police actions! Furthermore, he has taken advantage of his position at every opportunity to the advantage of our movement. Habben is not a member of our party for understandable reasons. "

On March 16, 1933, “before the first German concentration camp was set up in Dachau ”, Johann Habben suggested to the district president in Hanover that all prisoners who had already been held in “ protective custody ” in police and court prisons should be transferred to a collection camp. As a result of the “independently found possible solutions” called the Moringen concentration camp that was initiated in this way, the first hundred prisoners from Rinteln and Hanover soon arrived there .

After Viktor Lutze had been appointed President of the Province of Hanover on March 28, 1933 , the National Socialists thanked Habben for the good service they had "already performed before 1933" by appointing Habben as police chief. Since then, Johann Habben has resided in the police headquarters on Hardenbergstrasse .

On April 1, 1933, the day of the attack on the Hanoverian trade union building by the SS and the first anti- Jewish boycott actions in Hanover, Johann Habben officially joined the NSDAP .

On the same day the machines and rooms of the communist Neue Arbeiter Zeitung were confiscated in favor of the Lower Saxony daily newspaper , the “Kampfblatt für den National Socialismus” , under Habben, who had risen to the position of police chief, “without any legal basis ”. In mid-April 1933 this also happened to the technical facilities of the social democratic magazine Volkswille . Due to the targeted parallelism of the illegal events in connection with the exposure as an official NSDAP member "the impression [...] arises that he was following a plan that had been cherished for a long time", similar to the police director Albert Gnade in Goettingen .

Only a few months later Habben took over for a short time in personal union from July 24 to September 30, 1933, the management of the Hanover state police station , "which, under the designation" Secret State Police "( Gestapo ), was to become a synonym for the National Socialist reign of terror".

On October 31, 1936, Johann Habben was retired . He died in Hanover in 1958.

literature

  • Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume 1: Politicians. Sub-Volume 2: F-H. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0809-X , p. 210.
  • Klaus Mlynek (edit.): Gestapo Hanover reports ... Police and government reports for central and southern Lower Saxony between 1933 and 1937 , Hildesheim: Lax, 1986, ISBN 3-7848-3151-6 , pp. 25f. and passim
  • Klaus Mlynek: HABBEN, Johann. In: Dirk Böttcher, Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 144; online through google books

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Klaus Mlynek: HABBEN, Johann (see literature).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Klaus Mlynek: Gestapo. In: History of the City of Hanover , Vol. 2, From the beginning of the 19th century to the present , ed. by Klaus Mlynek and Waldemar R. Röhrbein , with the collaboration of Dieter Brosius , Carl-Hans Hauptmeyer , Siegfried Müller and Helmut Plath , Schlütersche , Hannover 1994, ISBN 3-87706-364-0 , p. 502f .; online through google books
  3. ↑ a b c d Ernst Böhme, Rudolf von Thadden (ed.): Göttingen. History of a university town , Vol. 3: From the Prussian medium-sized town to the large town in southern Lower Saxony 1866 - 1989 (with tables), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1999, ISBN 3-525-36198-X , pp. 171, 176f .; online through google books
  4. ↑ a b c Klaus Mlynek: Lutze, Viktor. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 418.
  5. ^ Klaus Mlynek: The "Gleichschaltung" of the city administration. In: History of the City of Hanover , Vol. 2 ... pp. 502f .; online through google books
  6. ↑ Helmut Knocke , Hugo Thielen : Goseriede 4. In: Hannover Art and Culture Lexicon , p. 125.
  7. ^ Klaus Mlynek: 1933. In: Hannover Chronik , p. 172ff .; online through google books
  8. ^ Klaus Mlynek: Niedersächsische Tageszeitung, in: Stadtlexikon Hannover, p. 472.
  9. ^ Klaus Mlynek: Gestapo. In: History of the City of Hanover ... , p. 530ff.
personal data
SURNAME Habben, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German police president in Hanover, corrupt civil servant and NSDAP member
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Bagband , East Frisia
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 1958
Place of death near Hanover