Josef Pfitzner

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Josef Pfitzner (born March 24, 1901 in Petersdorf , Austria-Hungary , † September 6, 1945 in Prague ) was a Sudeten German historian and National Socialist local politician.

Life

Pfitzner was born in 1901 as the son of a farmer. After studying in Prague, during which he joined the Association of German Students Oppavia in the Waidhofen Association , Pfitzner advanced to professor of Eastern European history at the German University in Prague in 1930 . As one of the few Sudeten German historians, Pfitzner found recognition among Czech colleagues up until the mid-1930s, following the tradition of the “ activist ” majority of Sudeten Germans of the 1920s , who practiced cooperation with the Czech political elite. Josef Pekař , one of the most important Czech historians at the time, benevolently referred to Pfitzner as a “Czech-German historian”.

After the landslide election victory of the nationalist-Nazi " Sudeten German Party " Konrad Henleins in 1935, however, Pfitzner radicalized and became a staunch SdP and NSDAP activist. In his treatise Sudetendeutsche Einheitsbewegung , which is dedicated to Henlein , he wrote, among other things, that his scientific analysis should “ serve as a useful aid to living politics, if necessary as a weapon ”. As early as May 1938 he was parliamentary group leader of the Prague SdP. As Henlein's confidante, Pfitzner met the Social Democratic-Sudeten German top politician Wenzel Jaksch in 1938 in order to win him over - albeit in vain - to the Social Democrats joining the “Sudeten German united front”.

On March 15, 1939, the day of the German occupation of the Czech part of the previous Czechoslovak Republic , Pfitzner became "Primator Deputy" (2nd Mayor) of Prague and in this function now controlled his formal Czech superior, the Prague Primator (Mayor) Dr. Otakar Klapka . In April 1939 Pfitzner officially became a member of the NSDAP and the SA , in which he received the rank of Standartenführer . Because of his rigorous advocacy of Germanizing Prague (including renaming streets) Pfitzner got into conflict with Klapka and repeatedly denounced him to the State Minister for the " Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ", the Sudeten German NSDAP functionary Karl Hermann Frank . Klapka was actually arrested in 1940 for his covert cooperation with the Czech resistance and executed in 1941, but statements extorted from Czech resistance members under the torture seem to have been decisive. Klapka's successor as primator was the more collaborative Dr. Alois Říha , who served until 1945.

Pfitzner worked hard to make Prague “ Jew-free ”, i. H. to promote the deportation of Prague Jews to the Nazi extermination camps on the territory of occupied Poland in order to redistribute their apartments and furniture to German " national comrades ". Nevertheless, he was not well liked by the deputy Reich Protector SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich , who was appointed in 1941, and he was apparently considering replacing Pfitzner. Heydrich's assassination by Czech resistance fighters in mid-1942 saved the Nazi deputy mayor of Prague from office until the collapse of the “Greater German Reich” in May 1945. In the meantime, Pfitzner of all people became a leading exponent of the Heydrich memorial cult in Nazi-ruled Prague.

Immediately after the end of the war, Pfitzner was arrested, tried before the “Extraordinary People's Court in Prague” and - not least because of his role in the Klapka case - sentenced to death . He was publicly hanged (in front of 50,000 spectators) on the square in front of the court in the Pankrác district of Prague .

In the Soviet occupation zone , several writings and collections of addresses by Pfitzner were placed on the list of literature to be sorted out.

Works (selection)

  • Josef Pfitzner: History of the mining town Zuckmantel in Silesia up to 1742. With special consideration of the town and mining law history . Zuckmantel 1924.
  • Josef Pfitzner: The awakening of the Sudeten Germans in the mirror of their literature up to 1848 . Augsburg 1926.
  • Josef Pfitzner: Grand Duke Witold of Lithuania as a statesman . Brno 1930.
  • Josef Pfitzner: Bakunin Studies . Prague 1932, reprinted Berlin 1977.
  • Josef Pfitzner: Sudeten German history . Reichenberg 1935, 2nd edition 1937.
  • Josef Pekar: The Meaning of Czech History . Introduced v. Josef Pfitzner, Brno / Leipzig / Vienna 1937.
  • Josef Pfitzner: Sudeten German unity movement. Becoming and fulfilling . Karlsbad / Leipzig 1937.
  • Josef Pfitzner: The Sudeten Germanism . Cologne 1938, 2nd edition 1940.
  • Josef Pfitzner: Emperor Karl IV. Prague 1938.
  • Josef Pfitzner: Millennial Prague. With pictures v. Franz Höch . Bayreuth 1940, 2nd edition 1941, 3rd edition 1943.
  • Josef Pfitzner: Journey to a "paradise". Experienced and recognized things from the Soviet Union . Bayreuth 1942, 2nd edition 1943.
  • The capital Prague honors the memory of Reinhard Heydrich. Speeches by J. Pfitzner and J. Kliment . Prague 1943.
  • J. Pfitzner and Franz Teuner (eds.): The Czech youth and the imperial thought. 2. Presentation of the honorary gift of the “Reinhard Heydrich Memorial Foundation of the City of Prague” with speeches . Prague 1944.

literature

  • Alena Míšková and Vojtěch Šustek (eds.): Josef Pfitzner a protektorátní Praha v letech 1939–1945 (Josef Pfitzner and Prague under the Protectorate in 1939–1945). Archive hlavního města Prahy. Series: Documenta Pragensia monographia. Volume 11/1 and 11/2. Scriptorium, Prague 2000-2001.
    • Volume I: Deník Josefa Pfitznera. Úřední korespondence Josefa Pfitznera s Karlem Hermannem Frankem (Josef Pfitzner's diary. Josef Pfitzner's official correspondence with Karl Hermann Frank)
    • Volume II: Měsíční situáční zprávy Josefa Pfitznera (Josef Pfitzner's monthly reports).
  • Vojtěch Šustek: Efforts to Germanize Prague during the Nazi occupation. From the reports of the Deputy Primator Josef Pfitzner . In: Divided, occupied, dominated. Czechoslovakia 1938–1945: Reichsgau Sudetenland, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Slovakia . Edited by Monika Glettler u. a., Essen 2004, pp. 53-66.
  • Detlef Brandes / Alena Míšková (eds.): From the Eastern Europe Chair to the Prague City Hall. Josef Pfitzner 1901-1945. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2013. ISBN 978-3-8375-0895-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Fahlbusch, Ingo Haar, Alexander Pinwinkler (eds.): Handbook of the Volkischen Wissenschaften. Actors, networks, research programs . 2nd completely revised and expanded edition, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-042989-3 , p. 596.
  2. ^ Quotation from Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 459.
  3. ↑ a b Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 459.
  4. ↑ polunbi.de .
  5. ↑ polunbi.de .
  6. ↑ polunbi.de
  7. ↑ polunbi.de .
personal data
SURNAME Pfitzner, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Sudeten German historian
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Petersdorf (Petrovice ve Slezsku) near Zuckmantel
DATE OF DEATH September 6, 1945
Place of death Prague