Josef Estermann (District Administrator)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Josef Estermann (* December 28, 1898 , † November 8, 1982 ) was a German local politician in Wasserburg am Inn (Upper Bavaria), member of the KPD , at times the SPD and active in the resistance against National Socialism . He is considered the courageous savior of Wasserburg and made a significant contribution to the fact that the city was handed over to the American armed forces without a fight and that there were no bloody acts of violence as elsewhere.

Career

Josef "Sepp" Estermann was born on December 28, 1898 in Wasserburg, grew up in simple circumstances and initially worked as a farm worker. In 1916 he was drafted into the First World War and was awarded the Iron Cross for saving the life of an officer. After the end of the war he participated as a Spartakist in the defense of the Munich Soviet Republic and was almost executed by the government troops in the Stadelheim prison. In Wasserburg he built up the local association of the KPD, while his wife was involved in the Red Aid. In 1930 the Reichsgericht Leipzig sentenced him to three years' imprisonment for the theft of weapons and high treason because he and other communists stole machine guns from a brick factory near Pfaffing. With the help of the KPD, he fled briefly to the USSR , after his voluntary return in 1931 he was taken to the Bernau prison, where he learned the basket-making trade and was released early on December 20, 1932 as a result of the Schleicher amnesty. After Hitler came to power in 1933, he was taken into protective custody several times at the instigation of local National Socialists and at least once, from August 1933 to May 1934, to the Dachau concentration camp, where he narrowly escaped execution for the second time in his life when he stole food for starving fellow prisoners . After his release, he devoted himself to building up a professional life as a self-employed basket maker. Towards the end of World War II, Estermann set up a resistance group in Wasserburg, which became active on April 28, 1945 after the radio call of the Bavarian Freedom Campaign and campaigned for the end of Nazi rule and the peaceful surrender of the city.

In May 1945 the American military government appointed him First Mayor of the occupied city of Wasserburg am Inn and in October of the same year entrusted him with the office of District Administrator for the district of Wasserburg am Inn .

As a result of the suspicion that he was an undercover agent of the Gestapo , he was temporarily removed from his office on March 1, 1946. In the hearing before a US military court in the Wasserburg town hall, the allegation was cleared up and Estermann continued to serve as provisional district administrator from March 25, 1946. He remained in office until his successor was elected on September 30, 1946.

Already in December 1945 Estermann was expelled from the Communist Party after falling out and later joined the SPD. Until his death he worked as a businessman in the manufacture of wicker and toys in Wasserburg.

Contribution to the peaceful surrender of the city of Wasserburg in the last days of the Second World War

Estermann belonged to a resistance group operating in Wasserburg that cited Bavaria's freedom campaign . When the Bavarian Freedom Campaign succeeded on April 28, 1945 after the occupation of two Reich broadcasters, members of the group around Estermann occupied the NSDAP district building and disarmed the employees present, while at the same time other resistance members who participated in the Post offices were working, the local telephone lines were manipulated so that no outside help could be called in to suppress the uprising. Estermann called on the Wasserburg district leader of the NSDAP , Kurt Knappe, as well as the combat commandant and head of the Wehrmeldedamts, Lieutenant Colonel Puhl, to issue a call for non-defense of the city. As a result, 10-minute loudspeaker announcements and leaflet placements were initiated in various places in the city, calling on the population to remain calm and not offer any resistance, although at that hour this was still considered high treason: “Germans! We know today that any resistance to the enemy is in vain and it would be a crime ... Avoid any rash ”. The head of the local military registration office, Lieutenant Colonel Nikolaus Puhl, the district administrator of the Wasserburg district Willi Moos, the Wasserburg mayor Baumann and “for the German freedom movement” Josef Estermann were responsible for this. Shortly afterwards, all of the signatories as well as the district leader Knappe, who tolerated this process, were sentenced to death by a court martial or at the instigation of Gauleiter Giesler for state treason and high treason. The judgments could no longer be carried out because of the advance of the US Army or because of the escape of Estermann and Baumann, so that the Wasserburger freedom campaign went off lightly. It is unclear whether Estermann's group was able to prevent the Inn Bridge from being completely blown up, since several people were probably active independently of one another to save it.

When the fighting between US and German troops threatened to escalate on the night of May 2 or 3, 1945, Josef Estermann organized the removal of the anti-tank traps to signal that the city was not defending itself. In the morning he went alone to meet the US Army, which was already at the level of the Gabersee district, and identified himself as an anti-fascist. Then he showed the American troops the way, got into the first tank and then drove into the city with a white flag waving. The city of Wasserburg could thus be surrendered peacefully and without an exchange of fire on the morning of May 3, 1945, although units of the Wehrmacht and the SS showed themselves willing to defend until the end.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Klinger: You will not die until later ... A German résumé. JG Bläschke, St. Michael 1984, ISBN 3-7053-2115-3 .
  2. ↑ See Stadtarchiv Wasserburg VIT-082 Interview Hans Klinger with Josef Estermann, June 17, 1975
  3. ↑ State Archive Munich SpkA K 3828, protective custody order of the district office Wasserburg from August 14, 1933
  4. ↑ Jaromír Balcar: Politics in the country. Studies on the Bavarian province 1945 to 1972 (= Bavaria in the Federation. Vol. 5 = Sources and representations on contemporary history. Vol. 56). Oldenbourg, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-486-56598-2 , 149, (also: Munich, University, dissertation, 2002).
  5. ↑ City Archives Wasserburg VI5606, writing OMGB from 03.01.1946.
  6. ↑ BayHStA MInn 96106, OBGB letter of March 25, 1946.
  7. ↑ Bayerische Rundfunk on historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de.
  8. ↑ Report by Josef Estermann: "Die FAB Wasserburg", probably shortly after the end of the war in 1945
  9. ^ Hermann Auer: The district of Wasserburg in the Third Reich. A documentation of contemporary history. (Experiences, memories 1933–1945). 2nd Edition. Wasserburger Bücherstube, Wasserburg am Inn 2005, ISBN 3-9808031-6-3 , p. 653.
  10. ↑ Hans Klinger: You will not die until later ... A German résumé. JG Bläschke, St. Michael 1984, ISBN 3-7053-2115-3 , p. 217 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Estermann, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German local politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1898
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1982