Josef Gronover

Joseph Wilhelm August Gronover (born May 18, 1890 in Greven ; † December 3, 1963 there ) was a German lawyer and politician ( center , NSDAP ) and mayor of Dorsten from 1933 to 1945 .

Life

Gronover attended high school in Rheine . He studied law at the University of Tübingen he graduated with doctorate to Dr. jur. from. During his studies he became a member of the Catholic student association AV Guestfalia Tübingen . He took part in the First World War as an officer of the Uhlans and was awarded the Iron Cross and the Front Fighter Cross.

In 1920 Gronover came to Dorsten for the first time . There he was the liaison officer of the military district command in Münster to the Loewenfeld Freikorps , which brutally attacked left-wing workers in the Bottrop area during the Ruhr uprising. He later worked as a lawyer at the Westphalian Farmers' Association , before becoming mayor of St. Mauritz (now a district of Münster) in January 1932 as a German national center politician .

In 1933 Gronover joined the Reiter-SA and the NSDAP. On August 18 of the same year he came to Dorsten and was appointed mayor of the city three days later by the National Socialists after the elected incumbent Franz Lürken had been ousted from office. 1935 daughter Ursula was born, the avowed Catholic, according to the local Ursuline named orden for whose preservation he used in 1941 (see also school St. Ursula Dorsten ). In 1944 Gronover fell ill. Shortly before the bombing and the Allied invasion , he moved with his family to Wolbeck near Münster . There relatives of his wife Hedwig, who came from the wealthy Bischoff family, owned the Fronhof estate.

After the end of the Second World War , Gronover's application for reuse as a civil servant was rejected by the city of Dorsten, instead he retired in 1946. He issued a so-called clean bill of health to his brother-in-law, the NSDAP member and later Dorsten Mayor Paul Schürholz , but without success. Numerous people from the public life of the city of Dorsten also attested to Gronover himself that he only appeared superficially as a National Socialist. However, in his twelve-year tenure as NSDAP mayor, he had publicly praised the values ​​of National Socialism in numerous speeches. The Denazification Committee of the Hervest-Dorsten Office therefore came to a different assessment and classified him in 1947 as a “fellow traveler”, above all because of his involvement in the overthrow of democracy .

Gronover successfully appealed and claimed for himself a "disguised opposition activity". The appeal committee in Telgte granted its objection and particularly praised Gronover's commitment to preserving the Dorsten monasteries. His public statements and his membership in the SA were not classified as serious and his assistance in the abolition of democracy was questioned. Thus, he was officially exonerated. Until his death in 1963 Josef Gronover received a state pension as a former electoral officer and wrote poems about his Westphalian homeland and the city of Dorsten.

literature

• Wolf Stegemann : With God's blessing for a fruitful cooperation. Mayor Dr. Gronover as the new leader in the town hall . In the S. (Ed.): Everyday life that is switched into line (Dorsten under the swastika, vol. 3). Dorsten 1985, pp. 50-53.
• Wolf Stegemann: Nazi mayor left Hitler's “Mein Kampf” in a drawer. Was Dr. Gronover a black spy in a brown shirt? In the S. (Ed.): Dorsten after zero hour. The years after that, 1945–1950 (Dorsten under the swastika, vol. 4). Dorsten 1986, pp. 146-148.
• Wolf Stegemann: Still unsustainable for democracy in 1946, he became mayor two years later. Paul Schürholz remained, honored and respected, for 16 years. In the S. (Ed.): Dorsten after zero hour. The years after that, 1945–1950 (Dorsten under the swastika, vol. 4). Dorsten 1986, pp. 114-117.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Birth register of the registry office Greven No. 92/1890 ( online index ). Retrieved October 4, 2018.
2. ↑ Wolf Stegemann: “Still unsustainable for democracy in 1946, he became mayor two years later. Paul Schürholz remained, honored and respected, for 16 years ”, in: Ders. (Ed.): Dorsten after zero hour. The years after that, 1945–1950 (Dorsten under the swastika, vol. 4). Dorsten 1986, pp. 114-117.
3. ↑ Quote from Wolf Stegemann: Nazi mayor left Hitler's “Mein Kampf” in a drawer. Was Dr. Gronover a black spy in a brown shirt? In the S. (Ed.): Dorsten after zero hour. The years after that, 1945–1950. Dorsten 1986, p. 148.

predecessor	Office	successor
Fritz Köster	Mayor of the city of Dorsten 1933–1945	Theodor Artmann