Johann Rickmers

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The putschists killed on November 9, 1923 were honored between 1933 and 1945 as " martyrs of the movement " and at the same time instrumentalized by Nazi propaganda ; Rickmers 2nd row from the top, 3rd from the left.

Johann Rickmers , called Hans Rickmers (born May 7, 1881 in Bremen , † November 28, 1923 in Munich ) was a German putschist. He became known as one of the 16 killed participants in the failed Hitler putsch .

biography

Rickmers came from the famous Bremen shipowner family Rickmers as the son of Wilhelm Rickmers . After attending school, he worked as an apprentice at the Erpenbeck estate near Lengerich in Westphalia. In the meantime he belonged from 1902 to 1904 to the 1st Leib-Husaren-Regiment (Totenkopfhusaren). Subsequently, through his marriage, Rickmers became the owner of the manor on Gut Vorlage at Lengerich. From 1914 he took part in the First World War as a lieutenant , first in the east ( Courland , Lithuania and Galicia ) and from 1917 in the west . He was awarded the Iron Cross and the Hanseatic Cross.

After 1918 Rickmers got involved in the nationalist nationalist military association movement. He became leader of a battalion of the Oberland Freikorps . His country house in Oberaltig near Herrsching am Ammersee became the focus of a subgroup of the Oberlanders who set up their headquarters and their weapons depot there.

In November 1923, Rickmers and the Bund Oberland participated in the failed Hitler putsch in Munich . On the night of November 8th to 9th, Rickmers' Oberalting group took over the gate guard in the Bürgerbräukeller as the headquarters of the putschists. At noon on November 9, 1923, Rickmers, whose 5th Oberland company led the demonstration march of the putschists to the Feldherrnhalle in downtown Munich, suffered serious problems in a clash between the putschists and the state police and an exchange of fire on Odeonsplatz in front of the Feldherrnhalle injured. He succumbed to his injuries on November 28th. Thirteen other coup plotters and four police officers also died on Odeonsplatz.

Rickmers was buried on the grave island of Haus Vortlage near Lengerich .

In the foreword, Adolf Hitler dedicated the first volume of his two-volume book Mein Kampf to the 16 killed coup participants in 1925 (all 16 are named there). After the seizure of the NS regime 1933 at the Feldherrenhalle a plaque with the names of the 16 mounted in Munich that of a guard of honor the SS was guarded. Every passer-by who passed this board was obliged to honor it with the Hitler salute. In 1935, two "Temples of Honor" were erected as a common grave complex on Königsplatz . Rickmers' urn was transferred to Munich and buried on Königsplatz. Until 1945 the Nazi regime and Nazi propaganda staged a cult around the "martyrs of the movement" .

During the National Socialist era , numerous streets and squares in German cities were named after Rickmers, such as those in Gelsenkirchen, Ibbenbüren, Jena, Münster, Recklinghausen, Lengerich, Johann-Rickmers-Strasse in Danzig , and in 1935 Rickmersstrasse in Wuppertal and Johann- Rickmers-Platz in Munich. There were also schools named after Rickmers and a local NSDAP group in his native Bremen in the Schwachhausen / Horn area that bore his name. On November 9, 1936, a memorial with the so-called "Rickmers Stone" was inaugurated in what is now the Rhododendron Park in Bremen . In addition to the swastika, the stone contained the inscription: "Rittmeister Hans Rickmers, born May 7, 1881, died November 9, 1923 in front of the Feldherrenhalle in Munich". The first section of the park was inaugurated in 1937 as Rickmers Park . On Heligoland, he was especially venerated because of the origins of his family. In 1934 an important bank reinforcement on the north beach in the Unterland was named Rickmers-Bollwerk after him.

The SA-Sturm 21 carried the designation Sturm 21 Hans Rickmers .

literature

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Förderkreis Documentation: Contemporary witnesses report 1933–1945 . 1996, p. 126.
  2. ↑ two other putschists died in front of the former Bavarian War Ministry , namely Martin Faust and Theodor Casella .
  3. ↑ Address book Jena, 1939, p. 133; [1]
  4. ↑ lwl.org
  5. ^ Institute of Danzig Street Studies
  6. ↑ Klaus Goebel: Wuppertal in the time of National Socialism . 1984.
  7. ↑ [2] ( click on history )
  8. ^ Eckhard Wallmann: A colony becomes German - Heligoland between the world wars. Bredstedt 2012, p. 111.
personal data
SURNAME Rickmers, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rickmers, Hans; Rickmers, Hans Eric; Rickmers, Hans Erik
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German putschist
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 1923
Place of death Munich