Karl Georg Schmidt (politician)

Karl Georg Schmidt

Karl Georg Schmidt (born March 29, 1904 in Weimar , † November 26, 1940 in Friedrichroda ) was a German politician of the NSDAP, Lord Mayor of Cologne and NSDAP district economic advisor .

Life

Schmidt studied economics and political science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . Graduated as a business graduate and doctorate as Dr. rer. pole. 1927, with a thesis on "The German mineral oil supply in its relationship to economic and foreign policy". He was also active in Corps Austria . He joined the NSDAP in 1923 and switched to the Freikorps Oberland after it was banned . After the ban was lifted in 1925, he became a member of the NSDAP again. He subsequently co-founded the Nazi student union at the University of Frankfurt. From April to June 1925 he was the base leader of the NSDAP in Bitterfeld and, for a short time, district leader in the Kinzigtal . From January 1929 to March 1933 then managing director of the West German Association of Watchmakers and Goldsmiths e. V. in Cologne and there related to the party comrade, the goldsmith Karl Berthold (who headed the Cologne factory schools as NS director from 1933 to 1945 ). From 1931 he was Gau economic consultant, Gauwalter of the DAF and Gauamtsleiter of the Office for Trade and Crafts. In 1932 he founded and headed the anti-Semitic Kampfbund der industrial Mittelstand . From March 1932 he was a member of the Prussian state parliament.

In the city council elections on March 12, 1933, Schmidt was a candidate for the NSDAP in 11th place. After this election and the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in Cologne on the following day, Schmidt was appointed economics officer in the city council. After working as Acting Assistant Secretary of the city of Cologne to June 1933 and as a city councilor, he was in the following month to the chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce appointed. He held this office until December 1936. In February 1934, Schmidt was appointed a member of the District Administrative Court by the Upper President of the Rhine Province . From July 1934 to 1937 he was also represented as councilor in the city council. In January 1935, Schmidt was appointed by the Prussian Prime Minister Hermann Göring to the Prussian Provincial Council of the Rhine Province. Schmidt was also the holder of the gold medal of honor of the NSDAP , as well as the Gau tradition sign from 1923 -Hesse-Nassau-.

In January 1937, Schmidt replaced Günter Riesen as Lord Mayor of Cologne and remained so until his death in 1940. From March 1936 until his death in 1940, Schmidt was also a member of the National Socialist Reichstag . After his death, his mandate was continued by Josef Krämer until the end of the war .

OB-Schmidt, liked to see himself as a patron of the arts: In the "Gaukulturwoche" 1938 he presented z. B. 100,000 Reichsmarks from the city budget for the promotion and purchase of contemporary folk art . A nice example of the Cologne clique  : it was mainly artist teachers , graduates and students of the Cologne art school, which was headed by his stepfather, the director Karl Berthold , profited from it. At the time, the city of Cologne (like all other cities in the empire) had considerable sums of money at its disposal through the Aryanization of the assets of its Jewish fellow citizens - which was carried out in Secret Action 3 . Through his work as the Lord Mayor of Cologne, he was also represented on a large number of supervisory boards and boards of trustees. These included the supervisory boards of the following companies:

• Ford-Werke AG
• Non-profit company for housing construction in Cologne
• Cologne-Bonn Railways
• Cologne Gas GmbH
• Cologne publishing establishment and printing company
• Trade fair and exhibition company
• Rheinische Zellwolle AG
• Union Rheinische Braunkohlen-Fuel AG

Schmidt was NSKK brigad leader from November 1936 . His successor in the office of Lord Mayor was Peter Winkelnkemper .

Others

On December 1, 1937, he was awarded the Order of Oranje-Nassau by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Schmidt had the motor ship MS Stadt Köln built in 1938 as a representation ship for the mayor of Cologne. The ship survived the war and is now a listed building.

literature

• Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the ethnic and National Socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924. Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 .
• Erich Stockhorst : 5000 people. Who was what in the 3rd Reich . 2nd Edition. Arndt, Kiel 2000, ISBN 3-88741-116-1 .

Web links

• Karl Georg Schmidt in the database of members of the Reichstag
• Newspaper article about Karl Georg Schmidt in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hermann Kruse: Kösener Corpslisten 1996 , Stamsried 1998, Corps No. 8, serial No. 372.
2. ↑ DNB 964928477/34 , Ute Haug, Dissertation1998, see p.133 "The Cologne Art Association in National Socialism"