Josef Klein (Nazi functionary)

Josef Klein

Josef Klein (born November 23, 1890 in Cologne , † December 14, 1952 in Bremen ) was a German economist, football official and politician of the NSDAP , member of the Reichstag and NSDAP regional economic advisor .

Life

From 1900, Klein played football at FC Germania Kalk . He began studying economics , law , history and philosophy at the University of Freiburg in 1911 and continued in Marburg in 1913 . At the beginning of the First World War, Klein advanced to the 167 Infantry Regiment; in December 1914 he was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class. After being severely injured in the war, he completed an internship at the Chamber of Crafts in Cologne in 1916 and in 1917 worked at the War Office of the VIII Army Corps in Koblenz. His doctorate on the subject of arbitration committee and arbitration board, which was interrupted by the beginning of the war . Klein completed a presentation of the prerequisites, the nature and the effect of the legal settlement procedure in labor disputes under the auxiliary service law in 1918 in Marburg. After working as managing director of the state labor and vocational office in Düsseldorf, Klein moved to the later IG Farben plants in Dormagen and Uerdingen as social secretary on January 1, 1921 .

During the occupation of the Rhineland , Klein was fined and jailed by French authorities in July 1921. In 1923, Klein joined the “ Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten ”. In the previous year he had taken over the chairmanship of the city association for physical exercises in Uerdingen. Furthermore, Klein was a member of the working committee in the district committee for youth care of the administrative district of Düsseldorf and the state youth welfare office of the Rhine province . As a functionary of the West German Gaming Association (WSV), Klein wrote many articles in newspapers and magazines in which he particularly emphasized the relationship between football and its national roots; partly with racist features. In reports on international matches, for example, Klein referred to opposing players as "trappers" and "jungle hunters" and saw the outcome of the games not only in terms of sport, but also in terms of the honor of the German nation.

In April 1930 Klein joined the NSDAP and in April 1932 he was a member of the Prussian state parliament , to which he was a member until August of that year. In July 1932 , Klein was elected to the Reichstag , which he continued to belong to after the transfer of power to the National Socialists. Also in 1932, Klein joined the SS with the rank of storm leader and took over the leadership of the Kampfbund for the commercial middle class in the Gau Düsseldorf . Furthermore, from 1932 he was Gau economic advisor to the Gau leadership in the NSDAP Gau Düsseldorf.

On June 15, 1933, Klein was appointed Trustee of Labor for the Westphalia Economic Area by Adolf Hitler , but was not confirmed in this position in 1934. The reasons for this are likely to lie in Klein's role as confidante of the industrialist Fritz Thyssen and as a member of the class conceptions of the "Spann Circle" around the Austrian economist Othmar Spann . As a sports official, Klein was elected leader of the WSV in May 1933. Klein, for whom the DFB was “international” and “materialistic”, opposed the planned “ conformity ” and subordination to the German Football Association (DFB) with Felix Linnemann at the helm. The disputes, which also had to do with the assets of the WSV and its affiliated clubs, ended in early 1935 with the dissolution of the West German Association.

In 1936, Klein lost his position as a district economic advisor; Despite his renewed candidacy, he was no longer a member of the Reichstag , which was redefined that year . In the same year, a party court case was initiated against Klein before the Gaugericht Düsseldorf, because he had "made derogatory comments in a larger circle" about leading National Socialists. The party court proceedings were terminated by Hitler's amnesty decree. In 1939 the public prosecutor's office investigated Klein, who was accused of misappropriating a donation to the NSDAP in the amount of 18,000 RM . These investigations were discontinued because the public prosecutor assumed that Klein would benefit from a pardon from Hitler.

Klein, who headed the Düsseldorf job creation and contracting office in 1934 and 1935, worked as a public accountant and tax advisor in Düsseldorf between 1937 and 1939. In July 1939, Klein became company sports manager at the August Thyssen hut in Oberhausen ; two months later he also took over the provisional management of the plant security there and also became the deputy of the head of the plant air protection . In June 1942, Klein became the superintendent of the Thyssen POW and foreigner camps.

After several denunciations , Klein was taken into "protective custody" on November 14, 1942 . According to the “protective custody order” of February 1943, Klein is said to “cause considerable unrest and excitement among large sections of the population by making pessimistic statements that are likely to undermine the trust of the population in the National Socialist leadership and the will to resist the internal front in the war that has been imposed on us “Have worn. Klein was released from prison in June 1943; In October 1943, Klein was expelled from the party by the Supreme Court of the NSDAP , "because he grossly violated the duties of a National Socialist". Against the background of the German attack on the Soviet Union and the National Socialist murders of the sick , Klein had "raised the question, with particular emphasis, of what would happen to the soldiers who came home with a bullet in the head. The impression of his statement was as if Klein had confidence in the National Socialist state that he would approve of the killing of head injured soldiers, ”said the grounds for the judgment.

Klein had given notice to terminate Thyssen-Hütte in June 1943. Klein , who lived after the bombing in Liesenich on the Moselle , filed an objection action against this, which from autumn 1943 was dormant by mutual agreement. After the war he tried unsuccessfully to be reinstated at Thyssen; the legal dispute over termination without notice ended in 1947 with a settlement.

literature

• Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform: the members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the Volkish and National Socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924 . Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 , p. 314 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Josef Klein in the catalog of the German National Library
• Josef Klein in the database of members of the Reichstag

Individual evidence

1. ^ Nils Havemann: Football under the swastika. The DFB between sport, politics and commerce. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-593-37906-6 , p. 122.
2. ^ Lilla, extras , p. 314; Havemann, Fußball , p. 318f. For the Spann-Kreis see also: Ilse Korotin: German philosophers from the point of view of the security service of the Reichsführer SS - focus on Austria. In: Marion Heinz [Hrsg.]: Philosophy and Zeitgeist in National Socialism. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2006, ISBN 3-8260-3298-5 , pp. 45-66, here pp. 56 f.
3. ↑ Havemann, Fußball , p. 126 f.
4. ↑ According to the judgment of the First Chamber of the Supreme Party Court of the NSDAP of October 30, 1943, quoted in Havemann, Fußball , p. 127.
5. ↑ Havemann, Fußball , p. 127.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Quoted by Martin Schumacher (Ed.): MdR Die Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation 1933-1945. Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1991, ISBN 3-7700-5162-9 , p. 330.